THE Walking Dead’s showrunner revealed what is next on the agenda for Michonne, who made her exit from the show in the latest episode.
The actor behind the character, Danai Gurira, 42, featured in eight seasons of the AMC zombie drama between 2012-2020.
Sunday’s episode followed Michonne’s trip to Virgil”s island, during which she was incarcerated and drugged, which led her to experience a series of tripped-out visions.
She imagined what her life would have been like if it had gone in a different direction and sided with Negan and the Saviors.
Once she came to, she stabbed Virgil and soon after chased him to the armoury, where she discovered Rick Grimes‘ (Andrew Lincoln) boots.
She also found a phone with Rick’s name and a drawing of her and adopted daughter Judith etched into it, leading Judith to think Rick may still be alive.
After some encouragement from Judith, Michonne set off on a quest to find Rick, but that was halted when she decided to help a couple in need that left behind a large group on the move.
The show’s boss Angela Kang, 43, spoke to Entertainment Weekly about what she wanted to achieve with Michonne’s exit and what is next for the popular character.
“Michonne has been such a key part of the show. So we really wanted to give her a weighty farewell that was interesting and hopefully did some things that were new and yet had some bearing on her story as a whole,” she said.
She added: “What was important was just the feeling that Michonne is strong and that there’s this connection to her children.”
The writer would also reveal what the message on Rick’s boots meant, as she translated it from Japanese.
“I believe the Japanese says something like ‘Believe a little longer.’ So it was a message to Rick from somebody, somehow on this boat.”
This has given Michonne hope that Rick is still alive or “he was not too long ago”, in the words of Kang.
She also confirmed that the departed character is now somewhere in between Virginia and New Jersey, as it appears she will use to the clues she found to look for Rick.
As for the people she encountered, Kang noted: “They’re traveling in kind of this very organised caravan. Everything we know about the three-rings group is they’ve got people shuttling people about by helicopter up and down the coast. So yeah, we’ll see what adventures await.”
Kang praised the Michonne character once more, adding: “I think she has been a character who has touched so many of our other characters within our show, and their trajectories are forever affected by that.”
