Glee cast member Cory Monteith’s death was a big blow for fans, but also for the cast and crew members who spent years and years working together. It’s tough to get over the death of someone, especially when that someone is an individual whose death is tragic and unexpected, and Fox is giving the cast and crew the opportunity to collect themselves before heading into the studio to shoot the new season. This will push back the fall premiere date for the series, but only by one week.
Season 5 of Glee was initially scheduled to hit the network on September 19. To achieve that date, production on the new season was expected to begin this month. However, according to press release, the new season will hit the schedule on Thursday, Sept. 26 at 9 p.m. ET, instead. With the pushback, production will begin on the new season beginning in early August.
Fox is noting that the new schedule is related to Monteith’s death. The 31-year-old actor died of a lethal combination of heroin and alcohol after battling substance addiction numerous times over the course of his life. Monteith checked himself into rehab just this past April, in a move that affected the last two episodes of Glee’s Season 4. His death was untimely and he will certainly be missed on the series.
In the press release, Fox noted the program only has updates related to the scheduling change, right now. However, Monteith’s character on Glee, Finn, was a gifted athlete and singer on the series who graduated a couple of seasons ago. Despite the graduation date, Finn was expected to have a role in Season 5. The good news for the writers is that Finn is one of the cast members on the series who has already graduated and whose plotlines had already been cut back in Season 4. The crew will likely use the time to rework any scenes Finn was supposed to be in and figure out how to explain the absence of the character. Even in times of duress, the show must go on.
In real life, Monteith’s body was cremated in Vancouver on Tuesday, following a private viewing and special ceremony with his family and friends.
On the show, the writers and showrunner Ryan Murphy will have to decide whether it will be best to just explain Finn’s absence or take a darker approach, killing the character off. Whatever the writers decide will surely be tough to work through, and our thoughts go out to the Glee team in the coming weeks.
