When the late Cory Monteith was taken from the lives of the fans, cast and makers of hit musical television show Glee after his July death, plenty more headlines were devoted to how the character would suddenly be written out than how show creator Ryan Murphy had originally intended for the series to end.

Cory Monteith
Cory Monteith's Death Tore A Hole In The Close-Knit 'Glee' Cast.

Monteith died in a Vancouver hotel room aged 31 after using heroin mixed with alcohol, leaving a deep rift of sorrow within the Glee cast. Monteith's jock-turned-Glee singer Finn Hudson was a key character on the show and his on screen relationship with co-star Lea Michele mirrored real life.

After months of grieving, tributes, special episodes and interviews, Murphy's account of Finn's original destiny has finally been shared with the world, via Entertainment Weekly, after he delivered a eulogy at a private memorial service in July for Cory. "For me, Cory was both the beginning and the ending of Glee...literally," said Murphy, who told how "The first scene of the pilot was Cory's Finn and Matt [Morrison]'s Mr. Schu."

Glee Cast Ryan Murphy
Ryan Murphy [Centre] Has Revealed The Intended Ending For Cory Monteith.

"At the end of his first take, Cory could see I, his director, was a little unsure. He came up to me with a big grin and said, "This is going to be fun." He was terribly right, and terribly wrong," remembered the showrunner. "The ending of Glee is something I have never shared with anyone, but I always knew it. I've always relied on it as a source of comfort, a North Star."

Murphy moved on to reveal the heartache left by Cory's death, which affected him a very personal and deep way. "From the beginning Cory and I had a father-son relationship, which at that time I have to admit I did not want. [...] But Cory - from a broken home, a lost boy - needed a male figure to provide guidance, support, a direction. In retrospect, Cory was kind of my training wheels for becoming the father I am today with my own child," he revealed.

Describing his character as now and forever "frozen in a moment," Murphy lamented "[Cory's] terribly sad and frustrating addiction" and the tragic "loss of potential."

Cory Monteith Lea Michele
Monteith With Lea Michele: His Warm & Loving Character Will Continue To Inspire.

"At the end of season 6, Lea [Michele]'s Rachel was going to have become a big Broadway star, the role she was born to play. Finn was going to have become a teacher, settled down happily in Ohio, at peace with his choice and no longer feeling like a Lima loser. The very last line of dialogue was to be this: Rachel comes back to Ohio, fulfilled and yet not, and walks into Finn's glee club. "What are you doing here?" he would ask. "I'm home," she would reply. Fade out. The end," said Murphy.

On a final and heart-breaking note, Murphy added "For generations of children [...] Cory will continue to change lives for the better. It is a rare gift to touch the lives of one person, let alone millions."