The Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira Calls Rick Grimes and Daryl Killing Michonne “Awful”

Danai Gurira admits Michonne’s imagined death at the hands of partner Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) in her exit episode of The Walking Dead was “awful.” The horrific what-if was one of several alternate deaths hallucinated by Michonne when she was held prisoner and drugged with jimson weed by Virgil (Kevin Carroll), who intended for a hurting Michonne to find “peace” in the visions bringing back such loved ones as the late Glenn (Steven Yeun), Siddiq (Avi Nash) and Andrea (Laurie Holden). In this nightmare, Michonne was a high-ranking member of the Saviors and Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) “right hand gal” who was struck down by a bolt fired by Daryl before being executed by Rick.

“It was awful, awful. No one wants to go down like that,” Gurira told Entertainment Weekly. “I mean these are people you love, this is your family. So Norman and I shooting that scene, you know, he’s left shooting through the crowd and shooting me. Then Rick’s boots pinning my leg, my arm down. That wasn’t fun. I don’t know how else to tell you.”

That death was retribution for Michonne gunning down Glenn and Heath (Corey Hawkins) in a twist on Season 6 episode “Not Tomorrow Yet,” where Rick and the Alexandrians assaulted a Savior outpost in the dead of night. “Sadly, horribly,” Gurira said, the last scene she filmed on the television show was Savior Michonne gunning down Glenn and Heath.

“Yeah, that was the last thing. And then I was avoiding Rick, so it was that stuff,” Gurira said. “The stuff where they come into the satellite place, but me being a Savior. So I wasn’t even in my wig. So it was interesting because I was dressed as Savior as I exited.”

Asked if a walker Michonne was ever on the table for “What We Become,” Gurira answered, “Oh no, no, no. I guess we’ve never done that. I guess the closest we got was when she saw the woman who looked almost exactly like her in Season 4, episode 9 [‘After’], where she kills all those walkers in the field.”

In reality, Michonne survived her trip to Bloodsworth Island, where she discovered Rick was alive when she found his possessions in a washed up boat. She then set off with a mysterious new group after promising daughter Judith (Cailey Fleming) she would bring home the Brave Man.

New episodes of The Walking Dead Season 10 premiere Sundays on AMC. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.