History Main / DeadStarWalking

* In the final season of ''Series/LineOfDuty'', one suspect, Marcus Thurwell, initially appeared as a photo of Creator/JamesNesbit, and was not only killed in the following episode, but all we saw of this was bodycam footage of a corpse. Dead Star Never Even Walking.

** Sharon D. Clarke was announced as a "returning character" in advance publicity for Series Eleven, sparking much speculation as to whether the BBC meant "recurring character" or if she'd actually be playing a new version of an existing character. She ended up playing Grace -- the respective wife and grandmother of companions Graham and Ryan -- and was electrocuted by an alien robot at the end of the first episode, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E1TheWomanWhoFellToEarth "The Woman Who Fell to Earth"]]. The earlier publicity led to much HesJustHiding speculation, but she was in fact simply dead, and only appeared in two more episodes: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E4ArachnidsInTheUK once]] in Graham's imagination as part of a DeadPersonConversation, and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E9ItTakesYouAway another time]] as part of an illusion created by a GeniusLoci. She makes [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E7CanYouHearMe one more appearance]] in the following season, this time as part of a nightmare Graham is having.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Creator/JossWhedon wanted to do this for Eric Balfour as Jesse in the first episode, but was [[ExecutiveMeddling denied permission by the network.]] He ultimately got his wish in Season 6, when after thirty-nine appearances as a guest star Amber Benson was finally promoted to the show's full credits - just in time for her character Tara to be shot dead.

See also BillingDisplacement, DeathByCameo and at times DecoyProtagonist. Can overlap with AdvertisedExtra. Nothing to do with StarDerailingRole but could have this effect. Nor is it to be confused with a star ''actually'' [[FatalMethodActing dying during filming]]. Also has nothing to do with [[Franchise/StarWars the Death Star]].

* The ''Series/{{Scream}}'' TV series. Much like how [[Film/{{Scream}} the films]] employed this trope (see above), the series does the same with Creator/BellaThorne's character, killing her off in the pilot episode and [[DrivingQuestion having her death drive the plot]].

*** Prior to the sixth season, Natalie Dormer (Margaery) was put front and center in the marketing, giving far more interviews about the show than any of her co-stars, to the point of it being referred to as a "one-woman publicity tour", while Finn Jones, who played her brother, Loras, had recently been announced as the lead of Netflix's ''Iron Fist'', indicating that his future filming schedule wouldn't have much time for ''Game of Thrones''. Their characters were incinerated in the season finale.

* When ''Series/{{Stargirl 2020}}'' was first announced, it was revealed Creator/JoelMchale would be playing Comicbook/{{Starman}} in one of the show's highest profile castings. Starman ends up getting killed off in the opening scene of the first episode, and the remainder of the series instead follows his [[LegacyCharacter successor]].

->'''Creator/AlfredHitchcock:''' Just think of the shock value, killing off [[Creator/JanetLeigh your leading lady]] halfway through. I mean, you are intrigued, are you not, my dear? Come on, admit it. Admit it.\\

* Creator/FalkHentschel was heavily featured as a main cast member in the promos for ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' as ComicBook/{{Hawkman}}, playing a major role in the crossover between ''Series/TheFlash2014'' and ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' the year before. He's killed by the end of the two-part pilot.

*** Creator/JamieBamber ''epitomizes'' this. Hoban is just one of ''many'' of his characters to be killed off--as of 2015, the count stands at ''ten''. The first--[[Series/TheScarletPimpernel Tony Dewhurst]]--kicked off this trend by dying in the first episode of the series, just like Hoban did [[note]] Adding insult to injury, Dewhurst ''[[DeathByAdaptation lived]]'' through the series of books the MiniSeries is based on. [[/note]]. Two others ([[Series/HoratioHornblower Archie Kennedy]] and [[Series/LawAndOrderUK Matt Devlin]]) perished in an eerily similar fashion (BloodFromTheMouth, HeroicSacrifice), and still another two (on ''Series/ColdCase'' and ''Series/GhostWhisperer'') bit the dust even faster than either Hoban or Dewhurst--they were onscreen throughout the entire episode, but had actually been killed off [[PosthumousCharacter within the first few minutes of the show]]. Another--[[WebVideo/StarTrekContinues Mr. Simone]]--seems to have been killed off just to lampshade this trend, to the point of outright making him a RedShirt, his film roles aren't exempt from this either, as he dies at the end of ''Ghost Rig'' and ''John Doe: Vigilante'', and the most recent one, [[Series/TheMessengers Vincent Plowman]], was all but guaranteed, given that he was one of the villains.

* Kisaragi is one of the first named characters to appear in ''Manga/ElfenLied'' and gets a proper introduction. Name bar? Check. [[CuteClumsyGirl Clumsy but cute?]] Check. Works for another main character? Yeppers. Determined to overcome her shyness and make people proud of her one day? Double check. Twenty pages/five minutes later she has her head ripped off, the pens from her pocket repurposed as deadly projectiles, and her corpse used as a [[BulletproofHumanShield meat shield]] that gets shredded to pieces in a hail of bullets, only to be dumped in a corridor once everyone else is dead. [[AnyoneCanDie This immediately sets the tone]] for the next 106 chapters.

** Sharon D. Clarke was announced as a "returning character" in advance publicity for Series Eleven, sparking much speculation as to whether the BBC meant "recurring character" or if she'd actually be playing a new version of an existing character. She ended up playing Grace -- the respective wife and grandmother of companions Graham and Ryan -- and was electrocuted by an alien robot at the end of the first episode, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E1TheWomanWhoFellToEarth "The Woman Who Fell to Earth"]]. The earlier publicity led to much HesJustHiding speculation, but she was in fact simply dead, and only appeared in two more episodes: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E4ArachnidsInTheUK once]] in Graham's imagination as part of a DeadPersonConversation, and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E9ItTakesYouAway another time]] as part of an illusion created by a GeniusLoci.

** ''Series/DoctorWho'' ended up doing this in the Christmas special [[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned "Voyage of the Damned"]]. Because let's face it, Music/KylieMinogue probably wasn't going to become a full-time companion.
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See also BillingDisplacement, DeathByCameo and at times DecoyProtagonist. Nothing to do with StarDerailingRole but could have this effect. Nor is it to be confused with a star ''actually'' [[FatalMethodActing dying during filming]]. Also has nothing to do with [[Franchise/StarWars the Death Star]].

* Creator/MinamiTakayama voices one of the four main leads of ''Series/SenkiZesshouSymphogear''.

* Oh, look, an obvious love interest! Aw, look how that [[NiceGuy cute Chinese exchange student]] keeps [[MeetCute rescuing her]] from all the evil people with superpowers chasing her! Wait a minute... did he just knock her out after getting information out of her? And... hold on, we saw that BadassLongcoat at the beginning of the last episode... Wait, she wasn't even the real person? And did she just jump in front of him so she dies from a [[BeatStillMyHeart rather nasty attack]] instead? Congratulations, you have just finished [[FirstEpisodeSpoiler the second episode]] of ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack''.

* Manga/{{Barrage}} is named after a character who only lasts 5 pages in the first chapter before he's unceremoniously killed.

** Sharon T Jones was announced as a "returning character" in advance publicity for Series Eleven, sparking much speculation as to whether the BBC meant "recurring character" or if she'd actually be playing a new version of an existing character. She ended up playing Grace -- the respective wife and grandmother of companions Graham and Ryan -- and was electrocuted by an alien robot at the end of the first episode, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E1TheWomanWhoFellToEarth "The Woman Who Fell to Earth"]]. The earlier publicity led to much HesJustHiding speculation, but she was in fact simply dead, and only appeared in two more episodes: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E4ArachnidsInTheUK once]] in Graham's imagination as part of a DeadPersonConversation, and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E9ItTakesYouAway another time]] as part of an illusion created by a GeniusLoci.

->'''Creator/AlfredHitchcock:''' Just think of the shock value, killing off your leading lady halfway through. I mean, you are intrigued, are you not, my dear? Come on, admit it. Admit it.\\

So, you're cast in a brand new series, and there's something about your character that just screams, "Hey, major character here." It could be that you're a name performer, or the character plays a central role, or is just plain interesting. So why do you get guest star billing? Well, either your [[FakeGuestStar contract requires it]], or the powers that be are out to [[KilledOffForReal kill you]], if not in the premiere, then by the second episode. Or it could just be that they don't have enough to pay your name performer salary for more than a few appearances.

* In ''Anime/GaReiZero'' the squad in the promotional posters and trailers, supposed to be the main characters of the series, after kicking some ass are surprisingly slaughtered at the end of first episode. The true main characters first appear in episode 2.

** Singer Takanori Nishikawa aka "TM Revolution" voices two short-lived characters. In SEED, Miguel is a Face Enemy who actually survives his first battle with the protagonist. However, he is promptly killed in the very next battle. This was telegraphed by the fact that he wasn't in the OP, though. However, in the sequel, its more played like a running gag, despite the depth of the character.

** There's also a rumor that Nishikawa would've prefer to play a bigger role (especially in ''Destiny'', where his character Heine Westenfluss became quite popular s well), but couldn't spare much time from his ''very'' tight touring and recording schedule, so he had to stick to this trope.

* Eren Jaeger in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' subverts this. He's eaten by a Titan fairly early on, but survives by turning into one and smashing his way out.

* In the first issue of Peter Milligan and Mike Allred's run on the Marvel comic book ''ComicBook/XForce'', a new X-Force team is introduced with most of the focus put on the sympathetic team leader. Almost all of the team gets brutally killed off in the same issue, including aforementioned leader. This effects AnyOneCanDie for the remainder of the book's run and its follow-up ''X-Statix''.

** The first example, genuinely surprising and gruesome: Lisa Faulkner on ''Series/{{Spooks}}'' was being set up as a major performer on the show, playing a Spooks employee moving from a desk job to field work. She got deep fried in the 2nd episode. Literally. Her head was shoved into a deep fryer. It worked for surprise on this show because of the lack of any kind of credits. It also established early on that any character could be killed at any time which made the program much more suspenseful. The spin-off ''Series/SpooksCode9'' also killed off the apparent team leader at the end of the first episode.

*** The 1970s original did this as well, casting the well-known Peter Bowles as husband to Abby (played by relative unknown Carolyn Seymour) who stays healthy while she collapses with the plague. However, towards the end of the first episode, ''she'' is the one who wakes up, to find his dead body, after he succumbs off-screen. With no actors listed in the opening titles and some very careful scripting, it was probably a big shock to viewers at the time. This was repeated in the remake, with Abby's husband played by Shaun Dingwall, Rose's dad Pete from ''Series/DoctorWho''. Paul's death near the start of the second season is also a good one - half the Season 1 cast had just been written out after a big format change and the show seemed settled on a new direction, only to promptly kill off another first series star within a couple of episodes.

* Creator/DerekJacobi is one of the more prominent names among the cast of ''Series/TheBorgias''... and he gets fatally poisoned in the very first episode.
* Tom Skeritt was the father in ''Brothers and Sisters''. Although the father died in the pilot, he has appeared in flashbacks since.

** Music/KylieMinogue showing up as a guest star in the 2007 Christmas special "[[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned Voyage of the Damned]]". The Doctor wanted to bring her character Astrid along as a companion, but naturally she was killed off at the end of the episode.
** Possibly the all time weirdest version of this: Creator/JennaColeman, already announced as a forthcoming companion, appeared in the episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks Asylum of the Daleks]]" as a character called Oswin, and died at the end. Then she turned up a few episodes later, as another character called Clara, and died again. The following episode introduced the "proper" version of the character. This was a major plot point for the season. Believe it or not, [[ItMakesSenseInContext it actually does make sense in context]].
** Sharon T Jones was announced as a "returning character" in advance publicity for Series Eleven, sparking much speculation as to whether the BBC meant "recurring character" or if she'd actually be playing a new version of an existing character. She ended up playing Grace, the respective wife and grandmother of companions Graham and Ryan, and was electrocuted by an alien robot at the end of the first episode, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E1TheWomanWhoFellToEarth "The Woman Who Fell to Earth"]]. The earlier publicity led to much HesJustHiding speculation, but she was in fact simply dead, and only appeared in two more episodes: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E4ArachnidsInTheUK once]] in Graham's imagination as part of a DeadPersonConversation, and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E9ItTakesYouAway another time]] as part of an illusion created by a GeniusLoci.

*** Prior to the sixth season, Natalie Dormer (Margaery) was put front and center in the marketing, giving far more interviews about the show than any of her co-stars, to the point of it being referred to as a "one woman publicity tour", while Finn Jones, who played her brother, Loras, had recently been announced as the lead of Netflix's ''Iron Fist'', indicating that his future filming schedule wouldn't have much time for ''Game of Thrones''. Their characters were incinerated in the season finale.

* ''Almost'' happened on ''Series/{{Lost}}''. The original plan was to have a reasonably well known movie actor, such as Michael Keaton, be cast as Jack. All the promotions, released information, cast photos, and interviews would indicate that Keaton (or whoever was cast as Jack) was a permanent part of the show and would be the main character throughout. Then, halfway through the pilot episode, he'd be killed by the monster, thus putting everyone on notice that ''Series/{{Lost}}'' was a show where AnyoneCanDie and where crazy stuff happens all the time. Kate (possibly played by Yunjin Kim) would then become the leader and the show's hero. The network [[ExecutiveVeto vetoed]] the plan, believing the audience would feel manipulated and resentful. As a result, Matthew Fox was cast as Jack and the character of the pilot (played by Greg Grunberg) was created to die in Jack's place.

* For its first two season, Creator/ThandieNewton played the lead in the series ''Rogue''. In the third, the setting was changed from the Bay Area to Chicago, and she was listed as a guest actor. [[spoiler:Her character was killed within a few episodes.]]

** In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', Creator/RobertPatrick plays Colonel Sumner in the pilot. He's supposed to be the head of the military unit attached to the Atlantis team, and naturally is killed off before the end of the second episode.

* On ''Series/TheWalkingDead'', [[http://ew.com/tv/2017/01/25/walking-dead-sonequa-martin-green-star-trek-discovery-sasha/ Entertainment Weekly]] noted "there is a long, sad history of Walking Dead actors being killed off soon after news gets out about them accepting a different acting role."
** The sixth season ended with a big cliffhanger where one of the main characters, unknown to the viewers, [[TonightSomeoneDies had his or her head smashed in with a baseball bat]], and the identity of said character would not be revealed until the seventh season a few months later. AMC went to great lengths to prevent spoilers from leaking to the point of filming ''every'' character being killed so even the crew wouldn't know, even though the scene in question had appeared years earlier in the comics with Glenn as the victim. It was Hollywood trade publications that unintentionally spoiled Glenn's fate, as Steven Yeun had [[http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Walking-Dead-Steven-Yeun-Just-Lined-Up-Another-Movie-Role-126747.html been announced]] to star in two films that would conflict with ''The Walking Dead'''s filming schedule, so even fans that hadn't read the comics could figure he wasn't working on the show anymore. [[spoiler:The victim was revealed after a six month wait to be Abraham, only for Glenn to die minutes later as punishment for Daryl's outburst. Thus making both Yeun and Michael Cudlitz an example of this trope.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', Creator/PatrickStewart voices the Emperor Uriel Septim VII, who is assassinated by the end of the first tutorial mission. On the other hand it's heavily {{Foreshadow|ing}}ed, as he starts talking about his impending death in the actual opening credits sequence and continues right up until it happens.

* Variation: In ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'', the character called Josh Goodman was built up in version three's pregame to be an unstoppable force, taking over the school within his first day there by blackmailing the principal and raping her, causing her to commit suicide, and later nearly cripples a star football player. He was killed off in one of the main game's first posts, electrocuted in a pool of blood. The student who killed him became one of the top killers on the island.
* WebVideo/ThatSciFiGuy appears at the beginning of ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'' as one of the team members analyzing a mysterious signal coming from Jupiter. However, he is KilledOffForReal before the end of Part One when the enemy's WaveMotionGun vaporizes his house. [[TheStinger Or is he?.]]

* [[DeadStarWalking/LiveActionFilms Films — Live-Action]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

** ''Series/DoctorWho'' ended up doing this in the Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned". Because let's face it, Music/KylieMinogue probably wasn't going to become a full-time companion.

* House of Cards: Frank Underwood was killed off the show's final season, following actor Kevin Spacey's firing over sexual misconduct allegation. While his character's dead for Season 6, Frank Underwood's past deeds loom over the season.

* ''Almost'' happened on ''Series/{{Lost}}''. The original plan was to have a reasonably well known movie actor, such as Michael Keaton, be cast as Jack. All the promotions, released information, cast photos, and interviews would indicate that Keaton (or whoever was cast as Jack) was a permanent part of the show and would be the main character throughout. Then, halfway through the pilot episode, he'd be killed by the monster, thus putting everyone on notice that ''Series/{{Lost}}'' was a show where AnyoneCanDie and where crazy stuff happens all the time. Kate (possibly played by Yunjin Kim) would then become the leader and the show's hero. The network [[ExecutiveVeto vetoed]] the plan, believing the audience would feel manipulated and resentful. As a result, Matthew Fox was cast as Jack and the character of the pilot (played by Greg Grunberg) was created to die in Jack's place.
* The ''Series/GeneralHospital'' spinoff ''Night Shift'' had Pat Crawford Brown as a tapestry-sewing patient for the first 3 episodes, before having a SerialKiller [[http://serialdrama.typepad.com/serial_drama/2007/07/nigh-shift-epis.html#more off her via IV]]. Granted, Brown has rarely ever had a regular role on any TV show, but still...
* Creator/JohnGoodman portrays the main character of ''Series/NowAndAgain'' for about thirty seconds of the first episode before he's hit by a train and has his brain placed in an artificially engineered body, thus setting up the rest of the series.
* Jon Seda's character on ''Series/{{Oz}}'', Dino Ortolani, was set up as the (or at least a) main character, only to be burned to death at the end of the 1st episode.
* Parodied on ''Series/PoliceSquad'': in each episode's TitleMontage, a different celebrity SpecialGuest is killed off ''as they are being introduced''.
* Detective Terry Crowley in ''Series/TheShield'' seems to be set up as one of the main characters of the series in the pilot episode when he's assigned to the Strike Team as a mole with the intention of exposing their corrupt activities, and gets more than his fair share of screen time in the process... until the final minute of the episode, where Vic Mackey and Shane Vendrell kill him and frame an also-deceased drug dealer as the killer. Crowley's death isn't brushed aside, though, as it haunts the Strike Team for the rest of the series and the character himself appears in flashback episodes.
** To help keep Crowley's death as a surprise to the viewers, his actor was listed as a regular in the pilot episode's opening credits.
* An unusual variation: in the fourth season of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' (Trek itself having numerous examples played straight), Jennifer Lien, cast regular for the first three seasons, is billed as a "special guest star." Her character [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence violently evolved into an energy being and abruptly left the show]] in the second episode of that season, once her SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute was settled.
** She does come back for one episode, intent on revenge against the ''Voyager'' crew and Janeway in particular. She uses her powers, boosted by the ''Voyager'''s warp core, to travel back in time in order to destroy the ship before her past self begins to "evolve".
* Like ''Series/{{Spooks}}'', FX Network's ''Series/{{Thief}}'' had a 6-episode first season. Like ''Series/{{Spooks}}'', it bumped off a name performer by the 2nd episode: Linda "''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' 1 and 2" Hamilton as the handler. Unlike ''Series/{{Spooks}}'', Hamilton was just the latest in a rather misogynistic streak. Including the handler, there were three surprising deaths in the first two eps -- all women. Unlike ''Series/{{Spooks}}'', ''Thief'' was not renewed beyond its initial 6 ep run.
* In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', Creator/RobertPatrick plays Colonel Sumner in the pilot. He's supposed to be the head of the military unit attached to the Atlantis team, and naturally is killed off before the end of the second episode.
** Fans expected the same trick to be pulled in the premiere of ''Series/StargateUniverse'' with Lou Diamond Phillips, who didn't seem to have an appropriately large role for a name-actor. However, his character lived, and the one who actually died in the pilot was that guy who played [[JerkJock Shooter McGavin]] in ''Film/HappyGilmore''. Phillips's character does die in a later episode... only for [[ReplacementGoldfish another version]] of him to show up.

** The TV Movie actually brought back Creator/SylvesterMcCoy as the Seventh Doctor, just so he could be killed off to regenerate into Creator/PaulMcGann's Eighth Doctor.

** Possibly the all time weirdest version of this: Creator/JennaLouiseColeman, already announced as a forthcoming companion, appeared in the episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks Asylum of the Daleks]]" as a character called Oswin, and died at the end. Then she turned up a few episodes later, as another character called Clara, and died again. The following episode introduced the "proper" version of the character. This was a major plot point for the season. Believe it or not, [[ItMakesSenseInContext it actually does make sense in context]].
** Sharon T Jones was announced as a "returning character" in advance publicity for Series Eleven, sparking much speculation as to whether the BBC meant "recurring character" or if she'd actually be playing a new version of an existing character. She ended up playing Grace, the respective wife and grandmother of companions Graham and Ryan, and was electrocuted by an alien robot at the end of the first episode, "The Woman Who Fell to Earth". The earlier publicity led to much HesJustHiding speculation, but she was in fact simply dead, and only appeared in one more episode as a malevolent alien illusion created from Graham's memories.

* About 20 or so characters introduced in volume three of ''Series/{{Heroes}}''.
** In Season 4, the writers decided to bring back Charlie, a popular character from Season 1. Unfortunately, that same year Jayma Mays was cast in the new show ''Series/{{Glee}}'', so we knew her relationship with Hiro wasn't going to work. Had Hiro not forgotten about her for 3 years, he could have saved her.
* In ''Series/{{Angel}}'', Doyle was killed off after nine episodes, and if it weren't for his visions Angel wouldn't have such an easy time finding (and killing) the baddies.
* Ingo Fischer, one of the two top-billed stars in ''Series/AlarmFuerCobra11'' died in the second episode.
* For the first few seasons of ''Series/LostInSpace'', Doctor Smith (Jonathan Harris) got billed as a special guest star in the title credits. WordOfGod has it that he was supposed to escape the ship (or die) early on, but that never came about.

*** Prior to the sixth season, Natalie Dormer (Margaery) was put front and center in the marketing, giving far more interviews about the show than any of her co-stars, to the point of it being referred to as a "one woman publicity tour", while Finn Jones, who played her brother, Loras, had recently been announced as the lead of Netflix's ''Iron First'', indicating that his future filming schedule wouldn't have much time for ''Game of Thrones''. Their characters were incinerated in the season finale.

* Callum Keith Rennie as Don Morgan in ''Series/{{Alphas}}'': the team's original government liaison, who is present in the pilot episode, PutOnABus for the second, and then violently killed off in the third.
* Though he wasn't a big star at the time, it's amusing to see Jimmy Smits playing Don Johnson's partner only to get blown up within the first few minutes of the pilot episode of ''Series/MiamiVice.''
* Creator/DerekJacobi is one of the more prominent names among the cast of ''Series/TheBorgias''... and he gets fatally poisoned in the very first episode.
* Jacobi also makes a memorable guest appearance as Professor Yana (a.k.a. The Master) in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia "Utopia"]]. However, he is killed (and then regenerates into John Simm) before the episode ends.
* ''Series/ElleryQueen'': The most recognizable name in an episode's cast would often be the person playing the victim. A prominent example is George Burns in "The Adventure of Veronica's Veils".
* Benton Fraser's father (played by Gordon Pinsent) dies at the beginning of the pilot episode of ''Series/DueSouth'', although he continues to appear as a ghost for the rest of the series.

* Byung Hee was being set up as the main character in ''Series/ShutUpFlowerBoyBand''. He was suddenly killed at the end of the second episode. The remainder of the show is about his best friend and his band coping with the loss.
* ''Series/The100'' was going to do this with Jasper. They set him up as a main character and had him speared in the chest at the end of the pilot- before deciding that they liked him too much and saving him.
* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'':
** Season 2 starts with some big names added to the cast, including Creator/LucyLawless as an ActionGirl ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent now loyal to Coulson... who lasts exactly one episode, after ''months'' of promos billing her as a major character.
** More understatedly, B.J. Britt took [[spoiler:Grant Ward's]] place on Coulson's team in the latter third of the first season, and was in promo shots for the second season, standing with the team and appearing to have been promoted to regular, which would have made sense. He's still billed as a guest star, though. Why? [[spoiler: Because he dies in the mid-season finale.]]
** Midway through the second season, Creator/EdwardJamesOlmos joins the cast as a high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. official named Robert Gonzalez. Gonzalez actually does stick around for a few episodes, before being betrayed and murdered by Jiaying so that she can start a war with the humans.
* The pilot episode of ''Series/RedDwarf'' was originally intended to be this, with everyone except the main character being top-billing stars, only to have them killed off in the first episode and left with "[[Creator/CraigCharles Craig who?]]". While this wasn't quite the effect during the original airing, after a decade this is somewhat applicable as many of the crew went on to have parts in works such as ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' and ''Series/{{Eastenders}}''!

* The ''Series/{{Scream}}'' TV series. Much like how [[Film/{{Scream}} the films]] employed this trope (see above), the series does the same with Creator/BellaThorne's character, killing her off in the pilot episode and [[DrivingQuestion having her death drive the plot]].
* In the first episode of the FX anthology series ''Series/{{Fargo}}'', Kieran Culkin is accidentally run over by Creator/KirstenDunst. He dies a little later in her garage.
* The ''[[Series/ScreamQueens2015 Scream Queens]]'' TV series. Whilst being advertised as a series regular, Music/ArianaGrande's character was killed off at the end of the pilot episode before we even knew her (real) name. Strangely, this is an unintentional example of the trope, as she ''was'' supposed to have a recurring role, but scheduling issues involving her singing career necessitated rewriting her part.

* Creator/PeterCook appeared in the first episode of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' as Richard III. As in the play and real life, he gets decapitated in battle, though he ghost haunts Edmund.
* Creator/FalkHentschel was heavily featured as a main cast member in the promos for ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' as ComicBook/{{Hawkman}}, playing a major role in the crossover between ''Series/TheFlash2014'' and ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' the year before. He's killed by the end of the two-part pilot.
* For its first two season, Creator/ThandieNewton played the lead in the series ''Rogue''. In the third, the setting was changed from the Bay Area to Chicago, and she was listed as a guest actor. [[spoiler:Her character was killed within a few episodes.]]
* ''Series/TwentyFour'' did this so often that it became a RunningGag. Long story short -- if a character was introduced in a position of authority (or as a close friend to Jack Bauer), their chances of survival were ''extremely'' low:
** The first season set the tone with Richard Walsh (played by noted character actor Michael O'Neill of ''Series/ThePretender'' fame), who's the Administrative Director of CTU. He gets gunned down by terrorists at the end of the second episode to illustrate that AnyoneCanDie, even major characters, and his death sets Jack on the path to the rest of the day's events.
** Later on in the first season, Lou Diamond Phillips appears as the administrator of a black-ops prison that ends up being used to house BigBad Victor Drazen. He gets barely an episode's worth of screentime (stretching across two episodes) before he's gunned down by Andre Drazen after they siege the prison.
** Crossing into SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome[=/=]DeathByCameo, season five opens with the deaths of [[spoiler:former President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) and Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth)]] just minutes into the premiere, a huge shock to viewers watching at the time.
** ''24: Redemption'' introduces Carl Benton, an old friend of Jack's (played by name actor Robert Carlyle), who is helping him teach at a school in Sangala. Less than an hour into the film, he ends up performing a HeroicSacrifice to help Jack and the children at the school escape.
* As an {{Homage}} to the famous use of this trope in ''Film/{{Psycho}}'', ''Series/BatesMotel'' cast Music/{{Rihanna}} as Marian Crane [[spoiler: then subverts audience expectations by letting her live]].

* Creator/JohnGoodman portrays the main character of ''Now and Again'' for about thirty seconds of the first episode before he's hit by a train and has his brain placed in an artificially engineered body, thus setting up the rest of the series.

* In the first episode of the FX anthology series ''Franchise/{{Fargo}}'', Kieran Culkin is accidentally run over by Creator/KirstenDunst. He dies a little later in her garage.

** Later on in the first season, Creator/LouDiamondPhillips appears as the administrator of a black-ops prison that ends up being used to house BigBad Victor Drazen. He gets barely an episode's worth of screentime (stretching across two episodes) before he's gunned down by Andre Drazen after they siege the prison.