Glenn Line Was Norman Reedus' Idea on The Walking Dead

Warning: this story contains spoilers for The Walking Dead's "Lockdown" midseason premiere. The eleventh and final season of The Walking Dead hasn't forgotten Glenn (Steven Yeun). "Acheron: Part I" saw a clash between Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) when he told her she won't put him down like a dog "like Glenn was." In "Hunted," the sight of Negan's blood-dripping crowbar evoked images of Glenn's death at the end of Negan's "vampire bat" Lucille. And on Sunday's premiere of the final eight episodes, titled "Lockdown," the latest mention of Glenn happened during a scene between Maggie and Daryl (Norman Reedus).

While on the run from Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) and Commonwealth soldiers, Maggie apologized to Daryl for having to shoot dead former flame Leah (Lynn Collins) to save her life in April's "Acts of God" midseason finale. "Glenn would have wanted me to look out for you," Daryl told Maggie. "You don't have to ever say sorry. Not to me."

On Talking Dead, episode director Greg Nicotero revealed Daryl mentioning Glenn in that moment was Reedus' idea. 

"She'd just gone rogue, shot my 'girlfriend' sort of, and now these people are after us. But that scene got altered a little bit," Reedus said. "I brought it up, 'We haven't spoken about it. We should say something.' The Glenn thing was, I think, my idea."

Maggie and Daryl are "so close to each other, and they don't have to apologize or explain themselves," Reedus continued. "I just thought it was important to let her know, 'I've got your back, you've got my back.'"

In an exclusive interview with ComicBook, Cohan characterized Maggie and Daryl's dynamic — dating back to the Greene family farm in Season 2 — as "like brother and sister." 

"I can't imagine if the situation was reversed for Maggie and there was somebody [who Maggie loved trying to kill Daryl]. I can't imagine her hesitating to save him because they've been through everything together," Cohan said. "It's family in the deepest sense of the word, really. So it's heartbreaking that he does have to shoot [Leah] but there's also an element of, he let her go earlier [in 'No Other Way'] and it did turn out bad."

Follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for TWD Universe coverage all season long. New episodes of The Walking Dead's final season premiere Sundays on AMC and AMC+.