Fans of The Walking Dead nearly had a meltdown when they thought that Steven Yeun’s character, Glenn, died after falling from a dumpster and into a horde of zombies. The writers kept up the storyline for weeks and even removed Yeun’s name from the opening credits just to tease fans about the character’s fate.
It turns out that Glenn wasn’t dead after all. He crawled underneath the dumpster and hid while being shielded by another person’s body. The storyline angered many devoted fans of The Walking Dead , but the writers argued that they wanted to make fans feel the same uncertainty that the characters on the show often feel.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly , Yeun spoke out about the Glenn controversy and why he supports the storyline.
“We tried for something that could have been dangerous, and to some, it was. And to some, they didn’t like it, and things became polarizing to an extent for that move. But I never felt like our heart was at a place where we were trying to deceive the audience. Never were we like, ‘People are going to go crazy for this!’ It was more just like, let’s tell this story and make it compelling and make it purposeful.”
Scott Gimple, the showrunner for The Walking Dead , just wanted to make the fans feel the way that the Alexandrians felt not knowing where Glenn was. Yeun insists that their intention was never to mess with the fan base, although it’s a little too late for that.
“That’s what the discussions were always about. It was, ‘How do we effectively tell this story, that it has the maximum weight of what we’re intending?’ It was never ‘Let’s make them think that he’s gone for a second, just to screw with the audience.’ It was always ‘What is the best method by which we can achieve this story to be at its purest way of digesting it for the audience?’ because they have so many other resources to, in a weird way, taint it.”
After all, Yeun has to support the show. It’s not like he has a choice. It was definitely risky for the writers of The Walking Dead to use a fan favorite and tease his fate for nearly eight episodes. But it made for some intense conversations on social media. Even though Yeun says that they weren’t tricking their fans, it felt like a trick when they removed his name from the opening credits.
But it seems like the actor understands that it wasn’t the best way to tease his death like that. The Walking Dead could have risked losing viewers by drawing out Glenn’s fate. There are some TV shows and movies that have successfully drawn out storylines and a character’s fate while keeping the fans guessing.
Luckily for fans of The Walking Dead , it turned out that Glenn was alive and sort of well. After it was revealed that Glenn made it through the zombie herd without getting eaten, Yeun joined Chris Hardwick on The Talking Dead . Prior to his appearance, Yeun thanked all of the Walking Dead fans for their support and their concerns over Glenn.
Whether or not Glenn will make it through the rest of Season 6 is up for debate, especially since bad boy Negan has entered the scene. Find out if his character will finally reunite with Maggie when The Walking Dead returns this Sunday, February 14 at 9 p.m. EST on AMC. Check your local listings for details.
Do you like the way that Walking Dead writers dragged out the fate of Glenn’s character? Do you disagree with the way it was handled? Sound off below in the comments section.
[Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images]