Danai Gurira will leave The Walking Dead in season 10

Speculation about Danai Gurira leaving The Walking Dead was confirmed today and she will exit the show in season 10.

Danai Gurira’s future on The Walking Dead has been a big topic of discussion lately after season 10 of the show was confirmed because she did not have a new contract in place. Today The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Danai Gurira will exit The Walking Dead after a handful of appearances in season 10.

Danai’s career has taken off after her roles in Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War and she has a slew of other projects in the works including her original plays and a miniseries that she is adapting for TV. Her busy schedule combined with her humanitarian work with several different charities and her role as a UN Goodwill Ambassador make it difficult for her to commit to The Walking Dead. Filming for The Walking Dead usually take 7-8 months of the year and series regulars need to be present for most of that time.

It is likely though that Danai will join Andrew Lincoln in some capacity in the trio of The Walking Dead feature length TV films that are planned. Although fans will be devastated to lose Michonne as a regular on The Walking Dead it is fitting for Michonne’s storyline that she will hopefully be reunited with Rick Grimes at some point in the films. Rick never got to meet his son, RJ, and it would give fans a lot of satisfaction to see what remains of the Grimes family together again and to see Rick meet his son.

What This Means For The Walking Dead

Despite the cries that the show is dying or will die now that Danai Gurira’s departure has been confirmed from some sectors of the fandom realistically the show will be fine. The show seamlessly transitioned to a new era after the departure of Andrew Lincoln and the departure of Lauren Cohan. Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride have signed three year deals to stay with The Walking Dead universe so the show will still have two of the original players left.

The Walking Dead season 9 has been a season of transition and if the Whisperer arc follows the comic storyline the show will go through what is essentially a soft reboot switching storylines and shuffling characters to start a new chapter of the survival story in a world that’s ten years into the apocalypse.

But with the films that are coming, characters crossing over into Fear The Walking Dead and possibly characters from Fear crossing to the main show in the future as well as more spinoffs and films in the works even though The Walking Dead universe is expanding that doesn’t mean that favorite characters like Michonne will leave forever. Keep in mind that in The Walking Dead world no one’s gone until they’re gone.