There is a reason Maggie will not give birth in the upcoming eighth season of The Walking Dead. When it comes to the characters on AMC's zombie series, there are not a lot of opportunities for celebration. Ever since the dead started walking the earth, every day has been a struggle for survival. Not only against the Walkers, but also against other people as society crumbles around them.
But there are occasional moments of relief, and even happiness. When they find a new home that seems like it will be safe for awhile. The moments when they outsmart their enemies and save a loved one. The romances which still continue to form and grow and thrive, against all odds. For a long time on the series, the chief romance was the one between Glenn and Maggie. And while Negan and his bat Lucille may have brought that to an untimely end, a piece of it still remains, as Maggie is pregnant with Glenn's baby.
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Showrunner Scott M. Gimple has previously revealed that Maggie will definitely not have the baby during season 8, even though her pregnancy was revealed halfway through season 6. While some fans might be wondering why, EW has got the answer figured out. According to the season 7 Blu-ray, season 7 took place over the course of only 19 days.
It can be easy to forget that time on the show does not match time in the real world. Often two or three episodes will all take place on the same day, simply showing what is happening in different locations. In season 7, with characters spread out between Alexandria, Hilltop, The Kingdom, Oceanside, and The Sanctuary, that happened frequently. So it may have been two years since audiences learned Maggie was pregnant. But she is actually still in the first trimester, and not even showing yet. The fans may have had months and months to mourn Glenn's death and recover from its brutality. But for Maggie, she watched her husband's murder happen less than three weeks ago.
The freedom to cover such short spans of time in a season was not always so available to the series, mostly because of actor Chandler Riggs, who plays Carl. It's hard to remember just how young a child he was when the show first aired. But Riggs has literally grown up before our eyes. Now that he's in his teens, his aging is not so obvious. Sure, there is still baby Judith. But she is seen so little and is still so small that she can always be recast with another toddler easily without it having too much of an effect on the show or audience. And let's not forget that Judith was born in season 3, and she still is a baby all these years later. Because time is moving that much more slowly on the show.
Fans who want to see Glenn and Maggie's baby born have a long wait on their hands, unless the show does a time jump at some point. Because at the rate they are going, not only is season 8 off the table, but seasons 9 and 10 aren't looking too likely either.
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The Walking Dead season 8 premieres Sunday, October 22nd on AMC
Source: EW