As the headline fair warned you, huge spoilers may possibly be abound here, so if you’ve made it this far we want to give you one last chance to bail now.

Still reading? Ok. Let’s proceed…

While Frank Darabont’s new series L.A. NOIRE doesn’t really fit Starburst’s remit, anything WALKING DEAD related is obviously like cat-nip to us, and the following casting news could very well be hugely influential on the future of one of our favourite shows.

Today word has hit that Darabont’s 40’s set cop drama is close to finding one of its leads in the form of Jon Bernthal. Yep, that’s the very bloke who plays the character of Shane on AMC’s hit show.

So how on earth is he going to play a lead role in not one, but two shows?

Exactly!

It’s highly unlikely that Bernthal will be able to juggle both given TV land’s punishing shooting schedules (and considering THE WALKING DEAD has been increased to a 16 episode order for season 3, it’s about to get even worse!). 

So it looks like even though Shane literally dodged a bullet back in season 1 (when his character should have perished if they were following the comic books verbatim), his time might be up sooner than any of us predicted. Which would be a damn shame, considering he’s one of the most compelling characters on the show (especially in these post-Otis, meltdown days).

Rumours of an unnamed actor being so appalled by AMC’s treatment of then-showrunner Frank Darabont some months ago (y’know, when they unceremoniously sh*t-canned him) that they demanded to be written out of the show have yet to be debunked.

If the above proves true, then we think we’ve found our man…

Would Shane’s departure hurt the show? Share your thoughts with your fellow readers in the Comments section or on Twitter @Starburst_Mag