‘Glee’ season 5 spoilers: Cory Monteith tribute planned; Lea Michele pushed for return date

For those wondering why in the world “Glee” was returning to air only a week after its original September 19 premiere date, especially when you consider the grieving process that is still going on when it comes to the death of Cory Monteith, we now have an answer courtesy of the show’s creator and executive producer: This is what Lea Michele wanted.

In his first comments since Cory’s death last weekend, Ryan Murphy told TVLine that they had talked about a number of things, but the actor’s real-life girlfriend was really the inspiration for deciding to not push back the start of work much longer than the beginning of August:

“We had several options. We could delay shooting until November, we could delay shooting until January. But, ultimately, what we decided to do for the cast and crew was start shooting with something that we had already written. We had written two Beatles episodes in May and had been working on that tribute for four years. We just decided that it would probably be the best for everybody to get back together and be working and have grief counselors on set for two weeks, which we’re going to do. But, ultimately, we made no decisions without consulting Lea. [Executive producer] Brad Falchuk and I talked to Lea and really asked her what she wanted to do. We laid out every possible option. And she was very adamant that she thought it was best for the cast and crew to get back together sooner [rather] than later so that mortgages could be paid and people could take care of their families. Cory was so beloved that she felt people really needed to be together in this time. So we sort of followed her lead.”

Murphy also explained that the third episode of season 5 is going to be the one that deals with the death of Monteith’s character of Finn, and it will be done this way to provide a little bit of distance, but also because there is no way to really work production around in time. They are still working on ideas for this script, and after this episode is filmed, the show will take a brief production hiatus, just as it will be taking a break following episode 3 this fall for the start of the baseball playoffs that happen every year.

Murphy also said that grief counselors are going to be on set for the first two weeks of production to help the cast and crew transition through this difficult time.

We are going to have more on this story as it breaks, so stay tuned. If you do want to hear more about what “Glee” may plan to do for these first two episodes when it comes to Cory, just be sure to visit the link here.

Photo: Fox