Intro
They say that heroes live forever, but legends never die – but in the world of franchise
filmmaking and television, the rules are a little different.
Ask a comic book fan, and they’ll tell you that no superhero stays dead for long.
Ask any action movie buff and they’ll tell you the biggest stars will always find a way
to survive even impossible odds.
And on TV, even shows that claim no character is safe rarely commit to killing off a regular?
But what’s the real reason that audiences have started viewing character deaths with
rolling eyes or scoffs, instead of genuine heartbreak?
There was definitely a time when a favorite character meeting their end could make worldwide
news, whether on film, TV, or comic books.
But these days, heroes hardly ever die.
And for the most beloved, or profitable, even death can’t hold them back.
And the real reason is even more depressing than you’d think, and the subject of our
latest Docu series: The REAL Reason Heroes Never Die.
The Problem
On the surface, it shouldn’t be so tough to understand: in life, people die all the
time.
Usually the bigger the hero, the more glorious and unforgettable their final sacrifice, in
real life or fiction.
So why is that NOT the case in modern entertainment?
For starters, the amount of movies and TV shows based on existing, fan-favorite or critically
acclaimed books, comics, or previous versions is bigger than ever.
But oftentimes, memorable character deaths or horrible trauma is the reason they’re
acclaimed in the first place.
But unlike TV shows or movie franchises, authors write their story from start to finish before
releasing it – which means fans never got a chance to pick a favorite, or threaten to
stop reading if the story took a turn they hated.
Add in things like franchise potential for future spin-offs, lengthy actor contracts
the studios don’t want to waste, and good old fashioned laziness, and it isn’t even
hard to find proof that the more recognizable the hero, and the more devoted the fan following,
the less death is even a concern – but that doesn’t stop famous examples from still
trying to fool their audiences.
The Walking Dead
Robert Kirkman’s comic series became famous for pulling no punches, showing a zombie apocalypse
as nowhere near as ugly or horrible as the ways people would react to it.
TV had never seen a story that dark – with the pilot episode showing its hero Rick executing
a zombified little girl – and it became an overnight hit for AMC.
Make that an overnight moneymaker for AMC.
You see, what made the comic such a cruel, unquittable horror show was the fact that
no one was safe, and Kirkman’s love of especially twisted deaths or unsettling violence scarred
the readers as much as the survivors.
And almost immediately, the TV showrunners started tailoring the show to keep fans watching,
straying from the award-winning material.
In the comics, Shane died in just the sixth issue, showing how bad things had gotten,
and how fast.
But actor Jon Bernthal and his constant macho head-butting with star Andrew Lincoln was
too good to end so soon, meaning Shane lived well into the second season.
And no Walking Dead fan will ever forget the crew’s run-in with the menacing “Governor,”
who cut off Rick’s shooting hand, and murdered Lori Grimes along with her newborn baby Judith.
Unless you watched the show.
In that case, Rick losing a hand was ruled too expensive, despite Andrew Lincoln begging
them to stay true to the comic, and killing a baby was too much for the network.
But the best example came when Glen, a geeky survivor grew into a hardened survivor, winning
over fans for his sense of humor, and awkward romance with Maggie.
It opened old wounds for comic fans, since – SPOILER – they knew for years that Glen
would meet his end when the cast finally met Negan (“Nee-ginn”) and his baseball bat,
Lucille.
Well, it might not actually be a spoiler, since plenty believe that there’s no chance
the show will kill off a fan-favorite star.
Pulling punches is one thing, but The Walking Dead TV show has been pulling the teeth out
of the source material for years.
The Dark Knight
Not every faked, hero-death comes from keep fans happy.
Sometimes, it’s just too hard for a creator or director to NOT give his hero a happy ending.
In lots of ways, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy was set up to have Bruce Wayne
sacrifice himself to save Gotham City – achieving in death what he tried to accomplish in life.
And in The Dark Knight Rises, that’s exactly what happened… or so we thought.
In hindsight, it doesn’t even make sense for Bruce Wayne to say his goodbyes, even
revealing his true identity before heading out of town with a nuclear bomb.
Thanks to some careful planning, he faked out everyone, showing that he was completely
aware that his death would save the city – even if he just pretended, and ran off to live
happily in Europe with Catwoman.
Ask a comic book fan, and they’ll tell you that isn’t really Batman’s style, and
getting a happy ending at all isn’t really true to the character.
But did the fans mind?
Not at all.
They watched Bruce spend his life being awesome, and just like Christian Bale and Chris Nolan,
wanted to see him retire.
Sequels didn’t even enter the equation – but when you’re wrapping up a story that saw
you torture a poor little orphan, why not let him live happily ever after?
It undoes his sacrifice completely, but... hey, to each their own.
Game of Thrones
Yes, even one of the most kill-crazy TV shows in history can’t help but hit the Undo button
when it really counts – but to make things even sillier, the death of Jon Snow lacked
any meaning at all, if you noticed the completely obvious and foreshadowing clues the showrunners
couldn’t help but include.
When the audience watched as a dead man was brought back to life by the Lord of Light
(S3E5) – a fact soon shared with the Red Priestess – and the revelation went absolutely
nowhere, plenty of fans saw it as a clear sign that the next death wouldn’t be what
it seemed.
Especially when a popular fan theory claimed that if anyone was going to survive the show’s
murders, it was Jon Snow.
At long last, Jon met his end at the hands of the Night’s Watch.
We want to say that it was a cruel, trolling moving by the showrunners knowing Jon would
be revived in the next season, but they COULDN’T EVEN KEEP FROM SHOWING the Red Priestess arrive
the scene before his death!
Actor Kit Harrington even had to pretend to say his goodbyes to the cast, shedding tears
for their adopted brother, every bit in the dark as viewers.
But George R.R.
Martin has resurrected even more dead characters in the books, so maybe we’re lucky.
The Man of Steel
Fans always knew that no matter how bad the fight between Batman and Superman got in Dawn
of Justice, the heroes would wind up on the same side – even if it took Wonder woman
to get them to smarten up.
But even when Doomsday – the creature who killed Superman in the comics – was revealed
to be in the movie, it was obvious Zack Snyder wouldn’t KILL Superman in just his second
movie… right?
Shockingly, the scene played out with even more action and sentiment than in the comics,
with Superman finally killing the abomination by shoving the beast’s own bone spear into
his chest so they would EACH die.
And with his death, the Justice League started to form.
In the comics, the Death of Superman made news around the world, and even though DC
always planned to bring him back, undercutting the entire event, and forever rendering death
meaningless in comics books, they didn’t tell people at the time.
But as the face of an entire universe of movie franchises, Snyder and Warner Bros. had sequels
to think about, not just stunning their audience.
So with a bit of levitating dirt over Superman’s coffin in the final shot, audiences are told
that the death, just minutes old, wasn’t actually what they figured.
It still carries weight, since it’s the sacrifice that matters.
But it’s a clear example of just how little weight death can carry when the risk of turning
off millions of movie-goers is on the minds of the studio.
Marvel’s Civil War
The Russo Brother admitted from the start that their movie version of Marvel’s Civil
War would be different from the comics – not only would hundreds of people NOT be killed
in order to pit Cap and Iron Man against eachother, since a dozen would do – but the comic event
that was packed with tons of shocking deaths, reveals, or injuries was stripped of all of
them.
And the reason is obvious: you can’t murder a hero without bringing the entire audience
down, or scaring young viewers.
You can’t show Johnny Storm being beaten by a mob for… a few reasons, and most of
all, you can’t end the movie by killing your cash cow, Captain America – even though
that was the final moment that drove home just how important the comic event really
was, seeing the mantle pass on to his sidekick, Bucky.
Where DC went through with killing Superman in a pretty gruesome death scene before revealing
he was actually totally fine, don’t worry about it, Marvel never even came close.
Bucky loses an arm he’s already lost, but when you have two billion-dollar heroes fighting
to the death… it’s pretty obvious the studio needs both of them to walk away – since
the actors are either still under contract, or pre-production on their next movie is already
underway.
We’d like to say that Captain America stopping the fight was a brilliant ending, and it might
still be, but it’s really the only one that results in more movies – and a potential
team-up when all is forgiven.
But one thing is clear: fans hoping to see Captain America’s death play out in the
MCU shouldn’t hold their breath.
Not until Chris Evans starts asking for too much money, anyway.
So what do you think?
Do you agree that Hollywood’s need to keep bankable characters alive will always win
out, even if those character’s deaths are what got the stories adapted in the first
place?
Or do you think studios are right to give their fans more of the characters and actors
that they love, and rewrite the story along the way?
We won’t have to make up our minds any time soon, since more adaptations are already on
the way, but let us know your thoughts in the comments, and remember to subscribe to
our channel for more videos like this one.