In 2015, The Walking Dead was home to one of the biggest and most controversial mysteries of the year. Fans everywhere argued over whether or not they thought Glenn was dead.
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Though, most suspected the apocalypse’s favorite pizza boy survived his dumpster dive with a suicidal Nicholas, the showrunners at AMC stretched the question for over a month. It was something different not only for viewers, but for Glenn actor Steven Yeun, and The Walking Dead‘s crew, alike.
In preparation for The Walking Dead‘s midseason return this weekend. Yeun recently opened up about the ordeal while talking to EW.
Well, for me, I always believe in [showunner Scott M. Gimple], and I think Scott has a great vision for the show, is actually the right person for this job, and is maybe one of the more genius minds that I do know,” Yeun tells EW. “And the thing that he iterated to me when he first pitched the idea, I’d never really balked on it. I was like, “Cool. Let’s make sure that we do this right.” I was all gung-ho and in for it, and whatever anybody wants to say about the execution — people might be bummed about it or be fine with it, and I have my own personal opinions about it — but the core of it all is really that we went for something, that we tried something, in a time when we’re getting drudged-down, safe versions of everything.
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 always brought up the point that he was trying to make the audience feel the same way as how people back in Alexandria must have felt not knowing where Glenn was. And whether the audience believes that we executed that well or not, we went for it, and even in the face of victory or failure, when you go for something, that’s all you can really hang your hat on.
For me, when I look back on something like that, I always have faith in Scott, and I have more respect for him because he has the balls to go somewhere. You look at the state of where we’re sitting right now, in terms of film and TV, and sometimes you are kind of taught, “Hey, don’t push it too much, because people won’t watch it then, or people won’t buy it then.” That’s not what we’re here to do as storytellers and TV-makers and filmmakers and stuff like that. We’re here to affect you, and if you saw to the degree that people were affected — I think even if it was negative — it did something. And I can’t really ask for much more than that, you know?
-Steven Yeun
We’re all happy to have Glenn’s heart continuing to beat on The Walking Dead but we never know for how long. When the show returns on Sunday, audiences begin their anxious wait for Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan to arrive and we all know how that went in the comics.
The Walking Dead returns February 14 at 9 PM ET on AMC.
