Lauren Cohan Says Upcoming Standalone Episodes of The Walking Dead Are The Best She’s Ever Read

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lauren Cohan spoke about the return of Maggie to The Walking Dead and said the upcoming standalone episodes are some of the best she’s ever read. Here are highlights:

On knowing Maggie would be back: “I knew she was going to come back, we just didn’t know exactly when. I mentally always had her in a quadrant of my brain and soul. [Showrunner Angela Kang] and I just kept this conversation alive and flexible. And this is the way that we were able to do it and it has obviously, we now have room to tell this giant story in these 30 episodes next year.”

On Maggie’s time away and exploring relationships in the final season: “I think her relationships with everybody at home is extremely complicated, as I’m sure people can imagine. There was the difficulty of trying to remain there and carry on with your life with Negan being, even if he was in prison, he was there and alive. And it was so much to contend with. but these letters from Carol ultimately have to override any reasons that she may have had for leaving. And there were positive reasons too; it wasn’t just about removing herself from the place where Negan was. It was also going to explore, and going to keep the fire and hope alive for herself. Going to witness the ingenuity of things that people like Georgie (Jayne Atkinson) did and could teach her, and that she could bring back to the group. And then just an exploration for herself. If we think about it and I’ve been able to lately, everything that happened to Maggie happened in really quick succession: the losses of her family, friends, Hershel, Beth and Glenn. It’s almost like a belated processing of that whole thing. And to go off on this, I don’t even know what we would call it… not even a journey, there’s this word that’s missing my mind, that’s escaping me right now. But to go off on this time and figure out what the next steps were, because I think that’s one thing that really felt paramount to her character for me lately, making the effort to keep the hope alive. We need to continue to inspire ourselves and we need to continue to move in a direction that is, first of all, that’s just at least moving. And secondly, to just continue to gain perspective.”

On the upcoming end of the show: “It gives me chills. And I think part of the self-preservation of anybody is to be like, ‘Well, I don’t need to think about that yet. Let me just compartmentalize this.’ And you can know that you’ll always have these people in your life, but it was interesting because when you said this period of time, that the show has been in existence has been a significant period for a lot of people. For some of our fans, maybe if they’re 30 or 25, that’s a third of their life that the show has been on or that they’ve been watching it, which is pretty phenomenal and a pretty big honor. And for me to reflect now and to say, ‘Oh my gosh. I’ve done this for more time than I’ve done anything else, aside from just breathe or know my family or whatever.’ It will definitely not come into full focus, I don’t think anything does until you’ve gone through it and had some time. And we have a long way to go and we’re really excited to give it everything. Knowing the end date, I think is really a gift. It’s a gift for the writers and it’s a gift for us to really cherish every single moment and to pour the literal blood, sweat, and tears into the show like there’s no tomorrow because we are going to be getting some killer stuff to do. I know it because we have these six episodes now to do. I might have said this before about other things, but these are the best episodes that I’ve ever read.”