‘The Walking Dead’ Boss on Rick and Maggie Closure

The absences of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan) will continue to have a presence in The Walking Dead Season Ten, reveals showrunner Angela Kang.

Asked about the unidentified voice that came over Eugene’s (Josh McDermitt) long-range radio in the last seconds of the Season Nine closer, Kang told Deadline: “What does that mean? Who is it? The answer to that will provide some interesting twists for the story going forward.”

Rick is presumed dead, having disappeared six years earlier in a bridge explosion, while Maggie is off helping Georgie (Jayne Atkinson) with a new community. The coming series of Rick Grimes movies will explore what happened after Jadis-slash-Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh) flew away with Rick aboard a helicopter, while Maggie could reappear in Season Ten or elsewhere.

“Obviously, the idea is that Rick and Maggie and all these people are alive in our universe,” Kang said. “That’s part of the thing for our characters who don’t have full closure on Rick. That is something that remains an open question and may play into the story going forward in certain ways.”

Because Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple previously confirmed Lincoln will not be returning to the television show, Kang could be hinting that “open question” is tied to the “significant” and “giant” story planned for Michonne (Danai Gurira) in Season Ten, set to be Gurira’s last.

Gurira’s “handful” of remaining episodes will be interspersed throughout that season, making it likely Gurira segues into the Walking Dead movies. The first film, penned by Gimple, is expected to reach network AMC sometime in 2020, the same year the second-half of Season Ten will be aired.

Gimple also hinted there could be a tie-in with the helicopter group behind Rick’s abduction in the coming fifth season of spinoff Fear the Walking Dead when he revealed at WonderCon a story first seen in The Walking Dead will carry over into Fear, further tying the two shows together.

And what about Cohan, whose ABC spy action-comedy Whiskey Cavalier looks to be on the verge of cancellation?

“Maggie is somebody we still hope will come back,” Kang said, having long engaged in talks with the Maggie Rhee star. “We don’t know if, when that all happens and how, but the fact is the world is opening up a little bit in our show and people are far flung. There’s a sense now that there are places other than the one place they know exists.”

Like the snow-covered Season Nine finale, a first for the zombie drama, The Walking Dead aims to keep surprising viewers.

“You know, I hope what fans took something out of the fact that we did a snow episode nine seasons in,” Kang said.

“It’s a way of showing, among other things, that we still have some new things that we can try on the show and new things to show. You know, I don’t always want to do the expected thing or the thing that we’ve seen. We still have creative avenues that we will continue to explore in the 10th season which we’re really excited about.”

The Walking Dead Season Ten is expected to premiere on AMC in October.