Spoilers for the first episode of “The Walking Dead” season 7 below!
Korean American actor Steven Yeun’s exit from AMC’s “The Walking Dead” during the premiere of its seventh season Sunday ended up being true to the show’s source material – and somehow even more gruesome.
After season six’s cliffhanger ending, we finally found out who villain Negan bludgeons to a pulp with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire he named “Lucille” – and it wasn’t Glenn Rhee, Yeun’s beloved character. Well, not at first, at least.
Negan first brutalizes Abraham, a macho military man whose final words were hilarious and probably too vulgar to mention here. After another character tries to attack him, Negan then turns the bat onto Glenn as punishment, striking him twice in the head and causing grisly injuries. After allowing him a few seconds to utter last words to the rest of his group, including his love interest Maggie, Negan then bashes him to bits.
At least Glenn didn’t have to turn into a zombie.
Glenn’s injuries included a bulging, red left eyeball and a 10-inch gash running from his forehead to the back of his head, both of which were made possible by episode director and special effects makeup master Greg Nicotero.
Nicotero posted the entire makeup process on his Instagram account, showing what Glenn’s injuries looked like up close without blood everywhere:
Blood added. Greatest make up fx team around!
A photo posted by Greg Nicotero (@gnicotero) on
Yeun spoke to GQ.com about his exit, and said that “what was happening [in the show] sucked. It was also beautiful, because there’s an excitement in being able to throw all of his energy at each other, and feel the collective energy on set.”
Yeun, who has been a series regular since season one, told GQ that he feels relieved about his character dying because of the anticipation leading up to his death. “I feel relieved,” he said. “We’ve known for so long, and in this day and age – with how social media works, and how people get information in an instant – it’s harder to keep secrets. That was eating away at me more than anything.”
“It wasn’t hard to let go of the character,” he said. “I’m saying that now, but I might be crying tomorrow.”
