‘Glee’ Season 5 Will See the Passing of Cory Monteith’s Character With a ‘Lovely Tribute’
Since the death of 'Glee' star Cory Monteith last month, speculation has been rampant about how the show would deal with the departure of Monteith's character, Finn Hudson, from the series. Show creator Ryan Murphy later revealed that yes, Finn would be killed off -- but now further details have emerged about what will happen in the storyline.
Murphy revealed to Deadline that initially, the writer's team planned to write off Finn via accidental drug overdose but eventually decided against the idea -- for taste-related reasons, we hope.
"We have decided that we’re not going to have him pass from that. Basically, what we’re doing in the episode is we are not telling you yet, or maybe not at all, how that character died," Murphy explained. "The idea being, how somebody died is interesting and maybe morbid, but we say very early on in the episode, 'This episode is about a celebration of that character’s life.' That might be weird for some people, but it felt really exploitative to do it any other way."
The show's team has been given the go-ahead by Monteith's girlfriend and co-star Lea Michele, who is helping them to write about the actor's death, and the episode will be a way to allow the cast and crew, as well as the viewer's, to grieve.
It will also be accompanied by some PSAs about drug use.
Said memorial episode will begin filming in a few days. As Murphy revealed, "There’s been tears on set. It’s been hard for a lot of people. But the really difficult thing is coming. We start shooting the memorial episode this week. We’re just now finishing it, and at the end of the week we’ll send it to [the studio] to get their approvals."
"I think it turned out to be a lovely tribute, and it’s a very heartfelt look at how young people grieve. After that, we’re going to take two weeks or three weeks down to get our heads together because it’s been a really hard thing to write."
'Glee' season 5 will air on Fox starting Sept. 26 with two Beatles-themed episodes followed by Monteith's tribute special.