The Walking Dead's First Huge Death Was Almost Rick Grimes

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This article contains spoilers for "The Walking Dead."

In issue #24 of "The Walking Dead" comic book, writer Robert Kirkman delivers his series' thesis through the mouth of his hero, Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln in the TV series). The survivors can never expect to return to the old world and must live each day like it's their last: "We are the Walking Dead!" Rick declares, not the zombies. (Near the series' end in issue #191, when civilization has been rebuilt and old conflicts resume, Rick rebuts his own words and tells a crowd: "We are NOT the Walking Dead.")

Sure enough, no one was ever safe in "The Walking Dead" — not integral characters and certainly not minor ones. The aforementioned issue #191? That ends with Rick's own death, and in the following issue, his son Carl has to put down Rick's zombified remains. But according to Kirkman, Rick's death could've come much earlier.

The first major death in "The Walking Dead" is Shane, Rick's best friend and his partner as a police officer. The stress of the apocalypse, and lust for Rick's wife Lori, makes Shane snap. In "The Walking Dead" issue #6 (the last in volume 1, "Days Gone Bye"), Shane tries to kill Rick. Carl, who'd been watching them, shoots Shane in the neck to save his father.

Image Comics

The cover of "The Walking Dead" issue #6 depicts Rick digging a grave, so way back during its original run in 2004, readers opened the issue expecting a character death. As Kirkman plotted the issue, he considered flipping that climactic death. 

"The Walking Dead" is currently being re-released, issue-by-issue, as new "Deluxe" printings that are in full color (not black and white, like the original "Walking Dead" comics.) In the back pages of "The Walking Dead Deluxe" #6, Kirkman explained that if sales on "The Walking Dead" had been poor, issue #6 could've been the last (with six issues, Image Comics could repackage them as a single trade paperback). That's why he had Rick and Shane's friendship blow up (in hindsight) so early. But sales on "The Walking Dead" were going well, and Kirkman felt he'd at least get up to issue #12. So, he started considering where the story would go next after his big finale. One idea he had? "Rather than Carl killing Shane, I considered having Carl find them in the woods just as Shane was killing RICK."

Obviously, Kirkman decided against that, and Rick remained the series' protagonist. But this does show that, even that early, he was operating in a "no one is safe" attitude. How would "The Walking Dead" have been different had Kirkman spared Shane by killing Rick instead?

Kirkman said he "very seriously" considered this alternate ending to "The Walking Dead" #6; it wasn't just a spitballed idea that came and went. So, he also thought through how Rick dying and Shane living would have propelled the story forward. He continued in "Deluxe" #6:

"The focus of the book would have shifted to Carl to a certain extent as he was too scared to tell Lori what he saw, for fear Shane would kill Lori, too. And Shane wouldn't have known Carl had seen him. So there would have been a lot of tense exchanges between the two of them. Shane would have been the first real big villain in the book, and he would have been with the group, on the same side as them, the enemy sleeping the next tent over."

Though Rick is the main character, "The Walking Dead" is just as much Carl's coming-of-age story. The very last issue, "The Walking Dead" #193, focuses on a now grown-up Carl. This is also why it was such a baffling choice that "The Walking Dead" TV show killed off its Carl (Chandler Riggs) in season 8.

By issue #6, Kirkman had already decided that, without Rick, Carl would become the series' lead character. Carl's journey to manhood likely would have been much darker without his father there to guide him. There are also many different ways you could play out his dynamic with Shane. Maybe Carl still ends up killing Shane, just much later. Could the young Carl bring himself to kill Shane in premeditated murder, not just heat of the moment to save his dad? Or maybe Shane takes over as Carl's father figure, even if Carl can never forgive him for killing Rick.

The comic didn't have much of a chance to explore Shane and Carl's relationship, whereas the show makes Shane into an uncle figure for Carl. Shane is not just jealous about Rick coming back because of Lori, he was also starting to see Carl as his own son. In the comic, part of Shane's breakdown to Rick is that he has no family, but the show definitely gets to explore this more.

That's not the only difference between the two Shanes, either. In the comic, Shane is convinced the outbreak will pass, and the survivors need to keep their camp close to Atlanta so search and rescue teams will quickly find them. As the weeks pass on and winter approaches, it sinks in that things are not getting better, but Shane refuses to accept that. (In the show, Shane does adapt to the new world ... by becoming the ruthless man who Rick has to constantly stop himself from becoming.)

"The Walking Dead" volume 2, "Miles Behind Us," focuses on the group taking to the road in hopes of finding a home. If Rick is dead and Shane is still leader, it's likely the story wouldn't go in that direction. Kirkman's comment about Shane being the villain "sleeping the next tent over" suggests the comic could instead focus more on the inner turmoil in the group. In the comic, that only starts to boil over in Volume 3, "Safety Behind Bars," when the survivors settle in a prison.

How would Shane explain Rick's death? Would the savvier members of the group, like Dale or Andrea, suspect Shane? Would Shane get what he wanted and Lori comes back to him? Or would she still consider their night together a mistake and refuse him? Would Shane become a tyrant that has to be deposed? In gaming out these story possibilities, one can understand why Kirkman was tempted to spare the character.

In both the comic and TV series, Shane's death foreshadows conflicts to come. The zombies are a hazard, but the villains of "The Walking Dead" are still-living people: the Governor, Negan, the Whisperers, etc. Rick losing his best friend also hardens him (and Carl) early on to prepare them for the trials they'll have to face.

I'm not saying "The Walking Dead" would be a better story if Shane lived and Rick died. It could've easily been worse, and Kirkman himself wrote in "Deluxe" #6 that "I doubt [keeping Shane] would have been as successful as keeping the focus on Rick." (He also stated that he has "no intention" of ever writing a series exploring this alternate scenario of Shane living and Rick dying). Still, the story Kirkman describes is a tantalizing "What if...?" to the saga of Rick Grimes.