Throughout its 11-season run, The Walking Dead killed off a lot of characters. Chuck in all of the spinoffs and you can probably double a number that is already ridiculously high. Hey, this franchise is ruthless. But it was never more ruthless than it was at its peak, with the season 7 premiere being a shockingly violent episode in which new villain Negan (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) brutally killed Abraham and Glenn right in front of their loved ones.
It was a hideous scene that ended up leaving fans angry more than anything else, particularly because of how it discarded Glenn just after the show had made us believe the character died a few episodes earlier. A fakeout death setting the stage for his real death - one that was actually comic-accurate - proved to be a controversial decision all around. And fans began tuning out after that, resulting in the same season that premiered with 17 million viewers concluding with 11 million.
However, oddly enough that scene provided the TWD Universe with a storyline so powerful that, even now (long after the end of the original series), it is still being told. And that is very ironic... despite its issues.
Glenn's death paved the way for Dead City's existence
Although The Walking Dead ended in 2022, the franchise has lived on via multiple spinoffs. The first of them came in the form of The Walking Dead: Dead City, which stars Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan - both of whom reprise their TWD roles as Maggie Rhee and Negan.
Despite being the first of them, Dead City is actually set in the franchise's future - 2029 to be exact, which places it six years ahead of Daryl Dixon and The Ones Who Live, meaning that the events of it are the most current stories that the TWD Universe is telling. As a result, the long-standing rivalry between Maggie and Negan remains very much intact almost two decades later, with Maggie obviously never forgiving the former villain for killing Glenn all those years ago.
That's pretty incredible continuity when you think about it. Granted, even though Glenn's death takes place around 2012 in the TWD timeline and Dead City takes place in 2029, the former aired in 2017 while the latter premiered in 2023, meaning that they weren't produced too far apart from each other. And yet, you feel the weight of that history between the two adversaries whenever they are on-screen together in Dead City.
See, Dead City centers on Maggie and Negan venturing into Manhattan to save Hershel Rhee: Maggie and Glenn's son. Yes, the same son she was pregnant with when she was forced to watch Negan kill her husband. And even though Negan has tried to redeem himself over the years, he and Maggie don't get along, which makes her all the more motivated to ensure that he helps rescue her son.
Negan will never forgive himself for what he did to Glenn but that history will always be there. It's what drives Dead City forward. Negan began to bond with Hershel in the final season of The Walking Dead, which makes the guilt he feels over what he did all the more prominent. Although Maggie is no longer trying to kill him, she still finds herself disgusted by him - in spite of the good he has done since.
Years after Glenn's death, the impact of it is still felt. Maggie is still broken, which has led her to make mistakes in bringing Hershel up. Hershel himself is also broken, knowing how loved his father was and resenting the fact that he never got to meet him, which has turned him into a wayward soul, lashing out and making some very bad decisions. And Negan, for the rest of his life, continues to be racked with guilt over his unforgivable actions.
So, there really is an irony in all of this. Glenn's death was the turning point that, in many ways, led to the slow death of The Walking Dead itself. And yet, it has fuelled the storyline that has taken the franchise the furthest into its future. All these years later, Glenn's death still carries weight in the TWD Universe.
TWD still lost more than it gained with that decision
On paper, The Walking Dead franchise has justified its decision to kill off Glenn as it has provided the creative team with plenty of opportunities for complex aftermath involving multiple main characters. The fact that we're still talking about it in 2026 - and about its role in an ongoing, current Walking Dead show - is a testament to that. And yet, all the aftermath in the world will never be able to fully justify it.
Glenn's death was obviously unwarranted for such a beloved character. Yes, it remained true to the comics and delivered scenes and moments that were identical to the panels of the source material. But AMC's The Walking Dead also made a name for itself by telling its own stories and deviating from the comics. Why wouldn't Glenn's death have been one of those moments? After all, someone as kind and sweet as him didn't deserve that - zombie apocalypse show or not.
But the moment was doomed to fail for taking place too close to "dumpster gate". You know, the moment when the show deceptively made it appear that Glenn had been torn to shreds by walkers only to reveal a few episodes later that he had actually crawled under a dumpster to safety and that the flesh-eating monsters began eating Nicholas' body. Not only had fans predicted that twist, the revelation squandered good will from the audience who went along with it anyway. Rewarding them with the reveal that Glenn had survived only to kill him off mere episodes after that was a pretty poor move all things considered. And if we're being honest, the show suffered without him - particularly in the eighth season.
There's also the fact that the continuation of the Maggie / Negan animosity for their own spinoff has been a divisive choice among fans. Although the pair will never be friends, the series finale of the mothership series did get them to a point where Maggie would no longer try to kill the man who took her husband from her, acknowledging his improvement while being upfront about the fact that she would likely never be able to forgive him.
Although it broke Negan to hear that, he accepted it and they went their separate ways. Reuniting them in the first season of Dead City to reignite the feud and have Maggie doubt him all over again felt like a retread to a lot of fans.
While Dead City continues to be one of the most enjoyable additions to the TWD Universe, many consider it the weakest of the three new spinoffs launched after the original show's conclusion, and it all stems from the franchise's refusal to let go of that storyline. And although it is hard to argue with that, it continues to provide the franchise with some incredible moments and powerful performances from Cohan, Morgan, and Logan Kim (who plays Hershel).
All these years later, for better or worse, the infamous legacy of Glenn's death has provided the TWD Universe with a gateway into its future. And, with a third season on the way, it may continue to do so for some time to come.