Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes and Negan after killing Glenn in The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead’s brutality peaked with one of the most infamous deaths in modern TV – even Andrew Lincoln thinks it may have gone a little too far.

Some of The Walking Dead’s most traumatic moments don’t include any zombies. Lori bleeding to death after giving birth to Judith, Carol telling Lizzie to “look at the flowers”, and Hershel being beheaded by The Governor, to name a few.

However, one moment occupies its own league of notoriety, leading to a downturn in ratings that wouldn’t start to recover until Season 9. That’s right, it’s when Negan killed Glenn.

After his fake-out death in Season 6, fans presumed (and hoped) the TV show wouldn’t adapt his demise in the comics. As the Season 7 premiere kicked off, with Negan taunting Rick and co. and murdering Abraham with Lucille, his barbed-wire baseball bat, it seemed like he’d be spared.

And then he wasn’t. Negan spun round, slammed Glenn on the head like a whack-a-mole, and bashed his skull in. Naturally, fans were horrified – but their reaction ran deeper than grief over a beloved character, resulting in many people quitting the series.

Speaking to Empire, Lincoln (who plays Rick Grimes) said: “I do still think [Glenn’s death] might have been when we over-egged the omelette… maybe it was lingering too much.”

In an earlier interview with Insider, Negan’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan also admitted he wouldn’t have killed Glenn if he had a choice. “That was probably a bad decision,” he said.

One fan compared Glenn’s death to how House of the Dragon approached Blood and Cheese, a shocking event in the story that wasn’t quite as nasty in the series – but The Walking Dead went all the way, and suffered for it.

“This is why House Of Dragon did not show Blood and Cheese. Sometimes brutal things shown or mentioned in comics or books don’t work in live action. They bled all of their audience from this point after breaking so many records,” they argued.

If you want to know more about The Ones Who Live Season 2, what caused The Walking Dead virus, or all of the The Walking Dead spinoffs, we’ve got you covered.