'Walking Dead' Season 6 Spoilers: Showrunner Reveals How Long We'll Wait Before Cliffhanger Is Resolved, Talks Fan Backlash

Now that some time has passed for fans to digest exactly what happened on "The Walking Dead" Sunday night, it’s time for some frank talk about that major Season 6 cliffhanger. At long last, showrunner Scott Gimple is giving fans a bit more information about what will come next on the AMC series.

[SPOILER ALERT: The remainder of this article will discuss episode 3 of “The Walking Dead” Season 6.]

The most talked-about moment from episode 3 had to do with the now infamous scene where it appears that Glenn (Steven Yeun) dies in a pretty hardcore and gruesome way. However, when the character was left out of the “Talking Dead’s” usually thorough “In Memoriam” segment, fans began to sense something was amiss with Glenn’s alleged passing. In short, the working theory surrounding the character’s fate is that his utterly useless partner in crime, Nicholas (Michael Traynor), provided a human meat shield for him when they both toppled off the dumpster into the crowd of walkers.

Unfortunately, it looks like next week’s 90-minute episode won’t pick up where episode 3 left off, opting instead to cover the intricate origin story of Morgan (Lennie James) through flashbacks. As a result, fans may have to wait more than a week to finally figure out if Glenn makes it out of his dire situation a person or a walker. Speaking to TV Line, Gimple only revealed that fans would have their Glenn questions answered before the end of the first half of Season 6, which only narrows the time frame down to five episodes.

With the fate of such a fan-favorite character hanging in the balance, the outlet asked the showrunner if he was worried about any potential fan backlash.

“I definitely want viewers to have an emotional experience either way. There are twists and turns, and bad things happen,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s all part of a bigger story. I hope that the audience will just wait to see the greater story and see how it all plays out. They’re kind of stopping in the middle of the movie, which they have to because there’s a week between the reels. But we’re still in the middle of the movie.”

During the episode of "Talking Dead" that followed the big moment, host Chris Hardwick read an impossibly vague statement from Gimple on the matter, which confirmed that the last image viewers see of Glenn won’t be him screaming as entrails are feasted upon over him.

“Dear fans of 'The Walking Dead,’ this is a hard story to tell and when we were planning to tell we knew our friends at the ‘Talking Dead’ would be talking to you about it and knowing you'd all be talking, and feeling and commiserating, I knew we should say something about it lest our silence say something we didn't mean to say or not say," the statement read (via the Hollywood Reporter). "So I'll say this: In some way, we will see Glenn, some version of Glenn or parts of Glenn again, either in flashback or in the current story to help complete the story."

Unfortunately, fans will have to wait at least a week, possibly more, to figure out exactly what Gimple and the minds behind AMC’s “The Walking Dead” have in store for Glenn and the rest of the survivors at the Alexandria safe haven.

"The Walking Dead" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EST on AMC.