Glee creator 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.”

During the moving tribute, which has been published in Entertainment Weekly, Ryan also reflected on his “father-son relationship” with Cory. “Despite his troubles, he always felt deeply rooted—dependable, sweet, someone you return to for comfort,” Murphy said of the Canadian actor.

“For generations of children, future impressionable young people who will watch his indelible character of Finn Hudson, he will always be that quarterback—a person who champions the underdog, fights the bullies, loves for the exact right reasons. Cory will continue to change lives for the better. It is a rare gift to touch the lives of one person, let alone millions.”