SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details of tonight’s episode & the fate of warrior queen Michonne. Do not enter if you don’t want to know more.After seven seasons as the sword wielding and scene slaying Michonne on The Walking Dead, touchingly left on the high seas tonight in the zombie apocalypse series’ “What We Become” episode.“It was everything,” the actor states of her near final scenes on the radio with Michonne’s children with the presumed dead Rick Grimes and her exit from the show based on Robert Kirkman’s comics. “It was peaceful. It was beautiful. It was joyful. It was, you know, gratifying.”.

Related StoryFor fans even though Gurira’s move to leave this season was revealed, tonight was a TWD departure quite unlike most.Having come up short in her effort to obtain a cache of weapons from the treacherous Virgil (Kevin Carroll), Michonne discovers poignant and painful clues to the real fate of Rick and how he may not be dead at all. GURIRA: (LAUGHS) Well, you know I would never tell you yay or nay to that, but I think there is an open-endedness to how she exits. I will agree with you on that.I thought it was beautiful that she got to, you know, kind of get cosmically rewarded for helping this weird guy, Virgil, who is played by a wonderful actor who I’ve always admired, Kevin Carroll. Rewarded by finding evidence that’s something she’s always suspected was true, which was that Rick didn’t die on that bridge. So, you know, we’ll see how that goes. See what happens next or see if something happens.“Holy shit” is right.— Kirsten (@KirstenAcuna)DEADLINE: Angela? Is there more Michonne to come with Rick on the big screen?KANG: Certainly, that option is open there, and I really hope that they will reunite sometime.

However, I think it’s more of a question for Scott GimpleDEADLINE: Well, Scott isn’t with us today, so Danai, what do you think the Chief Content Officer of the growing The Walking Dead franchise would say?GURIRA: Probably not going to tell you.Really takes you back.— The Walking Dead on AMC (@WalkingDeadAMC)DEADLINE: OK, well, we’ll stamp our feet and move on there and to that, you are a showrunner yourself now like Angela and like Gimple once was on TWD. So, what’s the status of the HBO Max show you have Americanah right now?GURIRA: You know, we were in a bit of strange place, because of the coronavirus, like everybody. Of course, I’m definitely very engaged in the writing process of the show, but everything in terms of how well along we are this moment together as a global community, that’s another thing.

But the writing component and getting all those things done is still very much alive and happening.DEADLINE: With way too many comparisons being made between the surge and fallout of COVID-19 and TWD and the empty streets all over the world, how are the two of you doing in this time of home confinement and social distancing?GURIRA: I’m fine. I actually just migrated back west. I was in Brooklyn, and I out in Los Angeles now, So, I’m hunkered down here to ride this thing out.KANG: You know, we obviously made that was AMC, just kind of across the board for their production. So, we still have people working remotely. The writers continue to work.

Michonne (pronounced mih-SHOWN) is a main character and a survivor of the outbreak in AMC's The Walking Dead. Following the loss of her boyfriend and toddler, Michonne withdrew into solitude perfecting her swordsmanship and becoming a dark and ruthless warrior.

We’re still several weeks out from anything shooting so it hasn’t been overly disruptive yet. We’re Zooming and Google Doxing and doing all the kinds of things that everybody else is doing right now.DEADLINE: Unlike the ever-expanding coronavirus, news of Danai’s departure slipped out over a year ago, so this the actual execution in tonight’s Vivian Tse penned episode was a long time in the making. Though very different right now from the now completed comics, but unlike lot of TWD characters Michonne didn’t die and clearly could come back, so how did you put all this together over the past several months?KANG: I mean Danai is an amazing actress and an amazing person, I just want to say. I’ve worked with her since Season 3 and with that familiarity, we kind of did what we usually do on the show.DEADLINE: Which is?KANG: Which is we go off and start thinking about the season and the arcs and what we can do. Scott Gimple obviously and I had a conversation too about like what handoff was needed to kind of ride her out into a bigger possibility of stories elsewhere.And then, at a certain point kind of in that process I always have one-on-one conversations with actors.

I say, hey, here’s what we’re laying out, this is what we have planned, we’re excited about this, is there anything that is in your head in terms of like where your character’s at, and so we had a really wonderful conversation. And honestly, the story didn’t really change wildly from what we originally planned,GURIRA: I have to give a lot of thanks to Angela and her team for that.

They came up with an amazing architecture for those characters, for the stories, and how to give her that sort of an ending. Then I worked a little bit with them. I worked with them on some of the architecture therein, which is very generous of them to embrace my thoughts and my contributions.DEADLINE: Obviously, even with the flashbacks to Lincoln’s Rick and alternative realities with Michonne becoming one of Negan’s Saviors and being the one to kill off some of the Survivors in what was that bloody Season 7 opener, what we saw tonight was one of those TWD episodes that primarily centered on a single character and a single main actor. Not having almost anything from (Robert) Kirkman’s comics to base this on, how did the particulars emerge from ideas to plots?KANG: As we were talking about like what really had Michonne gone through on an emotional level through the years, we felt that ultimately here’s a person who has some tendencies to want to be alone and to be a lone wolf, but she is pulled to other peopleDEADLINE: Like the treacherous Virgil?KANG: Yes, and ultimately her decisions to show mercy at various points and to connect with people rather than isolating herself has been what has healed her.

It has given her the greatest joys of her life, and has allowed her to build a life even in the midst of this apocalypse tooSo, it came out of this organic conversation about what are these key moments that really shaped who she was, and does she have any regrets? Does she think that the decisions were the right decisions? Is there any awareness of the easy paths that people can take where things shift, you know, and what is the line between a hero and a villain? DEADLINE: Certainly, those near final scenes of you on the walkie with Cailey Fleming’s very mature Judith and Anthony Azor’s CJ were just so powerful. So, with all that has been built up over the past couple of seasons of Michonne as a single Mom to her and Rick’s kids and now saying goodbye with their blessing, what we’re doing those scenes like, knowing for yourself that those are potentially your final Walking Dead scenes?GURIRA: It was everything. It was peaceful. It was beautiful.

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It was joyful. It was, you know, gratifying.DEADLINE: How so?GURIRA: I had gratitude for how they allowed me to exit the show and how well they’d taken care of the character. I had gratitude for how much I got to do, and how I got to exit in a way that honored the character and gave her an ability to be true to herself, like that end scene you referred to.Thank you for everything.— The Walking Dead on AMC (@WalkingDeadAMC)DEADLINE: Angela, now with Michonne, the demise of Samantha Morton’s Alpha last week, Rick and Maggie, a number of the major characters, major cast members, have exited in various ways since you’ve taken over, and the show has shifted in many ways. Where does this leave TWD r ight now for you in terms of how the rest of the season goes and going into Season 11 and forward?KANG: I think that certainly Michonne leaves a gaping hole in both the emotional lives of Judith and these other characters that love her, but also, she is the head of security for Alexandria and she has been such a leadership force since the loss of Rick. So that really puts Daryl in a particular position. GURIRA: First of all, I couldn’t be more thankful and have more love for the fans of the show and for the way that they have bolstered me and loved what we’ve been doing and appreciated our work. Also, I feel there’ll be an indelible connection to this and the audience of The Walking Dead.

The love that they show us and the way that I’ve been able to connect with them over the years, which has made me a better human being. It’s made meit’s filled me with gratitude and love, and I’ll always be deeply appreciative of them for that.