Negan’s victim in The Walking Dead season seven premiere says their death was ‘necessary’
Spoilers ahoy for The Walking Dead season seven, episode one
If you haven’t seen the first episode of The Walking Dead season seven then stop. Get off this article.
Everyone else: it’s OK, you’re not alone. Nobody saw that coming. Nobody thought Negan wouldn’t take just take one victim, but two.
Yes, not only did Abraham die in the first episode, but Glenn, poor Glenn, was beaten to death in front of his horrified wife, Maggie, during the season seven premiere.
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Why? Steven Yeun, who plays hero Glenn Rhee on the zombie-fest, recently said in an interview with AMC that the death was a vital moment in his character’s development: “For me, personally, I didn’t want anyone else to take that death and I don’t think anyone intended to give it to anyone else, to be quite honest,” he said.
He also went on to say that filming the scene was more intense than he expected. “I don’t know what it feels like to die, but it was a very unique experience [to film] and a pretty effective moment for me, too. It’s such an iconic moment and I knew it was necessary to happen,” he said.
“After I took some steps back from it, I really started to process what it was, what it meant, and what it means for me in terms of how much I might have been connected to Glenn.”
Yeun also revealed that he knew his character would be killed off from the start of last season, which made filming more problematic as time went on: “It got gnarly near the end because when you mentally cross that threshold and say to yourself, ‘OK I’m done with this particular chapter now,’ to then hold onto it for another full year is pretty rough.”
And he went to answer a question on many fans’ minds: was Daryl to blame for Glenn’s death? Would Glenn have survived if Daryl hadn’t started shouting at Negan? No, says Yeun. It’s not Daryl’s fault: "I think Daryl did what anybody would have done in that moment – which is fight back – and it just happened to be that it came with other ramifications,” he said.
“I suppose Daryl is the type of person that would shoulder that type of blame. That seems like something that could be in his wheelhouse to feel, but I don’t know if he’s supposed to be blamed for that. That doesn’t seem right to me. He’s a good person and I don’t think he likes to live with things like that.”
But we’re sure we’ll find out soon that Daryl doesn't see it that way...
The Walking Dead continues every Sunday in the US and will be shown in the UK on Monday at 9pm on Fox.
