Kill off

For the film, see The Kill-Off. For the novel, see The Kill-Off (novel)

The killing off of a character is a device in fiction, whereby a major character dies but the story continues. The term, frequently applied to television, film and chronological series, often denotes an untimely or unexpected death motivated by factors beyond the storyline. It also implies a critical or cynical attitude towards a work, and is rarely used by authors when discussing their own works.

In works featuring actors, the unwillingness of an actor to continue with the production (or, conversely, producers' unwillingness to retain an actor), for financial or other reasons, may lead to that character being "killed off" or removed from the storyline.

Examples

Film

Until the 1980s and 1990s, Hollywood film plots featuring death and danger, such as action or horror, were criticised for killing off secondary black characters prematurely to advance the plot, leading to accusations of tokenism; examples include The Shining and the Alien series.
However, with more black actors in starring roles since the 1990s, this trend is thought to have decreased – numerous American films and television series have also made knowing references to the idea as a cliché.

Television

The Palestinian children's character Farfur (a Mickey Mouse lookalike) is an example of a character "killed off" for political reasons in 2007. After the programme received criticism from some government ministers in both Palestine and Israel for espousing anti-Israeli sentiments, the Farfur character was killed off. Even his death, at the hands of an "Israeli agent", making Farfur a "martyr", was similarly politicised.

Comic books

In 2008, rumours arose that Batman was going to die in the DC Comics series.