NOTE: This is both a Spoilered Rotten trope and a Death Trope, meaning that EVERY SINGLE EXAMPLE on this list is a spoiler by default and will be unmarked. This is your last warning, only proceed if you really believe you can handle this list. That being said, it's also possible that examples may involve subversions or multiple protagonists.
- Fox Mulder from The X-Files. It'd take a page to list just how many times he's been killed and brought back to life.
- There's a rather large amount of jokes associated with how many times Daniel Jackson form Stargate SG-1 has died, and later come back to life.
- Jack Shephard dies in the final scene of Lost, and we even get to see him moving on to the afterlife.
- Xena: Warrior Princess: Xena, after "dying" several times throughout the series, dies for the final time in the series finale.
- Breaking Bad:
- Walter White dies in the Grand Finale in the very last scene after killing the Aryan gang and taking a bullet protecting Jesse from his own M60 rig.
- Hank, if you consider him as the Hero to Walt's Big Bad. He dies nearly arresting Walt and failing.
- In A Case for Two, one of the attorney partner characters to the Private Detective Joseph Matula, Dr. Johannes Voss, ended up shot to death.
- Michael Scofield in Prison Break. In the flash-forward at the end of the final regular episode, Michael's friends, wife, and son go to visit his grave. He is revealed to have died via electrocution in the post-show movie, where his brain aneurysm is proven to have returned, meaning his death was a certainty anyway.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Buffy died at the end of the Season 5 episode "The Gift". The next season, they brought her back. She also died at the end of the first season, but only for a few minutes and was revived with CPR.
- A minor example—in the Alternate Universe episode "The Wish", Cordelia Chase, the episode's central character and the one who wished the universe into existence, is killed halfway through. The rest of the main character (besides Oz and Giles) are later killed in quick succession before the original universe is restored.
- When Flower died on Meerkat Manor, the show was completely shattered. Next Generation with Rocket Dog just wasn't/isn't the same... She was their star and the pillar that held the show up.
- Victor "I don't believe it!" Meldrew was stuck down by a car in the finale of One Foot in the Grave. Noticeably, the climax of the episode wasn't his death, but rather his wife's reaction to it.
- The Outlaw Michael Howe: Howe is beaten to death by the British troops, and his head taken as a trophy.
- Nick Cutter is shot midway through the third season of Primeval.
- Robin Hood dies at the end of the third season, joining his wife Marian who had died at the end of the previous season. Despite attempts to set up for a fourth season, the show was inevitably cancelled.
- Robin of Sherwood also died, and was replaced by a new Robin.
- Farscape's John Crichton (one of the twinned two, anyway) died a hero's death at the end of Season 3's two-parter Infinite Possibilities. Luckily, there was a backup "copy" on Moya.
- Dexter: New Blood: Dexter Morgan is far away from being a hero at that point. but in the final episode, Dexter is finally put down (upon his request) by Harrison after he is called out for all the crimes he has committed and how far he has strayed away from the code.
- Doctor Who:
- In "Father's Day", the Ninth Doctor is consumed by Clock Roaches after Rose creates a paradox saving her father. After her father fixes this error, the Doctor and every other victim of the Clock Roaches on Earth return.
- In the episode "Turn Left", the Tenth Doctor is killed in the parallel universe created by Donna's mind after he floods an abandoned Torchwood base with him inside it, creating all sorts of chaos and havoc.
- In "The Impossible Astronaut", the Eleventh Doctor is shot and killed before he can regenerate, afterwards being mourned and cremated, only to show up a few minutes later, completely clueless as to why everyone is so upset. Their past, his future, cue plot arc. This is revealed to have been staged. The "Doctor" who was shot was the Teselecta, AKA the Justice Department Vehicle Number 6018. The Doctor was actually inside it at the time. It's not clear how the regeneration was simulated, though, but official related media says that the Doctor asked the Teselecta's operators for permission to incorporate a visual effect similar to a partial Time Lord regeneration to make his supposed death more convincing.
- In "Heaven Sent", the Twelfth Doctor is trying to escape a lonely castle without revealing what he knows about The Hybrid. The only way to to that involves punching his way through a harder-than-diamond wall, and he's being pursued by a monster with a Touch of Death. The Reveal is that he's figured out that the teleporter that brought him to the prison effectively has a copy of him in it, so he lets the creature mortally wound him, then uses his dying body to restart the teleporter and summon his younger self to make his way through the castle once more and keep punching at that wall until he is mortally wounded, whereupon he goes back to summon his younger self...The Hero Dies Billions of Times for Billions of Years, and he always remembers, as the endgame at the wall arrives, what he's been through up to that point. Why does he suffer so? Because he's been Driven to Madness by grief, rage, and torture, and escaping in this way is his only hope to get the means to save his beloved companion Clara, who died in the previous episode.
- This could be said to happen to the Doctor every time a regeneration occurs. He more or less states outright in "The End of Time" that regeneration feels like the death of the current incarnation.
- In The Sarah Jane Adventures story "Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane", the Trickster makes a deal with Sarah Jane's childhood friend who originally died after falling off a pier after Sarah was unable to save her. She accepts the deal to save her own life, switching places with 13-year-old Sarah Jane, making her fall to her death. She later relinquished her deal after learning the truth, causing time to return to normal so Sarah can save the earth from an impending threat.
- Earth: Final Conflict is a rare case where the hero died at the end of the first season, but the show still continued without him. He is eventually "revived" in season 5, only to be Killed Offscreen. His replacement appears to have been killed at the end of season 4, but is brought back in the Grand Finale and survives it.
- Captain Jack of Torchwood. Repeatedly. Firstly by Dalek extermination on Doctor Who, and over 1300 times (not all chronicled) since.
- Owen Harper is shot by the leader of The Pharm, Aaron Copley, is made undead, and presumably dies again after being trapped in a nuclear plant control room flooded by radiation.
- Toshiko Sato is shot by Jack's brother Gray.
- Ianto Jones dies from a virus inflicted by the 456.
- In Torchwood: Miracle Day, Esther Drummond is shot by the Three Families while temporarily immortal to stop Torchwood from making humanity mortal again. They refuse, and Esther succumbs to her wounds. Also, Rex is shot by The Mole and seemingly dies, only to comes back, angrily asking what Jack did to him.
- The team fall under the category of this trope because they are all heroes (at least by series 2), and get roughly the same amount of screen time.
- Kamen Rider:
- Shinji Kido, the titular Rider of Kamen Rider Ryuki. Notably, while other protagonist Riders have temporarily been killed, he is the only who is truly gone forever, as even though he is brought back to life via Reset Button in the finale, he has absolutely no memory of the events in the series and is thus essentially a different character from the Shinji of the original timeline.
- Also, his American counterpart, Kit Taylor. Unlike Shinji, he didn't actually die — he was just sent to the Advent Void. He also got better.
- Chihiro/Kamen Rider Amazon Neo from the second season of Kamen Rider Amazons is also notable for being killed off for real, but unlike Ryuki, Amazons doesn't have a Reset Button, so he's gone for good.
- Vice, one of two protagonists in Kamen Rider Revice, breaks his contract with Ikki in the Grand Finale by having he and Ikki transform one last time and rough house, all to get Ikki's memory of his family back. Breaking the contract means disappearing for good, and after the fight concludes, Vice is erased and Ikki no longer remembers him. This is notably the first time in the franchise that a protagonist has died permanently in their main series.
- Tetsuwan Tantei Robotack has a particularly notable example, with the titular hero dying in the last episode pulling a Heroic Sacrifice. Unlike most other examples, it acted as an unintentional commentary on the franchise's fate, since Robotack ended up being a Franchise Killer for Metal Heroes. Still, Robotack's demise was a Disney Death.
- Jonah Gabriel from The Shadow Line was killed off in the final episode of the series.
- Bill Henrickson bites it in the last episode of Big Love after getting shot by an angry neighbor.
- There was a lot of debate as to whether or not Tony Soprano died at the end of The Sopranos. Assuming that one doesn't subscribe to the Death of the Author theory, the answer is yes according to creator David Chase in an November 2021 interview
. - Merlin has King Arthur die in the end. It's unavoidable though, given what happens to Arthur in the legends.
- Last Resort sends Captain Marcus Chaplin down with his ship in a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Game of Thrones:
- Lord Eddard Stark, who is the central character for the bulk of the first season before being killed in the penultimate episode.
- Robb Stark, son of Eddard Stark, meets his end in the third season. Unlike the source novels, where Robb is only a significant secondary character, the show gives him considerably more exposure and screentime, putting him in the top five central characters of a wide ensemble series, and making his death that much more unexpected and tragic.
- By Season 5, Jon Snow is pretty much the Big Good of the series, and the closest thing to The Hero that it has. He is murdered at the end of the season by a few of his own Night's Watch Brothers (lead by his Arch-Enemy Ser Alliser Thorne) in a mutiny, though ultimately his death is one of the very few in the series that does not stick, as he is revived by Melisandre in early Season 6.
- By season 6, done again with Margaery Tyrell, which served the last 4 seasons (especially seasons 5 and 6, after Sansa and Tyrion left the city) as The Protagonist in the King's Landing storyline, against Cersei Lannister, and the High Sparrow. The show spends 4 seasons building the feud between her and Cersei, and the entire season building up her secret plan to thrawt the High Sparrow, only for her to be killed abruptly by wildfire in Cersei's final scheme (and because of the High Sparrow's stupidity), resulting in Cersei finally winning.
- Season 8 saw Theon Greyjoy, the Supporting Protagonist of the Greyjoy storyline, killed-off by the Night King midway through the season, while Daenerys Targaryen was killed off in the Grand Finale by Jon Snow in a Shoot the Dog moment.
- Although to be fair, even though Daenerys was one of the main characters, it's hard to call her a "hero" when she's spent several seasons already burning people alive for not agreeing to her cause.
- Blake's 7 removes from the general scheme of things (on a "missing, presumed dead" basis) the group's leader, whose name is in the title of the series, at the end of the second season... and the series goes on for two more seasons! At the very end of which they finally find him again - upon which he is shot by one of his own on the basis of a horrible misunderstanding and the rest of the main cast is subsequently killed off shortly thereafter!
- The horror anthology show Masters of Horror was fond of this one:
- "Dreams in the Witch-House": Walter ends up in an insane asylum after being framed for the baby's murder by the Witch's rat familiar. The familiar then tracks him down and burrows into his chest.
- "Jenifer": Jenifer manipulates the hero into getting himself killed by attacking the cannibalistic woman in broad daylight and getting shot for his trouble by a man who thinks he's just a crazed psycho. The cycle starts anew with Jenifer latching on to another hapless puppet who tries to care for her.
- "Cigarette Burns": Kirby ends up killing himself under the cursed film's influence.
- "The Screwfly Solution": Anne's escape to the frozen north to escape the murderous men ends up being for nought and she freezes to death.
- Spartacus: Blood and Sand has Spartacus killed during the Final Battle in War of the Damned.
- Boardwalk Empire ends with Nucky being murdered on the Atlantic City boardwalk by Tommy Darmody.
- Sons of Anarchy ends with Jax crashing his motorcycle into an incoming truck and killing himself while being pursued by the police.
- In Supernatural, Sam and Dean have died and come back to life a number of times. Sam was initially intended to be Killed Off for Real in "Swan Song", but he ended up coming back for the Post-Script Season. In the shows true Grand Finale "Carry On" Dean dies on what should have been a routine hunt in Sam's arms after getting his brother to promise not to bring him back this time and to live his life. After living a full life, getting married, and having a child, Sam dies peacefully of old age and reunites with Dean in Heaven.
- Series "Captain Scarlet & The Mysterons": At the end of EVERY EPISODE. But he Always Gets Better.
- The wrap-up film to The Famous Jett Jackson has Jett tire of his role as the superspy Silverstone and decide to end the show. The show's creator decide to kill off Silverstone, while saving his friends. When Jett finds out, he uses the gate once again and saves Silverstone from the Big Bad. After getting back, he destroys the gate and announces to the crowd that he's going to continue playing Silverstone for as long as people want him to.
- John Reese in the Grand Finale of Person of Interest, by Heroic Sacrifice.
- Although left ambiguous on screen, according to Word of God Nick does dies at the hands of LaCroix in the finale of Forever Knight at his own request as he wanted to reunite with Natalie.
- M.A.N.T.I.S. ends with the title character, Miles Hawkins, and his love interest, PCPD Lt. Leora Maxwell, dying to stop an invisible dinosaur.
- People of Earth: Main character Ozzie dies in the first episode of season 2. The first season established that dead characters can be brought back, but Ozzie does not get revived for the rest of season 2, and the series was subsequently canceled.
- The Season 3 finale of Charmed (1998) saw the death of Prue Halliwell, the original lead witch of the show. She was replaced by Paige Matthews, the witches' long-lost half-sister.
- Similarly, the 2018 reboot of the series saw the death of Macy Vaughn at the end of Season 3. She was also replaced by a new witch named Michaela Danso. Both cases were even done for the same reason: the actresses quit.
- Male lead Finn Hudson suffers a Bus Crash between Seasons 4 and 5 of Glee due to his actor's real-life death.
- Quentin Coldwater of The Magicians dies in a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of the show's fourth season. The show continued for one more season without him.
- Trilogy of Terror: Millicent is killed by the voodoo doll intended to kill her evil sister, due to said sister being a split personality.
- The Arrowverse crossover special Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019) features several;
- Two of the lead trio from Birds of Prey (2002) are obliterated in the opening of the third episode.
- The eponymous protagonist of The Flash (1990) performs a Heroic Sacrifice in the middle of the special, giving his own series a Fully Absorbed Finale.
- Arrow's titular protagonist Oliver Queen is Killed Off for Real in the special's penultimate episode, two episodes before his own show's finale.
- Forever Knight ends with the titular Nicolas Knight asking his sire, LaCroix, to stake him after crossing the Despair Event Horizon.
- Westworld Season 3 finale shows Dolores doing Heroic Sacrifice to allow Caleb to shut down Rehoboam for good and free humanity from its control while all of her memories are deleted. Even though she has four copies of herself with different personalities, Word of God confirmed that the original Dolores is indeed dead.
- The Brittas Empire: Brittas is crushed to death saving Carole from a falling water tank in "The Last Day". Thankfully, it doesn't stick.
- Scarlet Heart's protagonist Zhang Xiao/Ruo Xi dies from her terminal illness in the final episode.
- Barry ends with its titular Villain Protagonist being shot dead by Gene immediately after deciding to turn himself in.
