Ryan Murphy Says Will Schue Schuester Was Written For Justin Timberlake And That He Was A Meth Addict

Mr Schuester From ‘Glee’ Was Originally Written For Justin Timberlake

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Ryan Murphy, the creator of Glee, has just spilled a bunch of tea on the character of Will Schuester, and the revelations will probably make you second guess your love for the hit ’00s musical show.

Murphy was the first guest to appear on the And That’s What You REALLY Missed podcast, which is hosted by Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz, who played Artie Abrams and Tina Cohen-Chang on Glee. 

The And That’s What You REALLY Missed podcast follows the two Glee alumni as they look back at their time on the show, with a variety of guests including cast members, crew, and celebrities.

The mini-reunion between Ryan, Kevin and Jenna led to a massive spill spesh, where Ryan shared a bunch of secrets from behind-the-scenes of Glee. 

 

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Ryan revealed that the character of Mr Schuester was written with Justin Timberlake in mind, telling Kevin and Jenna, “When we were writing the pilot, I’ve never really talked about this: that pilot was written for Justin Timberlake. Mr Schue was written for Justin.”

And honestly, we can totally see that. From how Mr Schue dances, to his songs — it would fit Timberlake very well. I also felt that Mr Schue kinda dressed like the pop star too.

Earlier in the podcast, Ryan got rather dark about the character of Will Schuester, diving into what was supposed to be his origin story.

According to the original script, written by Glee co-creator Ian Brennan, Mr Schue was a crystal meth addict. “In Ian’s original script, it was a very dark comedy…Mr Schue, I believe, was a crystal meth addict in Ian’s script.”

Kevin butted in saying, “wasn’t he [Will Schuester] also touching the children?” which Ryan confirmed, recalling that the OG script was “very dark.”

But as we know, Glee was ultimately a lighter show than what Ian had originally written. Murphy said that after his projects like Nip/Tuck, a drama-fuelled thriller, he wanted to produce a show that was more “poppy” and that had “blue sky” vibes.

With these revelations, especially with Mr Schue originally having predatory vibes, some parts of Glee will never be the same. Especially that episode where Rachel Berry developed a crush on Mr Schuester… BIG ICK.

In case you needed a quick refresher on what Mr Will Schuester came to be: Mr Schue, portrayed by Matthew Morrison, was an ambitious, musically talented Spanish teacher at William Mckinley High. He’s also in charge of the school’s Glee Club and later on became the principal of the school.

He did have a lot of his own personal drama throughout the show, such as his wife lying about a pregnancy, and his ongoing beef with cheer coach, Sue Sylvester.

Although he seemed to be the good guy of Glee, with the show’s recent resurgence online, a lot of people believe that in hindsight, he was super problematic.

The podcast will be releasing a second part with Ryan Murphy, and we can’t wait for more Glee tea.