The Walking Dead star Andrew Lincoln regrets the gory demise of Glenn. It didn’t take long for The Walking Dead to blossom from cult curiosity to a full-blown success story. While the show had to weather high-profile behind the scenes drama in the early years, such as the departure of original showrunner Frank Darabont, fans couldn’t get enough of it. Just like the comic that inspired it, the series soon became infamous for killing off beloved characters in creatively bloody ways.

The Walking Dead was hit with controversy following the season 7 premiere episode “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be,” which resolved the mystery of who new villain Negan murdered with his baseball bat Lucille. The show pulled a shocking twist by having Negan kill two characters, with Abraham and Glenn both being dispatched. The graphic violence of the sequence led to a backlash by fans, who felt the show had gone too far in its attempts to shock viewers.

Related: The Walking Dead's Big Twist (Not Rick) Changes The Show

Andrew Lincoln recently departed The Walking Dead after nine seasons, and in a new interview with The New York Times, he agrees with the sentiment that Glenn’s demise pushed the envelope too far.

I regret the manner in which it happened. We’ve been able to terrify people in film for 100 years without having to show an eyeball. When that happens, it diminishes what we’re trying to make, which in my mind’s eye is a family drama set in hell. It’s not a sort of B-movie gorefest.

Lucille and Glenn final moments

While Lincoln acknowledges gore plays an important role on The Walking Dead, when it comes to the death of a fan favorite character, he feels the scene could have been staged differently.

I don’t discredit that. It’s part of the thrills and spills of the show. But when we’re dealing with losing somebody — and a very brutal, human kind of death — I think it’s just taste. My taste is, I think it would be more disturbing just keeping the camera on Maggie’s face [Glenn’s wife, played by Lauren Cohan]. And maybe that’s why I want to direct, because I want to make what I’ve been filming in my head.

The Walking Dead’s producer Gale Anne Hurd stated that following the response to the episode that some of the violence of the season was toned down. On the other side, the showrunners felt the brutality of the scene was necessary, and the trauma and aftermath of it would play a big role in the season. It’s interesting to get Lincoln’s perspective on the debate over Glenn’s death, and his concept of the scene playing out through Maggie’s reaction arguably could have made for a more effective sequence.

While Lincoln is no longer part of The Walking Dead series, fans were relieved to hear that not only did Rick survive his final episode, but that he’ll be returning for three new TV movies. The storyline is still under wraps, but they’ll involve Rick dealing with a whole new community of survivors.

More: The Walking Dead: Unanswered Questions After Rick's Final Episode

The Walking Dead season 9 airs Sundays on AMC.

Source: The New York Times