Will Shane be gone by season's end?

After a shocking exit from The Walking Dead, Frank Darabont is moving forward in television with a new pilot for TNT called L.A. Noire (not based on the popular videogame of this past year). As Darabont is getting his cast and crew together for the potential new series, he’s looking to cast someone from The Walking Dead as the lead in the show. With this, however, may come another shocking exit from the series for fans of the zombie drama.

Variety reports that Jon Bernthal, who currrently plays Shane on The Walking Dead, is being courted to join the pilot that could potentially become a TNT drama. However, the report claims that talks have barely begun, and that a deal is very uncertain at this point. Darabont wrote the script for the series, and will direct the pilot, which was greenlit by TNT just about two weeks ago.

Bernthal would play, “Joe Teague, the Los Angeles cop at the centre of the show that examines corruption in the LAPD and ties between police and underworld figures in the ’40s and ’50s.”

But, what does this mean for Bernthal’s character in The Walking Dead? With only six episodes left to go in the second season, Shane has been headed down quite the dark path. It’s becoming a harsh reality that Shane could easily separate from the group, thus having adventures off-screen, leaving time for Bernthal’s exit to do L.A. Noir, and ultimately could return after the first season of the drama is done filming.

Or, as it’s being very much rumored, could Shane be headed down a path so dark, that the only solution is his death?! That could definitely be a shocking turns of events as the season continues, and something to possibly look out for. After the amazing breakout performance Bernthal has had as Shane this season, it’ll be interesting to see if he wants to leave to be the main focus of Darabont’s show, or if he wants to continue the zombie drama.

The Walking Dead returns February 12th at 9PM on AMC.