How Shane Will Return For Walking Dead Season 9

Jon Bernthal is returning to AMC's The Walking Dead.

For the series' upcoming ninth season, the man who has become synonymous with Marvel's Punisher is said to reprise his role as Shane Walsh after having left the zombie apocalypse show during Season 2. The only question that's been lingering around isn't really why AMC would bring him back so much as exactly how the show will bring him back for however many episodes they've got him for.

Considering that Shane was effectively killed twice in the show -- first by Rick, then by Carl shortly after his transformation into a Walker -- it's clear his return will be achieved either via flashbacks or hallucinations. The former seems most likely; with the specter of Andrew Lincoln's time as series protagonist Rick Grimes coming to an effective end in this same season, there'll no doubt be an episode where Rick looks back on his life and all that he's lost as a result of the mass infection.

Before he and Shane came to blows, the two of them were best friends, after all, and the series didn't really have a chance to show them as such without the undercurrent of danger (and spousal betrayal) around them. Rick's no stranger to losing people at this point, but Shane really was the first person in the Group whose death hit him on a personal level.

Before his death in this past season of Walking Dead, Rick's son Carl had dreams showing what life could have been like if all the various factions stopped warring with one another and committed to peace. These dreams saw the return of several dead characters who appeared in them to be alive and happy; Glenn and Maggie were a family, while Sasha and Abraham showed up as well.

If Rick continues the dreams his son had, that would probably also be how Bernthal shows up again. A perfect world where everyone's together, and he and Shane just get to co-exist how they used to be sounds like the kind of dream Rick would have, and doubly so if Carl and Lori were there as well.

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There's also the possibility that Rick, facing his final days on the show, will just straight up hallucinate Shane like he did with Lori during Season 3. Having kept Negan alive in Carl's name, it would be easy to rationalize the hallucinations as Rick's brain wondering why he spared someone who effectively got his son and several of his friends killed, but not a man he arguably knew longer and could've tried harder to reason with.

Shane was unhinged, Rick would argue, but Shane also didn't beat two people to a pulp in front of their respective lovers with a spiked baseball bat, or pummel a guy to death with his bare hands. These are things that Shane would taunt Rick for, especially a Shane hallucination that comes not long after Carl has died and Shane in real life had to step up as a father when Rick was thought to be dead.

But what if Rick isn't the one experiencing the hallucinations or dreams? There's a chance, even if it's a flimsy one, that Darryl Dixon could have them as well. Since Norman Reedus is set to take over Lincoln's spot as the leading man, and there may need a case to be made for how his idea of leadership differs from what Rick did. Highlighting the different ways each men have or will lead the Group through hardships -- Shane as the past, Rick the present, and Darryl the future -- would be a reflection of how far the show has come, considering that it very well may not get the chance to do so if there's not a tenth season.

We've never really gotten a chance to see Darryl and Shane interact with each other just by themselves, despite both of them being major parts of the show's early seasons. This would be as good a time as any to do so, if only because Darryl will inevitably be compared to Rick and Shane at some point.

Shane is a big part of the history of The Walking Dead; his death at the hands of the Grimes men have arguably set both Rick and Carl on the paths we've come to find them at. Bernthal was always going to have to return eventually, and the show just happened to pick the right time for it to occur. With the show saying goodbye to the Grimes chapter of its history, it's only fitting that Shane come back to bring everything full circle.