March marked 10 years since Glee ended, but if Ryan Murphy had any say in it, the show would have ended even sooner.
The beloved Fox musical comedy ran for six seasons, from 2009 to 2015.
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Murphy, who created the series with frequent collaborators Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, revealed on the podcast And That’s What You REALLY Missed, hosted by Glee alums Jenna Ushkowitz and Kevin McHale, what he truly thought of the series continuing following Cory Monteith’s passing. Montieth portrayed Finn Hudson starting with the very first episode, but he died of a drug overdose at age 31 in July 2013.
Storylines had to be written, including the ending, and the show filmed a tribute episode only a month after his passing. Murphy admitted that if it were up to him, the show would have “stopped for a very long time and probably not come back.” He continued via PEOPLE, “It’s an episode I was able to watch once. And I never looked at it again.”
The cast was given the choice to appear in the episode, titled “The Quarterback,” but Ushkowitz and McHale revealed they “felt pressured” to say no. “It just felt like an impossible corner we were all put in,” Ushkowitz said. “There’s no right or wrong.”
McHale recalled how there were grief counselors on-set while filming the episode, but it was still difficult to get through. “We’re in a scene talking about a character. Obviously, we’re talking about our real friend,” he said. “Then there’s a camera on you. When those things happen, you don’t know when you’re going to lose it and not lose it and break down.”
Cory Monteith died ahead of Season 5, and the show ran through Season 6. Glee continued to pay tribute to him and his character throughout the remainder of its run, but it’s hard to tell what could have happened had Murphy chosen to end the series after he died. It does seem like Murphy would have just not done anything for a fifth season and just ended it with the Season 4 finale. But if anything, fans were able to get a beautiful tribute out of it, even if it was hard for the cast and crew to film. Fans can watch all six seasons of Glee on Disney+.