'Walking Dead' Showrunner & Steven Yeun Explain Point of That Glenn Storyline

He's aliiiiiiiive! It took "The Walking Dead" four episodes to give fans the answer to "Is Glenn Really Dead?" By the time Season 6, Episode 7, "Heads Up" aired on November 22, many viewers already knew Glenn would be back. Reaction online still seemed mostly relieved at Glenn's survival, but there were also some cynics who shook their heads at this "gimmick," which could cheapen any and all future "deaths."

Steven Yeun, who had to play coy about his own character's fate for weeks, finally got to speak out on "Talking Dead," alongside showrunner Scott M. Gimple, who came up with this idea.

Steven told "Talking Dead" host Chris Hardwick he felt "relieved," "very grateful," and "amazed at the response," admitting "it's kind of been overwhelming." He felt bad that he couldn't say anything to anyone about what happened. How did he feel about what happened, and the direction of Glenn's story? Steven took a heroic angle, saying, "It proves that this world still can take that story of the good guy winning sometimes. I really like the fact that it's not this bent of always seeking out something miserable on television ... but really accepting the fact that sometimes good guys survive."


Scott Gimple further explained why they went with this Glenn death fake-out idea. "The story we were telling was one of uncertainty," he said. When people leave the walls of Alexandria, they don't have cell phones and you don't know what happens. "I think it was important to do a story this year about uncertainty and then the audience would share the uncertainty that the characters have." He wanted us to be on the same page as Glenn's "wife" Maggie (Lauren Cohan), who was shown in Episode 5 not being sure what happened to Glenn.

Gimple didn't put it this way, but part of the reasoning had to be so fans wouldn't do what they usually do and blame the "stupid" characters for not having the same amount of knowledge as the audience. For once, we all had close to the same amount of intel, although we as audience mewrunner-and-steven-yeun-explain-point-glenn-storylinembers got to see the Dumpster scenes, back in Episode 3 and again in Episode 7, and Maggie did not.

Chris Hardwick did most of the talking to defend the Glenn storyline, attempting to respond to critics of the fake-out while only sharing tweets and responses from people who were happy with the plot.

Gimple said he loved the passionate reaction from fans. "I think it's wonderful. It is a dream come true to provide a collective experience, to provide something that was around when I was a kid. ... You could talk to a stranger about TV. ... There's been a lot of conversation about this and that's exciting. It makes the world just a little bit smaller." Steven Yeun echoed that, saying he liked the idea that they could have that shared experience together. "You realize in that moment that you have affected a lot of people at once, and that's something that you don't really see that often anymore."

It is nice to bond with strangers on the Internet (not in a creepy way) but Gimple can't do anything like this again or he'll be The Showrunner Who Cried Wolf.


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