The Walking Dead creator reveals Glenn’s ORIGINAL fate before meeting Negan & that infamous baseball bat. 😱⚾

Did you know Glenn’s story was almost very different? The shocking twist was almost never written that way. What was his original fate?

Life imitates art, right? Well, television certainly imitates the comic books many times in AMC’s The Walking Dead. And even with the departure of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) himself in season nine’s What Comes After, the most shocking moment of the entire series is arguably the death of Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun) in the season seven premiere, The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be. The character’s demise shouldn’t have been a surprise to the faithful readers of writer Robert Kirkman’s source material, and the co-creator of the comics has addressed the fact that the hero’s fate was slated to happen much sooner than it actually did.

Kirkman made the revelation in the Cutting Room Floor feature inside the pages of The Walking Dead Deluxe No. 71 (per ComicBook.com):

“For whatever reason, I’d earmarked Glenn for death by this point [issue No. 71 was originally published on April 28, 2010]. He just seemed like the character most ripe, whose death would lead to the most story… but Glenn would most certainly NOT die next as I would continue to change my mind… again… and again.”

Over five years later, The Walking Dead TV series caught up with the comic book issue in question. Season six, episode three, Thank You, turned out to be the first of several enormous fake outs perpetrated by AMC on unsuspecting fans. The idea was to throw viewers off who suspected Glenn would die on the show as he did in the comic books — at the hands of Negan. So, in what would have been a true twist of fate, Yeun’s version of the character is seemingly eaten alive when he falls into the clutches of a throng of hungry zombies!

But lo and behold, Glenn survives! And several episodes later, the lucky survivor crawls out from under the dumpster he originally fell off of. However, AMC wasn’t through trying to pull a fast one on the fans to throw them off.

Glenn’s Death Mirrors His Comic Book Fate

In yet another attempt to throw The Walking Dead fans off the scent that something deathly might befall Glenn (Steven Yeun) at the hands of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the television series changes the fate of Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) drastically from the source material. In the season six episode Twice as Far, and out of nowhere, Denise (Merritt Wever) gets shot through the eye with an arrow!

It’s the exact same fate Abraham faces in the comic books. But his survival on TV implies that the showrunners might be switching gears to make him the sacrificial lamb for the skull-crushing, baseball-bashing scene intended for Glenn when the Saviors’ leader arrives. And that’s exactly what happens: Abraham is murdered by Negan in the same way Glenn dies in the comics. The fans take a breath and exhale a sigh of relief, as it seems Glenn has been given a reprieve. But then Daryl (Norman Reedus) takes a vengeful swing and punches Negan right in the face. And as retribution, Negan goes back to work and turns his barbwire baseball bat loose on Glenn’s skull, too!

In the comics, though, creator Robert Kirkman was toying around with killing Glenn nearly 40 issues before he even runs head first into Negan’s bat. Kirkman said in an interview with the Daily Dead back in 2012:

“I had actually been planning to kill Glenn in issue No. 75, but felt that I had more to do with the guy. I found myself trying to shoehorn that into the storyline back when I was in the 60s of the run. I plot what’s going to happen in the book, which people are going to die, and how they are going to die, but every now, and then I throw myself a curveball and change my mind.”

In issue No. 100 of The Walking Dead, Glenn finally comes face to face with Negan. And just as he does later in the television series, the leader of the Saviors whacks the young member of Rick Grimes’ group over the head with his baseball bat until Glenn perishes — leaving a bloody purée of smashed brains and bone behind.

The Walking Dead franchise continues with The Walking Dead: Dead City and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, with plenty more to come.