Showrunner Scott M. Gimple weighed in on Glenn's fate, the difference in storytelling for the back half of this season, the Negan casting news and more following the midseason finale of "The Walking Dead's" sixth season.

"The second half is very, very different from the first half in tone and the lineup of characters for every episode," Gimple told The Hollywood Reporter. "There is quite a shift in the show in the second half of the season very early on. It's a totally different type of storytelling, in my opinion, that we do. I believe this first half of season was structurally just focusing on certain characters and their internal journey a lot of the time. The externals really take over in the second half of the season... the plot takes over a little harder -- which is different thing than what I've done on the show before."

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Further, when asked about the midseason premiere, he added, "It's quite deadly, sadly."

"There are a lot of direct moments from the comic coming up in the second half and panels that we're bringing to life," he continued. "From very big comic moments and some really tiny comic moments are coming up. Things that are not gigantic and dramatic but just little moments from the comic that all add up to some big moments. The second half is very cumulative. Within that, there is one of the weirdest episodes we've ever done because it's one of the amazingly enough more light-hearted episodes, which was terrifying on my side."

As to Glenn narrowly avoiding death, Gimple explained, "We've had instances of people in a very emotional state -- Tyreese jumping into the middle of a large herd and fighting his way out; a man cut off his own hand and fight his way through a department store full of walkers. These things are part of the world. Glenn had the bad luck of being knocked off that dumpster by Nicholas, ending his own life but [Glenn] had the good luck of Nicholas landing on him. There's a lot of very specific facts about it that I think a lot of people have sort of gotten wrong. But breaking it down shot-for-shot ... I think we're past that point. I don't think this is any sort of new instance that broke the rules of our show at all. I think it's very much in line with everything we've done before. I don't think there's a credibility issue."

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He also shared his disappointment that Negan's casting was announced before the midseason finale during an interview with Deadline, though he acknowledged it's pretty tough to avoid these days. "I would say this: It's an incredible drag that it's come out that we've cast that role. I know that it's really hard for that information not to get out, but I would have loved to have been able to manage expectations there with fans. We make this show pretty far in advance and when they find out about things we've planned in the future, pretty deep into the future, I don't want them just thinking, 'Oh I want to get to that.' In a perfect world they wouldn't even know about that or asking questions about that save for our mention last night, which is fair play."

Based on the Image Comics series of the same name and created by Robert Kirkman, "The Walking Dead" will return Sunday, February 14 at 9 pm EST on AMC.