History DemotedToExtra / WesternAnimation

*** As an example, Jazz, who was a major character in the first two seasons of G1, had a supporting role in [[WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie the movie]], but when Scatman Crothers died shortly afterwards, Jazz's later appearances were non-speaking cameos.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'': [[Characters/AntManHeroes Hank Pym]], due to having personal problems to deal with, goes from one of the core team members in the first season to a minor character who only appears in about three or four episodes of the second.
%%Needs context about their previous roles* [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsTonyStark Iron Man]] only appear in a single episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersUnitedTheyStand'' each, while [[Characters/MarvelComicsThorOdinson Thor]] never shows up in person ''at all'' (though he is present in the show's opening sequence for some reason).
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'': Virtually every villain (except for Joker, Penguin, and [[spoiler:Hugo Strange]]) got hit with this in later seasons - some (like Killer Croc) being reduced to bit players right after their ''debut'' episodes. In "Rumors", the new VillainOfTheWeek even captures ''the entire rogues gallery'' without much trouble, and when they later escape and attack Batman and Robin ''en masse'', all of them are taken out in a matter of minutes.

* Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse:
** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''
*** The Riddler rarely appears, but what episodes he did get are generally agreed to put a refreshing spin on the character. When the sequel series ''The New Batman Adventures'' rolled over, however, ol' Eddie got the shaft, despite getting a new character design more faithful to Creator/FrankGorshin's take on the character. You know things are bad when the new Riddler's biggest role was in a ''Superman'' episode. Creator/PaulDini admitted in the "Art of..." book that they didn't use the Riddler often because his gimmick of using riddles was hard to pull off in an action cartoon like theirs. He did get to shine in ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures'', set in the same universe.
*** Summer Gleeson (Vicki Vale in everything but name) appears in a pretty large number of episodes in the first two seasons, as well as the ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm Mask of the Phantasm]]'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanAndMisterFreezeSubZero SubZero]]'' movies. In the show's final season, ''The New Batman Adventures'', she makes only two appearances, one of which is a non-speaking cameo.
*** Dick Grayson as Nightwing only makes seven appearances in all of ''The New Batman Adventures'', and only has a prominent role in three episodes ("[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE5YouScratchMyBack You Scratch My Back]]", "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE16AnimalAct Animal Act]]", and "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE17OldWounds Old Wounds]]").
** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'':
*** Dana Tan in the second and third seasons, with the introduction of [[SpotlightStealingSquad Max]]. She goes from being Terry's main "normal person" confidante and having a scene in almost every episode to mostly being a background presence who got tossed a few lines every now and then, except for the one episode where she gets to be a DamselInDistress. Notably, she was (and remained) the {{Official|Couple}} ''{{Love Interest|s}}.''
*** Terry's little brother and mother, Matt and Mary [=McGinnis=], get less and less screentime as the series continues.
** ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'':
*** Franchise/TheFlash has no lines in the first season because of voice actor Michael Rosenbaum's commitments on ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' (though you may not notice simply on the basis that the cast is ''frickin' huge)''. He comes back for the second and third seasons (in particular the SeasonFinale of the second season), and [[LampshadeHanging complains to a fellow Leaguer about not getting any respect despite being one of the original seven]].
*** The Big Seven during the final season, to some extent. Despite being the main characters, they appear in less than half of the final thirteen episodes, with some episodes ("Patriot Act," "Grudge Match" and "Alive!") focusing on recurring characters instead.
*** Comicbook/{{Aquaman}}, despite being one of the founding members of the [[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica League]] in the comics, is replaced by Hawkgirl in the show. He appears only sporadically, but this gavethe writers a way to logically work him into plots without running into the ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman [[NeverLiveItDown stigma]]. Then he outright vanishes during the last season of ''Unlimited'', thanks to [[ExiledFromContinuity his rights being tied up in a potential live-action series]].
*** In the comics, outside of a period mid-1990s to mid 2000s and some other brief periods, Hal Jordan is the main Franchise/GreenLantern. Here, he's mostly limited to a few cameos, with his major roles going to either Kyle Rayner (his origin in getting the ring from a dying Abin Sur) or John Stewart (helping found the Justice League and getting Sinestro booted from the GLC, with the resultant personal enmity between the two).

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFantasticFour1978'', Medusa is the leader of Comicbook/TheInhumans instead of Black Bolt. Black Bolt only gets a brief cameo where he's seen flying over Attilan, and doesn't have any real role in the episode.

* Frieda in ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'', especially in comparison to her role in the comic series. She starts the show as Virgil's primary love interest, and is actually the first "civilian" to speak to Static, but after Daisy is introduced, she quickly becomes superfluous to both the plot of the show and the relationships between the characters.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'': The Wonder Twins and Gleek were frequent recurring allies to the Super Friends starting with their debut in the second iteration ''The All-New Super Friends Hour'', but only appeared in a handle of episodes in the penultimate iteration ''Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show'' before [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome disappearing altogether]] by the final series ''The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians''.
* In the comics of the same name that ''WesternAnimation/SupermanBatmanPublicEnemies'' is based on, [[Characters/SupermanLoisLane Lois Lane]], ComicBook/{{Katana}}, and [[Characters/TeenTitansStarfire Starfire]] spoke, whereas their counterparts in its AnimatedAdaptation didn't.

* In ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen2009'':
** [[Characters/MarvelComicsStorm Storm]] is a major character in the comics, one of the most recognizable members of the X-Men, and featured as one of the main cast members of nearly all the previous animated adaptations. In this adaptation, she's portrayed as a background character to give Wolvie a bigger role. In fact, there's no real reason for Storm to be present in the show at all, since she doesn't factor into any of the storylines and the episode where she rejoins the team has nothing to do with the overall plot. It's possible that the writers only threw her in because viewers are used to seeing her in the comics and other adaptations.
%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample** Jean Grey is reduced to little more than a plot device.

* Due to the original comic having loads of characters, it was inevitable this would happen in ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries''. Two notable X-Men, [[Characters/XMen70sMembers Colossus]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]], were relegated to cameos and guest appearances. This was because they were a part of ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' in the comics at the time, as well as Marvel's desire to focus on the more current 1990s members of the team. They at least fared better than poor [[Characters/MarvelComicsKittyPryde Kitty Pryde]], ''[[AdaptedOut who didn't appear at all]]''; the creators said this was because the {{exec|utiveMeddling}}s didn't want her involved due to the failure of the earlier ''WesternAnimation/PrydeOfTheXMen'' pilot.
* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' has Spyke, a major character in seasons one and two; in season three, he up and joins the Morlocks. Gets an episode here or there, but he's mostly gone. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools This wasn't necessarily a bad thing]], because he was RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap when [[TheBusCameBack he returned.]] Storm, who happens to be his aunt, also gets this very badly. Despite always having been a major player in the X-Men franchise, she receives very little focus in this series and only has one episode centered around her during the entire run of the show.
* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010''
** The entire Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}, since the series focuses on the sidekicks of the team. Creator/CartoonNetwork even touted the show this way in early promos, counting on the audiences familiar with the earlier ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' cartoon, which focused on the Justice League itself, to cause shock when the protagonists were revealed to instead be the children.
** Red Tornado's conspicuously absent in the second season (likely because Nightwing and the others have replaced him in the mentor role), and has only had one non-speaking appearance in "War".
** Secret, when compared to [[ComicBook/YoungJustice the comic]]. In that, she's a member of the team. In the show, she is present in only one episode and is limited to PokemonSpeak.
** The third season, ''Outsiders'', does this to the Team itself. Having been the focus and driving force of the entire series beforehand, the focus shifts to the titular Outsiders, consisting of former Team members with additional recruits. They make sporadic appearances throughout the first thirteen episodes, and only have one [[ADayInTheLimelight episode of focus to themselves]], but even then it's more focused on Miss Martian.
%%Needs context about their previous roles** ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} and [[{{ComicBook/Icon}} Rocket]] in season 2, both of whom graduated to the Justice League. Ironically, both of them were the last to join the team in the first season.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': Many characters that were originally supposed to be prominent but weren't in the show are Jamie, Anton, Ocho, William, Juke, Molly, Hector, and Sussie. Tina Rex was also prominent in the first season and then stopped being prominent in the second. Rob initially fell victim to this but then became the main villain in Season 3 (as revealed in "The Void" and expanded upon in "The Nobody", he was banished to the Void because the universe thought he was a mistake). This has gotten to the point where in Season 6, several of these characters have not said a word all season, like Anton, Molly, and Juke (although Juke [[TheUnintelligible can't speak normally]]).

*** Principal Brian Lewis is an odd example. For the first five seasons, he was more of an incidental character. But starting in Season 6, he became an AscendedExtra to the point where two back to back episodes of Season 7 had him as the driving force for the main plot. However, it didn't take long for people to grow tired of him especially since he also underwent {{Flanderization}} by further emphasizing his complete recklessness and over time seemed to slowly become less of a character and more of an excuse to get his voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson to say the most asinine crap the writers could think of. So by the time of the show's final FOX season (where he only appeared twice in contrast to the previous three seasons which had him appearing a minimum of five times), Lewis essentially went back to being the incidental character he started off as while retaining his post-Flanderization "personality".

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'': [[Characters/AntManHeroes Hank Pym]] went from one of the core team members in the first season to a minor character that only appeared in about three or four episodes of the second (to be fair, Hank had to deal with personal problems).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'': Virtually every villain (except for Joker, Penguin, and arguably [[spoiler:Hugo Strange]]) got hit with this in later seasons - some (like Killer Croc) being reduced to bit players right after their ''debut'' episodes. Arguably reached its nadir in "Rumors", where the new VillainOfTheWeek captures ''the entire rogues gallery'' without much trouble, and when they later escape and attack Batman and Robin ''en masse'', all of them get taken out in a matter of minutes.

*** The Riddler rarely appeared much, but what episodes he did get were quite excellent and put a refreshing spin on the character. When the sequel series ''The New Batman Adventures'' rolled over, however, ol' Eddie got the shaft, despite getting a new character design more faithful to Creator/FrankGorshin's take on the character. You know that things are bad when the new Riddler's biggest role was in a ''Superman'' episode. Creator/PaulDini admitted in the "Art of..." book that they didn't use the Riddler often because his gimmick of using riddles was pretty hard to pull off in an action cartoon such as theirs. On the other hand, he had some truly spectacular moments in ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures'', set in the same universe.
*** Summer Gleeson (Vicki Vale in everything but name) appears in a pretty large number of episodes in the first two seasons, as well as the ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm Mask of the Phantasm]]'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanAndMisterFreezeSubZero SubZero]]'' movies. When the show was {{Retool}}ed as ''The New Batman Adventures'' for its final season, she made only two appearances, one of which is a non-speaking cameo.
*** Dick Grayson as Nightwing only made 7 appearances in all of ''The New Batman Adventures'', and only has a prominent role in three episodes ("[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE5YouScratchMyBack You Scratch My Back]]", "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE16AnimalAct Animal Act]]", and "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE17OldWounds Old Wounds]]").

*** Dana Tan in the second and third seasons, with the introduction of [[SpotlightStealingSquad Max]]. Went from being Terry's main "normal person" confidante and having a scene in almost every episode to mostly being a background presence who got tossed a few lines every now and then, except for the one episode where she got to be a DamselInDistress. Notably, she was (and remained) the {{Official|Couple}} ''{{Love Interest|s}}.''
*** Terry's little brother and mother, Matt and Mary [=McGinnis=], while not as prominent as Dana, also had less and less screentime as the series continued.

*** Franchise/TheFlash had no lines in the first season because of voice actor Michael Rosenbaum's commitments on ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' (though you may not notice simply on the basis that the cast is ''frickin' huge)''. He came roaring back for the second and third seasons though (in particular the SeasonFinale of the second season), and [[LampshadeHanging complained to a fellow Leaguer about not getting any respect despite being one of the original seven]].
*** The Big 7 in some extent suffers of this in the last season. Despite being the main characters, they only appear in less than half of the final thirteen episodes, with some episodes ("Patriot Act," "Grudge Match" and "Alive!") focusing on recurring characters instead.
*** Comicbook/{{Aquaman}} himself counts. Despite being one of the founding members of the [[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica League]] in the comics, he was replaced by Hawkgirl in the show. He appeared only sporadically, but this gave writers a way to logically work him into plots without running into the ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman [[NeverLiveItDown stigma]]. Then he outright vanished during the last season of ''Unlimited'', thanks to [[ExiledFromContinuity his rights being tied up in a potential live-action series]].
*** This befell Hal Jordan, too. In the comics, outside of a period mid-1990s to mid 2000s and some other brief periods, he's the main Franchise/GreenLantern. Here, he's mostly limited to a few cameos with his major roles going to either Kyle Rayner (his origin in getting the ring from a dying Abin Sur) or John Stewart (helping found the Justice League and getting Sinestro booted from the GLC, with the resultant personal enmity between the two).

** The TimeSkip in Season 5 naturally demotes several characters to a lesser role:
*** While still downplayed, Lori is a slightly straighter example. She used to be the sister with the most focus, having her own unique storylines as a result of almost being an adult and being the eldest of her siblings. By Season 5, she moves out of the house and starts attending college at Fairway University, established to be 3 hours away from Royal Woods. As such, she does not appear as much as she used to.

*** Kindergarten teacher Ms. Shrinivas, who used to be Lisa's teacher in Seasons 1-4, doesn't even show up anymore after Season 5, in which Lisa starts attending first grade. (Her new first-grade teacher, Miss Allegra, used to be Lana and Lola's teacher from Seasons 1-4, so she isn't affected.)

** Despite being a very prominent character in the ''Franchise/LooneyTunes'' franchise, to the point of being the SeriesMascot at some point, WesternAnimation/PorkyPig got hit with this in ''WesternAnimation/BabyLooneyTunes'' very badly, to the point that you can count how many times he showed up with one hand (not to mention the fact that he only showed up in songs, and as a result, he never spoke on the show ''at all''). Curiously enough however, his DistaffCounterpart and {{Love Interest|s}}, Petunia Pig, [[AscendedExtra became a main character]] later in the show's run.

** After being brought BackFromTheDead at the end of Season 6 (He was meant to be KilledOffForReal at the end of Season 5), Kenny started to become less and less prominent as the series went on [[AdvertisedExtra despite always being referred to as a main character]] alongside Stan, Kyle and Cartman. To be fair, there have been episodes [[ADayInTheLimelight in which the main focus was on him]], but there have also been episodes in which [[LivingProp he hasn't felt much different from the kids walking around the school in the background]], and there are some in which he hasn't even shown up at all. This was even {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by Mr. Mackey in the HalloweenEpisode of Season 22, [[Recap/SouthParkS22E5TheScoots The Scoots]], when he tells Kenny that they tend to forget about him sometimes. However, this is completely subverted in the Superhero themed episodes, where Kenny ends up being [[TheReveal the most important character of them all]].
** Downplayed with the boys themselves. Stan, Kyle and Kenny started to become less relevant to the series in favour of Randy, who essentially went from simply being Stan's father to an AscendedExtra with his own episodes once or twice per season. In certain later seasons, though, Randy is more or less [[SpotlightStealingSquad the main character]], with Stan and Kyle not having as much impact as they used to, and Kenny being DemotedToExtra. The same doesn't go for Cartman however, as many of the episodes from these seasons focus on both him and Randy.

** [[ThoseTwoGuys Alfonso and Ferguson]] were added by ExecutiveMeddling, and WordOfGod admits to [[CreatorsPest not liking them very much]]. By the second season they only appear in the background and never speak, which Star {{lampshade|Hanging}}s at one point. [[AllInTheManual The comics having her explain]] that she stopped interacting with them because of their immaturity and tendency to break her privacy. Their roles were essentially split between [[ManChild Sensei Brantley]] (Marco's other best friend) and [[HighSchoolHustler Janna]] (the other {{Muggle|s}} involved in their adventure). Tellingly, they were both [[EvolvingCredits taken out of the opening credits in Season 2]].

* Clawgrip got this bad in ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow''. A boss in the [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2 second game]], he was not only reduced to a mook, but a generic mook.

** King Koopa, of all characters, got this treatment in the ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld'' cartoon. After appearing in nearly every episode of the [[WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow first two]] [[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3 animated adaptations]], he had main roles in virtually half, and four episodes ''did not feature him at all!''
** The Koopa Kids suffered even worse from this fate after being the prominent minions in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3''. Their appearances in ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld'' became limited to the point where Kootie Pie, Kooky, Hip and Hop each had speaking roles in only ''one'' episode.

** Toby's suffered similar problems after the transition to [=CGi=]. In ''WesternAnimation/HeroOfTheRails'', not only does he get only one line, not only one word, but one '''Syllable'''. He was completely absent in ''WesternAnimation/TaleOfTheBrave''. Also gets demoted from the main cast in ''Big World! Big Adventures!'', due to the introduction of the aforementioned Nia and Rebecca.
** Duck. Before he disappeared altogether, from when the show started deviating from the books. His last starring role prior to "The Thomas Way" was Season 4's "Fish". Subverted following his return in Season Seventeen, where he has been getting regular key appearances.

** Rosie made regular appearances in the model seasons. Come the CGI transition, she has had only one spotlight episode, being reduced to quick cameos otherwise. As of ''WesternAnimation/JourneyBeyondSodor'', she gained a new red livery and has been slowly building up to having more regular appearances again.
** In season 4, Duke was a major focus of the first four episodes. For the rest of the season, he was relegated to the background. In addition, he didn't have a single role at all from that season onwards. Even now, he still hasn't made an appearance.

** After the transition to [=CGI=], Bertie the Bus's appearances became scarce. When he did show up, he was usually either avoiding an accident or in need of rescue after getting stuck or breaking down. Season 22 even marked the first time in the series where he was completely absent. Since Season 23, Bertie has been given more screentime, serving as the main non-rail vehicle for passengers on Thomas' branchline. Since [[TheBusCameBack Bulgy has also returned to Sodor]], Bertie also serves as the double-decker's [[{{Foil}} foil]].
** If one is inclined to count appearances from the ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' books that the TV Series is based on, Daisy the Diesel Railcar was prominently featured in them. However, her appearances in the television series were limited during the model era, [[CreatorsPest due in part to her model being troublesome to work with]]. As a result, Daisy appeared in two episodes from Season 2, and two more from Season 4 (counting one where she makes a cameo appearance), her role in the adaptation of "[[Recap/ThomasAndFriendsS3E14Mavis Mavis]]" [[AdaptedOut was taken by Devious Diesel]], and she made a brief (non-speaking) appearance in ''WesternAnimation/CallingAllEngines''. Since Daisy's return to the television series after ''WesternAnimation/SodorsLegendOfTheLostTreasure'', she has been featured more prominently, having three ADayInTheLimelight episodes in Season 20, three more in Season 21, and being seen in several other episodes as a supporting character.

** From the latter half of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' Season 2 onward, Raf suffered a rather diminished role compared to that of Jack, Miko, and Fowler. This is also seen in him getting the least amount of CharacterDevelopment throughout the series. A pity considering he made a great partner for Ratchet and had a strong showing in the first season.

** This happens to [[Characters/MarvelComicsStorm Storm]], of all people. She is a major character in the comics, one of the most recognizable members of the X-Men, and featured as one of the main cast members of nearly all the previous animated adaptations. In this adaptation, she's portrayed as a background character to give Wolvie a bigger role. In fact, there's no real reason for Storm's presence in this adaptation at all since she doesn't factor into any of the story lines and the episode where she rejoins the team has nothing to do with the overall plot. It's possible that the writers only threw her in because viewers are used to seeing her in the comics and other adaptations.
** To say nothing of Jean, who was reduced to nothing more than a plot device.

** Tubbimura was dealt with a similar fate like Katnappe in the second series. He speaks once and then remains a voiceless goon to be fought. Interestingly enough, his dog Muffin Face ends up having more lines than him, [[ItMakesSenseInContext being Jack and Wuya's therapist in several episodes]].

** Raimundo received this treatment in the second series, [[spoiler: which omits his entire character arc of becoming the leader the first series ended with]]. Here a single episode focused on him and even then, [[SpotlightStealingSquad Omi took up most of the plot]], not to mention he was the only monk not challenged to an individual showdown. He and Clay were essentially [[ThoseTwoGuys those two guys in the background]] for most of ''Chronicles''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': Many characters that were originally supposed to be prominent but weren’t in the show are Jamie, Anton, Ocho, William, Juke, Molly, Hector, and Sussie. Tina Rex was also prominent in the first season and then stopped being prominent in the second. Rob initially fell victim to this but then became the main villain in Season 3. This has gotten to the point where in Season 6, several of these characters have not said a word all season, like Anton, Molly, and Juke (although Juke [[TheUnintelligible can't speak normally]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'': [[MadScientist Dr. Weird]] and his assistant Steve weren't ''that'' prominent, but the {{Cold Open}}s of the first two seasons showed Dr. Weird often being the catalyst of the episode's problem through his inventions escaping his lab. In season 3, they were replaced by "Spacecataz" (cold opens focusing on the antics of the Plutonians and the Mooninites), and by season 4, cold opens were omitted entirely. While Dr. Weird does return to prominence in [[WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForceColonMovieForTheaters the movie]], the cold open to the season 8 premiere and a cameo in the final season's intro sequence are the only appearances he made after that.

*** Dick Grayson as Nightwing only made 7 appearances in all of ''The New Batman Adventures'', and only has a prominent role in three episodes ("[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE5YouScratchMyBack You Scratch My Back]]","[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE16AnimalAct Animal Act]]", and "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE17OldWounds Old Wounds]]").

* Scrooge, Mrs Beakley, and Launchpad all get hit with this in ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'', as the show has been changed to focus more on the adventures of Webby and the boys.

** Herman was introduced in Season 1 episode ''Bart the General'', and was originally intended to be a regularly recurring character with constantly changing explanations for how he lost his arm. Instead, he made sporadic appearances through Season 9 without having a single role as big as the one in his debut episode. After appearing in ''Treehouse of Horror VIII'', he disappeared for 15 years, spoke in two consecutive episodes in Season 24, and hasn't had a speaking line since.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'': [[ComicBook/AntMan Hank Pym]] went from one of the core team members in the first season to a minor character that only appeared in about three or four episodes of the second (to be fair, Hank had to deal with personal problems).
%%Needs context about their previous roles* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and ComicBook/IronMan only appear in a single episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersUnitedTheyStand'' each, while [[Characters/TheMightyThorThorOdinson Thor]] never shows up in person ''at all'' (though he is present in the show's opening sequence for some reason).

*** Sokka gets hit this among the previous show's main cast. Whereas the rest of main characters all play a relatively major supporting role in the show, Sokka is established as dead in the first episode and only appears in a single flashback sequence.

*** Sokka gets hit this among the previous show's main cast. Whereas the of main characters all play a relatively major supporting role in the show, Sokka is established as dead in the first episode and only appears in a single flashback sequence.

* This happened to a lot of the supporting characters in season 4 of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. The season shifted away from Korra's friends and family as she worked on her own personal journey to get better after she got mercury poisoned. BigBad Kuvira (who hadn’t been a major character before) became the season's {{Deuteragonist}} which was Tenzin's role beforehand, so his role decreased as a result. They also got an episode cut out of the budget at the last minute, causing the creative team to scrape together a clip show to not have to lay off people early, so this trope ended up happening in-universe, too, with several characters' roles from the previous seasons' exploits being downplayed in Varrick's retelling of them in the clip show.

** Plopper, Homer's pet pig from TheMovie, better known as [[Franchise/SpiderMan Spider-Pig]]. After the events of the film, he leaves the Simpson household without explanation and is instead a sporadically-seen background character (such as being used by Luigi to find truffles), despite still ostensibly being Homer's pet. It took him ten years after his introduction to play a major role in the show, in Season 28's "Pork and Burns."

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'': WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck is not only ''the'' BreakoutCharacter in the WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts, but also the heart and center of the ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'' by Creator/CarlBarks at which the series is loosly based. However, the creators decided that Donald was too big as a character and would probably oveeshadow Scrooge and Huey, Dewey and Louie thanks to his popularity, so Donald only appears in the five-part pilot and a few other episodes as guest star, while the triplets are moving in with Scrooge. {{Inverted|Trope}} in the [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017 reboot]], where Donald now is included as part of the main part.

** While Dr. Nick was never a major character, he'd usually have one or two speaking roles a season. He doesn't appear much past season 20, with his last important role being "Eeny Teeny Maya Moe". This is likely due to Dr. Hibbert's MoralDecay into less ethical treatments, meaning that having a separate "bad doctor" character was redundant. Dr. Nick's only speaking roles since are in "Judge Me Tender", "Replaceable You", "Treehouse of Horror XXIV", and "My Fare Lady", all of them only one or two lines. He also makes a silent cameo in "Pretty Whittle Liar" from season 33.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'': WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck is not only ''the'' BreakoutCharacter in the WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts, but also the heart and center of the ''ComicBook/DisneyDuckComicsUniverse'' by Creator/CarlBarks at which the series is loosly based. However, the creators decided that Donald was too big as a character and would probably oveeshadow Scrooge and Huey, Dewey and Louie thanks to his popularity, so Donald only appears in the five-part pilot and a few other episodes as guest star, while the triplets are moving in with Scrooge. {{Inverted|Trope}} in the [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017 reboot]], where Donald now is included as part of the main part.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': Many characters that were originally supposed to be prominent but weren’t in the show are Jamie, Anton, Idaho, Ocho, William, Clayton, Juke, Masami, Molly, Hector, Sussie, and Teri. Tina Rex was also prominent in the first season and then stopped being prominent in the second. Rob initially fell victim to this but then became the main villain in Season 3. This has gotten to the point where in Season 6, several of these characters have not said a word all season, like Anton, Molly, and Juke (although Juke [[TheUnintelligible can't speak normally]]).

*** Basically any supporting character from any point in the show's FOX run whether it'd be the early seasons or the later ones when the political edge was phased out more or less stopped appearing at all once the show moved to TBS. Some of them were never really important at all, but at least made small appearances frequently during the aforementioned era whereas now characters like Debbie Hyman and Hiko Yoshida (Toshi's mom) are lucky to even get so much as a background cameo.
*** Really the only supporting characters to still appear semi-regularly once the show moved to TBS are Steve's friends, Stan's co-workers at the CIA, Al Tuttle, and Principal Lewis (as well as some new characters like Billy, Dr. Kalgary, and Rogu), but even then their appearances are also scaled back when compared to the show's run on FOX.

*** The Riddler rarely appeared much, but what episodes he did get were quite excellent and put a refreshing spin on the character. When the sequel series ''The New Batman Adventures'' rolled over, however, ol' Eddie got the shaft, despite getting an entirely new character design more faithful to Creator/FrankGorshin's take on the character. You know that things are bad when the new Riddler's biggest role was in a ''Superman'' episode. Creator/PaulDini admitted in the "Art of..." book that they didn't use the Riddler often because his gimmick of using riddles was pretty hard to pull off in an action cartoon such as theirs. On the other hand, he had some truly spectacular moments in ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures'', set in the same universe.
*** Summer Gleeson (who was basically Vicki Vale in everything but name) appeared in a pretty large number of episodes in the first two seasons, as well as the ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm Mask of the Phantasm]]'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanAndMisterFreezeSubZero SubZero]]'' movies. When the show was {{Retool}}ed as ''The New Batman Adventures'' for its final season, she made only two appearances, one of which was a non-speaking cameo.

*** Franchise/TheFlash had no lines in the first season because of voice actor Michael Rosenbaum's commitments on ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' (though you may not notice simply on the basis that the cast is ''frickin' huge)''. He came roaring back for the second and third seasons though (in particular the SeasonFinale of the second season), and even [[LampshadeHanging complained to a fellow Leaguer about not getting any respect despite being one of the original seven]].

** Django was originally set up like he would be a part of the boys' main group, but after one DayInTheLimelight episode he was pretty much relegated to background shots.

** Downplayed with the boys themselves. Stan, Kyle and Kenny started to become less relevant to the series in favour of Randy, who essentially went from simply being Stan's father to an AscendedExtra with his own episodes once or twice per season. As of the most recent seasons however, Randy has pretty much [[SpotlightStealingSquad become the main character]], with Stan and Kyle not having as much impact as they used to, and Kenny, as mentioned above, being Demoted To Extra. The same doesn't go for Cartman however, as many of the most recent episodes focus on both him and Randy.

** Reporter Dave Shutton, who helps Bart and Lisa derail Mr. Burns' candidacy for governor in the season 2 episode "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" seems like he is being positioned as a major journalist character in the show, but beyond a few small appearances in subsequent episodes, he is quickly sidelined as Kent Brockman becomes the major reporter in Springfield. Likewise, Scott Christian, a straight laced newscaster, is also quickly demoted in favor of Kent Brockman. Ironically, Brockman himself was originally intended to be TheGhost.
** Early episodes feature far more recurring classmates and friends for Bart and Lisa, including Lewis, Janey, Richard, Sherri and Terri, Nelson's "weasels," and Wendell who never wind up doing much of note in subsequent seasons, instead mostly becoming filler characters for Springfield Elementary scenes. Lewis in particular could be seen hanging out with Bart and Milhouse in Season 1 episodes and had a bigger role than background characters like Wendell and Richard, but was demoted to background character as characters with more distinct personalities were added to the show. Lampshaded in a few episodes, such as "Das Bus," when Bart can't remember who's Lewis and who's Wendell.
** NewTransferStudent characters who were voiced by a CelebrityVoiceActor in their debut episode, but would reasonably still be in school afterwards, tend to slide into the background for crowd shots or classroom scenes. If they have any brief lines at all, they are usually done by a regular cast member. Examples include Jessica Lovejoy (Creator/MerylStreep), Allison Taylor (Creator/WinonaRyder), Alex Whitney (Creator/LisaKudrow) and Francine (Creator/KathyGriffin).
** Homer’s coworker Charlie, who was briefly treated as a third to the Lenny and Carl duo, now mainly functions as a prop in Power Plant scenes.
** Princess Kashmir, the stripper from "Homer's Night Out" in Season 1, weirdly enough, also seems to be something of an example — she featured prominently in early merchandise featuring the “extended cast” but is now entirely crowd filler, if that.

** In the first episode featuring the Springfield Mafia ("Bart the Murderer"), Fat Tony had three goons named Legs, Louie, and Joey. Legs and Louie would go on to appear in almost every episode featuring the Mafia. Joey had one brief speaking appearance in ''Homey the Clown'', and after that only as a background character in scenes with lots of mafiosos in them.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': Pretty much every character who doesn't frequently visit the Krusty Krab. For specific examples, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy used to make at least a couple of speaking appearances per season. Since the deaths of [[Creator/ErnestBorgnine their respective]] [[Creator/TimConway voice actors]], they only make non-speaking cameos in the background.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': Admiral Wulff Yularen was a major speaking character throughout Seasons 1 & 2. Then, he only had only two appearances in Season 3, one in Season 4 and none in Season 5. Ironic, since he is ''also'' the AscendedExtra: literally, he started as unnamed extra in ''Film/ANewHope'' and wasn't even given a proper name until the TabletopGame/StarWarsCustomizableCardGame in 1995.

* Nick was a somewhat relevant character in [[WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutron the movie]], even with just an InformedAbility. In ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'', he hardly gets any screen time and wasn't featured in any of ''WesternAnimation/TheJimmyTimmyPowerHour'' crossovers aside from a brief cameo in the third.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': Many characters that were originally supposed to be prominent but weren’t in the show are Jamie, Anton, Idaho, Ocho, William, Clayton, Juke, Masami, Molly, Hector, Sussie, and Teri. Tina Rex was also prominent in the first season and then stopped being prominent in the second. Rob initially fell victim to this but then became the main villain in Season 3. This has gotten to the point where in Season 6, several of these characters have not said a word all season, like Anton, Molly, and Juke (although Juke can't speak normally).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': Many characters that were originally supposed to be prominent but weren’t in the show are Jamie, Anton, Idaho, Ocho, William, Clayton, Juke, Masami, Molly, Hector, Sussie, and Teri. Tina Rex was also prominent in the first season and then stopped being prominent in the second. Rob initially fell victim to this but then became the main villain in Season 3. This has gotten to the point where in Season 6, several of these characters have not said a word all season, like Anton, Molly, William and Juke (although Juke and William can't speak normally).