History Main / ConclusionInAnotherMedium

* Following its cancellation by Disney, ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' received a licensed comic continuation with input from [[WordOfGod series creator Greg Weisman]]. The series was notable for ignoring the third season produced without his direction and exploring a different story arc. Licensing fees eventually led to the series being left unfinished, but Weisman was eventually able to continue it as a different comic book publisher over a decade later.

* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' actually got to make their movie and wrap up some outstanding plot lines after season 3. Thanks to its CashCowFranchise status, though, that movie [[PostScriptSeason didn't exactly end up being the end]].
* Following its cancellation by Disney, ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' received a licensed comic continuation with input from [[WordOfGod series creator Greg Weisman]]. The series was notable for ignoring the third season produced without his direction and exploring a different story arc. Licensing fees eventually led to the series being left unfinished.

* The finale of season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/DragonBooster'' promised that the adventures of Artha and Moordryd (and everyone else) will continue in ''[[NewSeasonNewName Dragon Booster: Academy]]'', which would also presumably wrap up loose ends such as Moordryd's betrayal of his father and Armageddon. The new season never appeared, so the producers gave a major DB fansite [[http://www.dragon-city.org/Dragon_Temple/dragon_booster_academy.htm an overview of the Academy.]] It's more of a "this is how the Academy works", rather than "this is what happens to Artha and Moordryd at the Academy", though.
* ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' was canceled after two seasons when [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4Kids]] took over its airing block in 2008. It even had a fairly archetypal SeasonFinale SequelHook of the "villain's hand claws its way up from the bottomless pit" variety. It was to have the story of the third season told in the (cumbersome-named) comic book tie-in ''Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century'', which was itself canceled a few months after the show (the 20th and last issue was in November 2008).
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' fans who want to see final battles against certain villains have to read [[ComicBook/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes the tie-in comics]] to do so. Most of the comics are written by the show's original head writer, Creator/ChristopherYost.
* After ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' was cancelled, it was given a theatrical finale, ''WesternAnimation/RecessSchoolsOut''. The show was subsequently renewed, then quickly cancelled again, thanks to Disney's 65-episode limit. ABC actually wanted to uncancel the show ''again'' when they noticed how high the reruns for the sixty-five were, and ordered another season, but Disney declined and three of the episodes were made into the direct-to-video ''WesternAnimation/RecessTakingTheFifthGrade''.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingArthurAndTheKnightsOfJustice'' was cancelled after only two seasons with NoEnding, but the SNES LicensedGame continued the Knights' mission beyond the series' endpoint.
* ''{{WesternAnimation/Wakfu}}'' found itself with a "conclusion" of sorts on {{UsefulNotes/Steam}}, with [[http://store.steampowered.com/sub/71022 The Quest for the Six Eliatrope Dofus]], which is [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/215080/ followed by]] a {{MMORPG}}.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brickleberry}}'' ended its run on a cliffhanger where humanity was taken over by alien cows. The conflict was resolved in a four-issue miniseries by Creator/DynamiteComics.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' concluded with "The Doomstar Requiem", a one hour special that was meant to conclude the fourth season and lead into the fifth and final one. But the creator, Brendon Small, got into a disagreement with Adult Swim over budget and ultimately broke ties with them leading the series to be cancelled. He did vow to get the rest of the story told and fulfilled it with his second ''Galaktikon'' album, ''[[Music/BrendonSmallsGalaktikon Galaktikon II: Become The Storm]]''. While it doesn't call the characters from the show by name, it does allude to who is who. [[note]]Long story short, the album covers the final fight between the band and Mr. Salacia aka the Half-Man who puts his final plan into action to take over the world. The voice from the ocean (implied to be a Goddess or the planet itself) finally make contact with the band to aid them. Murderface is nearly swayed to the Mr. Salacia's side, but ultimately stays with the band when they showcase they won't abandon him. They fight the Half-Man, win albeit not without a lot of destruction and set about rebuilding the world.[[/note]]

* The ''Film/SuperMarioBros'' film ended on a SequelHook that was left hanging for 20 years before it was picked up in the form of [[http://www.smbthecomic.com/ a webcomic]] by the original screenwriter and several fans.

* The [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime version]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' was concluded by the movie ''[[Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa Conqueror of Shamballa]]'', which wraps up many of the plot threads left dangling by the series. The same director did the same trick with ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00''.

** ...which didn't even adapt ''that'' right either, instead going in its own direction from the manga. To this day the "Revenge" arc had never been animated as intended, not even when the series got a brief revival as live action movies.

* Played straight ''and'' subverted with the 1999 adaptation of ''Manga/HunterxHunter''. The series originally [[OvertookTheManga overtook the source material]] before the York Shin Arc was even finished, but resolved the story with an OVA and moved on to the Greed Island arc before overtaking the manga ''again'', which finally resulted in the original anime being CutShort. Fortunately it was rebooted in 2011 by Creator/MadHouse. However, due to the author's frequent breaks, the 2nd anime ended with Gon finally finding his father and continuing on with his adventures.

* Despite its huge popularity, the anime adaptations of ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa'' rarely cover the arcs beyond the middle school nationals. The original 1987 anime adapts the elementary and middle school nationals, then follows with a series of OVAs titled ''Shin Captain Tsubasa'' that covers the Sub-15 World Cup. ''Captain Tsubasa J'' starts with a retelling of the first arc, before skipping to show the characters during their time overseas, ending with the Asian preliminaries before the World Youth. ''Road to 2002'' adapts part of the characters' story when they finally enter the professional stage, but again, it ends when Japan is about to start its final match against Brazil in the World Youth (and skipping ''huge'' chunks of other arcs in the process). Lastly, the 2018-2019 is a remake of the original series, covering only the elementary and middle schools arcs. Only time will tell if this will remain the case.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Because Gainax ran out of money, the original series [[GainaxEnding had an ending that resolved nothing aside from the main character's personal issues]]. Eventually, a more definitive ending was released in movie form, as "The End of Evangelion".

But some aren't that lucky. Sometimes the show's creator or the company that owns the character has to go elsewhere to continue the story. Sometimes that means "downgrading" to comics or novels. Sometimes they can wrangle straight-to-DVD movies or [[FullyAbsorbedFinale an episode of another related show]] or even more rarely they get a shot at the [[TheMovie big screen]].

** ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' fans know what ''really'' happened to the Soggies.

* After ''Series/{{Traveler}}'' was canceled, the series' creator, [=David DiGilio=], posted the outline of the rest of the story in his [[http://community.tvguide.com/blog/Celebrity-Blogs/Davids-Traveler-Blog/800048619 blog]].

* ''Series/MarryMe'' was cancelled before its first season finished. Even though the episodes were finished, they never aired in the USA, even on Creator/{{Hulu}}. [[spoiler: Overseas viewers did get all the episodes, and they ''did'' get married.]]

* ''Series/{{Space 1999}}'' had a wrap-up released in 1999, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_LC8229Xk Message from Moonbase Alpha]]". Although fan-made, it had the involvement of one of the original scriptwriters and had Creator/ZieniaMerton reprise her role as Sandra Benes.

* ''Series/{{Space 1999}}'' had a wrap-up released in 1999, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_LC8229Xk Message from Moonbase Alpha]]". Although fan-made, it had the involvement of one of the original scriptwriters and had Zienia Merton reprise her role as Sandra Benes.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. Because Gainax ran out of money, the original series [[GainaxEnding had an ending that resolved nothing aside from the main character's personal issues]]. Eventually, a more definitive ending was released in movie form, as "The End of Evangelion".

* The ''Manga/Reborn2004'' anime ended its adaptation at the end of the ''Future arc'' with Tsuna and company returning to the past. The manga however continued on with the ''Inheritance Ceremony arc'' in which the Vongola Guardians go on to battle against the Simon Family, and would eventually lead into the ''Curse of the Rainbow arc''; a battle royale amongst the Arcobaleno babies. Low ratings, atrocious Padding during the ''Future arc'', and dangerously closing the gap to the current manga chapter all took part in the anime's cancellation. Which is a shame since the ''Curse of the Rainbow arc'' is considered to be, overall, Reborn's best arc. It most likely won't be animated anytime soon.

* Played straight ''and'' subverted with the 1999 adaptation of ''Manga/HunterxHunter''. The series originally [[OvertookTheManga overtook the source material]] before the York Shin Arc was even finished, but resolved the story with an OVA and moved on to the Greed Island arc before overtaking the manga ''again'', which finally resulted in the original anime being CutShort. Fortunately it was rebooted in 2011 by Creator/MadHouse. However due to the author's frequent breaks, the 2nd anime ended with Gon finally finding his father and continuing on with his adventures.

* ''Manga/RaveMaster'' anime ended with the heroes fending off the Oracion Seis and finding that Lucia is former BigBad King's son who intends to take his place and destroy the world. The crew resolve to find the remaining Rave stones and Elie's past and head off for their next adventure. The anime was cancelled after that, and what happens afterward is revealed only in the pages of the manga.
* ''Manga/ZatchBell'' had its anime end with the Zeno arc, even though by that point it already OvertookTheManga by a significant amount because the author broke his hand. Though considering that the Clear Note arc is contemptuous at best and the long-awaited fight against Zeno feeling like a proper climax, this is arguably a good thing.

* One Advertising/TrixRabbit commercial had him hide some Trix Yogurt from the kids in a jungle, and jumble the ensuing hiding spot. The final clue was that he said it backwards, but the resolving commercial never came to pass. (If you’re curious, he hid it in [[spoiler:an elephant's trunk]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' was canceled very suddenly when Creator/{{Disney}} acquired the ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchise and did not want to ChannelHop the show to any of their networks as part of the acquisition, nor did they want to keep on Creator/CartoonNetwork, since this would basically allow Ted Turner to profit off of a Disney property. At this point, Season 5 just ended and multiple episodes up to Season 7 and possibly 8 were already in different stages of production. Much of that material was released in different forms:
** 13 episodes that were finished composed Season 6, which aired on Netflix and were released on DVD/Blu-Ray.
** 2 story arcs of 4 episodes each ("Crystal Crisis" and "Bad Batch") were released on [=StarWars.com=] with incomplete animation, but finished voice-over and sound effects.
** Events of 8 episode scripts were adapted into the ''Literature/DarkDisciple'' novel.
** Another 4-episode arc was adapted into ''ComicBook/DarthMaulSonOfDathomir'' comic mini-series.
** The series was UnCanceled for a seventh season released in 2020 with the "Bad Batch" arc's animation completed and a real SeriesFinale.

* ''WebAnimation/EpithetErased'', a loose adaptation of the creator's [=Roll20=] TabletopRPG campaign ''Anime Campaign'', had a single season that adapted only two of the source material's ten story arcs. Due to the steep cost of making an animated show and Creator/{{VRV}}'s lack of interest in funding further seasons, the series would continue on as a series of novels and audiobooks instead, with the first of these being ''Literature/EpithetErasedPrisonOfPlastic''.

* ''WebAnimation/EpithetErased'', a loose adaptation of the creator's [=Roll20=] TabletopRPG campaign ''Anime Campaign'', had a single season that adapted only two of the source material's ten story arcs. Due to the steep cost of making an animated show and Wesbite/{{VRV}}'s lack of interest in funding further seasons, the series would continue on as a series of novels and audiobooks instead, with the first of these being ''Literature/EpithetErasedPrisonOfPlastic''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' rather infamously got taken off the air before it could run its final season, partly because [[ExecutiveMeddling the execs didn't know how to handle or market a show that both boys and girls liked]] and partly because of Korra and Asami's bisexual relationship. Fortunately, ''TLOK'' was able to air the last season as a web series, and it did quite well, in no small part thanks to [[PortmanteauCoupleName Korrasami]] becoming [[OfficialCouple canon]] in the finale.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' rather infamously got taken off the air before it could run its final season, partly because [[ExecutiveMeddling the execs didn't know how to handle or market a show that both boys and girls liked]] and partly because of Korra and Asami's bisexual relationship. Fortunately, ''TLOK'' was able to air the last season as a web series, and it did quite well, in no small part thanks to said relatinship.

* The series finale of ''Series/{{ALF}}'' sees ALF about to be rescued by survivors of his home planet, Melmac. ALF is then captured by the Alien Task Force. The original airing actually even ended with a "To Be Continued." ALF was subsequently canceled, and the result was never seen. Years later, a TV Movie "Project ALF" was aired in an effort to tie things up.

* ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' has ''Season 4'', a direct continuation of the original series. The first issue, in fact, picks up immediately after the last televised episode with them transferring the (imprisoned) antagonist to another ship.

* ''Series/{{Jericho}}'' had a season 3 comic book.

* The first eight books of the ''[[HIVESeries H.I.V.E. series]]'' were published through Bloomsbury with reasonable regularity between 2005 and 2012, but the final installment wasn't published until 2021, and it wasn't published by Bloomsbury at all. Author Mark Walden founded his own publishing company, Noodle Fuel, and broke contract in order to produce a volume that wrapped up the story. It's unknown what CreativeDifferences or ExecutiveMeddling made the ending impossible to publish in the first place, but due to the fact that it started out as a children's series, it's almost certainly because [[spoiler: it became clear around the halfway mark of the series that the protagonist was headed towards a HeroicSuicide.]] The final traditionally published installment, book eight, gave a [[LeftHanging partial ending to some plots and character arcs]] and CutShort the series. Book nine, the ending the series was apparently always meant to have, [[spoiler: deals primarily with Otto's mental health, which has been atrocious for most of the series, as he contemplates and ultimately goes through with a HeroicSacrifice. Despite the fact that his consciousness is able to be saved and regrown into a new body at the very end, most of his narration is incredibly dark, and it's easy to see why it wouldn't be published in a middle-grade series.]]

* The first eight books of the ''{{HIVESeries H.I.V.E. series}}'' were published through Bloomsbury with reasonable regularity between 2005 and 2012, but the final installment wasn't published until 2021, and it wasn't published by Bloomsbury at all. Author Mark Walden founded his own publishing company, Noodle Fuel, and broke contract in order to produce a volume that wrapped up the story. It's unknown what CreativeDifferences or ExecutiveMeddling made the ending impossible to publish in the first place, but due to the fact that it started out as a children's series, it's almost certainly because [[spoiler: it became clear around the halfway mark of the series that the protagonist was headed towards a HeroicSuicide.]] The final traditionally published installment, book eight, gave a {{LeftHanging partial ending to some plots and character arcs}} and CutShort the series. Book nine, the ending the series was apparently always meant to have, [[spoiler: deals primarily with Otto's mental health, which has been atrocious for most of the series, as he contemplates and ultimately goes through with a HeroicSacrifice. Despite the fact that his consciousness is able to be saved and regrown into a new body at the very end, most of his narration is incredibly dark, and it's easy to see why it wouldn't be published in a middle-grade series.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons1983'' Saturday morning cartoon had its unproduced final episode script released to the internet; it was later performed as a "radio play" on the series DVD set. And no, it's not the script passed around on the Internet where they found out they were dead and the world of Dungeons & Dragons is the afterlife.

* The ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons'' Saturday morning cartoon had its unproduced final episode script released to the internet; it was later performed as a "radio play" on the series DVD set.
** And no, it's not the script passed around on the Internet where they found out they were dead and the world of Dungeons & Dragons is the afterlife.

Things can get more complicated if [[AuthorExistenceFailure the author dies]] before finishing his work, because (obviously) he won't continue the story anywhere. A PosthumousCollaboration may attempt to fill the void, by calling some new author to finish the story.