If your definition of killing a thing is making it popular to the masses while making the first inroads into acceptance of nerdishness in global culture, sure.

If your definition of killing a thing is making it popular to the masses while making the first inroads into acceptance of nerdishness in global culture, sure. Strange definition though. Hollywood and finance killed SF (to the extent that it's dead, which it really isn't - Severence? Foundation? Silo? Three Body Problem? etc).