In a recent interview with MTV Splash Page, creator and writer of The Walking Dead Robert Kirkman has shared his thoughts on playing "George Lucas" with the small screen adaptation of the hit comic book series, commenting on how this has enabled him to take the characters in new and exciting directions. Of course, as anyone who has read the first six issues of the comic will know, that includes leaving Shane alive... Once again, this video is unavailable outside of the US (be warned, they do make you sit through a commercial before revealing that) but the site were kind enough to provide a brief transcript of the interview which you can also find below.
"To a certain extent, I've told these stories before and I did them my own way in the comic book. I work on the TV show, I'm in the writers room, and it's fun for me to look at it as a do-over. I can fiddle with things. I can play George Lucas, if you will, and I can think, 'Well, what would happen if Shane had lived? How would that change things?'"
"Shane's presence radically alters a lot of different things. Seeing how things are changed by his presence moving through the second season is a lot of fun for me. It ends up bringing in a lot of interesting twists and turns as you'll see from watching the season."