Walking Dead spinoff what if Shane killed Rick

AMC green-lighted a Walking Dead spinoff but the comic book won’t deviate from the main characters, particularly lead man Rick Grimes. Creator Robert Kirkman says he’s toyed with the idea of doing a ‘what if’ issue where Shane kills Rick but sided against it.

“I’ve also thought out how it would be cool to do a one-shot laying out how things would be different… or a whole side series, and then I ruled that out because it’s a terrible idea,” Kirkman writes in the fan mail page of Walking Dead #136. “But the fact there isn’t a second ‘what if’-style WALKING DEAD series is literally the ONLY evidence left that I’m not a complete sellout.”

And yet…

Kirkman promises to go into more detail about it in his upcoming book: The Walking Dead Cutting-Room Floor. This hardcover book gives fans a behind-the-scenes look at original plot lines accompanied by commentary. The topic was also broached in The Walking Dead #1: 10th Anniversary Edition.

“I had a whole storyline worked out where Shane was gonna kill Rick and Carl was gonna see it,” Kirkman wrote. “And then Carl, the kid who knows that Shane killed his father, has to deal with the fact that he’s in a camp with this guy.”

What do you think? Is Shane as leading man something you can sink your teeth into or does it just bite?