Actors Steven Yeun and Tyler James Williams each played co-leads in two of the most critically lauded TV comedies of 2023 so far — Netflix’s Beef and ABC’s Abbott Elementary, respectively — but let’s not forget they’re also former co-stars who shared the screen in one of the most-watched series of the past decade, The Walking Dead. Super-dated spoiler alert, but both of their characters (Glenn and Noah) were given particularly brutal exits, and they’ll apparently still get approached by fans who weren’t particularly pleased about their TWD fates.
While taking part in THR’s comedy actor roundtable, the aforementioned actors were joined in discussion by Shrinking’s Jason Segel, stand-up comedian John Mulaney (whose special Baby J debuted on Netflix in April), and Mo namesake Mo Amer. When the topic of fan interactions came up, Yeun said that his interactions were largely tied to his Walking Dead tenure until Beef came around, and that fans would try to show solidarity in ways he didn’t always think were genuine. In his words:
For me, it was Glenn [from The Walking Dead] for a long time. It’d be like, ‘I stopped watching when you died,’ which I don’t believe. Like, I finished all the seasons. But now, after Beef came out, they’re like, ‘Are you the guy in Beef?’ And that’s fun.
Glenn's death in The Walking Dead, which took place after the much-derided Glenn-gate dumpster fakeout and followed a finale cliffhanger and full between-season hiatus, was particularly violent and harsh, as it was meant to reflect the comic book's introduction of long-running big bad Negan. Only things skewed a bit too dour, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character leaving a rotten taste in many fans' mouths for the way he bludgeoned both Glenn and Abraham. So it's no mystery why viewers still want to show Steven Yeun love for his work on the show while at the same time bemoaning the way he exited it.
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Hard to know whether or not he's on the mark when it comes to fans who quit watching, though, since Negan's entrance and Glenn's exit was the easily measurable point when The Walking Dead's ratings bonanza started to slide backwards. So there's no denying that a ton of people definitely did stop watching live episodes in the following months/years after that dreaded premiere. But then the zombie drama is also one of the biggest go-to binge series on Netflix, so I'd wager that a lot of those previously lapsed fans caught up on episodes later in life. I'd also wager that the majority of viewers would love to see Glenn return in some form, presumably through an anthology one-off, though I wouldn't turn my nose up at a dream sequence in the Rick & Michonne spinoff.
In a similarly brutal death, if not quite as earth-shattering, Tyler James Williams' well-liked and seemingly normal Noah found himself being completely ripped apart by a batch of walkers while trapped within an unmoving revolving door. Viewers like myself probably have instant recall of Noah's cheeks being ripped off of his face in the moment, such was its nastiness. Even Steven Yeun brought it up when talking about fan outrage over Glenn's massacre.
Williams, whose first big industry break was as the titular lead in the Chris Rock-created comedy Everybody Hates Chris, said that fans will still take a second to share remorse over Noah's gnarly demise. Here's how he put it:
I got Chris for a long time, and will continue to. Usually, it’s just something that’s hollered from 15 feet behind me as they figure it out. I also get The Walking Dead. People are still really upset with how that went. Really upset. They’re happy to see me, and then they’re like, ‘They did you wrong.’ But with Abbott, now is the first time I’m getting ‘Mr.’ in front of anything. I’m getting Mr. Eddie.
For a character that wasn't actually around on The Walking Dead for all that often, Noah made an impact thanks entirely to Tyler James Williams being so memorable that it sucked to have him killed off so quickly. To that end, it's encouraging to hear that he's now experiencing fan encounters tied entirely to Abbott Elementary, since he's already played Mr. Eddie for longer than he played Noah, and has helped the show already win a Golden Globe and earn an Emmy nomination during its first two seasons.
On a similar note, Yeun talked previously about turning down post-Walking Dead roles that he didn't want to be tied to for too long. I'm not the only one who's glad he found a career rhythm that works for him, since everything he's done since has been aces, from Nope to Invincible to Beef and beyond.
