The Walking Dead universe could have been quite a bit different if creator Robert Kirkman went with his original idea for Rick Grimes' story arc. The major central character in both the comics and the television show was originally going to die very early on.
Comic Book reports that, in the recent re-release of The Walking Dead Deluxe #6, Kirkman revealed he originally kicked around the idea of Rick dying in Issue 6. It would have meant Rick being murdered not long after reuniting with his family and confronting his old partner, Shane.
In Issue 6, Rick confronts Shane about sleeping with his wife, Lori. The two have a tense discussion, and later on the two go into the woods to hunt. An unhinged Shane tells says he wished Rick had stayed in his coma , and that everyone else would be happy without him. Eventually, Shane is just moments away from killing his ex-partner when Rick's son Carl, guns Shane down. This is the first person the 9-year-old Carl kills, a fact he notes directly after the confrontation, telling Rick that it was "not the same as killing dead ones, daddy."
Kirkman said the idea of killing off Rick so early was rooted in the fact that he didn't see The Walking Dead series lasting all that long. Originally, he felt that Grimes' being murdered by his old friend would end the run entirely. "I wasn't sure this book would last past Issue #6," Kirkman wrote in the Cutting Room Floor segment of the re-release. "Which is why the Lori/Shane/Rick love triangle that was really the dramatic basis of this whole series wrapped up so quickly."
If The Walking Dead's creator killed off Rick Grimes that early, he had a whole other arc planned for both Shane and Carl. In the alternate version of the story, Carl would have continued building up resentment toward Shane after witnessing him kill his father. This would have led to a showdown between the son and his surrogate father in Issue 12.
Kirkman, who has talked before about almost killing off Rick, admitted the series likely wouldn't have been as successful if he'd gone with his original plan. Both in the comic and the television show, Grimes became the central character. He faced off against several of The Walking Dead's most iconic villains as well. In the end, Rick lasted all the to Issue #192 where Carl had to put a reanimated version of his father down, once and for all.
Source: Comic Book