‘Glee’ season 5: Could old Cory Monteith footage become part of the story?

When “Glee” premieres season 5 on September 26, we are going to have an opportunity to see how the producers of the hit Fox series choose to handle what has to be for them one of the most difficult predicaments out there: Telling an audience about the death of a beloved actor and possibly their character, especially when this audience is younger and a little more emotional and impressionable.

So what is the best way to really go about handling this? There are ultimately two very separate schools of thought. One is to pick up the new season with Cory’s Finn Hudson already gone, whether that be via death or other means, and then try to frame the story in this way. However, HollywoodLife reports that the idea has also been discussed to use old footage of the actor to make some new scenes, that way there is an emotional bridge for the audience and the characters so they are not thrown into such a stunning situation.

While at first this idea may seem somewhat crude, it is hardly new to the television industry. Producers of “Dallas” used this for a scene last year involving Larry Hagman, where they used footage from outtakes and used some editing tricks to make it appear that the dialogue happened in the present. We do think that Cory would want what is best for the story, and the report claims that Lea Michele would of course be consulted to make sure that she is comfortable with anything that the show plans to do to commemorate one of their leading men.

“Glee’s” production, as reported yesterday, has been delayed until the start of August in order to accommodate for the grieving process, and to give the writers an opportunity to come up with something new.

Photo: Fox