‘Glee’ Prepares To Shoot Season Five With Tribute To Cory Monteith, Likely Won’t Go Past Season Six

The fifth season of Glee will begin shooting on August 5, just weeks after the planned late-July starting time, as the crew moves past the shocking death of Cory Monteith and plans its next steps.

Glee star Lea Michele tweeted Thursday afternoon that she was getting ready, starting with wardrobe fittings for her character.

Monteith, who dated Michele off-screen, was one of the lead actors in the show, playing Finn Hudson. Finn was the on/off boyfriend of Michele’s Rachel Berry. Finn will be written out of the show in the third episode, which will be followed by a long hiatus as writers figure out the rest of the season’s storyline – it was rumored that Monteith was going to have a bigger role in the fifth season than he did in the fourth. Many have speculated that Finn would die on the show — but those rumors have not been confirmed.

The third episode will also be a tribute to Monteith that deals directly with his passing. Show creator Ryan Murphy has said that Michele has been integral to getting Glee back on track following the tragedy. “She's really been the leader in this situation, which is very unfair in a weird way because this show has always been so complicated about characters merging into personal lives, merging into public identity, so it's just all f–king rough. It's just rough and it sucks and there's no right way to do it,” Murphy said.

A few anti-drug PSAs are also being planned. “Ryan [Murphy] will shoot some PSA's with the cast, who will speak directly to the audience,” said Kevin Reilly, FOX’s Entertainment Chairman. The PSAs will reportedly air throughout the episode.

In the PSAs, Murphy and the cast will discuss the shortsightedness of assuming that all drug addicts look and act a certain way. “When you see some people struggle with addiction, they are easily put in a category. ‘He was dark, she was always a partier,’” Reilly said. “Cory was big open life force. He was not a problem, he looked straight as an arrow. He was open about his addiction in the past, just not as open about it in the present. Everybody was shocked, but this was an accident."

Reilly also said that he doesn’t anticipate Glee going beyond its already-confirmed sixth season. “Never say never, but there’s two very clear [story] arcs to get to that end and conclude,” Reilly said. “If we discover a new crop of kids and there’s some breakout we like … [but] right now, we’re thinking two seasons.”

Glee will return on Thursday, September 26 at 9:00 p.m. on FOX.

—Ava Butler