Initially, The Walking Dead had Negan kill Abraham instead of Glenn to throw off the comic book fans, which meant Glenn being the next victim was a genuine shock. However, the truth is that there was no way Glenn was going to walk away from Negan alive. He had to die for several things to happen, including Maggie's journey of leaving the group and the eventual conflict with Negan. Glenn also had to die to underline Negan's threat. But, when it comes to the storylines, why did Negan kill Glenn after he proved his point with Abraham?
How & When Glenn Died In The Walking Dead - Show Vs. Comics
Glenn Was The Only Member Of Rick's Group Killed In The Comics
While Glenn's death still shocks fans, Glenn had to die in The Walking Dead season 7. In the comics, specifically The Walking Dead #100, Negan and the Saviors had Rick and his allies at his mercy. To demonstrate the consequences of crossing the Saviors, Negan brutally executes Glenn by bashing his head in with his trademark weapon, Lucille. The TV version of the story headed in the same direction when the conflict with the Saviors in season 6 led to a direct confrontation with Negan.
As in the comics, Negan picked his victim, whose identity was kept secret until the season 7 premiere. Negan's victim was revealed to be Abraham. So, with Abraham dead, why did Glenn have to die too? Plainly, Negan killed Glenn because of Daryl — who retaliated in anger at Abraham's death. Daryl's outburst irritated Negan, prompting him to kill Glenn too.
The tragedy of Glenn's Walking Dead death influenced Fear The Walking Dead and the original series, but the show changed things up.The Walking Dead generally used the same story arcs but kept viewers in suspense by killing off different characters. There was never a chance Glenn would be spared due to this inter-canon disparity, however. Not long after the episode aired, Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman explained that Glenn's Walking Dead death in the comics was far too important for it to be replaced with anyone else [via EW].
In other words, Negan killed Glenn because his death was the impetus for a larger storyline that still needed to happen in the show. All the way to The Walking Dead series finale, the respective story arcs of the remaining survivors were shaped by this particular tragedy.
Glenn's Death Was Too Important A Catalyst For Future Stories
Glenn Needed To Die To Move Maggie & Negan Forward
Seeing Glenn meet such a horrendous fate is what fueled Rick's hatred for Negan
Glenn, who had been at Rick's side since season 1, had become his most trustworthy and dependable ally. Losing Glenn was a big blow for Walking Dead then-leading hero Rick Grimes, and it's what set up his story for both Walking Dead seasons 7 and 8. Seeing Glenn meet such a horrendous fate is what fueled Rick's hatred for Negan and led to his revenge-driven crusade to end their servitude and defeat the Saviors. Likewise, committing the said atrocity was essential for Negan himself to transform throughout the series.
Glenn's Walking Dead death also had a similar, but longer-lasting impact on Maggie, who grew stronger and more determined. Glenn's death was a tragic but defining moment for Maggie. It made her strive to build a better society. It also meant that she was more likely to double-cross someone in the future if it meant protecting her family.
Another character deeply impacted by this story was Daryl, and how it affected him was actually an addition made to the show, since Daryl doesn't exist in the Walking Dead comics. Daryl's guilt over Glenn haunted him through season 7 and resulted in a powerful, emotional scene with Maggie, who told him that she didn't blame him for what Negan did. So as sad as Glenn's death was, there's so much that wouldn't have happened if a different character had been killed in his place on The Walking Dead.
Why Glenn's Death Was So Brutal
Viewers Needed To Fear Negan Over All Others
The brutality of Glenn's Walking Dead death, just like in the comics, was actually intended to be upsetting - not just because of the sheer gore, but what the character represents. As Glenn actor Stephen Yeun says, it's not just the gratuitous violence that made the incident so impactful. Rather, it was the fact that The Walking Dead gave such a brutal death to a character with such deeply established roots in the series. Here's what Yeun told CinemaBlend in an interview about his character's iconic death scene:
"It was gory, but it wasn't any more gory than anything that we've shown before. I think what it was was just watching someone that you feel like you know getting killed that way, and getting killed in a way that was not like, 'Oh man, look at Noah getting ripped up,' which is gnarly, but it's just happening to him. Whereas, in this instance, it was just like, 'You could've stopped, but you're just gonna keep going, and you're gonna rub it in.' And that's probably where it felt like it was too much."
Moreover, when looking at why Negan killed Glenn, it gave Walking Dead's Negan arguably the best story arc in the entire series, with the question of Negan's redemption remaining a point of contention among long-time viewers. Indeed, years after Glenn's death, its brutality remains cemented in audiences' minds. For better or worse, there's no doubt that Glenn's fate forever changed The Walking Dead's savage universe.
Killing Glenn Redefined Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Career
Negan Helped Make Morgan A Major Star
In the end, questioning why Negan killed Glenn in The Walking Dead was simply because Negan needed this for his character development. After this, Negan was a wildcard that everyone hated and no one trusted. He slowly became one of the most important characters on the show as time went on. At the same time, Negan killing Glenn helped redefine Jeffrey Dean Morgan's career.
"It changed my life. That one scene changed my life, literally, in so many ways. And I still get s*** for it. People remind me daily that Glenn was their favorite character."
By becoming such a major character, Jeffrey Dean Morgan got something he had never experienced before in his career. Negan got a long-term job commitment. He was one of the key characters on Supernatural and died pretty early on. He got a role in the DCU and ended up dying in a flashback scene as Bruce Wayne's dad.
"I had a conversation with Scott [Gimple], and it was like, 'You gotta be on it for at least three years if you want to be a part of this show.' I was like, 'That seems like a long time," Morgan said. However, he and Hilarie Burton welcomed their second child, and The Walking Dead gave Morgan a consistent paycheck.
What Steven Yeun Said About Glenn's Death
Yeun Felt Glenn Could Have Meant More
It’s that role as a symbol that sometimes frustrated Yeun. Yeun thought that the show could have done more with Glenn’s humanity instead of propping the character up as a symbol. He’s said of his time on the show:
I felt like I was servicing a concept of goodness as opposed to engaging with Glenn’s humanity.
The result there, when seeing a character as a symbol instead of as a flawed human being, is that the actor playing the character wasn’t necessarily given as much to dig into for their role. It meant that Glenn was frequently seen as the moral compass, the one to warn characters of the darkness, instead of getting to provide a human characterization with more depth and nuance, like Carol. Her growth and change from an abused wife afraid to make waves to someone who could walk through a crowd with a knife and use it without blinking was a gradual and fascinating transformation.
Yeun’s statement about “servicing a concept of goodness” is what made many fans disappointed in Glenn’s death. While he was likable, fans wanted to see more done with the character in The Walking Dead.
Glenn's Death Marked A Turning Point For The Walking Dead
This Moment Changed The Dynamics Of The Series
Glenn's death was a huge moment on The Walking Dead. It was meant to show that anyone could die, and it was done so horrifically that no one would forget it. However, the moment also had a lasting impression in other ways. Glenn's death in The Walking Dead season 7 ended up hurting the show. For five seasons in a row, The Walking Dead averaged over 10 million viewers an episode. In season 8, that number dropped dramatically to 7.92 million, almost 3.5 million fewer per episode than in season 7.
Over three million people stopped watching The Walking Dead after Glenn's brutal death. It never recovered. The next season dropped to five million, and the last two seasons only had a little over two million people watching on average. There are several reasons for the drop in viewership, but the added brutality and the gruesome death of a beloved fan favorite likely drove away many fans.
At the same time, this moment caused several things to happen with the storyline is concerned. Negan became a huge fan favorite when his redemption story started. This even led to more dramatic moments when he and Maggie had to work together in the final season against the Commonwealth. In The Walking Dead: Dead City, Maggie finally gets revenge against Negan, playing off this long-running story, proving that Glenn's death still plays a purpose in the story all these years later.
Did Glenn's Death Go Too Far?
The Walking Dead Understood How Impactful The Moment Truly Was
Glenn dies in The Walking Dead season 7 premiere "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be", which aired a few years shy of a decade ago in October 2016. However, despite so many years passing since the infamous moment Negan killed Glenn with Lucille, there is still intense debate around the moment. To say that Glenn's death in TWD was controversial was an understatement - the moment was so shocking and divisive that many former fans simply stopped watching after "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" aired.
It's worth noting that, at the time, Glenn wasn't just a fan favorite The Walking Dead character, but the fan favorite as far as many were concerned. This is a key reason why Glenn's death was so impactful compared to Abraham's, who also met the same fate at the same moment. It's also the reason that many fans of TWD thought Glenn's death went too far. Of all the characters Negan could have killed, showrunners went with the one many felt was irreplacable.
There's also, of course, the fact that Glenn's death was depicted in an incredibly gruesome way. Glenn's face was shown after every strike from Lucille, with no holds barred when it came to showing the gory results. This was one of several TWD moments, such as Lori being eaten by the bloated walker, that many felt showed a little too much.
The Walking Dead is an action-horror series, but there are many who prefer the action to the horror aspects. It was controversial whenever the series leaned more into the horror side of its tone, and for many the death of Glenn was one of the worst instances of this trend (though, it should also be noted there are just as many fans who love when The Walking Dead doesn't hold back and reminds viewers that zombies belong to horror as a genre).
Still, the debate around whether Glenn's death went too far has somewhat been nullified by everything else that happened in The Walking Dead afterward. Even going into The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2, Glenn's death is still being discussed in-universe. He's never been an afterthought or forgotten. The moment remains perhaps the most essential in the character development of both Maggie and Negan, showing that it was just as traumatizing for the characters in-universe as it was for viewers. With this in mind, it's difficult to claim that Glenn's death in The Walking Dead was too much or the show being overly violent simply for the sake of shock value.
