10 TV Characters Who Died Too Early
2. Shane Walsh - The Walking Dead
While it's fair to say that The Walking Dead's Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal) was also killed off relatively early in the comic books, Jon Bernthal's show-stealing performance left viewers hopeful that he might stick around for a longer haul.
Sadly that wasn't the case, as the second season's penultimate episode saw Shane stabbed to death by Rick (Andrew Lincoln), and his re-animated Walker self shot in the head by Carl (Chandler Riggs).
The Shane/Rick dynamic helped prop the show up considerably during its slog of a second season, but it really felt like far more dramatic mileage could've been mined out of it before pulling the trigger on Shane.
More than anything, Bernthal was such a magnetic presence that it probably would've been worth delaying his death by a season or two - if not deviating from the source material entirely.
Things naturally worked out for Bernthal, of course, with his movie career enjoying a nice uptick after departing The Walking Dead, before being quite perfectly cast as The Punisher for Netflix.