Cory Monteith death: Glee creator Ryan Murphy plans episode in tribute to the actor who died last week

The episode will be "upbeat" to avoid re-creating the cast's feelings of grief - and Monteith's character Finn Hudson will not be re-cast

Glee creator Ryan Murphy has said there are plans to do a memorial episode in tribute to cast member Cory Monteith who died last weekend.

Murphy said the current plan is to pay tribute to Monteith during the third episode of the show’s forthcoming fifth series, and has confirmed that Monteith’s character Finn Hudson will not be re-cast.

He said: “The right thing to do for the show, at least at this point, is to have that character pass."

“When we do the tribute episode to that character, we’ll have to do it in a way where the cast members will not have to re-create feelings of grief that they’ve had this week- but do it in an upbeat way

“If we can do this responsibly and help young people through these feelings, that’s the best we can hope for,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.

Murphy said he was initially unsure whether to cancel the show after Monteith’s sudden death last weekend. The actor, 31, died of a heroin and alcohol overdose in his hotel room in Vancouver on Saturday 13 July.

Murphy said he thought it might be better to film the forthcoming series in January 2014, rather than this September, but decided it would be best to get the Glee cast together again.

“Ultimately, we decided the best thing for everyone is to get back to work and be around people who knew him and loved him so that everyone can grieve together,” he said.

He added the decision to continue filming Glee was made by Monteith’s girlfriend and fellow cast member Lea Michele, who is to be consulted on the memorial episode.

He told E! News: “If Lea had said to me, ‘I could never do this again and I don’t want to do this again’…I would’ve, out of respect to her as a person, said OK.

“But that's not how Lea operates; that's not how she feels. That was never on the table for her. Nothing has been done and will be done in terms of any of the material without Lea blessing it and making sure it's OK with her.”

A memorial for the Glee cast and crew will take place later this week.