The Walking Dead's Season 7 premiere on Sunday saw Negan kill off the characters Glenn and Abraham. Robert Kirkman, the creator of the comic book series which the TV show is based on, has now come forward to explain why Glenn had to die in the episode.

　　Glenn died in Issue 100 of Kirkman's The Walking Dead comics, "So it was kind of essential that that part of the scene at least remained intact, unfortunately," he told Entertainment Weekly.

　　The twist was that The Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple and Kirkman decided to also kill off Abraham, which fans might not have seen coming.

　　The result is unfortunate for the character Glenn, played by Steven Yeun, and other options were considered, Kirkman said. However, killing him off was the only way to move the story forward in a way that he wanted it to.

　　"At the end of the day, we were like, pulling the thread on this sweater just pulls too many things apart and it's too difficult to get back on that trajectory without that death," he explained.

　　On the subject of character deaths in general for the TV show, Kirkman said it's "not a fun process," but it's necessary sometimes for story purposes.

　　"I just push through it and stay the course, but I do find myself very hesitant to do character deaths on the show," he said. "Especially these days, just because you miss these people and it's just not a fun process. But it's something that we all agree the story needs, and it definitely makes the show better and it makes things heightened and cool. It's tough but we gotta do what we gotta do."

　　Here's how Glenn's death went down in the comics:

　　Gallery

　　17 million people watched The Walking Dead Season 7's premiere, "The Day Will Come When You Won't," to find out who would die. That's a big number, but it's not a record for the show.

　　You can watch the episode right here on AMC's website. For lots more on the episode, check out GameSpot's video recap here. You can also read our feature that covers four major developments from the episode. For a wider look at Season 7, check out our roundup of five things you need to know. Be aware that all of these stories contain spoilers.

　　An eighth season of The Walking Dead is on the way, scheduled to start in late 2017 with the show's 100th episode.