Summary
- Robert Kirkman originally planned to kill off Glenn in The Walking Dead much earlier than, he actually did.
- Kirkman couldn’t bring himself to kill Glenn in issue #75, giving the character a reprieve that lasted another twenty-five issues.
- Glenn’s eventual death at Negan’s hands became one of the most impactful and talked-about moments in the franchise’s history, highlighting the importance of Glenn as a character, and proving Kirkman’s decision to postpone his death to be the right one.
One of the most memorable deaths in the history of The Walking Dead was almost completely different, and almost came a lot sooner than it ultimately did. In the 100th issue of The Walking Dead, Negan infamously bashed Glenn’s skull to death with a baseball laced with barbed wire – but in Kirkman’s original plan, Glenn was already long dead by then.
The Walking Dead Deluxe #77 – by Robert Kirkman, Dave McCaig, and Charlie Adlard – reveals that Kirkman had plans in place to kill Glenn off at least twenty-five issues earlier, under very different circumstances. The expanded edition of the issue contains a Q&A letter, where the author details his original plans for Glenn, before he decided to save the beloved character’s death for The Walking Dead #100.
In addition to revealing the original storyline that he had planned for Glenn’s death, Kirkman explained what prevented him from killing Glenn off in Walking Dead #75, despite knowing the character would eventually have to meet his demise.
Original Plans for Glenn’s Death
Glenn’s death is remembered as one of the most tragic in the history of Robert Kirkman’s comic series, as well as the AMC television adaptation. Robert Kirkman admits he hadn’t worked out the details fully yet, but he says in Walking Dead Deluxe #77 that going into Walking Dead #75, he fully intended to kill off Glenn. In fact, Charlie Adlard drew the issue’s cover art with that plan in mind, thinking Glenn would be dead by then, since he had discussed it with Kirkman some issues prior. “It’s possible Pete was going to kill him instead of Regina this issue, and it would have happened two issues earlier,” Kirkman adds.
Yet, though he wasn’t quite sure why, Kirkman couldn’t bring himself to kill Glenn in Walking Dead #75, giving the character a reprieve that would last another twenty-five issues. However, as the anecdote shared by Kirkman explains, Maggie’s storyline following the original plan for Glenn’s death was set to involve a stalker, something depicted on Adlard’s cover for Walking Dead #77. Since the cover had already been completed, and even printed in catalogues advertising the issue, Kirkman opted to add a line of dialogue to the issue, having Gleen say: “I feel like I’m on the outside of this relationship looking in.”
Postponing Glenn’s Death Was The Right Decision
Kirkman admits it wasn’t supposed to be Glenn outside the window, “but it could have been and that line of dialogue kind of made the cover make sense … sort of.” Glenn’s eventual death, as it turned out, remains one of the most horrific and talked about most moments the franchise has offered. Given how impactful that death was, both in pop culture and over the course of the series lore, one can argue that Negan being the one to kill Glenn needed to happen, which puts an emphasis on just how important Glenn is as a character to the Walking Dead franchise.