13 TV Characters Who Were Killed Off When Actors Left

In 2011, Toby told Entertainment Weekly, “In the U.S. you’ll contract actors for seven seasons — we don’t have the finances to do that. So every time we start a new series, we have to renegotiate with the actors and see whom we have left. Sure enough, Peter Jackson came along and saw Aidan and whisked him away to New Zealand. 

The thing is, I was kind of preparing myself for that on Series 2 when I wrote the sequence where he kills all those people on the train. I always knew that would ultimately be the reason for the character’s exit, whether it happened at the end of Series 3 or 33.”

The script explored other possible endings for his character, but ultimately, Aidan felt death was the correct choice.

Toby said, “As a matter of fact, it was really Aidan who pushed for Mitchell to be killed, because he thought that was the appropriate ending for the character.”