Fogler and Matsuura join The Walking Dead while Lincoln and Cohan exit

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Andrew Lincoln, who stars in AMC's The Walking Dead as Rick Grimes, will be leaving the show at some point during its upcoming ninth season. We first heard the rumor a while back, and the news has been confirmed by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman at the San Diego Comic-Con. When asked if Lincoln was out, Kirkman replied, 

It's looking that way. It does make the differences between the comic and the show more pronounced. But at the end of the day, it's all about Andrew Lincoln. This is a human being. This is someone I have known for almost a decade, somebody that I love. He's been sweating in Georgia, away from his family, for so long. … He cares about the fans. He cares about the show deeply. He wants to do something special on the way out. We have something amazing planned. I wouldn't want to spoil anything, but anybody who has been a fan of his journey, who loves Rick Grimes, who loves the world of The Walking Dead, you're going to want to see what we do."

While Rick Grimes is on his way out, new characters will be joining the show during season 9. Recently we learned that Lauren Ridloff has signed on to play the comic book character Connie, and now a couple more casting announcements have been made.

Dan Fogler of FANBOYS and FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM will be playing an unspecified character in the new season, while Eleanor Matsuura has been cast in the role of comic book character Yumiko. In the comic book source material, Connie and Yumiko show up at the same time as members of the same group, so it sounds like the TV series will be presenting them in the same way.

Also said to be leaving The Walking Dead in season 9 is Lauren Cohan, who plays Maggie. Thankfully, new showrunner Angela Kang makes it sound like Cohan's exit will be much less permanent than Lincoln's. Kang told The Hollywood Reporter, 

With Lauren, she has said that she would like to come back to the show and we would love to have her back; we think there's more story with Maggie to tell. We already have some plans brewing that I think are pretty cool."

So the show has amazing things planned for the final episodes of Rick Grimes and cool things planned for the future of Maggie… Hopefully viewers will find these things as amazing and cool as the show's creative team does.

Teasers for the The Walking Dead season 9 and the second half of Fear the Walking Dead season 4 have been released and can be seen below. Full trailers will be coming along later today.