Steven Yeun knew Glenn Rhee’s death on The Walking Dead was coming roughly 2 years before it happened, and he wanted to keep that ending. He’s said there was “no tension” over the decision and asked that Glenn’s death stay with his character rather than be given to someone else.
The comic had already supplied the warning. Yeun described it as “the added bonus of a comic book issue coming out two years prior that says I’m done.” He was ready to move on after 6 seasons and said he was “really excited” to film the moment.
Glenn died in the Season 7 premiere, “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be,” which aired on October 23, 2016. The previous season had ended with Negan, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, choosing a victim from Rick’s group, leaving viewers waiting to learn who he’d killed.
The premiere revealed that Abraham was Negan’s first victim. After Daryl punched Negan, Negan killed Glenn too, beating him with his barbed-wire baseball bat, Lucille. Glenn’s final words to his pregnant wife were “Maggie, I’ll find you.”
Glenn’s death followed his fate in Issue 100 of the comics. Creator Robert Kirkman and the showrunners considered it essential to Negan’s story and to what followed for Maggie, Rick and Daryl.
Killing Abraham as well was intended to surprise viewers who knew the comic’s version. Glenn had also survived an earlier Season 6 fake-out in which he appeared to die beneath a swarm of walkers near a dumpster.
Yeun later described feeling relieved when the secret was finally out and said filming the death wasn’t as difficult as people might imagine. He’s argued that viewers’ attachment to Glenn helped explain the intensity of the response. As for returning to the role, he’s called that door “slammed shut.”
