Glee Season 5 SPOILERS: Ryan Murphy Reveals Promo Photo for Special Cory Monteith Tribute Episode [PHOTO]

"Glee" executive producer Ryan Murphy has released the first promotional photo for the Season 5 special tribute episode to Cory Monteith, who played Finn on the show before he passed away earlier this year.

Murphy posted the following photo on his Twitter with the caption "The hardest word to say is goodbye":

Glee co-star Kevin McHale, who plays Artie, told the following to TVLine about the episode, which focuses on Finn's sudden death:

"There are so many incredibly well written and powerful scenes. When [the cast] got the script, we were all reading it together and we were like, 'Did you get to that one scene.' And when you see it everyone will know what that one scene is."

As MStars previously reported, the show will pay tribute to Monteith and his character, Finn, on Oct. 11 and TVLine reports that Rachel (played by Monteith's real-life girlfriend Lea Michele), will not appear in the episode until the "final gut-wrenching act."

McHale tells the site that the episode will be an exploration of "grief on every level" and that "you're going to see us dealing with his death in different ways."

But McKinley High School will soon continue its regular operations with some new blood in Season 5. Demi Lovato, for starters, will guest star as Santana's girlfriend in New York City.

The show will also feature some new character pairings, including Artie and Kitty.

"At the end of last season, Kitty was kind of helping Artie get into college and dealing with his mom and all that," McHale said. "When we were shooting that, I kind of felt like something was going to happen there."

TVLine also reports that Katy Perry's newest hit single, "Roar," will be the focus of a fall episode.