10 TV shows that dared to kill off their main character
10 TV shows that dared to kill off their main character
Brianna ZiglerTue, June 2, 2026 at 11:27 PM UTC
0
Milo Ventimiglia as Jack Pearson on 'This Is Us'; Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller on 'The Last of Us'; Bryan Cranston as Walter White on 'Breaking Bad'
Credit: Everett(3)
On the best TV shows, no one is safe.
One recent example is HBO's Euphoria. The finale, which aired in May 2026, shocked fans by doing the unthinkable: killing off its lead character.
In season 3's closing stretch, Rue Bennett (Zendaya) succumbs to an accidental fentanyl overdose. This all but heralded the series' conclusion — and creator Sam Levinson later confirmed the news.
Killing main characters can feel like a sin, but Euphoria isn’t the first to capitalize on the shock of such a twist. In fact, the boldness it takes to subvert expectations and shake up an ensemble can breathe new life into an ongoing show or leave fans with a lasting impression.
Below, we're revisiting 10 times a TV show dared to kill off its protagonist.
01 of 10
Game of Thrones
Sean Bean as Ned Stark on 'Game of Thrones'
Credit: Everett
As the first in what would become a long line of gut punches, Ned Stark’s death in season 1 of Game of Thrones threw unsuspecting viewers for a loop.
Ned (Sean Bean) was positioned as the show’s lead in its early stages, so his sudden death hit that much harder. Where could the series possibly go from here? (Curious fans subsequently devoured George R.R. Martin's book series.)
After the untimely death of Ned's friend and ally Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy), Robert’s deranged son Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) becomes next in line for the throne. Ned then discovers that Joffrey and his siblings were not Robert’s biological heirs, but a product of incest between Robert’s wife, Cersei (Lena Headey), and her brother, Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).
Ned wishes to reveal Joffrey’s illegitimacy, but is instead betrayed by Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen), imprisoned by Cersei, and beheaded in a public execution on Joffrey's orders. Ned Stark’s death is now considered one of the most shocking TV scenes of all time.
02 of 10
Big Love
Ginnifer Goodwin as Margene Heffman, Bill Paxton as Bill Henrickson, and Jeanne Tripplehorn as Barbara Henrickson on 'Big Love'
Credit: Everett
Everyone’s favorite show about polygamy, Big Love, concluded its five-season run in 2011 with a major character death. The series, starring Bill Paxton, Chloë Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Ginnifer Goodwin, centered on a modern-day polygamist Mormon sect led by Paxton’s Bill Henrickson, following their lives in a Salt Lake City suburb.
While Entertainment Weekly had predicted Bill would go to prison ahead of the series finale — not because he was necessarily horrible, but because “that’s most likely what would happen in real life" —what we got took things a step further.
In the series finale, Bill is shot and killed by his disturbed neighbor, Carl (Carlos Jacott). Feeling emasculated by Bill’s successful life, which only reminded him of his own personal failings, Carl increasingly unraveled until he reached a breaking point in a dispute over their lawns, ultimately killing Bill.
03 of 10
This Is Us
Milo Ventimiglia as Jack Pearson on 'This Is Us'
Credit: Everett
In the first few seasons of the time-hopping melodrama This Is Us, Milo Ventimiglia’s Jack is positioned as the patriarch of the Pearson family, yet is only shown in flashbacks to the family’s early days.
While the series had spent seasons 1 and 2 overtly hinting at Jack’s death, it didn’t make seeing it any less shocking (or heartbreaking) — especially because fans didn’t yet know how he died.
Well, in episode 14 of season 2, they found out. When a massive fire engulfs the Pearson family home, Jack gets his wife, Rebecca (Mandy Moore), and their three kids to safety. However, he quickly realizes that their dog is still trapped in the home. Jack goes back inside, successfully retrieves the pup, and emerges from the blazing home. Everything’s peachy now, right?
Unfortunately, Jack had inhaled a massive amount of smoke. He later dies of a heart attack in the hospital.
04 of 10
Breaking Bad
Bryan Cranston as Walter White on 'Breaking Bad'
Credit: Everett
Walter White's (Bryan Cranston) descent into corruption, ruthlessness, and moral decay is so steep that it made any kind of redemption for the teacher-turned-drug lord increasingly unlikely. That said, the Breaking Bad series finale offers him a small measure of it.
Having gone into hiding, Walt ultimately manages to make some things right before shuffling off the mortal coil. He secures financial stability for his estranged family and frees his former protege, Jesse (Aaron Paul), who had been kidnapped by Todd (Jesse Plemons) and his gang of white supremacists. In the resulting melee, Walt takes a bullet.
Walt asks Jesse to kill him, but Jesse refuses and tells him to do it himself. Walt then bleeds out as the feds arrive. A slightly better death than succumbing to his cancer, it is still certainly deserved.
In an exclusive interview with EW, series creator Vince Gilligan spoke about the choice to end the series where he and his creative team did. “I guess our gut told us that it would feel satisfying for Walt to at least begin to make amends for his life and for all the sadness and misery wrought upon his family and his friends.”
He continued, “Walt is never going to redeem himself. He's just too far down the road to damnation. But at least he takes a few steps along that path.”
05 of 10
Nashville
Connie Britton as Rayna James on 'Nashville'
Credit: Everett
Hit musical drama Nashville said goodbye to one of the show’s two leading ladies in a tragic season 5 episode.
Advertisement
Since the very beginning, Friday Night Lights alum Connie Britton had played aging country singer Rayna Jaymes, whose time in the spotlight is threatened by up-and-comer Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere).
In season 5, that changed. After surviving an encounter with a stalker, Rayna was involved in a car crash that left her hospitalized. Though she initially seemed to pull through, she later succumbed to her injuries and left her family heartbroken.
Speaking with EW, Britton called her character's death "devastating," adding, “It was very surreal and not easy. There was definitely a big part of me that was not ready to go but there we were. I wanted to make those moments as strong as possible for Rayna.”
06 of 10
Roseanne and The Conners
Roseanne Barr as Roseanne Conner on 'Roseanne'
Credit: Everett
ABC canceled its 2018 reboot of Roseanne after its star, Roseanne Barr, caused controversy with a racist tweet. It was subsequently retooled into The Conners, whichcarried on without its former namesake.
When The Conners premiered, it revealed that Roseanne had died of a opioid overdose offscreen. The episode didn’t treat the death lightly; it featured the family reckoning with Roseanne’s passing and working to understand how it could have occurred.
The series' seventh and final season revisited Roseanne's death a storyline in which the widowed Dan (John Goodman) sues — and receives a measly payout — the pharmaceutical company that was linked to Roseanne’s overdose.
07 of 10
House of Cards
Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood on 'House of Cards'
Credit: Everett
Toward the end of the Netflix political thriller, Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) succeeds her husband Frank (Kevin Spacey) as the leader of the free world. This was a big pivot, as up to this moment the focal point had been Frank himself. (And if you're curious why Spacey left the show, that's a whole story unto itself.)
At the end of season 5, Frank resigned as president amid his many scandals and was thus written off at the start of season 6. Claire announces to the public in the first episode that Frank died of an accidental overdose.
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.
However, the series finale reveals how Frank actually died. In the end, he was poisoned by his right-hand man, Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), who did so because Frank was planning to kill Claire.
08 of 10
The Last of Us
Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller on 'The Last of Us'
Credit: Everett
Killing off one of your lead characters in the second episode of a new season is certainly a bold move, and that’s exactly what The Last of Us did.
Based on the video game series of the same name, The Last of Us stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie, survivors of a cordyceps pandemic, as they navigate a postapocalyptic society.
In the second episode of season 2, titled “Through the Valley,” fans of the show were shocked when Joel was brutally killed by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), a woman seeking revenge for the death of her father at Joel's hands. Fans of the video game series the show is based on, however, were prepared.
For his part, Pascal knew it was going down this way too. “It's not like they said, 'Hey, we kill you at the beginning of season 2,'” he said in an EW cover story. “But it was always an understanding that it would stay true to the source material in a specific way and that the, let's say, practical and exclusive obligation would be for season 1. It was just a matter of how and when.”
09 of 10
Boardwalk Empire
Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson on 'Boardwalk Empire'
Credit: Everett
The HBO crime drama Boardwalk Empire starred Steve Buscemi as corrupt politician Enoch "Nucky" Thompson.
Nucky was far from perfect, and the same goes for the show's vast ensemble of criminals and antiheroes. But Nucky’s most egregious sin comes back to bite him in the series finale, in which he is killed in an act of revenge by Tommy Darmody (Travis Tope).
Tommy Darmody is the son of Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt), Nucky’s former protégé whose life and family were deeply entangled with and ultimately destroyed by Nucky’s actions.
It’s a fitting end to a wretched man, and gives a satisfying conclusion to an underrated show from the prestige TV era.
10 of 10
Charmed — Prue Halliwell
Shannen Doherty as Prue Halliwell on 'Chaarmed'
Credit: Everett
Fittingly, Shannen Doherty ended up directing the episode of Charmedin which her own character was killed off. The WB series starred Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, and Alyssa Milano as a group of powerful witch sisters.
In the season 3 finale, “All Hell Breaks Loose,” Piper (Combs) is gravely injured by a Wiccan fanatic after the sisters’ powers are revealed to the public. While Doherty’s Prue gets Piper to a hospital, Piper dies in her arms, and Prue vows to bring her back.
Prue gets Phoebe (Milano) to make a deal with the Source to reset time so Piper can be saved. However, the Source double-crosses her, and Phoebe is left stuck in the Underworld, unable to warn her sisters of the initial attack.
Prue is left for dead, and Doherty was replaced by Rose McGowan beginning in season 4.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
