Eight years is a long commitment, especially as an actor looking to expand their body of work.
Lauren Cohan, who stars as Maggie Rhee on AMC's The Walking Dead, surprised fans when she revealed she would be leaving the popular Image Comics adaptation in the middle of the upcoming ninth season. While Cohan had been caught up in lengthy salary negotiations for her return for Season 9 earlier this year, the actor stressed that her decision to leave was largely a creative one as she looks to take on new projects.
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"Eight years is a really long time to be in those emotional depths and it’s really fun for me because I never thought about drama as much when I started this career and I always kind of assumed I’d do like light fare," explained Cohan in an interview with AP.
Cohan, who first joined the cast during the show's second season, will be reprising her role as Maggie before leaving after the first half of the new season to star in the new ABC series Whiskey Cavalier. Her departure from the longrunning survival horror series appears amicable as the producers are leaving the possibility of her character returning to the series open should she choose.
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"There’s a chance for me to still explore the Maggie character and it’s going to be fun to see if that can be done," revealed Cohan on the possibility of her return to the AMC series.
In the meantime, fans can catch Cohan on the big screen in Mile 22 currently out in theaters everywhere.
The Walking Dead stars Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohan, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Lennie James, Alanna Masterson, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The series returns on October 9 for its ninth season on AMC.