Before Negan was ever mentioned on The Walking Dead, we knew he was a character we’d dread, because he kills our beloved Glenn Rhee in Robert Kirkman’s comics of the same name. We’ve long assumed the TV show would follow suit, but now TWD showrunner Scott Gimple has us second-guessing that theory.
Scott, who has been TWD’s longest lasting showrunner to date, loves to remix RK’s comics when bringing certain storylines to the small screen, and it sounds like Glenn’s death might be one of those remixed events.
When TVLine asked whether viewers should be worried about Negan killing Glenn, Scott laughed and said, “It’d be disingenuous of me to say, from a viewer’s point of view, that I wouldn’t be afraid. But what am I holding out hope for? That it isn’t going to be like that? And, man, if it isn’t going to be like that, then what is going to happen? I doubt it’s going to involve flowers.”
“The fact that he’s coming is not going to mean great stuff for Rick’s group,” he added.
Six years in now, the audience is so smart that the obvious thing isn’t the obvious thing anymore. If you do it exactly like the comics, people might not be expecting that because we [have a tendency to] mix things up. It’s this completely psychological game… as far as the storytelling goes. You just try to tell the best story possible.”
In other words, people who know what happens in the comics might be expecting a remix, but if people are expecting things to play out differently on TV, the Powers That Be might go the other way. Mind games!