On Sunday's "The Walking Dead," during an emotional moment, Michonne tells her children, R.J. and Judith, that there are some people you love so much that you would do anything for them. R.J. responds asking, "And for my dad?" Michonne responds by saying, yes.
Insider asked showrunner Angela Kang if that scene may already be laying the groundwork for Gurira's departure some time this season.
"Yeah, I mean there's definitely, we know that Michonne still does not really believe that Rick is dead," Kang told Insider. "So that's one of those things that carries forward into the season, so it's an apt observation."
If Michonne found out Rick was alive somehow, would she go off in search of him? It seems like it would be tough to believe she'd leave her children if that was the case. We know Michonne is dedicated to finding Rick. She spent months returning to that bridge and searching for any clues about his whereabouts.
Insider confirmed Gurira's departure from "TWD" back in February. The actress has played Michonne on the AMC zombie drama since season three. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gurira will appear on "a handful of episodes" on season 10.
How many is "a handful?"
"We haven't wanted to really say how many episodes, but she appears and has, what I hope is, a really chunky and interesting story, so we'll see her sprinkled through multiple episodes," Kang said of how much fans should expect to see of Gurira on her final season.
On the season premiere, as Michonne shares that intimate moment with her children, she's watching Judith tell R.J. the story of his father, Rick Grimes. Judith doesn't refer to Rick by name, though. Instead, she calls him "the brave man." Kang said that was intentional to not frighten the young boy.
"I think we thought that she's sensitive to the fact that her brother is still quite young and she's just telling these stories as these adventure stories about this brave man so that it's not too scary that he had to die at the end of the adventure, as far as they know," said Kang about why Judith refers to Rick as "the brave man."
That doesn't mean that R.J. doesn't know about Rick and the type of person he was in the zombie apocalypse.
"I think R.J. certainly has been told that his father was somebody that they loved and was a leader of his community," said Kang.
The scene between the two, with Judith telling a story about Rick's sacrifice for the communities to her brother, may remind comic fans of the recent surprise ending of Robert Kirkman's "The Walking Dead" comic. In the July issue, the comic flash-forwards 25 years to show an older Carl reading a book about his father to his future daughter, Andrea.
Kang said the final comic wasn't an inspiration for that scene.
"You know what's interesting was that the comic issue issue came out while we were already working on the season," said Kang. "By the time that issue came out, we'd already worked on this episode. I think we'd already even shot it."
"Kirkman and [AMC], we are all in contact, and I think it's, there's always been this sense of generation and Rick trying to do everything for his children, and pass on a kind of legacy to his children so that they can survive," said Kang of any similarities between the scenes. "It all came out of that same sort of emotional feeling of the through line of the story, which is, here's this child who has survived in spite of all the odds. And so it's a lucky sort of way that it lined up without us needing to."
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