‘The Walking Dead’ Season 3: What Major Characters Did Glen Mazzara Almost Kill?

Overjoyed as we are to have 'The Walking Dead' return this Sunday with mid-season premiere "The Suicide King," the AMC drama's return also turns our stomach in knots with thoughts of which beloved characters might bite the big one in the coming weeks. And despite producers' claims that no character is safe, fans have their own ideas of who 'The Walking Dead' would never kill off. However, could new comments from ousted showrunner Glen Mazzara reveal the creative differences that led to his exit? Who might Glen Mazzara have wanted to kill off from 'The Walking Dead' that AMC refused?

Fans of both the comic and AMC's 'The Walking Dead' well know that even fan favorite characters eventually die, or at least undergo a few brutal mutilations before that final dirt nap. The third season of AMC's 'The Walking Dead' has featured some shocking deaths in the first half of its season already, but could the back half of the season premiering February 10 prove its most deadly yet?

Hero Complex recently caught up with now-ousted showrunner Glen Mazzara, who revealed the full extent of truth behind the show's mantra of no character being safe, suggesting that even leading man Rick Grimes (ANdrew Lincoln) or fan-favorite Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) could wind up on the chopping block.

Every day I get tweets from people saying, ‘If you kill Daryl, we riot.’ I’ll say this: I would never kill a character just to shock the audience. It’s about finding further story. When Dale was killed that put Shane in motion, when Shane is trying to kill Rick, Rick ends up stepping up as leader, that puts his marriage in jeopardy. It affects Carl. Carl was also affected with Lori’s death. All these deaths are very meaningful.

So if there was a story in which killing Rick or Daryl or Hershel or anybody, the Governor, Andrea, Maggie, really affected the surviving characters and led to other stories I would do it. That would obviously be a big deviation from the book but in my mind when I’ve said no one is safe, I’ve been 100 percent sincere.

Seeing as Glen Mazzara's shocking exit from the series has produced few specifics about the "creative differences" between Glen, AMC and series creator Robert Kirkman, one has to wonder if the showrunner's take-no-prisoners (heh) approach to character deaths might have caused some friction between he and the network. We've also heard rumors that Mazzara might have disagreed with AMC over the direction season 4 would take, whether keeping with the established prison setting or moving on to a different story.

What say you? Do you think 'The Walking Dead' season 3's return will kill off any fan-favorite characters? Who would you want to see become walker-bait? Give us your predictions for 'The Walking Dead' below, and check out the latest trailer before commenting!