Top 10 Movie And TV Characters Who DIED Too Soon

WatchMojo

Gone too soon! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the big and small screen characters whose deaths came way too early in the story. Obviously there will be spoilers ahead.

Transcript

00:00I am Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Hand of the King.

00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the big and

00:09small screen characters whose deaths came way too early in the story.

00:13Obviously there will be spoilers ahead.

00:15Well done!

00:18Number 10.

00:19Hoban Wash Washburn, Serenity.

00:21Fans will tell you that everything about this franchise ended too soon.

00:25Although he's not the only beloved Firefly character who dies in this movie,

00:28Wash's death is by far the most shocking.

00:35After some incredible piloting through a vicious space battle, he successfully crash-lands Serenity

00:40only to be immediately killed by a spear right in the middle of his moment of glory.

00:45It seems to come out of nowhere, and fans were left speechless and horrified.

00:52It's amazing how attached you can get to a character after just one short season of TV

00:56and three quarters of a movie.

00:58Number 9.

00:59Zoe Barnes, House of Cards.

01:01We understand that you want to open the second season of a TV show with a bang,

01:04but this character deserved better.

01:14Many viewers would argue that Zoe Barnes was what made the first season of House of Cards

01:18so compelling.

01:18That's why her sudden murder came as such a surprise.

01:21I want to believe you, Francis.

01:26It almost seemed as though the show's writers were sabotaging themselves,

01:29since Zoe's constant sparring with Frank was such a brilliant source of tension.

01:33I promise you absolute discretion.

01:35So we're talking about trust.

01:38Use whatever word you like.

01:39Some fans felt that the show started to go downhill from this point.

01:42It was just never able to recapture the spellbinding drama of season one.

01:46Number 8.

01:47Scott Summers slash Cyclops, X-Men The Last Stand.

01:50You could argue that the first two live-action movies in the X-Men franchise

01:53kicked off the golden age of the superhero genre.

01:56There's someone here.

01:57Where?

01:59I don't know. Keep your eye open.

02:01Logan.

02:02However, a lot of fans felt that Cyclops got short shrift,

02:06and it didn't help that he was unceremoniously killed off at the beginning of the third film.

02:10Gene?

02:12Scott.

02:13The movie has to go to extremes to show us that Gene has lost control of her powers,

02:17but why not kill off a few innocent bystanders rather than the X-Men's beloved leader?

02:21At least we got a glimpse of his beautiful eyes before Gene sucked the life out of him.

02:30Number 7.

02:31Russell Stringer-Bell, The Wire.

02:33Idris Elba's criminal kingpin is one of the most compelling characters

02:36to appear on screen in a long time.

02:38Nah, man, we done worrying about territory, man.

02:41What corner we got, what project.

02:43Game ain't about that no more.

02:45It's about product.

02:46Brilliant, shrewd, and seemingly always three steps ahead,

02:49Stringer-Bell often appears invincible despite the dangerous business he's in.

02:53But in Season 3, he makes the mistake of pitting his adversaries against each other,

02:57and he pays the price.

02:58You still don't get it, do you?

03:01Huh?

03:02It ain't about your money, bro.

03:05Your boy gave you up.

03:06By this point in the series, Stringer was in his prime,

03:09building his business up into an empire through sheer force of will.

03:12The scene is oddly anticlimactic for the death of such a larger-than-life character.

03:16Well, get on with it, motha-

03:17Number 6.

03:18Joe Brody, Godzilla.

03:20We blame the trailers for this one.

03:22As the first American Godzilla movie since the critically panned 1998 version,

03:26there was a lot riding on this film.

03:27The future of the monsterverse was at stake.

03:36At the same time, Brian Cranston was at the height of his powers,

03:39having just finished his brilliant five-year run as Walter White.

03:42I am the one who knocks.

03:44It makes sense that the studios would want to play up his involvement in this movie.

03:47They evacuated us so quickly.

03:51I don't even have a picture of her.

03:54However, the marketing led viewers to believe that Cranston was the star,

03:57so it was quite a shock when his character was killed off less than halfway through.

04:01Worst of all, he dies off-screen in a totally underwhelming fashion.

04:04What a waste of a great actor.

04:07Whatever it takes.

04:10Whatever it takes.

04:12Number 5.

04:13Matthew Crawley, Downton Abbey.

04:15Dan Stevens put the series writers in a tough spot when he decided to move on from the show.

04:21However, they could have found a more satisfying,

04:23or at least less pointless way to write out his character.

04:26Just after the birth of his son, Matthew is in a random car accident and is killed.

04:30And I wonder what I've done to deserve it.

04:32The scene lingers on his joyful wife and newborn baby,

04:35while Matthew lies bleeding in the ditch.

04:37It feels not just emotionally manipulative,

04:39but inappropriate for a show that usually handled dramatic moments with a more skillful touch.

04:50Number 4.

04:51Newt and Hicks, Alien 3.

04:53Even James Cameron was mad about this one.

04:58The third installment in the Alien franchise picks up right after the second left off,

05:02with Ripley and company forced to flee the Sulaco in an escape pod.

05:09They crash land on a strange planet, and we later learn that only Ripley survived.

05:20Neither she nor the audience even get a chance to react properly to this news,

05:24which seems to come completely out of left field.

05:30After everything they went through to survive and escape the Xenomorph Queen and aliens,

05:34these unceremonious deaths feel like an insult.

05:40Number 3.

05:44Carl Grimes, The Walking Dead.

05:46It's extra jarring when a major character dies off-screen.

05:49In this case, not only does Carl die off-screen, he's bitten off-screen too.

06:00A few episodes earlier, he and Sadiq encounter a group of walkers

06:03and seemingly fight them off with no issue.

06:05It isn't until later that we learn that Carl was actually bitten,

06:08and his death is imminent.

06:15After all that this poor kid has gone through in his short life,

06:18he deserves a better ending.

06:20That said, at least his final few scenes are effective

06:22at showing his maturity and his growth as a character.

06:29Number 2.

06:30Supreme Leader Snoke, Star Wars Episode VIII, The Last Jedi.

06:33The first episode of the sequel trilogy led us to believe that Supreme Leader Snoke

06:37was like a new version of the Emperor.

06:47He's extremely powerful in the Force, and a master manipulator behind the scenes.

06:51Then in Episode II, he dies, and we never learn anything else about him.

06:58Setting up a character to seem super important and then killing him off is pretty unsatisfying.

07:03How did Snoke rise to power?

07:04Why did Palpatine create him in the first place?

07:06And what happened to his face?

07:08Apparently we'll never know.

07:25He's not the only cool character that we wanted to see more of.

07:28Captain Phasma only gets a few scenes before falling to her fiery and disappointing death.

07:37Rebel scum.

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07:54Number 1.

07:55Eddard Ned Stark, Game of Thrones.

07:58If you didn't already despise Joffrey, you definitely will after what he does to Ned.

08:06We get that his death is basically the catalyst for all the events that follow.

08:15It's also accurate to the source material, but that doesn't mean we have to like it.

08:19Ned is one of the few uncomplicated, honorable, and upstanding men in the series.

08:27He's not interested in politics or drama,

08:29and just wants to do what's right for his house and his family.

08:37When the little blonde creep forces him to make a false confession of treason,

08:41and then has him beheaded anyway, everyone is outraged.

08:44Then again, it's not like you can just let Sean Bean live.

08:46Which character's death caught you totally off guard?

08:49Let us know in the comments below.

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