Goodbye, Michonne: Danai Gurira is leaving The Walking Dead on AMC after Season 10

Mere months after Andrew Lincoln parted ways with AMC's The Walking Dead, Danai Gurira has announced that she plans to do the same, writes The Hollywood Reporter.

Per the shocking development, Gurira will return as the katana-wielding Michonne for Season 10 in just a few episodes that will be dispersed throughout the season. After that, her character will leave the post-apocalyptic series forever. Still, there's now a decent chance of her showing up in a TWD movie trilogy with Lincoln.

"She has been very vocal about saying that she loves the show. We love Danai; we love that character. Right now, she's got a lot of opportunities and she needs to weigh what she feels is best for her. But we certainly would want her on the show as long as she wants to be on it," AMC Programming President David Madden told THR back in November. "We really want her to stay. She is an incredibly valuable character, and I'm really hoping she stays. Obviously, the lesson of Andy is that the show can survive anybody's departure if need be, but that's not our goal. The goal is to have Danai continue on whatever basis she can make work, given the other things that she has going on in her life."

Introduced in Season 2 of The Walking Dead, Michonne, known for her badass sword and dreads, proved to be an invaluable ally to Rick and his band of surviving humans. She struck up a romantic relationship with Grimes along the way (a change from the comic canon) and still plays a key role in the comic series (much like Rick).

Aside from the role of Michonne, Gurira also has a major place in the MCU as Okoye, the leader of the Dora Milaje — basically the Wakandan secret service that protects the king of the fictional African nation. Since she was not one of the casualties of Thanos' infamous snap, we suspect she'll have a hand in reversing the events of Infinity War in Avengers: Endgame. And, of course, she'll turn back up in Black Panther 2.

The Walking Dead returns for the second half of its ninth season this Sunday, Feb. 10, on AMC at 9 p.m. EST. The dreaded Whisperers are making their onscreen debut in the new episode titled "Adaptation."

What do you think the series will look like without both Rick and Michonne? Will Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) take even more of the center stage than he does now? Sound off in the comments below!