Family Guy kills off Ernie the chicken permanently

Ernie, the giant anthropomorphic chicken who for decades staged escalating, destructive brawls with Peter Griffin on the animated series Family Guy, has been killed off permanently, executive producers confirmed. The character’s canonical death occurred earlier this year in Season 23, Episode 5, titled The Chicken or the Meg, and producers say he will not return to future episodes.

The episode centers on Meg Griffin entering a relationship with Ernie’s teenage son, Nugget. After Ernie demands that Meg choose between her father and his son, Meg refuses and decapitates Ernie. The scene closes with his headless body running briefly across a yard before collapsing. While Ernie has been written out temporarily in earlier confrontations only to reappear, producers have now asserted that this instance is the definitive end for the recurring antagonist.

“I think that the chicken has gone the way of all flesh,” executive producer Alec Sulkin said in an interview confirming the permanence of the decision. He added that the sequence of elaborate set pieces built around the Peter-versus-chicken fights had become difficult to top and taxing on the production team, suggesting creative and...