The comic series of The Walking Dead recently came to a sudden and shocking conclusion, and the ultimate fate of Maggie foreshadows where Lauren Cohan's version of the character disappeared to in season 9 of AMC's The Walking Dead. Heading into season 9, Maggie was one of The Walking Dead's foremost figures and a veteran of the zombie apocalypse, having debuted way back in season 2. However, season 9 heralded a raft of major changes, with the departure of Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes and a subsequent time skip that rocketed The Walking Dead years into the future.
When the dust settled, it transpired that Maggie was no longer in charge of Hilltop and, in fact, wasn't anywhere in the vicinity. With Cohan seeking a break from the show, Maggie was said to have left her own people to take residence in Georgie's community. Appearing in The Walking Dead season 8, Georgie is the leader of currently-unseen settlement and also helped with the development of Hilltop and its allies. Following this meeting, Jesus reveals that Georgie was keen to take Maggie under her wing for a long time, but it wasn't until after a clash with Michonne that this offer was taken up.
While The Walking Dead viewers know where Maggie has disappeared to, very little has been confirmed about Georgie's community. Viewers familiar with Robert Kirkman's comic book source material have theorized that Georgie is actually a TV replacement for the comics' Pamela Milton, and that her community is based on the Commonwealth. In the comics, the Commonwealth is a huge, sprawling community, far more advanced in its civilization than Alexandria, with Pamela acting as its President, and this is where the final arc of the comic series takes place.
During the Commonwealth material, Maggie largely remains at Hilltop, riding to the rescue towards the story's dramatic conclusion. The Walking Dead's very last chapter, however, takes the series many years into the future, and reveals that the Commonwealth and Alexandria both now belong to the same massive safe zone, and Maggie has been elected President during the intervening years. Both the printed and live-action iterations of Maggie have been on an upward political trajectory, slowly gathering the skills necessary to become a successful leader, and it's satisfying to see this development come to an appropriately high-ranking conclusion.
AMC's The Walking Dead has already made clear that Georgie's interest in mentoring Maggie derives from her potential as a leader of the future and, therefore, the final chapter of the comics adds weight to the theory that Georgie does indeed hail from the Commonwealth - with TV Maggie currently being primed to take on the same role she holds at the end of the comic books.
Given that Lauren Cohan's Maggie seems to already be moving towards taking over as President of the Commonwealth, could she assume this position on TV earlier than in the source material? Seemingly, The Walking Dead's TV iteration is not adapting the Pamela Milton character, and this could suggest that, when the Commonwealth arc does begin in earnest on-screen, that Maggie could have already adopted her position as leader and will play the same role Pamela does in the comic books.
Lauren Cohan is expected to return in time for The Walking Dead season 10 and after the arrival of the Commonwealth was teased in the season 9 finale, is certainly seems like Maggie's fate will be high on the agenda when The Walking Dead returns.
The Walking Dead season 10 is expected to premiere in October 2019 on AMC.