When you star in a TV series as legendary as The Walking Dead, you amass yourself a super devoted fanbase you will keep up with your career - even if you leave the franchise. We have seen this multiple times with TWD fans, who tune in to see their favorite Walking Dead franchise stars appear in other projects. From Andrew Lincoln's recent stint in Coldwater to Jon Bernthal's return as The Punisher in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the TWD Family is tuning in.
The same can be said for Norman Reedus' upcoming Apple TV series Disavowed and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's appearances in Sterling Point and The Boys. And now, one of the biggest stars to graduate from the TWD Universe is returning to the small screen in a brand new project.
Steven Yeun stars in Netflix thriller Animals this month
The Walking Dead's Steven Yeun returns to the small screen in upcoming Netflix thriller Animals. The film premieres on the streaming service on Friday, October 9, and it sees the son of a mayoral candidate kindapped, forcing his parents to turn to crime in a bid to procure the ransom money (as they have spent their funds on the mayoral campaign). It features a star-studded cast, with Ben Affleck leading the charge mayoral candidate Mark Kimball, and Gillian Andreson, Kerry Washington, Luis Gerardo Méndez , Adriana Paz . Ray Fisher , Matt Gerald , Mark Kassen, Christopher Woodley and Yeun all rounding out the cast.
While much of the plot remains a mystery - as is the case with Netflix movies - it appears that Yeun's character, Sam, is a close ally of Affleck's Mark Kimball, appearing alongside him in the trailer on multiple occasions. We won't have too long to go in order to find out as the film is released in just a few days, and with a cast like that we have no doubt that it will be a major success.
Yeun has enjoyed an incredibly successful career over the past decade, earning an Academy Award nomination for his performance in 2020's Minari and winning an Emmy Award in 2023 for his performance in Netflix's Beef. He also voices Mark Grayson, a.k.a. Invincible himself, in Prime Video's critically-acclaimed animated superhero series Invincible.
To the Walking Dead fandom, however, he will always be known as Glenn Rhee - the most upstanding, delightful character in the walker-infested apocalypse. One of Rick Grimes' first allies and a fixture of The Walking Dead for six full seasons, Glenn was an instant fan-favorite whose popularity only grew with each year. From his iconic love story with Maggie Greene to the leadership qualities that he portrayed throughout, Yeun's earnest performance as the character made all of his storylines among the most endearing that the show / franchise has ever tackled. And when he cried, we cried.
Glenn was infamously killed off in the season 7 premiere by Negan, with criticism directed towards the harsh, brutal nature of his demise (Negan used his barbed-wire bat Lucille to crush his head) despite its comic-accuracy, as well as the fact that The Walking Dead faked out a Glenn death in the previous season, convincing fans that he had died at the hands of hungry walkers only to subsequently reveal that he climbed under a dumpster and that the blood on-screen wasn't his.
Fans were heartbroken to see Glenn go - and, again, in such brutal fashion - but Yeun was entirely involved in the decision and pushed for the show to maintain comic-accuracy. Ultimately, the violent Negan introduction divided audiences, with some praising the decision to stick true to the brutality of the comic book but most outraged at the sheer hopelessness of it. It did impact ratings, with season 7 seeing one of the sharpest premiere-to-finale drops in the show's history.
Although Glenn obviously never returned to the show, his legacy continues to be felt. Maggie (Lauren Cohan) is still a fixture of the franchise along with her and Glenn's son Hershel Rhee (Logan Kim) in The Walking Dead: Dead City, where the pair work alongside Negan - who is committed to making up for his heinous actions on the main series - in a bid to bring Manhattan back for the next generation of survivors.
There's no doubt about it that Yeun has carved out a remarkably successful career for himself in a very short amount of time, adding hit after hit to his resume. Although it will be hard to eclipse what he accomplished as Glenn, we can't wait to see him tackle his newest high-profile role in Netflix's Animals - once again showing the world just how talented he is.
Animals arrives on Netflix on Friday, October 9, 2026.
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