'The Walking Dead's' Steven Yeun Talks Love in the Zombie World

Gene Page/AMC

"The Walking Dead's" Steven Yeun

The Walking Dead's Glenn (Steven Yeun) may be changing his scavenger ways now that he has more to lose after Maggie took the couple's relationship to the next level.

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During the AMC zombie drama's midseason premiere, Hershel's daughter professed her love for the group's go-to guy for dangerous supply runs into a walker-laden town, prompting him to make some tough decisions about his priorities and place among the group.

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"He hasn't experienced a lot of these things before and he's getting a crash course," Yeun tells The Hollywood Reporter. "That word was probably something that could have been said earlier but now he has to face it -- and all the decisions he's been putting off. For him, her saying that has really made that decision that he has to make come to the forefront and be like, you've got to choose now."

Among them, telling Rick (Andrew Lincoln) that he'll no longer be the de-facto risk-taker of the group who is often tasked with the worst-of-the-worst gigs, like venturing into a well with a bloated and disgusting zombie.

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After being beaten up and kidnapped during the first season, Glenn's recent run-in with Dave and Tony highlighted a new threat for the survivors as they realize that not all the other groups of the living are as nice as people like Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn), Carol (Melissa McBride) and Andrea (Laurie Holden).

Yeun says Glenn's experience in the bar will serve as a reminder for him that enforces the feelings expressed for Maggie (Lauren Cohan) when he revealed that his top priority is now protecting her.

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"That was said between them but now it has to be said in action among everyone else," he says. "It has to be in the open to everyone. You can say anything you want in the comfort of a one-on-one conversation but to really put that out there to everyone is a whole other thing."

"Glenn is definitely growing up and not just taking cues from others," Yeun says. "[There's] definitely going to be more of a growth in him being able to know when someone that he looks up to might not exactly be doing the right thing."

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC. Come back to THR's The Live Feed after the episode for our weekly Dissection.

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