10 Actors Who Asked To Be Killed Off In Movies & TV Shows

Finding work as an actor is a lot like digging for diamonds. Once in a blue moon, you'll strike lucky and latch onto a big one, but for the most part, you stand more chance of passing a kidney stone. Consequently, one would think that as soon as an actor secures a major role in a film franchise or TV show, they would hang on until their fingertips bleed. Not always. A few notable stars actually wanted out of popular shows and movies, begging the writers to send them off to the fictional morgue.

Think of Jeremy Renner for a second, and what's the first role that you associate him with? Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, of course. Surprisingly, Renner begged Marvel to kill Hawkeye in 2012's "The Avengers." Harrison Ford is another noteworthy example of an actor who would have preferred to see their on-screen character perish sooner rather than later. Before Han Solo died at the hands of his son, Kylo Ren, and had the audience howling along with Chewbacca in pure agony in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Ford didn't even want to survive the original trilogy.

Even though fans love actors in certain roles, that doesn't mean the performer sees a part the same way. So, let's check out the 10 actors who asked to be killed off in movies and TV shows and their reasons for wanting such a cruel conclusion to their character arcs.

When you think of "Game of Thrones" characters that deserved better endings, Sansa Stark didn't do too badly for herself by becoming Queen of the North in the series finale. The character went through the emotional meatgrinder on the show, enduring unimaginable pain and sickening cruelty from the likes of Joffrey Baratheon and Ramsay Bolton, so at least there was some semblance of a happy ending for her here. For actor Sophie Turner, though, she hoped Sansa's fate would have turned out differently, so that she, too, could join an illustrious club alongside many of her castmates.

In March 2016, before the "Game of Thrones" season 6 premiere, Turner told the Wall Street Journal Cafe that she wanted Sansa to meet her maker much like other popular characters in the series. "I don't want to survive," she said. "If you're on 'Game of Thrones' and you don't have a cool death scene, then what's the point?"

It wasn't the only time that Turner spoke about praying to see the grim reaper come knocking for Sansa's soul. In August 2016, the actor joked to Variety about how she would have liked to see her character's death be a slow burn event that would take place over an entire episode and perhaps be the series finale. It wasn't meant to be, though, as Sansa was one of the few Stark family members to survive the bloody events of "Game of Thrones."

While Hawkeye might not have the super abilities of Hulk and Thor, nor the fanfare of Captain America and Iron Man, Clint Barton established himself as an important part of the Avengers team. In fact, it's impossible to think of Earth's Mightiest Heroes succeeding in undoing Thanos' diabolical snap that wiped away half of humanity without the help of Hawkeye and his lethal MCU record. All that being said, Jeremy Renner wasn't feeling the character in "The Avengers," and he was ready for Barton to fall on his own arrow.

Speaking at the 2016 London Film and Comic Con (via Radio Times), Renner discussed how disappointed he was that Hawkeye spent most of "The Avengers" in a zombified state as Loki's lackey. Since he had no idea who his character was or his motivations, he decided to give the filmmakers an option of killing off Barton, because he just couldn't get into the character. Renner's idea was to act out his character experiencing a heart attack in every scene — a decision that puzzled the crew.

"And they said, 'What are you doing, man?' 'I'm giving you an option, if you just want to kick me out of this movie. Just you know, at any given moment, if you wanna kill me off, daddy's gonna be having a heart attack,'" Renner explained. He admitted that his feelings toward the character changed as his arc evolved and grew in stature.

Paul Walker's Brian O'Conner remains deeply connected to the "Fast & Furious" franchise, even after the actor's sudden death at the age of 40 in 2013. So much so that it's difficult to not break out into ugly crying when you hear Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again" track, which serves as an emotional swansong for both Brian and Walker in the film series. However, Walker confirmed in 2009 that he asked to leave Dom Toretto's family after the fourth movie, "Fast & Furious."

In a conversation with Collider, Walker explained how he thought the franchise was done after the second movie. That was more apparent to Walker after the third film, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," which focused on an entirely new character, Sean Boswell (Lucas Black). So Walker was surprised when Vin Diesel called him up to do "Fast & Furious," believing it to be the last last ride. "I actually told [director] Justin [Lin] at one point that I wanted to die," Walker said. "He says it's not going to happen."

While Walker admitted he wanted to kill off his character, he disclosed that he had a good time making the movies and understood their importance to his overall career. He knew that the continued success of the "Fast" franchise enabled him to make smaller films, since it had a positive influence on his marketability as a star.

One of the most upsetting deaths on "The Walking Dead" is the loss of Dale Horvath, played by Jeffrey DeMunn. Dale lasted just two seasons, but he left a lasting impact on the show as the fan-favorite character. While it wasn't unusual for "The Walking Dead" to unexpectedly kill off characters, since the unpredictability is essentially the show's biggest hook, the death of Dale was instigated by DeMunn himself.

Speaking to Cleveland.com, DeMunn described how he accepted the role of Dale because of his close professional relationship with the series' original showrunner, Frank Darabont. Previously, the actor had worked with Darabont on "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile," "The Majestic," and "The Mist," so when the showrunner called, he didn't need any convincing to take the part. DeMunn's excitement for "The Walking Dead" waned after Darabont's firing in 2011. Out of solidarity for Darabont, he wanted out too.

"I was furious about how Frank was pushed out of the show," DeMunn said. "I spent a week not being able to take a full breath. And then I realized, 'Oh, I can quit.' So I called them and said, 'It's a zombie show. Kill me. I don't want to do this anymore.' It was an immense relief to me."

"Breaking Bad" keeps viewers on tenterhooks, especially as Dean Norris' Hank Schrader searches for the true identity of the mysterious Heisenberg. It's a dangerous cat-and-mouse game until Hank discovers the infamous drug kingpin is his brother-in-law, Walter White. While Hank eventually shuffles off this mortal coil in one of the best episodes of "Breaking Bad," Norris asked showrunner Vince Gilligan to kill him off earlier, at the end of the first half of season 8.

In a conversation with Esquire, Norris revealed that he wanted to be available to do another show, since he knew "Breaking Bad" was coming to an end. However, Gilligan turned down his request. "I'm glad he made me stay because it's really spectacular to be a part of that show and what I think is going to be a great final season," Norris said. "Vince said, 'I gotta have you for the last season, because that's what we're going to focus on.' It's nice to know that you're going to be a big part of the final eight episodes."

Norris added that everything worked out, as he completed his scenes and was able to do "Under the Dome" as well. In retrospect, Hank's death in the episode "Ozymandias" is perfectly executed (pardon the pun). Not only does it allow the character a heroic end, but it also proves to be one of the finest episodes of television ever.

"Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" ends in a shocking fashionL Luke Skywalker learns that Darth Vader is his father, and Han Solo gets frozen in carbonite and shipped off to Jabba the Hutt. Both these events play pivotal parts in the follow-up, "Return of the Jedi," but the heroes prosper in the end and defeat the evil Sith. Hooray! For Harrison Ford, though, he thought the movie was a missed opportunity to kill off Han Solo.

In the 2004 documentary "Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy," Ford explained how he believed it made storyline sense for Han to fly with the angels (or Force ghosts). "I thought Han Solo should die," Ford said. "I thought he ought to sacrifice himself for the other two characters. He's got no mama. He's got no papa. He's got no future. He has no story responsibilities at this point. So let's allow him to commit self-sacrifice."

Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan agreed that a main character should die in "Return of the Jedi" to make a major storyline impact and plant a seed of doubt in the audience that the heroes would be triumphant, though all three protagonists survived in the end. Eventually, Han died in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" in what's often described as one of the most brutal moments in the "Star Wars" franchise.

For actors playing James Bond, they need to understand something: More often than not, it's a long-term gig. Daniel Craig, though, wasn't certain that his tenure as 007 would be a hit, so he presumed a one-and-done deal might be possible with 2006's "Casino Royale." After he realized the film was hugely successful, he asked producer Barbara Broccoli how many more films he had to do as the beloved spy. She said four, so Craig asked if Bond could die after that. Broccoli agreed and stuck to her word.

But why was Craig adamant that 007 needed to die? That he explained in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in November 2022. For Craig, the first reason was so that the franchise could move forward without him. It would have the opportunity to do a hard reboot and cast a new actor as Bond rather than to try and continue telling the same story with Craig's version of 007.

The second reason was for himself, "so that [he] could move on" from playing the character. "I don't want to go back," Craig said. "I suppose I should be so lucky if they were to ask me back, but the fact is I need to move on from it."

Stephen Sommers' "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" isn't exactly a movie that a lot of people rush to rewatch. It doesn't even fall into the same category as the 'so-bad-it's-good' movies — it's just bad. Yet, it made a ton of money and sold a lot of merchandise, so a sequel was always bound to happen. However, in 2013's "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," Channing Tatum's Duke, who was the main protagonist of the first film, dies rather early so that Dwayne Johnson's Roadblock can take center stage and *checks notes* blow up things.

As it turns out, the story played out like this because Tatum asked for his character to be killed off as soon as possible. During a lie detector interview for Vanity Fair in 2023, the actor explained how he didn't even want to do the first film. "The first one I passed on seven times, but they had an option on me, and I had to do the movie," Tatum said. "So the second one, I obviously just didn't want to be in that one either."

It wasn't the first time that Tatum expressed his disdain about the "G.I. Joe" movies. In a past interview on "The Howard Stern Show," the actor explained how he'd been a huge fan of "G.I. Joe" as a child, but he thought the script was awful. Unfortunately, the studio wouldn't let him pass on the project.

Kevin Alejandro's Dan Espinoza serves an important role in "Lucifer." While Dan and Luci start off on the wrong foot and antagonize each other, the pair learn how to work together before Dan's death in season 5 of the show. According to Alejandro, he might have had a hand in shaping Dan's fate after a conversation with the showrunners.

As Alejandro told Entertainment Weekly in 2021, there was already a plan where the show's direction was heading in season 5, which everyone presumed to be the last one for "Lucifer." That said, he chatted to showrunners Joe Henderson and Ildy Modrovich about how he thought Dan's time was up in the series. "I think it could be interesting if, you know, this is the end," Alejandro told the showrunners. "The audience is really starting to like Dan, really starting to understand who he is. I think it might be impactful if you took that [relationship] away and ended him, and see how that affected the world around him."

The showrunners were receptive to Alejandro's suggestion, with the actor believing they may have already had plans to kill off Dan to begin with. However, everyone was blindsided by Netflix's decision to renew "Lucifer" for one more season, so they figured out a way to make Dan part of the final season.

Like Batman and Joker, Laurie Strode and Michael Myers are doomed to be adversaries forever. That being said, the entire "Halloween" timeline is a little messy, and canon appears to be about as flexible as a Cirque du Soleil performer. At times, the series paints itself into an inescapable narrative corner, but it figures out a way to return and continue the mayhem.

Case in point: 1998's "Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later." In the film, Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie appears to put a definitive end to Michael once and for all as she decapitates him. Suck on that, Boogeyman ... Or maybe not. As Curtis revealed at the 2022 New York Comic Con (via Syfy Wire), there was a rule in place that Michael couldn't actually die, so the storyline explanation given for his return in 2002's "Halloween: Resurrection" was that Michael switched places with a paramedic in the previous movie. Essentially, Laurie murdered the wrong person.

While Curtis accepted this narrative change, she believed it made sense for this to be the end of the line for Laurie too. "You have to kill me in the first 10 minutes of the movie," Curtis said, "because I've now killed an innocent man, and I can't live with that." That's exactly what happened, as Laurie was killed by Michael in "Halloween: Resurrection." However, Curtis' Laurie returned for 2018's "Halloween," which ignored all sequels after the original 1978 slasher.