Michonne is Mich-gone: Danai Gurira confirms that she is exiting The Walking Dead series [UPDATE]
Aux Features The Walking Dead.![Michonne is Mich-gone: Danai Gurira confirms that she is exiting The Walking Dead series [UPDATE]](https://img.pastemagazine.com/wp-content/avuploads/2019/02/14183817/zqpu9n15pln80ihduhy0.jpg)
Editor’s note: The original headline has been adjusted to reflect the most recent update. – ED
After establishing her cinematic dominance, it looks like it’s actually happening: Danai Gurira is finally resting her katana above the mantle after seven seasons and exiting The Walking Dead—for real this time. Per The Hollywood Reporter, sources confirm that Gurira, who arrived in the third season as the iconic Michonne, has inked a deal to return to the series for a final run, where she will appear in “a handful of episodes.” There is still a chance that she will follow her former leading man Andrew Lincoln to the three planned Walking Dead films, but nothing has been solidified (not publicly, at least) as of yet.
While Gurira’s exit feels like the latest blow to the franchise, it’s a logical next step in her skyrocketing career. After a scene-commanding turn as Okoye in Marvel’s Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War, her continued participation in the AMC mainstay—which has seen ratings nearly as dead as its zombies over the past few years—seemed to be racing against her rising potential. Even AMC’s programming president David Madden knew the deal back in November, sounding hopeful, but realistic: “Right now, [Gurira’s] got a lot of opportunities and she needs to weigh what she feels is best for her,” he told THR. “But we certainly would want her on the show as long as she wants to be on it.”
Despite the departures of Gurira, Lincoln, and Lauren Cohen, the series continues to cling to precious, dwindling life, as it was renewed for a tenth season.
UPDATE, 7/19 @ 3:56 PM CST – While the reports surrounding Gurira’s forthcoming exit seemed pretty certain, the official confirmation came from Gurira herself during The Walking Dead’s panel at Comic-Con this afternoon. The show’s official Twitter account tweeted the confirmation shortly after the not-so-shocking reveal, though it does not elaborate whether or not Gurira will return in the franchise’s films. Still, news like this is always best directly from the source.
29 Comments
Gee, a woman at the height of her fame and a million offers before her decides not to return to a sinking shit show? Shocker. Really though, good for her. Glad she was smarter than Norman Reedus.
According to IMDB Norman Reedus only appeared in one film in 2018 called The Limit (Short) which may or may not be a video game cinematic? It’s hard to tell, and it doesn’t appear to have a Wikipedia entry. Anyway, I think he’s probably better off collecting his Walking Dead money as long as he can.
He had a minute there where he might have been able to parlay his WD fame into something bigger, but you’re probably right. By all accounts, he seems to be a pretty nice and down to Earth guy too, so this level of fame may be all he wants and he might feel a strong loyalty to the show as well.
Maybe he stays because he has been in show biz a long time and he knows the point of it is to work steady and have a steady paycheck instead of gambling on the very low possibility of a Walking Dead actor becoming a big star. He knows the best thing for him to do is to stay until the end which by then he would of set himself up for life.Too many Walking Dead actors have left because they thing they are big enough to become a star and that is a big mistake. There are plenty of actors who in the past made that same bet and it turned out to be a mistake. Examples include Robert Pernell, Wayne Rogers, Shelly Long, David Caruso. And these actors are much better than the Walking Dead actors who have left the show and who have asked to leave the show. And then there are also actors who stayed on a show till the end and then they made their bid to become a star and it worked. Woody Harrelson is an example.
It’s almost like Reedus is not a very good actor.
He’s also doing Death Stranding with Hideo Kojima, which is slightly behind schedule. From what can be gleemed on Twitter, he’s working on mo-cap for it constantly.
Wasn’t Norman Reedus offered a dump truck of money to stay on Walking Dead?Yup, he was offered a contract worth 50-90 mil for 3 years – https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-norman-reedus-melissa-mcbride-ink-franchise-deals-danai-gurira-eyes-new-pact-1158025
why didn’t you write an article when chrisk exited The Walking Dead 3 years ago?
And so the great purge of TWD begins………….
If AMC wants to save this show, they know what must be done.Bring back T-Dog!
Aw HELLNAW!
Bring back Mary Poppins!
you were fishing for that “Aw Hellnaw”, you panderer.
Now’s probably a good time for someone to show her how to swing a sword.
Spoiler: she leaves the show when Rick comes back in the helicopter to retrieve her.
1. Get on “The Walking Dead.”2. Become a fan favorite.3. Die or leave.4. Become a star in your own right.Isn’t that the formula? Why shouldn’t it also be available to her, since she is already well on her way with the MCU?
Which actors have become big stars? It is a gamble that rarely works out. Just ask Shelly Long who was a much better actress than Danai Gurira. And her Marvels role is a very small role. She is in an ensemble cast and she is at the bottom of the ensemble list.
Just kill em all off. The show has been dead for years now. The entire cast should join it and move on.
Pretty soon the only one left is gonna be that guy from Boondocks Saints…..Boondocky is his name right?
Good for her. Let her swim in that sweet Marvel money so she can keep doing her plays.
The Walking Dead money is probably much, much better than the Marvel money* even before we get into residuals.*though we’re still talking much higher than the average yearly wage for the US, I’m sure.
I’d love to see her become a major Hollywood action star at this point, or even in the command role of some franchise-potential sci-fi production.
The rats are all leaving this sinking ship.
It’s kind of funny to be living in a time now where major cast departures for the show don’t even feel all that horrific anymore. We’re so far beyond trying to remain lined up with the comics it doesn’t even matter. It would be kind of hilarious if all of the main (non-comic/survived-beyond-their-comic-deaths) characters found an active nuclear missile silo only to have it go off and kill everyone, necessitating the replacement of most everyone. Suddenly now we have Carol and Daryl running around alongside half the current cast of Criminal Minds once that’s over, plus maybe suddenly Stanley Tucci wants to do a zombie show.Although I realized just now that this is creating another instance of a departure screwing around with the ability to do a future arc from the comics, as Michonne’s currently getting involved in a lot of the stuff going on right now. Except I ALSO just remembered that I think all of her family in the show died prior to her arrival, which flies in the face of the current comic stuff. So nevermind! Again, I continue to think along the lines that stuff derailing the show’s ability to directly adapt the comics can provide opportunities to deliver a solid product anyway, but they obviously still need to work on actually accomplishing that regularly.
How on earth did this get a tenth season? I and everyone I knew gave up on the show a long time ago, and we all still feel like we waited too long. All I’ve known of it for years is review headlines that boil down to “ffs, knock it off already”. Who are they continuing it for?
The main show is sinking.The original spin-off, while allegedly getting better, is an afterthought.They “killed off” the lead by forcing to star him in future spin-off “movies”.And they still think more spinoffs can be made AND continue the original series. Despite the latter being an issue because almost none of the original cast will be around in a year.Go the fuck home AMC, you are super drunk.
*Cohan
I quit the show after they killed Glen off (though I still read the comics despite them being awful, albeit for free as a friend buys them) but as with every article about the show which comments about the supposedly terrible ratings, yes they’ve declined a lot but it’s still the most watched show on cable and the second most watched drama on tv, and there’s also a sizeable international audience too.