Glenn Rhee had a rough go of it last season on The Walking Dead, but could things be a bit different for the former pizza delivery boy when season 6 premieres on Oct. 11? For one thing, Glenn and Maggie are as solid as ever. For another, it appeared that perhaps he and Nicholas — who were both on the verge of killing each other in the finale — had finally come to a friendly truce when things wrapped up at the end of the season.
But appearances can be deceiving. Steven Yeun tells us not to read too much into Glenn and Nicholas possibly now being allies. He does, however, say that all is well when it comes to the farmer’s daughter. Read on for more from Yeun on what to expect in season 6.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So is there any sort of theme or overriding vibe to this first batch of episodes in season 6?
STEVEN YEUN: I think it’s like a continuation of what we saw in the last half of last year. We’re dealing with a group of people who are not completely understanding of what the world is like outside of those walls and it’s a struggle to see our faction deal with their faction in that way, which is: Do we teach them? Do we take the time out to do that? Rick was struggling last year with: Do we even bother? Do we just take this place over and just keep it for ourselves? We find all these people are on the opposite end of the spectrum and it’s definitely going to be action packed for sure.
Clearly all is not well and there are still factions or people trying to figure out what is the proper way to live and survive in this community.
Right. The thing that’s cool is this town is deeper than we had seen prior. There are people that we as an audience haven’t seen. There are people who exist in this particular town who haven’t been privy to Rick and his gang and their outlook on how to deal with everything. There will be a little clashing of minds because perspectives are different. You look at us and you get Rick’s crew, and you realize that these guys have been out there for so long and they’ve navigated such treacherous situations and they’ve come out on top, whereas this other group has just been shielded the whole time. So that little talk that Glenn did to Nicholas at the van after the outcome of Noah dying is very poignant in that sense, which is: You don’t deserve to live. You don’t deserve to be here. You’re just lucky that you were inside these walls.
And how does Glenn fit into this impending battle for Alexandria?
He’s finding a reason to fight for this place, and that’s to have a life, to bring some semblance of life back. We oftentimes overlook the fact that he didn’t get to see his actual family and how much that might have affected him, whether he holds guilt, whether he holds some sort of anger towards that situation, whether he feels like there’s a little bit of hope that he might see them again. Who knows? I mean there’s always that aspect, so I feel like at this point, he’s trying to make do with what he has. He’s fighting for what he has physically in his hands.
And also, what he has is obviously his relationship with Maggie. How are things with those two?
I think it’s stronger than ever. It’s more solidified than ever before. It’s so solidified that the two of them understand — they understand that it’s not Glenn that’s trying to make this place work for Maggie. It’s that both of them are trying to make this place work for each other, and you look at that situation and you realize that Glenn has to do these things. He has to go out there. And she is bringing her leadership so that it’s ready for all of us to be there. So he’s doing the work on the outside and she’s doing the work on the inside. It’s kind of an equal, symbiotic situation.
We talked briefly about Nicholas, and you all had that scene when you guys almost kill each other, but yet you then help each other back. And that could go either way still once they actually get back. Has Glenn finally gotten through to this guy and maybe turned Nicholas into an ally of sorts?
I think that was a very complex situation. It was a lot of layers. I don’t know if it was as altruistic as everybody thinks it was. I think obviously, you know, to spare someone’s life regardless of whether they shot me or not is truly awesome. But for Glenn, it was that he looked into the face of a version of himself. He looked into the face of what he could have been if he was cooped up behind that wall for so long. Yeah, you can blame them, but it’s also maybe not completely their fault.
That doesn’t mean that Glenn sees Nicholas as like, ‘Oh, cool. We’re buds now.’ That’s definitely not the case, but rather it’s more along the lines of how does he operate with Nicholas? Because when he was about to pull that trigger, he saw Nicholas receded. He said, ‘I don’t deserve to live. I don’t deserve to be here. I’m a coward.’ I think for Glenn that moment really solidified for him that it’s not necessarily about sparing his life, because he is a coward, but more along the lines of: Is Glenn that type of person? Is that what he is now where he can just take someone out?
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