'Glee': Ryan Murphy says Finn won't die from a drug overdose

Finn Hudson won’t die of a drug overdose, Glee creator Ryan Murphy announced Thursday via an interview with Deadline.

Murphy shared that the Glee crew has been hard at work figuring out how to write Finn Hudson out of the show. As was previously reported, Murphy shared that the first two episodes of the Fox dramedy will be a long-in-the-works Beatles tribute that only needed some slight reworking in the wake of this tragedy.

The third episode of the season will be the memorial episode for Cory Monteith/Finn Hudson. “There were a lot of things that we had to decide — how are we going to deal with his death?” Murphy said. “At one point, we were going to have his character die after an accidental drug overdose — that was something we had considered. But we have decided that we’re not going to have him pass from that. Basically, what we’re doing in the episode is we are not telling you yet, or maybe not at all, how that character died. The idea being, how somebody died is interesting and maybe morbid, but we say very early on in the episode, ‘This episode is about a celebration of that character’s life.’ That might be weird for some people, but it felt really exploitative to do it any other way.”

Murphy also shared how the cast was coping. “The cast and crew have had solace in being together,” he said. “… There’s been tears on set. It’s been hard for a lot of people. But the really difficult thing is coming…. I think it turned out to be a lovely tribute, and it’s a very heartfelt look at how young people grieve. After that, we’re going to take two weeks or three weeks down to get our heads together because it’s been a really hard thing to write. We loved Cory and we loved Finn and it feels like a huge loss and a huge heartache not to have either of them around. We’re trying to craft an episode that’s not just about us grieving but about a lot of the young fans grieving.”

Glee‘s fifth season will premiere Thursday, Sept. 26, on Fox.