'Walking Dead' Boss Addresses Glenn's Fate After 'Thank You'

Last night’s The Walking Dead seemingly put an end to one of the series’ most important characters, though like a certain Snow-y fella, enough ambiguity allows for some serious speculation. Knowing the immediate fan reaction, Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple released a statement promising we’d see said character again … somehow.

You’re warned of MAJOR SPOILERS from The Walking Dead Season 6's latest “Thank You” from here on out, but things seemed pretty hopeless for poor Glenn, stranded in an alley atop a dumpster with Nicholas, surrounded by hundreds of walkers. Nicholas “opted out” with his pistol, though the act inadvertently pushed Glenn into the crowd of walkers as well, the camera subsequently treating us to Glenn’s screams as the dead chowed down on some entrails.

Dire though the situation looked, it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility that Glenn might have escaped (the munched viscera almost certainly belonged to Nicolas), and the subsequent Talking Dead discussions seemed notably reluctant to confirm Glenn’s death, even leaving him out of the “In Memoriam” montage. That said, host Chris Hardwick acknowledged the omission, and read a prepared statement from showrunner Scott Gimple:

Dear fans of ‘The Walking Dead,’ this is a hard story to tell and when we were planning to tell it, we knew our friends at the ‘Talking Dead’ would be talking to you about it. And knowing you’d all be talking and feeling and commiserating, I knew we should say something about it, lest our silence say something we didn’t mean to say or not say. So I’ll say this: In some way, we will see Glenn, some version of Glenn, or parts of Glenn again, either in flashback or in the current story, to help complete the story.

Naturally, one might perceive Gimple’s contribution as telling in and of itself, given that Talking Dead almost always allows departing characters a send-off interview, rather than a cryptic third-party statement. You’re hereby warned of further potential spoilers for Season 6 as well, though the statement may also tip its hand to the fact that Steven Yeun is already visible on set filming scenes that have yet to air.

We won’t pretend to hold all the cards with Glenn’s death, but could The Walking Dead really have killed off one of its oldest characters so unexpectedly? Were Glenn’s time on the series truly over, what “version” might Gimple be teasing with his statement?

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