Following the tragic death of Cory Monteith, Ryan Murphy is ready to say goodbye to Glee. The co-creator spoke to reporters at the Paley Gala at Fox Studios in L.A. on Wednesday, Oct. 16 about how he plans to end the Fox musical series next year after season six.
After the emotional memorial episode for Monteith and his character Finn Hudson aired last week, Murphy said it's been very difficult to move on with the show. "It's really f–king hard. It's hard. It's hard everyday," he said of Monteith's July 13 passing after overdosing on heroin and alcohol. "It's hard in the writer's room. It's hard on the set. It just feels like . . . it's hard too because we're getting ready to wrap up a series. We're going to do one more year and that's it. So the last scene and the last stories were always very Cory heavy."
Now, Murphy, 47, has to change the direction of Lea Michele's character Rachel Berry, who was Finn's love interest on the show and Monteith's real-life girlfriend off-screen.
"Well, you know, it's very sad. I just said the whole end year of the show, which will be next year, was designed really around Rachel/Cory, Finn story. I mean I always knew that," he explained. "I knew how that would end. I knew what the last shot was — he was in it. I knew what the last line was — she said it to him. So when a tragedy happens you sort of have to pause and figure out what else you want to do, so we're figuring that out now. I have a good idea. I'm going in, in like a week, to tell the studio and the network how after Cory's unfortunate passing we can end the show, which I think is very satisfactory and kind of an end in his honor — which I love."
In the meantime, Murphy says fans can expect the next episode of Glee to be more light-hearted after last week's tribute to Monteith.
"The episode is called 'A Katy or a Gaga' and it's sort of about the kids trying to figure out who they are as artists. So it's fun in that way. I love both those artists [Katy Perry and Lady Gaga]. We've used them for many, many years on the show and they were very gracious to give us their stuff. After the memorial episode, I wanted to do something that was maybe a little more inspirational because that was so hard on the cast. So we did something that's a lot of costumes, a lot of great set pieces."
