One of AMC’s best original series to date was the long-standing series, The Walking Dead. Based on a comic book series, the hit AMC show first aired back in 2010, and recently saw its last episode during its 11 season. Over its 12 years, the show has spanned a few spinoff series, including a talk show on the making behind the episodes. The Walking Dead: Dead City is the most recent spinoff that was recently greenlit.
During The Walking Dead’s run, the series had its share of incredible performances by the series’ characters, both good and bad. In fact, it was the devotion to characters that made the series stand out among other zombie-style films and series. The Walking Dead spent as much time developing their antagonists as they did their protagonists. In fact, one of the most infamous characters was Negan, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who often found himself being both a good and bad guy. Unfortunately, Negan’s villainous side outweighed his attempts to redeem himself. In fact, his beloved weapon of choice, a baseball bat named after his late wife, killed a few other fan-favorite characters.
As many know, with a large cast and a long-running series, comes ample opportunity for beloved character deaths. The Walking Dead is no exception to his rule. During the over 175 episodes, many of the cast find themselves perishing at the hands of walkers (zombies) and even fellow humans. Here are just a handful of the most memorable deaths during the series’ run.
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8 Jesus
AMC
Jesus’ death needs to be on this list as it was a mutually agreed upon character death due to the fact that the actor who played Jesus was ready for his character to meet his fate (via Vanity Fair). During season nine’s mid-season finale, fans were shocked to learn that Jesus was one of the main characters who died at the hands of the new villains of the series, The Whisperers. His death was a shock to fans of the comics as his character is not one who dies, even during the recent comics’ run. During a fight in a cemetery, he is killed by the Whisperers when he is stabbed and left for dead.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
7 Alpha
Alpha’s death was one where the writers were able to take super fans by surprise. Fans of the comic knew Alpha would die, most likely during the season finale, but when she was killed off midway through the season, fans were caught off guard. True to her death in the comics, she was beheaded by Negan, who then delivered her head to Carol as she was the one who released him to infiltrate Alpha and the Whisperers.
6 Carl
Carl’s death was impactful as he was a long-standing member of The Walking Dead cast. While his actual death happened off-screen, it was felt by all the remaining characters, none more so than his own father Rick, and stand-in mother, Michonne. In season eight of the series, Carl is out honoring Siddiq’s deceased mother’s views that walkers needed to be killed so that their souls could be freed. While killing walkers for this reason, he is bitten and left for dead himself. Prior to dying by a walker bite, Carl had survived multiple gunshot wounds, causing fans to think that dying by something as simple as a walker bite did not do the character justice (via Den of Geek).
5 Sasha
Sasha’s death in The Walking Dead was memorable due to the fact that she was one of the few who did not die by a walker or by another human. Instead, she chose to end her life by taking a cyanide pill that was given to her by Eugene in a previous episode. She was among those captured by Negan, the long-standing villain in the later part of the series, and when given the opportunity, she chose suicide in the hopes that she could come back as a walker and seek revenge on Negan.
4 Noah
Noah and Beth — see below for the latter — are being held at the Grady Memorial Hospital where Dawn and a group of police officers are holding the pair hostage. Noah is able to escape and meet up with Beth’s old friends. He finds himself at Alexandria with Glenn and a few others including Aiden, who unfortunately plays a big, yet accidental, part in Noah’s death. While trying to escape a warehouse full of walkers, Noah, Glenn, and Nicholas find themselves trapped in a revolving door. With most of the walkers distracted by noise from Eugene, instead of listening to Glenn’s instructions, Nicholas runs off leaving Noah unprotected in the door, where he is literally dragged out by walkers in a gruesome and horrible death.
3 Beth
Beth is one of the cast members who was first introduced in season two of The Walking Dead, when Rick and the group found themselves on a farm. When the Governor attacks the prison in the fourth season, Beth and another fan-favorite character, Daryl, get separated from the rest of the group. The two are hiding out at a funeral home when a group of police officers capture Beth and take her to the Grady Memorial Hospital. During the fifth season, Beth is held hostage and abused by Dawn’s followers. During an exchange for Beth, she is shot in the head by Dawn, which in turn has Daryl shoot her in the head in retaliation.
2 Glenn
Glenn’s death is one that fans of the comics knew was coming, but weren’t sure if it would actually happen in the series. As a fan-favorite character, the Walking Dead writers knew that in order to make his death more surprising, they had to first make it seem like he would survive Negan and his beloved baseball bat, Lucille. In fact, it seemed like Abraham, who does end up dying in the series eventually, would die in place of Glenn in a switch that left many fans upset. By the time the seventh season rolled around, fans wanted to boycott losing Abraham in place of Glenn, but when it was Glenn’s head that was beaten to a pulp by Lucille, fans were teary-eyed to lose a beloved character.
1 Hershel
One of the most harrowing deaths to handle throughout The Walking Dead was when the Governor decapitated Hershel. Though he was not considered the group leader, Hershel was instrumental to helping the group survive. Between his level-headed nature and his training as a doctor and a farmer, he was invaluable to the group. When it seemed everyone was safe from the Governor and his reign of terror, he captures Michonne and Hershel, and commands Rick and the rest of the group to leave the prison. Rick refuses and everyone, including Hershel’s two daughters, watches in shock as the Governor uses Michonne’s sword to hack Hershel’s head off.
