Which ‘Walking Dead’ Star Didn’t Want to Die?

If you've ever heard an actor talk about his own character's death, they'll always be as gracious as possible.  Unless they're Charlie Sheen.  They're always grateful to have even had the opportunity, and adamant that the decision was right for the story, but usually we're not hearing the whole truth.  So which of 'The Walking Dead's many fallen wasn't so happy to be killed off?

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, 'The Walking Dead' show-runner Glen Mazzara spoke out on the perspective of killing off a character, bringing up the specific example of Jon Bernthal's much-talked about exit at the end of the zombie series' second season.  Recently, it had been reported that Bernthal had his own idea for how he wanted his character Shane Walsh to bite the big one, but Mazzara now claims that Bernthal tried to cheat death altogether.  Says Mazzara:

We’re based on Robert Kirkman’s graphic novel, so people saw the Shane death coming, and Bernthal knew that it was coming. I felt it was sort of anticlimactic because everybody who had read the book knew that was coming.

Jon did not want to go. He kept calling: “How about this? How about that?” I have an open-door policy, but ultimately I needed that to be about our main character. I had to stick the landing. I’ve had other people on the show who think it’s punitive when they are killed off, and it’s like, “Well, you signed up for a zombie show!”

In fact, Bernthal's Shane lasted a significant amount longer than his comic counterpart, who died (in a somewhat similar fashion) at the end of only the sixth issue, which by comparison would have been the fifth episode of the AMC series.

Still, Bernthal hasn't had any trouble finding work since his 'Walking Dead' exit, taking the lead role in former 'Walking Dead' show-runner Frank Darabont's new period drama 'L.A. Noir,' alongside former castmates (and 'Dead' casualties) Jeffrey DeMunn and Andrew Rothenberg.  'Noir' hasn't been picked up to series by TNT just yet, but it's got good odds.

What say you?  Were you sad to see Shane go, and wish he could have stuck around, like Bernthal?  Tell us what you’d like to see from AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’ in the comments!