Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't yet completed Season 7 of The Walking Dead.
Even though The Walking Dead takes place in a world where survival has lost its distinction as a constant, Season 7 managed to introduce seemingly more characters than we'd met during the previous six seasons combined. Fans definitely lucked out with new blood like Ezekiel and Jerry, to name a few, but we all know that an abundance of living and breathing bodies just means there are more people to kill off with veracity when Season 8 returns.
While we have a lot of questions about what The Walking Dead will offer up in Season 8, there are some things that require no contemplation or conjecture, such as which characters definitely need to die. (No more Jerry references, so no worries there.) We've rounded up the seven characters most in need of a brutal exit, and let's start off with one of the most bizarre new faces the zombie drama has offered up in recent years.
Jadis
It's absolutely possible some of those Scavenger folks aren't wholly deserving of getting sent to that car-lined junkyard in the sky, most of them are, and the one with the biggest Target shopping bag on her head is the group's leader Jadis, a less-than-expert at small talk and keeping promises. It's true that Rick is a Class A dolt for ever believing Jadis in the first place, but she doesn't deserve to continue taking shit from people after double-crossing Team Family, even if she justifiably got dicked over by Negan. However she ends up getting killed, I hope it involves her haircut.
Eugene
There's no way I could have predicted the hiatus between The Walking Dead's latest seasons being filled with so much disgust for Eugene and his fear-induced downfall into quasi-villainy as The Walking Dead's version of Dr. Kevorkian. While he definitely takes on some further big moments within the comics, that Eugene never let his heroic resolve never falter into nothingness like it has for the TV show, and though showrunner Scott Gimple could easily bring the pickle-loving fibber back to virtue, I don't know if Eugene deserves that or anyone's trust again. So I'd be perfectly fine with his comic stories getting drafted onto someone else.
Tobin
For an oft-unseen side character, Tobin has survived much longer than most, especially for someone entering the narrative with Alexandria's introduction. Tobin seemed destined for a life cut short in Season 6 whenever he and Carol ignited a brief but meaningful romantic fling, since he gained just enough of a storyline to justify an impending death. As well, we all know everyone Carol gets close to ends up dying somehow, save for Daryl. (So far.) Carol definitely doesn't need more tragedies, but Tobin's Season 8 death could add to what will hopefully be a bigger story thrust for her.
Jared
Considering we're going to see a war going down in Season 8, The Walking Dead owes its viewers some more horrifying demises for the most repugnant of Negan's Saviors. That would be where Jared comes in, since the abusive would-be rapist David already met his maker. A character whose allegiance to Negan is absent of Dwight's wishy-washiness, Jared has served his purpose within the plot by antagonizing Richard to the point of foolhardy planning, as well as by killing Benjamin, and both of those acts twisted Morgan back around from his Life Is Precious mindset and turned him into a killing machine again. Jared can die now, preferably choking on his own hair.
Tara
By killing off Glenn, Abraham and Sasha all in the same season, The Walking Dead severely limited its options by way of adding long-lasting survivors to the victim pool. But fans would be hard-pressed to find someone as suited for the exit door as Tara, who first showed up in the first half of Season 4 as someone owing part of her survival to The Governor -- or Brian, if you want to get technical. Tara hasn't exactly been the most irreplaceable piece of Team Family, and though her humor and increased bravery mean a lot, she could easily say farewell in Season 8, hopefully while taking out Oceanside leader Natania.
Heath
No Walking Dead season has gone from beginning to end without viewers making a racket about how things played out, but rarely has the show botched an element as severely as comic fan favorite Heath, portrayed fleetingly by Corey Hawkins. The timing of the actor's casting is as much to blame as anything, as Straight Outta Compton revealed his star power, netting him a lead gig on 24: Legacy, which basically took him out of The Walking Dead completely, but without being properly killed off first. He's currently just...missing...and he'll assumedly get brought out and sacrificed by the Scavengers or Oceanside folks in some meant-to-be-tense showdown. It won't be exciting, but it'll be necessary.
Negan
I've been shamelessly on board with the Jeffrey Dean Morgan's shit-talking tyrant Negan since he first popped out of that RV in Season 6. He's an over-the-top mash-up of brashness, charisma and unfettered human impulses, so it's never quite clear what's going to come out of his mouth, or who he's going to murder next. Comic fans know that there's enough story for Negan to stick around for a long time, but what would be more unpredictable than the TV series definitively killing Negan off at the end (or in the middle) or the All Out War storyline? No show would readily want to lose Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a driving force, but it might be necessary by the time the dust has settled around Alexandria and the surrounding communities.
We likely won't find out whose graves will get dug on The Walking Dead for quite a few more months, if not longer, since Season 8 won't get to AMC until October. Find out everything we know about it with our comprehensive guide and then head to our midseason premiere schedule and our summer TV lineup to see what'll pop up on the small screen in the meantime.
