The Walking Dead Is Too Afraid To Kill Off Legacy Characters
The Walking Dead didn't kill off legacy characters Rick, Maggie, or Michonne, & instead wrote them off; here's why the series has changed tactics.
The Walking Dead may be afraid to kill off its major legacy characters, and is opting to find other ways to write them off the show. Granted, the AMC series didn't seem to have this problem when it let Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) murder Glenn (Steven Yuen) in the season 7 premiere, or when it let Carl (Chandler Riggs) get bit by a zombie in season 8, but things have apparently changed since then.
Seasons 9 and 10 featured the exits of three of its oldest characters: Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), and Michonne (Danai Gurira). Maggie left the Hilltop off-screen during a six-year time skip, and it was stated that she's currently staying with Georgie. As for Rick, it was believed that Rick died in an explosion on a bridge, but a last-second twist in a season 9 episode revealed that he was taken away in the mysterious black helicopter. The Walking Dead season 10 saw Michonne leave the show as well. Michonne's exit happened when she found out that Rick may still be out there somewhere. She decided not to return to Alexandria or the Hilltop.
Recently, The Walking Dead has hesitated to kill its oldest characters, but why? First of all, AMC has plans to make a movie with Rick Grimes, and it could be that Michonne surviving Danai Gurira's Walking Dead exit was needed to set up her involvement. Also, The Walking Dead clearly never wanted to part ways with Lauren Cohan, which is why it now has a plan to bring her back in season 11. It's also worth noting that the show isn't touching Daryl (Norman Reedus) or Carol (Melissa McBride). One reason why it may feel like these legacy characters are safe could be because the writers and producers understand how much these characters are loved by fans, and they saw what happened when they made the controversial move to kill off Carl.
The last two seasons have made it obvious that The Walking Dead hasn't been afraid to kill off its characters, but what's important to note is who the show is willing to drop. In season 9, the Whisperers killed multiple characters; however, none of these casualties, not even Tara (Alanna Masteron) or Jesus (Tom Payne), were big enough to make a sizable impact on the show on their own. In season 10, a battle with the Hilltop and the Whisperers took the lives of three more characters, but all of them were only introduced in season 9.
The writers avoiding killing off The Walking Dead's oldest characters is not necessarily a bad decision. Rick is never coming back, but with Maggie, for instance, The Walking Dead can maintain a connection to its past, by keeping these characters alive. By not killing them, the option remains for them to come back. This is something that the writers may want, especially because as the show and the cast evolves, there's always a chance that the series can become unrecognizable over time. AMC may not want to alienate the show's oldest fans.