10 Actors Who Asked for Their Characters to Be Killed Off

Whether due to boredom or simply an eagerness to seek new challenges and opportunities, many actors grow weary of playing their series characters. Lucky for them, there’s a common escape. Here are 10 actors who asked for their characters to be killed off.

10. Jeremy Renner: Avengers

Jeremy Renner grew unhappy with the way his Avengers character Hawkeye was portrayed. He pointed out the time his character spent as a mind-controlled servant to Loki. He complained it wasn’t what he signed on to play. Then he started going around pretending his character was having a heart attack to suggest to the producers that he could be killed off.

9. Alec Guinness: Star Wars

Alec Guinness made no secret of his displeasure with the dialogue for his character Obi-Wan Kenobi. “I just couldn’t go on speaking those bloody awful lines. I’d had enough of the mumbo jumbo,” Guinness said. He reportedly begged George Lucas to kill him off to allow him to leave the Star Wars franchise.

8. Dean Norris: Breaking Bad

Dean Norris called Breaking Bad series creator Vince Gilligan and suggested that his character, Hank, die in the first half of the final season. Norris had a pilot he wanted to film. But Gilligan denied his request. Norris’s character Hank died, but not until episode 14 of the 16-episode final season.

7. Emma Caulfield: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Emma Caulfield asked that her character Anya be killed off in case the show didn’t end after Season 7. Caulfield said it would be “poetic” if Anya would die “sacrificing herself for people she could never understand.” Anya died, but not until the series finale. Caulfield wound up appearing in 85 episodes and Season 7 was the series’ last.

6. Channing Tatum: G.I. Joe

Channing Tatum never wanted to do the first film in the franchise, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009). He reportedly turned down seven times but wound up being contractually obligated to star in it. For its sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), he asked that his character be killed off in the first ten minutes.

5. Sigourney Weaver: Alien Franchise

In Alien 3, Sigourney Weaver wanted to be killed off. Weaver says, “[I] heard that Fox was gonna do Alien vs Predator. Which really depressed me because I was very proud of the movies.” In another interview, she said, ” For her to continue to wake up…to yet another situation…it’s a burden on the whole science-fiction premise of the alien.”

4. Johnny Depp: 21 Jump St.

Johnny Depp grew sick of his character Tom Hanson. “It started to get a little showboat-y, you know what I mean?” He continued, “It just started to become false. It started to become this action-packed can of soup…” Depp compared it to being “in a prison creatively,” and reportedly did “everything he could” to get fired, including trashing his trailer. His wish was eventually granted in the 2012 film.

3. Jamie Lee Curtis: Halloween Franchise

Like Michael Myers, Jamie Lee Curtis keeps returning to the Halloween franchise. She returned in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998). Then its sequel Halloween: Resurrection (2002). She demanded, “You have to pay me a lot of money…and you have to kill me in the first ten minutes.” Her character was killed off. Yet she still returned for Halloween (2018).

2. Harrison Ford: Star Wars

After the second film, Harrison Ford said, “I thought he ought to sacrifice himself for the other two characters.” He told this to George Lucas who told him there was no future in dead Han Solo toys. While promoting the third film, Ford said, “Three is enough for me. I was glad to see that costume for the last time.”

1. Sean Connery: James Bond Franchise

For many people, the original James Bond, Sean Connery, is the only James Bond. However, despite a legion of fans, Connery himself was no fan. He famously grew sick of playing the James Bond character and wanted him killed off. Connery once said, “I have always hated that damned James Bond – I’d like to kill him.”