I posted in a similar thread that contract negotiations much have been rough, because they eliminated several main and recurring characters.
lol
The Rick v Shane last week was a real shocker.
Shane and Dale were the only character killed that had any actual dialog this season. Slaughtering characters is a big part of what makes the comics good, nobody is safe, even Rick and Carl have been seriously wounded though still not killed.
There was that, but there’s also the fact that the series creator Robert Kirkman doesn’t giving a flying flip who he kills. Fwiw Shane dies pretty early in the comic. And others will die as well big characters too.
Shane actually dies early in the comics, so it was not a shock that they killed him off. The comics are kind of shocking in who they kill off, and it would be disappointing if they played it too safe with the show.