Rick Grimes actor Andrew Lincoln has looked back at Glenn’s death in The Walking Dead, admitting that it may have been a step too far for many viewers of the long-running zombie series. Check it out…

The Walking Dead‘s popularity steadily declined until it concluded with season 11 in 2022. Despite that, spin-offs have followed, including The Ones Who Live starring Andrew Lincoln as the returning Rick Grimes.

The series has only just launched in the UK, explaining why Empire Online recently caught up with the actor to look back at his time as part of The Walking Dead Universe.

Many fans believe The Walking Dead‘s fate was sealed in the season 7 premiere when Negan brutally murdered Steve Yeun’s Glenn. Comic book fans knew it was coming, though it looked like the series had pivoted when the villain instead caved in Abraham’s skull. That was a misdirect, though, making Glenn’s demise still that little bit more.

Looking back at that, Lincoln acknowledged that, “I do still think [Glenn’s death] might have been when we over-egged the omelette. Maybe it was lingering too much.”

As for what it was like filming those scenes, the actor calls it “the most intense nights of shooting I’ve ever been part of,” saying it was strange seeing Jeffrey Dean Morgan, “One of the nicest guys you’re ever going to meet, playing one of the most unpleasant characters.”

“He had to do this extraordinary monologue on his first day at work, and everybody was on their knees and weeping when they weren’t on camera,” Lincoln recalls. “[Morgan] came over and went, ‘Is this normal?’ I went, ‘Yeah, everybody just keeps going.’ It was an extraordinary night.”

While Glenn’s death did drive off a lot of The Walking Dead‘s viewers, Yeun himself has maintained it was the right decision for the character over the years.

“I don’t feel like it was too much. I’ll be honest with you and put a full disclaimer here: I might not be objective, but I truly feel like people didn’t know what to do with Glenn. They liked him, they had no problems with him, and people enjoyed him. But they didn’t acknowledge the connection people had with the character until he was gone.”

“I look at what happened and I think, That wasn’t any more gory than what we’ve done before, per se. No one got their face ripped in half! People got their guts smashed out and their heads caved in. But this one felt gratuitous because one, it kept going, and two, I think they took away someone that I didn’t realize I had made such a connection with until they took him away.”

“I think the cruellest thing is that if Glenn had continued on, knowing how things usually shake out, I could totally foresee a situation where he just slowly, quietly disappears into the background and is kind of remembered but not really,” the actor said. “But in this way, it was like holding up a battered skull to the world to be like, ‘Don’t forget, this Asian person existed in this medium and now he’s f*cking dead.’ Like, he is f*cking dead. That’s super cool! I’m cool with that.”

Did you stick with The Walking Dead until the bitter end or was Glenn’s death a jumping-off point for you as well?