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Everything To Know About Maggie's Pregnancy On 'The Walking Dead'

by Megan Walsh

Maggie announced her pregnancy on The Walking Dead back in Season 6, when the world of the show was totally different. Alexandria was still standing, Negan had only just begun to encroach on their lives, and Glenn was still around. Years have passed since then and so much has changed, but one thing remains the same: Maggie is still pregnant on The Walking Dead, and it doesn't seem like there will be any progress on that front anytime soon.

Fans are perplexed not only because Maggie is still pregnant, but because her pregnancy is somehow still in its earliest stages. She isn't showing even a little bit, which can be explained by the incredibly slow passage of time on the show. When combined, Seasons 6, 7, and 8 span less than a month in show time, which means only a few weeks of Maggie's pregnancy have gone by. But while the timeline provides an answer for her endless first trimester, it's still a hard one to come to terms with when year after year has gone by in the real world.

And more time will go by before that baby is born. According to Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Scott M. Gimple said Maggie wouldn't be giving birth in Season 8, so the wait for Baby Rhee continues.

Because Maggie's pregnancy is progressing at a snail's pace, fans have become incredibly eager for any hint of news about her child. Their eyes are peeled for the emergence of a baby bump, keeping a closer watch on her midsection than any tabloid would. And when she just so happened to be babysitting the little girl Rick orphaned, then rescued from a Savior outpost in "Dead Or Alive Or," some viewers at home immediately wondered if they'd missed something and her baby had been born offscreen.

Though one would think a birth would be hard to miss, it's understandable that fans might think it had been skipped over. The show hasn't focused much on Maggie's pregnancy since the announcement, outside of a parade of doctors who die before they can attend to her and some Savior-crushed prenatal vitamins. There are more pressing concerns to be sure, but considering all the difficulties that come along with being pregnant in the apocalypse, one would think the situation would get more airtime.

Actress Lauren Cohan joked about the situation with EW, saying that she wished there was a ticker tape along the bottom of the frame that could keep track of the timeline for fans. Her co-star Josh McDermitt also commented on the eternal pregnancy when talking to ComicBook.com, saying that it was difficult to remember how much time had passed even while filming. He stated:

I hear some fans say, 'This is bulls**t, Maggie's not even showing!' Well, she's like two months along, chill out! Just because it's been a year and a half in your world, this is... It's hard. I have to constantly remind myself to check in with Greg [Nicotero] or Scott [Gimple]. Like, 'How long has this been?' because even that episode where Negan came back to Alexandria — he showed up early. I mean, that was maybe four days, five days. He said, 'I'll be back in a week,' and he shows up early.

It doesn't look like Maggie will get closer to her due date until Season 9 at the earliest. However, there has been some discussion about whether or not Maggie will even be in the next season, as Cohan has reportedly not yet signed on for another year. According to The Hollywood Reporter, negotiations are ongoing, though Gimple said he was "pretty positive" Cohan would remain on the series.

Fans are so invested in Maggie's story that seeing it cut short would surely be disappointing for them, so hopefully it will all work out in the long run.

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