What Negan's Casting Reveals About Glenn On 'TWD'

At this point you should know about the latest major AMC casting news. Earlier this week, The Walking Dead cast Negan, as Deadline reported that Jeffrey Dean Morgan will play the terrifying, murderous villain. Despite Negan's status as a through-and-through bad guy, some fans familiar with the comics the AMC series is based might've found some good in this news: could it mean that Glenn is alive on The Walking Dead ? In the Oct. 25 episode "Thank You," there was a scene in which Glenn might have died, and the show has yet to follow up on it and reveal whether he's actually dead or managed to escape a hoard of zombies. Negan's arrival may suggest the latter is true, because in The Walking Dead comics, he has quite a storyline with Glenn. Spoilers from The Walking Dead comic books below.

Before I explain what goes down between Negan and Glenn in the comics, just know that if this is where The Walking Dead is taking the TV story, your happiness at Glenn surviving will be short-lived. In one of the most devastating scenes in the comics, Negan and his group, the Saviors, ambush Rick's group. They line everyone up so Negan can pick one at random to murder with a giant baseball bat covered in barbed wire. Unfortunately, Glenn is chosen, and while pleading with Negan for his life, is brutally murdered while a pregnant Maggie watches. It’s absolutely horrific.

After "Thank You" aired, many fans felt thrown by the sudden and unjustified potential death of Glenn. How could Walkers kill him after Nicholas shot himself and caused them both to fall into the hoard? It seemed too random after all we’d been through with Glenn. I was furious and couldn't believe that's how his story would end. Now, however, I have different feelings on the matter.

If Glenn is revealed to be alive, we'll be faced with the excitement of having him back, only to become afraid for his life in every single episode Negan appears in. It's not clear when The Walking Dead will finally reveal Glenn's fate, but at this point, there won't be too many episodes between that and Negan's debut (which according to TVLine will likely be in the Season 6 finale). Is it really fair to make fans go from mourning Glenn, to celebrating his return, to watching him suffer an even more brutal death? That's a lot to handle.

Obviously, I don’t want Glenn to be dead, but it seems that no matter what happened in that alley, his time on The Walking Dead is coming to a close. Whether those walkers killed him or Negan is going to once he arrives, we've lost him. It's a lose-lose.

Images: Gene Page/AMC; Giphy