Glenn’s death was arguably the most built-up moment in the history of the series. It all revolved around the introduction of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan, the most notorious villain in the comics. The leader of The Saviors, Negan appeared at the very end of “The Walking Dead” season 6 finale to pick his victim, leading to a major cliffhanger. Audiences saw that Negan was going to kill a member of Rick’s group with his barbed wire-covered bat Lucille, playing a cruel game of “eenie, meanie, minie, mo” to decide. Crucially, we didn’t see who it was and viewers would have to wait months until season 7 premiered to find out what happened.
The season 7 premiere, titled “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be,” aired on October 23, 2016, and revealed who Negan beat to death. Out of a lineup that included Rick Grimes, Michonne Hawthorne, Carl Grimes, Glenn Rhee, Maggie Greene-Rhee, Abraham Ford, Sasha Williams, Rosita Espinosa, Eugene Porter, and Daryl Dixon, Negan first beats Abraham to death in brutal fashion. Unfortunately, that’s not where it ended. Daryl has a rage fit at this horrific act, which results in Negan killing someone else as well. That’s when Glenn met his fate at the wrong end of Lucille.
Rather suddenly, Negan cracks Glenn upside the head with his deadly bat. Fans probably assumed the worst was over, only to have a surprise gut punch thrown their way. Glenn, bloody and dying, looks at Maggie, who is pregnant with his child, and says he’ll find her before Negan finishes the job. Audiences aren’t spared a single gory detail, as everything is shown. Nothing is left up to the imagination. Even by cable TV standards, the deaths are shocking.
To demonstrate just how impactful the death was, Morgan said in 2023 that this scene from “The Walking Dead” changed his life before adding, “I walk down those streets, and the people that are there remind me daily that Glenn was their favorite character.”
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