The Walking Dead’s Lauren Cohan Explains Maggie’s Leadership Role

The Walking Dead‘s Maggie (Lauren Cohan) has come a long way since her daddy’s farm.

Introduced in season 2, Maggie has evolved from farmer’s daughter to leader of the Hilltop community, a role she assumed even after the traumatizing murder of her husband and father of her on-the-way child, Glenn (Steven Yeun). The treacherous Gregory (Xander Berkeley) is little more than the Hilltop’s figurehead — “officially,” he’s still its leader, especially in the eyes of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), right hand man Simon (Steven Ogg) and the Saviors — but Maggie will be stepping up even more in season 8, Cohan tells EW.

“I think that Maggie feels very clear on safeguarding Hilltop and everything else that she can,” Cohan said. “And she knows that the Hilltop looks to her and respects her and follows her. And I think really quickly it snowballs into being in that place of leadership, but we’re all taking care of different factions of the world and we’re all in charge of the singular grand purpose. I mean, what else are we going to do?”

Maggie spent the course of season 7 cementing herself as the Hilltop’s de facto leader, undermining Gregory — who has his best interests in mind, not the Hilltop’s. Come season 8, the people of the Hilltop colony will have to make a choice between Gregory and Maggie, who had been prepped as a leader in her own right by former Alexandria leader Deanna Monroe (Tovah Feldshuh) in the show’s fifth and sixth seasons.

Cohan commented on her old mentor last year, saying Maggie’s flourishing was part of Deanna’s vision:

“It’s been really interesting, because Deanna saw things in Maggie that she didn’t necessarily see in herself when they got to Alexandria, and I think the most important part was that she could be this intermediary,” Cohan said. “She understood the way her group functioned, but she also has that hopeful vision and aligned with that hopeful vision that Deanna had to create a sustainable community. And this is all coming before she’s pregnant, before she knows that they’re going to have a baby, and so it’s very fortunate that she gains these lessons from Deanna.”

The Walking Dead returns Sunday, October 22 at 9/8c on AMC.