From Batgirl to The Walking Dead, from King Viserys to King T’Challa, we remember those who have passed…or been canceled.
Death comes to us all, whether we’re real, fictional, or a TV series. When real people die it’s very sad, and don’t worry, we’ll be commemorating them soon. Today, we only want to mourn the characters and shows who didn’t manage to make it out of 2022. Many will be missed. We might be glad certain others finally found peace. (Looking at you, Walking Dead.) Either way, please honor those who have fallen in the way that best suits them: reading stuff on the internet.
Of course, beyond the loss of shows and movies cut down in their primes this year, we’re also taking a moment to remember some of the fictional characters whose exits hurt us the most this year, so… tread lightly!
The most notable—and surprising—death of the year belongs to Barbara Gordon’s first solo movie, murdered at the hands of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav shortly after the two companies merged. Although the film was nearly finished, according to directors Bilali Fallah and Adid El Arbi, Batgirl was destroyed to get a few bucks via a tax write-off. Zaslav’s new plan is to keep DC movies on the big screen and instead of tiny, streaming ones.
Nice guys don’t do particularly well in Westeros. By virtue of being the king, Viserys (fantastically played by Paddy Considine) managed to keep his head on his shoulders and more or less kept the peace as well, even if his flesh was literally rotting off by the end. But by naming his daughter Rhaenyra his heir, then having a son, and muttering something easily misconstrued on his deathbed, he’s doomed the Seven Kingdoms to a brutal civil war of succession that’ll kick off in earnest when House of the Dragon returns in 2024.
Any time a Brian K. Vaughn comic gets a live-action adaptation, it’s cause to celebrate; any time one gets canceled it’s cause to mourn. So take a moment to lament Prime Video’s decision to axe Paper Girls, a lovely, fascinating adventure about four paper-delivering teens in 1988 who get sent through time, meeting their past and future selves. The young cast was marvelous, but Jason Mantzoukas stole the show as the affable, murderous Grandfather, who led the organization determined to preserve the timeline at any cost.
When Cassian Andor’s adoptive mother Maarva died off-screen, we were truly flummoxed why legendary actor Fiona Shaw would have taken such a small, one-dimensional role. But when the season one finale arrived, we finally understood—only someone with Shaw’s level of talent could give Maarva’s unbelievably stirring, incendiary funeral speech, exhorting the people of Ferrix to rise up against the Empire. (If only she’d gotten to say “fuck.”)
Yes, yes, the 12-year-old zombie show was a zombie itself, lurching unsteadily through its middling last few seasons. And yes, despite the end of the main Walking Dead show, the franchise will rise from its grave through (at least) three sequel series. But for all its faults, TWD was a remarkable achievement—a series about zombies, based on a comic, that was at one time the most popular show on TV. Its massive success helped pave the way for so many of the other comic and genre shows we’ve enjoyed since The Walking Dead’s debut in 2010.
The surprise star of Stranger Things’ much improved fourth season broke the ’80s nerd stereotype with Joseph Quinn’s Eddie Munson, a cool-as-hell, metal-loving, Dungeons & Dragons-playing badass. And while the dumb-dumb adults of Hawkins assumed Eddie was a satanist murdering teens because of his dual interests, he saved them all by distracting the Upside Down’s demobats to allow Nancy, Steve, and Robin to sneak into the Creel House and attack Vecna. And most importantly, he died saving the town in the coolest way possible: while performing a blistering guitar solo.
Wakanda Forever still seems like an impossible film to have made, even months after its release. Trying to balance a new story returning to one of Marvel’s most beloved movies and yet also handle the textual and meta-textual grief of the passing of Chadwick Boseman was a tumultuous prospect, but the Black Panther sequel put Boseman and T’Challa’s death at its heart to tell a cross-generational story about love and loss. If that wasn’t fitting enough, it twisted the emotional knife further for us and Shuri alike by giving Angela Bassett’s Queen Ramonda a shocking, beautiful exit too, as she sacrificed herself to save the young Riri Williams after Namor’s flooding of Birnin Zana.
We weren’t surprised when this show got the axe—with little promotion from Netflix and no ads anywhere in the U.S., it seemed as if The Bastard Son was being treated like, well… a bastard son. The most frustrating parts of this cancelation are the fact that not only was this an incredible first season with a wonderfully acted and poignant script, but the setup for season two promised to deliver even more of everything we loved about season one. The finale, where all three main characters centered and confirmed their love for each other, was such a heartwarming way to end a season that included fratricide, torture, and flashbacks of indentured servitude that we were sure that despite all the odds, this show would get a return.
