Danai Gurira Wrote an Episode of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live (Exclusive)

After living with the character of Michonne for more than a decade, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live star Danai Gurira had a chance to write an episode of her new spinoff. Michonne, who serves as the series lead on The Ones Who Live alongside Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes, first appeared on The Walking Dead in 2012’s “Beneath the Dying Fire,” an episode in the show’s second season. She was key to The Walking Dead‘s massive popularity, becoming the most-watched show on TV for a few years at its height, and the idea of reuniting her with Rick was an irresistible one to fans, who have been looking forward to this spinoff since it was announced.

Speaking with ComicBook.com about the upcoming show, Gurira discussed the process of writing and producing the episode a little bit. Brandon Davis, who has covered the show for almost as long as Gurira has been involved with it, asked about the joy of writing an episode for this character she is so closely associated with.

“Joy is the word — happy, no,” Gurira joked. “Joy has nothing to do with emotion; joy is something deeper. It was a lot of work, and of course it was going on simultaneously with all the other work that one has to do in this show. We had already arced the series, the three of us, so we knew what this episode needed to be. And of course, there’s a process of getting the episode to where you want it to be, and Gimple was like, ‘She’s the showrunner of that episode, don’t come to talk to me.’ And so I was the point person for the episode, which allowed me to have a vision on it, but it was very collaborative. They were reading every draft, they were giving their thoughts, their notes. And also the episode before it was being tweaked, and as that tweaks, I jave to tweak because they have to work together. So ultimately it was a process, but I loved what it came to be. And I was in charge of the post of it, as well, with the editor, and the amazing Michael Slovis was the director, and he did an incredible job. It’s interesting explaining — it’s such a familiar story, but I was explaining a very different chapter of it to people, in a way that we hadn’t explored these narratives as a whole for the series, and this episode was definitely part of that. It was great, it was very collaborative, it was also very solitary, and very little sleep.”

Per its official synopsis, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is “an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were. Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead… And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they’ve ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive — or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?”

Walking Dead Universe Chief Content Officer Scott M. Gimple serves as showrunner and executive producer with Lincoln, Gurira, Denise Huth (The Walking Dead), and Brian Bockrath (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon). The cast includes Lesley-Ann Brandt (Lucifer) as Pearl Thorne, Matthew Jeffers (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as Nat, Terry O’Quinn (Lost) as Major General Beale, and Pollyanna McIntosh (The Walking Dead) as Jadis.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live premieres Sunday, February 25, on AMC and AMC+.