Dead Star Walking: Difference between revisions

 

 

* In the [[Marvel Comics]] series ''Exiles'', Magnus was one of the six characters gathered in the first issue as a team of dimension-hoppers who must [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]]. He was also clearly the most powerful of the six. In the second issue he dies, and it eventually became clear this was an inherent gimmick of the series to allow logical cast changes.

* In the first issue of Peter Milligan and Mike Allred's run on the Marvel comic book ''X-Force'', a new X-Force team is introduced with most of the focus put on the sympathetic team leader. Almost all of the team gets brutally killed off in the same issue, including aforementioned leader. This effects [[Anyone Can Die]] for the remainder of the book's run and its follow-up ''X-Statix''.

* [[Christopher Lee]] in ''[[Honeymoon Academy]]''.

* Jennifer Lopez in ''Jersey Girl''; not only does Lopez get second billing in promotional material, but upon first glance she appears to be the title character of the movie. Ten minutes in, she dies during childbirth—and we find out that her ''daughter'' is arguably the title character. After the "Bennifer" craze sprung up, the studio made [[Kevin Smith]] film more scenes so that they could push J-Lo's death to halfway through the film, which would have totally undone the whole point of the story. Fortunately the failure of ''[[Gigli]]'' combined with [[Ben Affleck]] and Lopez ending their relationship let Smith go back to his original idea. It also meant they had to spoil the death in the advertising to make it seem less like ''[[Gigli]]''.

** The third movie does the same with Keri Russell, and ''Ghost Protocol'' does it with Tom Wilkinson and Josh Holloway.

** Estevez isn't even ''credited''.

* [[Morgan Freeman]] gets killed halfway through ''The Sum of All Fears''.

** And ''twice'' in ''[[RED (film)]]''. At the beginning, we think he has been killed, then he pops up again and shortly after performs a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] at around the halfway mark of the film.

* ''[[Alien]]''. Tom Skerritt is top-billed during a period in his career where audiences would naturally assume he was the main character. The Xenomorph (and the scriptwriters) disagreed.

** The cast dies in reverse order of their credit billing. At the time, John Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton and Tom Skerritt were all relatively well-known actors, while Sigourney Weaver was a complete unknown.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': [[Joss Whedon]] wanted to do this for Eric Balfour as Jesse in the first episode, but was denied permission by the network. He ultimately got his wish in Season 6, when after thirty-nine appearances as a guest star Amber Benson was finally promoted to the show's full credits - just in time for her character Tara to be shot dead.

* Elias Koteas's character in ''Conviction'' appeared to be major, but when he was billed as a guest star in the first episode, it made it pretty obvious he was getting killed.

* ''Almost'' happened on ''[[Lost]]''. The original plan was to have a reasonably well known movie actor, such as Michael Keaton, be cast as Jack. All the promotions, released information, cast photos, and interviews would indicate that Keaton (or whoever was cast as Jack) was a permanent part of the show and would be the main character throughout. Then, halfway through the pilot episode, he'd be killed by the monster, thus putting everyone on notice that ''[[Lost]]'' was a show where [[Anyone Can Die]] and where crazy stuff happens all the time. Kate (possibly played by Yunjin Kim) would then become the leader and the show's hero. The network [[Executive Veto|vetoed]] the plan, believing the audience would feel manipulated and resentful. As a result, Matthew Fox was cast as Jack and the character of the pilot (played by Greg Grunberg) was created to die in Jack's place.

* The ''[[General Hospital]]'' spinoff ''Night Shift'' had Pat Crawford Brown as a tapestry-sewing patient for the first 3 episodes, before having a [[Serial Killer]] [http://serialdrama.typepad.com/serial_drama/2007/07/nigh-shift-epis.html#more off her via IV]. Granted, Brown has rarely ever had a regular role on any TV show, but still...

* Parodied on ''[[Police Squad!]]'': in each episode's [[Title Montage]], a different celebrity [[Special Guest]] is killed off ''as they are being introduced''.

* Detective Terry Crowley in ''[[The Shield]]'' seems to be set up as one of the main characters of the series in the pilot episode when he's assigned to the Strike Team as a mole with the intention of exposing their corrupt activities, and gets more than his fair share of screen time in the process... until the final minute of the episode, where Vic Mackey and Shane Vendrell kill him and frame an also-deceased drug dealer as the killer. Crowley's death isn't brushed aside, though, as it haunts the Strike Team for the rest of the series and the character himself appears in flashback episodes.

* Like ''[[Spooks]]'', FX Network's ''[[Series/Thief|Thief]]'' had a 6-episode first season. Like ''[[Spooks]]'', it bumped off a name performer by the 2nd episode: Linda "Terminator 1 and 2" Hamilton as the handler. Unlike ''[[Spooks]]'', Hamilton was just the latest in a rather misogynistic streak. Including the handler, there were three surprising deaths in the first two eps—all women. Unlike ''[[Spooks]]'', ''Thief'' was not renewed beyond its initial 6 ep run.

* In ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', [[Terminator|Robert Patrick]] plays Colonel Sumner in the pilot. He's supposed to be the head of the military unit attached to the Atlantis team, and naturally is killed off before the end of the second episode.

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Characters As Device]]