The Walking Dead: Lauren Cohan says Covid pandemic was ‘preparation’ for latest season

The Walking Dead star Lauren Cohan has claimed that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has served as useful preparation for the series.

AMC’s long-running zombie drama recently concluded its tenth season, with production currently underway on new episodes.

Cohan, who plays Maggie Rhee in The Walking Dead, told NME: “You would think I wouldn’t have felt so much anxiety in the beginning [of the pandemic] since that was my pretend life for 10 years.”

“I bought a lot of canned goods in the beginning, but now I give them to homeless shelters because I haven’t opened any of them.”

Cohan returned to the show in the 10th season finale, having previously left partway into season nine.

“There are interesting parallels [with coronavirus and The Walking Dead],” Cohan continued. “You imagine scenarios and think about what you would do. It’s reminded me of what is important in life.”

“It’s been good preparation to be going back into the season,” she added. “I think about the scene in the prison [in The Walking Dead season four] where Maggie and Glenn [Steven Yeun’s character] find out they were pregnant and I say, ‘I don’t want to be afraid of being alive…’ I find that going through my mind all the time lately.”

While the pandemic has thrown a spanner into the works of The Walking Dead’s production and its future release schedule, the show’s creators are currently filming a small number of bonus episodes which will air in early 2021.

The show’s eleventh season will then broadcast later in the year, barring unforeseen complications.