10 TV Characters Who Died Too Early
7. Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes - Luke Cage
The Luke Cage showrunners clearly didn't know what they had when they hired the brilliant Mahershala Ali to play ruthless comic book villain Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes.
Ali's expertly-calibrated performance walked a fine line between charming and intimidating, and for the first half of the show's inaugural season, seemed to suggest one hell of a showdown between him and super-powered protagonist Cage (Mike Colter) was on the cards.
But for reasons which will forever remain baffling, the decision was instead made to kill Cottonmouth off in just the show's seventh episode, with his own cousin, Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard), beating him to death with a microphone stand.
Sadly Cottonmouth wasn't even transitioned out for the sake of a superior or even basically decent replacement, as surrogate baddie Diamondback (Erik LaRay Harvey) was nothing short of a goofy disaster.
Considering that Ali won two Best Supporting Actor Oscars within three years of Luke Cage's first season airing, though, you can't imagine he's too cut up about Cottonmouth's hasty demise.