The Walking Dead: Danai Gurira Opens Up on Exit, “We’ll See” About Movies

When The Walking Dead said goodbye to Michonne on Sunday night, Danai Gurira‘s character earned an open-ended sendoff. Michonne joined a caravan of what looked to be thousands of new survivors, likely heading off to join the upcoming films which are centered around Rick Grimes. While there has been no official news on the movie front in what feels like ages, Gurira did open up about how the AMC zombie series set up her exit. She was also put on the spot in regards to whether or not fans should expect to see her play Michonne again in the upcoming films, not committing firmly to anything for the future.

Showrunner Angela Kang was given an end point for chief content officer Scott Gimple, but it called required a sensible reason for Michonne to head out of town and leave her family behind. This is where Gurira’s perspective comes in “How do you get Michonne that vulnerable?” Gurira said, in an interview with Variety. “The answer is you have to drug the heck out of her. I had never heard of [jimson weed] before. Then I looked it up and I read some stories from people who had taken it and I was like, ‘Holy goodness, what we show is very mild.’”

A writer herself, Gurira is quick to credit the creatives who concocted the final hour for her character which brought back familiar faces like Glenn, Rick, and Andrea. “The writers came up with the whole architecture,” Guirira says. “Angela [Kang] talked me through it and then she was very generous in letting me collaborate with her on aspects of it.”

Michonne’s journey came full circle on Sunday night. The character was introduced as a hardened, introverted survivor who rescued Andrea before being invited into the prison by Rick and Carl. At the end of her TV journey, Michonne helped some new found survivors, having fully opened up to people and forming a family of her own.

“I’m very thankful for the aspects of how [Michonne] got to evolve,” Gurira said. “In the beginning, that person with a heart was peaking through the armor a little bit going, ‘Hey, let me out.’ Something about Andrea made her open it up a little bit, and then a little bit more and a little bit more. She had to go through so much trial and error before she could be someone who was trusted in this group and loved in this group.”

As for whether not Gurira will play Michonne in the movies: “We’ll see.”

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The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC.