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* Creator/BrandonSanderson managed to do this with not just a trilogy, but a trilogy of trilogies. The Mistborn series was intended to be three sets of three books each, but after the first trilogy, he decided to write a short story, ''Literature/TheAlloyOfLaw'' set in between the first two trilogies. That short story became a full novel, and that novel became a series on its own, with three published books and a fourth book planned to come out soon.
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* Creator/BrandonSanderson managed to do this with not just a trilogy, but a trilogy of trilogies. The Mistborn series was intended to be three sets of three books each, but after the first trilogy, he decided to write a short story, ''Literature/TheAlloyOfLaw'' set in between the first two trilogies. That short story became a full novel, and that novel became a four-book series on of its own, with three published books and a fourth book planned to come out soon. own. The original "second" trilogy will now be the third era of the Mistborn franchise.
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* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries'': In the [[TheFifties early 1950s]], all of the stories from [[TheVerse the setting]] were [[OrwellianRetcon re-edited]] for publication as ''Literature/TheFoundationTrilogy''. Dr Asimov's publishers would repeatedly ask him for more stories in the ''Foundation'' setting, until he finally caved in and published ''Literature/FoundationsEdge'' in [[TheEighties 1982]]. At this point, he began consistently publishing {{Novel}}s in the setting every few years[[note]](his last, ''Literature/ForwardTheFoundation'', came out the year after his death)[[/note]]. Many of the newer stories also [[CanonWelding tie the original trilogy to other settings]], such as ''Literature/TheEmpireNovels'' and his ''Literature/RobotSeries''. Both he and his estate also [[OutlivedItsCreator authorized other authors to write additional works]] within the ''Foundation'' setting. The entire setting now covers over a dozen books, and ''The Foundation {{Trilogy}}'' now refers to only the original nine short works.
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* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries'': In the [[TheFifties [[The50s early 1950s]], all of the stories from [[TheVerse the setting]] were [[OrwellianRetcon re-edited]] for publication as ''Literature/TheFoundationTrilogy''. Dr Asimov's publishers would repeatedly ask him for more stories in the ''Foundation'' setting, until he finally caved in and published ''Literature/FoundationsEdge'' in [[TheEighties [[The80s 1982]]. At this point, he began consistently publishing {{Novel}}s in the setting every few years[[note]](his last, ''Literature/ForwardTheFoundation'', came out the year after his death)[[/note]]. Many of the newer stories also [[CanonWelding tie the original trilogy to other settings]], such as ''Literature/TheEmpireNovels'' and his ''Literature/RobotSeries''. Both he and his estate also [[OutlivedItsCreator authorized other authors to write additional works]] within the ''Foundation'' setting. The entire setting now covers over a dozen books, and ''The Foundation {{Trilogy}}'' now refers to only the original nine short works.
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* Creator/StevePerry's ''Literature/MatadorSeries'' started as a TwoPartTrilogy in TheEighties, ''The Man Who Never Missed'', ''Matadora'', and ''The Machiavelli Interface''. Perry penned a prequel in 1988, then another prequel, then three sequels, and finally an OriginsEpisode for the series' main FantasticFightingStyle after a thirteen-year hiatus.
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* Creator/StevePerry's ''Literature/MatadorSeries'' started as a TwoPartTrilogy in TheEighties, The80s, ''The Man Who Never Missed'', ''Matadora'', and ''The Machiavelli Interface''. Perry penned a prequel in 1988, then another prequel, then three sequels, and finally an OriginsEpisode for the series' main FantasticFightingStyle after a thirteen-year hiatus.
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* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries'': In the [[TheFifties early 1950s]], all of the stories from [[TheVerse the setting]] were [[OrwellianRetcon re-edited]] for publication as ''Literature/TheFoundationTrilogy''. Dr Asimov's publishers would repeatedly ask him for more stories in the ''Foundation'' setting, until he finally caved in and published ''Literature/FoundationsEdge'' in [[TheEighties 1982]]. At this point, he began consistently publishing {{Novel}}s in the setting every few years[[note]](his last, ''Literature/ForwardTheFountation'', came out the year after his death)[[/note]]. Many of the newer stories also [[CanonWelding tie the original trilogy to other settings]], such as ''Literature/TheEmpireNovels'' and his ''Literature/RobotSeries''. Both he and his estate also [[OutlivedItsCreator authorized other authors to write additional works]] within the ''Foundation'' setting. The entire setting now covers over a dozen books, and ''The Foundation {{Trilogy}}'' now refers to only the original nine short works.
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* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries'': In the [[TheFifties early 1950s]], all of the stories from [[TheVerse the setting]] were [[OrwellianRetcon re-edited]] for publication as ''Literature/TheFoundationTrilogy''. Dr Asimov's publishers would repeatedly ask him for more stories in the ''Foundation'' setting, until he finally caved in and published ''Literature/FoundationsEdge'' in [[TheEighties 1982]]. At this point, he began consistently publishing {{Novel}}s in the setting every few years[[note]](his last, ''Literature/ForwardTheFountation'', ''Literature/ForwardTheFoundation'', came out the year after his death)[[/note]]. Many of the newer stories also [[CanonWelding tie the original trilogy to other settings]], such as ''Literature/TheEmpireNovels'' and his ''Literature/RobotSeries''. Both he and his estate also [[OutlivedItsCreator authorized other authors to write additional works]] within the ''Foundation'' setting. The entire setting now covers over a dozen books, and ''The Foundation {{Trilogy}}'' now refers to only the original nine short works.
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* * Creator/SarahJMaas:
* ''Literature/ThroneOfGlass'': In it's original form as ''Queen of Glass'', hosted on [=FictionPress=], the story was told in three parts. When Sarah J. Maas re-worked the story into the formally published ''Throne of Glass'', the story was expanded to four books, plus a collection of short stories gathered into a single volume, ''The Assassin's Blade'', making it five books (it's recommended you read ''The Assassin's Blade'' to better understand things that happen later in the series). And then Maas expanded the story for a further three books; the seventh book, ''Tower of Dawn'', was originally meant to be a novella, but ended up as a full-length novel.
* ''Literature/ACourtOfThornsAndRoses'' was originally a trilogy, with the main storyline being wrapped up by the third book, ''A Court of Wings and Ruin''. Maas then released a novella continuing the story, ''A Court of Frost and Starlight'', then announced she would be writing more books in the series, albeit centered on the side characters, starting with ''A Court of Silver Flames''. There's also an [[SharedUniverse upcoming crossover]] with her other series, ''Literature/CrescentCity''.
* ''Literature/ThroneOfGlass'': In it's original form as ''Queen of Glass'', hosted on [=FictionPress=], the story was told in three parts. When Sarah J. Maas re-worked the story into the formally published ''Throne of Glass'', the story was expanded to four books, plus a collection of short stories gathered into a single volume, ''The Assassin's Blade'', making it five books (it's recommended you read ''The Assassin's Blade'' to better understand things that happen later in the series). And then Maas expanded the story for a further three books; the seventh book, ''Tower of Dawn'', was originally meant to be a novella, but ended up as a full-length novel.
* ''Literature/ACourtOfThornsAndRoses'' was originally a trilogy, with the main storyline being wrapped up by the third book, ''A Court of Wings and Ruin''. Maas then released a novella continuing the story, ''A Court of Frost and Starlight'', then announced she would be writing more books in the series, albeit centered on the side characters, starting with ''A Court of Silver Flames''. There's also an [[SharedUniverse upcoming crossover]] with her other series, ''Literature/CrescentCity''.
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* * Creator/SarahJMaas:
* ''Literature/ThroneOfGlass'': In it's original form as ''Queen of Glass'', hosted on [=FictionPress=], the story was told in three parts. When Sarah J. Maas re-worked the story into the formally published ''Throne of Glass'', the story was expanded to four books, plus a collection of short stories gathered into a single volume, ''The Assassin's Blade'', making it five books (it's recommended you read ''The Assassin's Blade'' to better understand things that happen later in the series). And then Maas expanded the story for a further three books; the seventh book, ''Tower of Dawn'', was originally meant to be a novella, but ended up as a full-length novel.
* ''Literature/ACourtOfThornsAndRoses'' was originally a trilogy, with the main storyline being wrapped up by the third book, ''A Court of Wings and Ruin''. Maas then released a novella continuing the story, ''A Court of Frost and Starlight'', then announced she would be writing more books in the series, albeit centered on the side characters, starting with ''A Court of Silver Flames''. There's also an [[SharedUniverse upcoming crossover]] with her other series, ''Literature/CrescentCity''.
* ''Literature/ThroneOfGlass'': In it's original form as ''Queen of Glass'', hosted on [=FictionPress=], the story was told in three parts. When Sarah J. Maas re-worked the story into the formally published ''Throne of Glass'', the story was expanded to four books, plus a collection of short stories gathered into a single volume, ''The Assassin's Blade'', making it five books (it's recommended you read ''The Assassin's Blade'' to better understand things that happen later in the series). And then Maas expanded the story for a further three books; the seventh book, ''Tower of Dawn'', was originally meant to be a novella, but ended up as a full-length novel.
* ''Literature/ACourtOfThornsAndRoses'' was originally a trilogy, with the main storyline being wrapped up by the third book, ''A Court of Wings and Ruin''. Maas then released a novella continuing the story, ''A Court of Frost and Starlight'', then announced she would be writing more books in the series, albeit centered on the side characters, starting with ''A Court of Silver Flames''. There's also an [[SharedUniverse upcoming crossover]] with her other series, ''Literature/CrescentCity''.
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* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''{{Literature/Foundation}}'': In the [[TheFifties early 1950s]], all of the stories from [[TheVerse the setting]] were [[OrwellianRetcon re-edited]] for publication as ''Literature/TheFoundationTrilogy''. Dr Asimov's publishers would repeatedly ask him for more stories in the ''Foundation'' setting, until he finally caved in and published ''Literature/FoundationsEdge'' in [[TheEighties 1982]]. At this point, he began consistently publishing {{Novel}}s in the setting every few years[[note]](his last, ''Literature/ForwardTheFountation'', came out the year after his death)[[/note]]. Many of the newer stories also [[CanonWelding tie the original trilogy to other settings]], such as ''Literature/TheEmpireNovels'' and his ''Literature/RobotSeries''. Both he and his estate also [[OutlivedItsCreator authorized other authors to write additional works]] within the ''Foundation'' setting. The entire setting now covers over a dozen books, and ''The Foundation {{Trilogy}}'' now refers to only the original nine short works.
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* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''{{Literature/Foundation}}'': ''Literature/FoundationSeries'': In the [[TheFifties early 1950s]], all of the stories from [[TheVerse the setting]] were [[OrwellianRetcon re-edited]] for publication as ''Literature/TheFoundationTrilogy''. Dr Asimov's publishers would repeatedly ask him for more stories in the ''Foundation'' setting, until he finally caved in and published ''Literature/FoundationsEdge'' in [[TheEighties 1982]]. At this point, he began consistently publishing {{Novel}}s in the setting every few years[[note]](his last, ''Literature/ForwardTheFountation'', came out the year after his death)[[/note]]. Many of the newer stories also [[CanonWelding tie the original trilogy to other settings]], such as ''Literature/TheEmpireNovels'' and his ''Literature/RobotSeries''. Both he and his estate also [[OutlivedItsCreator authorized other authors to write additional works]] within the ''Foundation'' setting. The entire setting now covers over a dozen books, and ''The Foundation {{Trilogy}}'' now refers to only the original nine short works.
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* Stephenie Meyer's ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' was originally envisaged as a duology: ''Twilight'' and ''Forever Dawn''. But Meyer decided to split the latter into multiple installments, to explain more about Jacob and the werewolves. Her publishers wanted her to stop at three books, but she ultimately took four to finish out the story. She has also written a prequel about one of the minor characters in the series, a gender swapped version of the original novel and another additional version of the first book from [[PerspectiveFlip Edward's point of view]]. Meyer mentioned in later interviews that she has plans for at least two more stories set in the Twilight Saga that will revolve around Edward's and Bella's daughter Renesmee becoming the focal character.
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* Stephenie Meyer's ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'' was originally envisaged as a duology: ''Twilight'' and ''Forever Dawn''. But Meyer decided to split the latter into multiple installments, to explain more about Jacob and the werewolves. Her publishers wanted her to stop at three books, but she ultimately took four to finish out the story. She has also written a prequel about one of the minor characters in the series, a gender swapped version of the original novel and another additional version of the first book from [[PerspectiveFlip Edward's point of view]]. Meyer mentioned in later interviews that she has plans for at least two more stories set in the Twilight Saga that will revolve around Edward's and Bella's daughter Renesmee becoming the focal character.
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* Jennifer A. Nielsen's ''Literature/AscendanceTrilogy'' has become this, with her planning on writing at least two more books in the series.
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* Jennifer A. Nielsen's ''Literature/AscendanceTrilogy'' ''Literature/AscendanceSeries'', originally a trilogy released from 2012-2014, has become this, with her planning on writing at least two more books that released in the series.2020 and 2021.
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* When Bernard Cornwell was inspired by the popularity of the ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'' television series to write some more novels, he wrote three books set prior to the Peninsular War setting of the existing novels. They were quickly dubbed the prequel trilogy by fans. Then he wrote two more. (Although as the first three concerned Sharpe's adventures in India and the other two dealt with the earlier part of the Napoleonic conflict, they seemed to have been rebranded the India trilogy.) In the end, he only moved on to other projects when he ran out of early 19th century wars for [[TheGump Richard Sharpe]] to fight in. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools The quality of writing remained consistently good throughout.]]
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* When Bernard Cornwell was inspired by the popularity of the ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'' television series to write some more novels, he wrote three books set prior to the Peninsular War setting of the existing novels. They were quickly dubbed the prequel trilogy by fans. Then he wrote two more. (Although as the first three concerned Sharpe's adventures in India and the other two dealt with the earlier part of the Napoleonic conflict, they seemed to have been rebranded the India trilogy.) In the end, he only moved on to other projects when he ran out of early 19th century wars for [[TheGump Richard Sharpe]] Sharpe to fight in. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools The quality of writing remained consistently good throughout.]]in.
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* ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'': It was a trilogy, then along came the announcement of a prequel. The page is still called "The Bartimaeus Trilogy", even after the release of the prequel. This is reasonably fair, though, as the prequel book is very much a self-contained story and only features two characters seen in the original novels: Bartimaeus himself and his long-time antagonist, Faquarl. That said, the series is now known officially for advertising/publication purposes, and on Wiki/TheOtherWiki, as ''The Bartimaeus Sequence''.
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* ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'': It was a trilogy, then along came the announcement of a prequel. The page is still called "The Bartimaeus Trilogy", even after the release of the prequel. This is reasonably fair, though, as the prequel book is very much a self-contained story and only features two characters seen in the original novels: Bartimaeus himself and his long-time antagonist, Faquarl. That said, the series is now known officially for advertising/publication purposes, and on Wiki/TheOtherWiki, Website/TheOtherWiki, as ''The Bartimaeus Sequence''.
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* Marie Lu's ''Literature/LegendTrilogy'' ended with a DistantFinale that proved conclusive but ''very'' [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]]. Four years later, Lu wrote two novellas that somewhat addressed this, but eventually decided to write a fourth novel, ''Rebel'', which provided the happy ending that fans longed for.
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* Marie Lu's ''Literature/LegendTrilogy'' ''Literature/LegendSeries'' ended with a DistantFinale that proved conclusive but ''very'' [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]]. Four years later, Lu wrote two novellas that somewhat addressed this, but eventually decided to write a fourth novel, ''Rebel'', which provided the happy ending that fans longed for.
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* Inverted with ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': when Tolkien finished it, it was in six 'books', with Tolkien wanting it published either all at once or possibly in two volumes. His publishers split it into three volumes ("trilogy" is inaccurate because it is still a single novel).
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* Inverted with ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': when Tolkien finished it, it was in six 'books', "books," with Tolkien wanting it published either all at once or possibly in two volumes. His publishers split it into three volumes ("trilogy" is inaccurate because of two "books" each. As a result, some fans would argue that the result shouldn't be called a "trilogy" at all, since it's one novel in three parts.
** Also {{Subverted}}: Tolkien started [[https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/The_New_Shadow a sequel]] to ''Lord of the Rings,'' set during the reign of Aragorn's son. He abandoned itis still a single novel).pretty quickly, unhappy with the [[HappyEndingOverride depressing tone]].
** Also {{Subverted}}: Tolkien started [[https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/The_New_Shadow a sequel]] to ''Lord of the Rings,'' set during the reign of Aragorn's son. He abandoned it
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* Creator/CassandraClare's ''Literature/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' provide a rather outrageous example. She originally only planned to write the first three books of ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments,'' but then expanded it to six books. It's particularly blatant because the main conflicts really do tie up in book #3; a secondary villain escapes and there's some MaybeEverAfter in the side pairings, but overall things are done. The last three books are a de facto SequelSeries. Since then we've added two completed trilogies [[note]]''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'' and ''Literature/TheDarkArtifices''[[/note]], two ongoing trilogies [[note]]''Literature/TheEldestCurses'' and ''Literature/TheLastHours''[[/note]], three anthology novels [[note]]''Literature/TheBaneChronicles'', ''Literature/TalesFromTheShadowhunterAcademy'' and ''Literature/GhostsOfTheShadowmarket''[[/note]] and a few other companion books, such as ''Literature/TheShadowhunterCodex''. Clare also hinted at one more planned trilogy, ''The Wicked Powers'', which will hopefully conclude the franchise. Since it started in 2007, there has been one ''Shadowhunter'' book churned out every year except 2015, when Clare instead published the ten short stories that got collected into ''Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy'' the following year.
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* Creator/CassandraClare's ''Literature/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' provide a rather outrageous example. She originally only planned to write the first three books of ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments,'' but then expanded it to six books. It's particularly blatant because the main conflicts really do tie up in book #3; a secondary villain escapes and there's because, aside from some MaybeEverAfter in the side pairings, but overall things are done. The everything is resolved; the last three books are a de facto SequelSeries. Since then we've added two completed trilogies [[note]]''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'' and ''Literature/TheDarkArtifices''[[/note]], two ongoing trilogies [[note]]''Literature/TheEldestCurses'' and ''Literature/TheLastHours''[[/note]], three anthology novels [[note]]''Literature/TheBaneChronicles'', ''Literature/TalesFromTheShadowhunterAcademy'' and ''Literature/GhostsOfTheShadowmarket''[[/note]] and a few other companion books, such as ''Literature/TheShadowhunterCodex''. Clare also hinted at one more planned Another trilogy, ''The Wicked Powers'', which has been announced and will hopefully supposedly conclude the franchise. Since it started in 2007, there has been one ''Shadowhunter'' book churned out every year except year[[note]]except 2015, technically, but that's when Clare instead published the ten short stories that got collected into ''Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy'' the following year.year[[/note]].
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* For the first two books, the ''Literature/TheLostYearsOfMerlin'' was advertised as a trilogy. With the third book, T.A. Barron claims that [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis Merlin himself]] told him that two more books would be needed, turning it from a "trilogy" to a "saga". Later, two new [[SequelSeries sequel]] trilogies (''Literature/TheGreatTreeOfAvalon'' and ''Literature/MerlinsDragon'') were written after, plus a guidebook that basically recaps everything. Nowadays the twelve books are marketed as the ''Merlin Series/Saga.''
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* For the first two books, the ''Literature/TheLostYearsOfMerlin'' was advertised as a trilogy. With the third book, T.A. Barron claims that [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis Merlin himself]] told him that two more books would be needed, turning it from a "trilogy" to a "saga". "saga." Later, two new [[SequelSeries sequel]] trilogies (''Literature/TheGreatTreeOfAvalon'' and ''Literature/MerlinsDragon'') were written after, written, plus a guidebook that basically recaps everything. Nowadays the twelve books are marketed as the ''Merlin Series/Saga.''
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** The French translations of large fantasy cycles almost never use the words "trilogie", or "tetralogie", or whatever, even when they were used for the original. This is because the publishers smelled the cash-cow and made it an habit to split each book into two, three, or even four parts. The French version of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' is currently a ''dodecalogy'' and this bizarro-version of the TrilogyCreep will eventually require the French speaking fans to shell upward of 200 euros just to get the completed series in paperback.
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** The French translations of large fantasy cycles almost never use the words "trilogie", or "tetralogie", or whatever, even when they were used for the original. This is because the publishers smelled the cash-cow and made it an habit to split each book into two, three, or even four parts. The French version of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' is currently a ''dodecalogy'' and this bizarro-version of the TrilogyCreep will eventually require the French speaking fans to shell out upward of 200 euros just to get the completed series in paperback.
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* The ''Literature/MaximumRide'' series was originally planned to end after ''Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports''. Many fans think that this should've happened, as it resolved everything except the Fang/Max subplot ([[spoiler:In that version of the plot, Jeb really was the voice]]), and there was a significant drop in quality after that book. ''Angel'' was supposed to be the next finale to the series, then the next book ''Nevermore'' was, and then ''Maximum Ride Forever'' was released.
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* The ''Literature/MaximumRide'' series was originally planned to end after ''Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports''. Many fans think that this should've happened, as it resolved everything except the Fang/Max subplot ([[spoiler:In that version of the plot, Jeb really Sports'', but then ''The Final Warning'' was the voice]]), released and there was a significant drop in quality after that book. then ''Angel'' was supposed to be the next finale to the series, then the next book ''Nevermore'' was, and then finally ''Maximum Ride Forever'' was released.Forever'', with a SequelSeries ''Hawk'' coming after.
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* L. Frank Baum tried to end the ''[[Literature/LandOfOz Oz]]'' series at the sixth book, stating that there would be no way to ever contact the Land of Oz anymore. That didn't happen, of course, and he wrote eight more books before dying, at which point the publishers handed the series off to Ruth Plumly Thompson.
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* L. Frank Baum tried to end the ''[[Literature/LandOfOz Oz]]'' series at the sixth book, stating that there would be no way to ever contact the Land of Oz anymore. That didn't happen, of course, and he wrote eight more books before dying, at which point the publishers handed the series off to Ruth Plumly Thompson.Thompson, and other writers after her. There are forty ''Oz'' books ("the Famous Forty") which can be considered "official."
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* Creator/OrsonScottCard, who discussed this trope above, is no stranger to this.
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* Creator/OrsonScottCard, who has discussed about this trope above, trope, is no stranger to this.
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* L. Frank Baum tried to end the ''[[Literature/LandOfOz Oz]]'' series at the sixth book, stating that there would be no way to ever contact the Land of Oz anymore. That didn't happen, of course, and he wrote eight more books before dying, at which point the publishers handed the series off to Ruth Plumly Thompson.
* Creator/OrsonScottCard, who discussed this trope above, is no stranger to this.
** ''Literature/TheTalesOfAlvinMaker'': The fourth book of going-on-seven opens with a chapter-length rant from the author that's titled "I Thought I Was Done" and justifies its existence by meandering into and out of setting background.
** ''Literature/EndersGame'' began as a novelette. When he tried to expand it into the novel ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'', he realized it would have a very slow, boring beginning--but if he stretched that beginning out even further, and turned it into a novel of its own, he'd be able to add details and character development and make it more interesting. Then his publisher accidentally wrote out a contract for "the Ender trilogy," and he had to [[DolledUpInstallment rewrite a planned standalone]] called ''Philotes'' into the third book. Then he realized just how long ''Philotes'' was, and split it into two books, ''Literature/{{Xenocide}}'' and ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheMind''. [[spoiler:Killing off the main character]] nearly ended the series, but then he realized the thousand-year TimeSkip between books 1 and 2 allowed for plenty of {{Interquel}}s. Now the series is up to double digits, including one that takes place during the TimeSkip at the end of the first book.
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''
** Creator/DouglasAdams' "trilogy" eventually ended with the fifth book, ''Literature/MostlyHarmless''. He [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] it by calling it a "trilogy in four parts" after the fourth book came out and an "increasingly inaccurately-named trilogy" after the fifth. The first three books go together quite well, and the last two seem a bit awkwardly tacked on. The fifth book seemed to be a case of TorchTheFranchiseAndRun, but he later revealed that [[CreatorBreakdown the ending was more due to his mood]] than anything and he regretted it. He would have un-torched the 'verse in a sixth book, [[DiedDuringProduction but alas, unfortunately]]...
** Eoin Colfer (writer of the Literature/ArtemisFowl books) has written ''Literature/AndAnotherThing'', making this a trilogy of six. The book emphasizes the idea of "no endings" throughout, and while it could be a conclusion to the series, it points furtively in the direction of an ongoing story. The book's cover states that it is "Part Six of Three".
** ''Literature/TheSalmonOfDoubt'', which contains excerpts from an additional ''Dirk Gently'' novel that Adams was developing at the time of his death, includes notes that he was beginning to feel ''Mostly Harmless'' was not the appropriate place to end the ''Hitchhiker's'' series (it was a bad CreatorBreakdown, ending with [[spoiler:all AlternateUniverse Earths destroyed and and 80% of the main cast dead.]]), and implies that ''Salmon'' would either have been retooled into the sixth part, or a {{crossover}}.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''{{Literature/Foundation}}'': In the [[TheFifties early 1950s]], all of the stories from [[TheVerse the setting]] were [[OrwellianRetcon re-edited]] for publication as ''Literature/TheFoundationTrilogy''. Dr Asimov's publishers would repeatedly ask him for more stories in the ''Foundation'' setting, until he finally caved in and published ''Literature/FoundationsEdge'' in [[TheEighties 1982]]. At this point, he began consistently publishing {{Novel}}s in the setting every few years[[note]](his last, ''Literature/ForwardTheFountation'', came out the year after his death)[[/note]]. Many of the newer stories also [[CanonWelding tie the original trilogy to other settings]], such as ''Literature/TheEmpireNovels'' and his ''Literature/RobotSeries''. Both he and his estate also [[OutlivedItsCreator authorized other authors to write additional works]] within the ''Foundation'' setting. The entire setting now covers over a dozen books, and ''The Foundation {{Trilogy}}'' now refers to only the original nine short works.
* When Bernard Cornwell was inspired by the popularity of the ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'' television series to write some more novels, he wrote three books set prior to the Peninsular War setting of the existing novels. They were quickly dubbed the prequel trilogy by fans. Then he wrote two more. (Although as the first three concerned Sharpe's adventures in India and the other two dealt with the earlier part of the Napoleonic conflict, they seemed to have been rebranded the India trilogy.) In the end, he only moved on to other projects when he ran out of early 19th century wars for [[TheGump Richard Sharpe]] to fight in. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools The quality of writing remained consistently good throughout.]]
%%* Creator/AnneRice's ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles''.
* Creator/MargaretWeis seems particularly prone to this:
** The ''TabletopGame/{{Dragonlance}} Chronicles'' trilogy received a fourth book, ''Dragons of Summer Flame'', which wasn't written until after several other series and standalone works had been made in the same verse. It was written 14 years after the third book, took place 30 years after, and didn't star any of the characters from the originals (though some of them did have supporting roles). Many feel that the only reason it was dubbed part of the ''Chronicles'' series was for [[DolledUpInstallment marketing purposes]].
** The ''[[Literature/TheDarkswordTrilogy Darksword]]'' "trilogy" by Weis and Hickman consists of four books. The fourth is written in a somewhat different style than the rest (taking place after a TimeSkip and being narrated by a new character), but does conclude important plot threads that the third book left dangling. There is also another book (Darksword Adventures) which is half novella set in the same setting as the trilogy, and half {{RPG}} system.
** Weis's solo series ''Literature/TheStarOfTheGuardians'' had its third book conclude with the main character rightfully crowned king and all the main characters getting what they deserved... Including the NominalHero, who faked his death and returned to a life of penitent obscurity in light of his now-dead OneTruePairing. Then Weis published a fourth book to clean ''them'' up. (And, even better, she then took her version of the MagnificentSeven to AscendedExtra levels by publishing a trilogy about ''them''! They're not really related, and main characters from ''Guardians'' rarely appear in ''Mag Force 7'', but, still.)
* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' is an interesting example. ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' was actually conceived as one long book, with the sequels ''Literature/DuneMessiah'' and ''Literature/ChildrenOfDune'' fitting directly after the first. ''Messiah'' was fleshed out while writing ''Dune'' and eventually became its own novel, which due to its expansion then warranted ''Children'' to be expanded as well and also became its own book. ''Literature/GodEmperorOfDune'' and the last two in the series, ''Literature/HereticsOfDune'' and ''Literature/ChapterhouseDune'' are genuine examples of a trilogy creep, though the fact that the story is now over ''10,000'' years past in the originals, it's fair to say that they're a trilogy of their own. [[DiedDuringProduction Before he died]], Herbert planned to write a seventh book which would've been the last of a trilogy, with ''God Emperor'' serving as a bridge between the first and second trilogies. With this all said, someone "found" notes in a safe/vault/deposit box supposedly with a lot of notes on how the series was supposed to end. What happened? A [[Literature/PreludeToDune prequel trilogy leading up to the original Dune]] novel. Followed by a [[Literature/LegendsOfDune pre-prequel to the whole series set in the distant past]]. And finally the [[Literature/SandwormsOfDune closure of the series]]... followed by [[Literature/HeroesOfDune more books in the form of interquels]](?). The canonicity is up for debate among fans.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' was supposed to be a trilogy. Eleven books later, [[DiedDuringProduction the author died]]. And what was meant to be the twelfth and final book has since expanded to form its own trilogy. At World Con 2008 Tom Doherty of Tor Books finally put this long-standing rumour to rest: it was originally planned to be six books when Robert Jordan proposed the series to him in 1984, before he even started writing the first book. It's also been stated that Jordan planned for it to be three but Doherty made it a six-book deal due to Doherty's knowledge that Jordan always wrote more than he thought he needed in the first place. Jordan's original plan was for Rand to get Callandor at the end of the first book.
* ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' also got a fourth book. The page was originally called ''The Inheritance Trilogy'' until the announcement. In this case, it's because the fourth book didn't expand the story, the third and fourth book just got too long to release as one. The last book is 866 pages long. The third book, ''Brisingr'', is another 750 pages so splitting it up was a logical choice. In 2018, a new series of short stories ''The Tales from Alagaesia'', which would continue the series, was announced.
* For many years there were three novels in Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's Literature/{{Earthsea}} setting, and they were called the Earthsea Trilogy. Then came ''Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea'', and the series was renamed to the Earthsea Cycle. "The Last Book of Earthsea" was followed by another novel. And that's without mentioning the short stories.
* The ''Literature/{{Belgariad}}'' was planned to be a trilogy ("Belgarion", "Ce'Nedra" & "Torak"). Eddings explains in ''The Rivan Codex'' that due to length and the publishing standards of large book chains at the time, his publisher convinced him to do a pentalogy instead. Then, when he was writing book four, he realised that he was going to have plenty of material left over, and the second pentalogy was planned. And when that wasn't enough, they went and planned a prequel, that in fact saw the light as two... Of two books each. ''Literature/TheElenium'', on the other hand, ''was'' a trilogy that received ''another'' trilogy of sequels.
* Creator/PiersAnthony lampshades this by marveling at how long the ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' "trilogy" has become in the afterword to one of the books. He then mentions the possibility of working on more books in the ''Apprentice Adept'' series, since that trilogy was "looking a little sparse" at only three books. It eventually reached seven. The first Xanth "trilogy" happens to have 27 books, with the last of these being titled "Cube Route" (and since 3 cubed is 27, this is another of Piers' in/famous puns). In fact, this seems to happen to Anthony a lot. The Cluster trilogy ended up being supplemented with two {{Interquel}}s. The ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'' series, though never a trilogy, ended up three books longer than originally planned. As for the Literature/ApprenticeAdept Trilogy - it's now two trilogies and a seventh standalone.
* Mickey Zucker Reichert's ''[[Literature/TheLastOfTheRenshai Renshai]]'' trilogy started out as a stand-alone trilogy. Then she wrote a sequel trilogy. And then she wrote a sequel to the sequel trilogy.
* Mostly averted by Creator/TadWilliams; his novels are about as {{Doorstopper}} as they come, but his series last exactly the number of books that he intends them to last. However, ''To Green Angel Tower'' (of the ''Literature/MemorySorrowAndThorn'' trilogy) was split into two books for the paperback edition and at least one translation. This inadvertently happened with another trilogy of his, in that the book became so huge that it had to be split in half. It's not so much "trilogy creep" as "trilogy overflow."
* Creator/RobertRankin's ''Brentford Trilogy'' has seven books. The ''Armageddon'' series, perhaps in reference to this, is called an Octology, despite there only being three books in it.
* Creator/StephenKing declared in his afterword to ''Literature/TheGunslinger'' that he foresaw ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' eventually comprising six to seven novels, spanning 3,000 or so pages, and taking anywhere from 20 to 300 years to write. He made good on the ''letter'' of his promise; the finished series is seven books and runs a little over 3,000 pages, but the series itself [[CanonWelding spilled over]] into over a dozen of his other novels, which amounts to tens of thousands of pages overall.
* In the foreword for ''Literature/BlandingsCastle'', Creator/PGWodehouse jokes about this by referring to the 'saga affliction' that grabs the attentions of unwary authors and forces them to think up more and more ideas for what was intended to be just one story.
* John Marsden's ''[[Literature/TheTomorrowSeries Tomorrow, When the War Began]]'' series was originally a very tightly written trilogy, that afterwards ended up seven books. There is also a post-war series, which did actually manage to end at three books, but effectively forms part of a single narrative bridging all ten volumes.
* Creator/RaymondEFeist's ''[[Literature/TheRiftwarCycle Riftwar Saga]]'' was written as a trilogy (''Magician'', ''Silverthorn'', ''A Darkness at Sethanon''). The first book was [[ExecutiveMeddling edited for size]] by the US publisher. Later, for the paperback edition the original content was restored, but the resulting text was split into two books (''Magician: Apprentice'' and ''Magician: Master''). The UK publisher still produces ''Magician'' as a single volume.
* Creator/JohnChristopher's ''Literature/TheTripods'' had a prequel added to it about 20 years after the original. This was not a bad story ''by itself'', but some felt it was a poor fit to the classic series.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** The saga was originally slated to be three books. By the end of book two, Creator/GeorgeRRMartin realized he couldn't do it in three, and so expanded it to four. Since then, he's expanded that to six, and then splitting the fourth book in two, making it seven. If he can keep it that way, it would be fortuitous, as within the world of the books seven is an important number.
** The French translations of large fantasy cycles almost never use the words "trilogie", or "tetralogie", or whatever, even when they were used for the original. This is because the publishers smelled the cash-cow and made it an habit to split each book into two, three, or even four parts. The French version of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' is currently a ''dodecalogy'' and this bizarro-version of the TrilogyCreep will eventually require the French speaking fans to shell upward of 200 euros just to get the completed series in paperback.
** In the UK, books three and five of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' were each published in two parts, so as of 2012, there are already seven books in the series.
** ''Literature/FireAndBlood'' was supposed to be one book and released after the final installment of ''ASOIAF''. But the book grew too large, while the main series kept getting delayed, so Martin decided to split it in two, then release the first half before ''The Winds of Winter'' is released.
* Creator/JohnScalzi's ''Literature/OldMansWar" trilogy has now gained a fourth book, retelling the events of the third book from another character's POV.
* Stephenie Meyer's ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' was originally envisaged as a duology: ''Twilight'' and ''Forever Dawn''. But Meyer decided to split the latter into multiple installments, to explain more about Jacob and the werewolves. Her publishers wanted her to stop at three books, but she ultimately took four to finish out the story. She has also written a prequel about one of the minor characters in the series, a gender swapped version of the original novel and another additional version of the first book from [[PerspectiveFlip Edward's point of view]]. Meyer mentioned in later interviews that she has plans for at least two more stories set in the Twilight Saga that will revolve around Edward's and Bella's daughter Renesmee becoming the focal character.
* Lynn Flewelling's ''Literature/{{Nightrunner}}'' series gained a fourth book years after the first three were originally published, but this wasn't a change of plan: book three had an author's note explicitly stating that "This is not a fantasy trilogy; it's a series that happens at the moment to be three books long".
* David Gerrold originally planned for his ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr'' series to be a trilogy, before he realized he was going to need more room. It's currently up to four books.
* Creator/RobertLudlum's ''Literature/TheBourneSeries'' has a clear ending in book three, as [[spoiler:Bourne/Webb finally kills his nemesis Carlos the Jackal]]. After Ludlum's death, Eric van Lustbader continued the series. He ended up writing ''eleven'' books before the series was handed over to Brian Freeman. Interestingly [[Film/TheBourneSeries the film adaptations of the books]], which bear only the most superficial resemblance to their source material, also provide a definite ending in [[Film/TheBourneUltimatum the third entry]]. But then they made [[Film/TheBourneLegacy two more]] [[Film/JasonBourne films]].
* Anne Bishop's [[Literature/BlackJewels The Black Jewels Trilogy]] has six books (and a short story/novella) collection. Averted in that the first three books are a coherent trilogy (all with titles Noun of the Noun), followed by a prequel, followed by the collection which has prequel, inter, and epilogue stories, followed by two epilogue novels.
* The ''Literature/MaximumRide'' series was originally planned to end after ''Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports''. Many fans think that this should've happened, as it resolved everything except the Fang/Max subplot ([[spoiler:In that version of the plot, Jeb really was the voice]]), and there was a significant drop in quality after that book. ''Angel'' was supposed to be the next finale to the series, then the next book ''Nevermore'' was, and then ''Maximum Ride Forever'' was released.
* Diana Gabaldon's ''Literature/{{Outlander}}'' was originally supposed to be two books, then three, then four, then a double-trilogy. The seventh book came out in Fall 2009. The author never explicitly said to her publishers that it was ''supposed'' to be a trilogy-- only that she had at least two more books after the first in her, and she ran with that. Several of the Lord John stories exhibit short story creep, since Gabaldon's idea of a [[{{Doorstopper}} short]] story grew into a publisher's idea of a complete novel.
* Creator/HarryTurtledove, particularly since it was unexpected: his [[Literature/{{Timeline191}} TL-191]] series started with a one-off prequel, ''How Few Remain'', then a trilogy called ''The Great War''. All of which fitted the planned releases that had been "Coming Soon" in the fronts of his novels for years. Then suddenly the one round-up book that would have dealt with events later on, called ''The Great War: Settling Accounts'', grew to '''seven huge books''', the ''American Empire'' trilogy and then the ''Settling Accounts'' tetralogy. The vast amount of padding and repetition involved in these seven, along with what is broadly considered to be a significant decline in writing quality, has led [[Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom some]] to accuse Turtledove of deliberately writing {{Doorstopper}}s to put his kids through college.
* Jane Yolen's ''Pit Dragon Trilogy'' became the ''Literature/PitDragonChronicles'' when a fourth book was released... [[SequelGap over two decades after the trilogy "ended."]]
* ''Literature/TheEmigrants'' by Vilhelm Moberg was originally intended as a trilogy, but the third book was split into two. It is even more noticable in the original Swedish titles, where the fourth book has an OddNameOut (''The Emigrants'' about leaving Sweden, ''The Immigrants'' about arriving in America and traveling to where land is handed out, ''The Settlers'' about starting up farming in a new country - and ''The Last Letter Home'' continues that story). The second book is normally called ''Unto a Good Land'' in English.
* Scott Westerfeld dedicated "[[Literature/{{Uglies}} Extras]]" to "everyone who wrote to me to reveal the secret definition of the word 'trilogy'". Proving Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, "Extras" is essentially a companion piece with some trilogy characters as {{Special Guest}}s.
* Chris Walley's ''Literature/LambAmongTheStars'' trilogy is actually an {{aversion}} in that when the third book was written and found to be a {{Doorstopper}}, Walley went back and edited the first two books into a single book. The new third book ends the series in such a way that it would be incredibly difficult to continue it. This was a case of subverted ExecutiveMeddling, since Tyndale asked him to do it. Subverted in that having three similar-sized books works much better than two small and then two large.
* Creator/CassandraClare's ''Literature/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' provide a rather outrageous example. She originally only planned to write the first three books of ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments,'' but then expanded it to six books. It's particularly blatant because the main conflicts really do tie up in book #3; a secondary villain escapes and there's some MaybeEverAfter in the side pairings, but overall things are done. The last three books are a de facto SequelSeries. Since then we've added two completed trilogies [[note]]''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'' and ''Literature/TheDarkArtifices''[[/note]], two ongoing trilogies [[note]]''Literature/TheEldestCurses'' and ''Literature/TheLastHours''[[/note]], three anthology novels [[note]]''Literature/TheBaneChronicles'', ''Literature/TalesFromTheShadowhunterAcademy'' and ''Literature/GhostsOfTheShadowmarket''[[/note]] and a few other companion books, such as ''Literature/TheShadowhunterCodex''. Clare also hinted at one more planned trilogy, ''The Wicked Powers'', which will hopefully conclude the franchise. Since it started in 2007, there has been one ''Shadowhunter'' book churned out every year except 2015, when Clare instead published the ten short stories that got collected into ''Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy'' the following year.
* ''Literature/TheIcemarkChronicles'' was originally supposed to be a trilogy, but the author has announced he intends on writing a fourth, set before the trilogy.
* The first three books of ''Literature/TheLastDragonChronicles'' form a definite trilogy, with a complete story, and a ''very'' definite ending. The rest do continue it, but begin a new story arc altogether.
* The Literature/SecretHistories series was originally planned to be a trilogy, but the series proved so popular that Creator/SimonRGreen decided to make it into an ongoing series.
* From Creator/JohnRingo:
** His ''Literature/TroyRising'' series was originally planned to be a trilogy, but word on the Ringo forum on [[Creator/BaenBooks Baen's Bar]] is that his Muse is insisting on continuing the series, much to the joy of many of his readers. The current plan is for five books total, unless Ringo's Muse insists on more.
** As mentioned in the foreword for ''Strands of Sorrow'', there were originally only supposed to be three main books in the ''Literature/BlackTideRising'' series, with at least one collection of short stories written by various writers set in the Black Tide Rising universe, but Ringo's Muse wouldn't let go, and at the insistence of a wife that was getting tired of his pacing around ''Strands'' was written.
* Meg Cabot's ''Literature/ThePrincessDiaries'' series was planned to be a trilogy, and the first three books do make for a complete story, but Cabot kept writing books until they reached the number of ten, not counting spin-offs.
* The "The New Prophecy" arc in ''Literature/WarriorCats'' was conceived of as a spin-off trilogy, but turned into a six-book sequel series.
* ''Mattimeo'', the third book in the ''{{Literature/Redwall}}'' series, ended on a note that was clearly supposed to be a wrap-up. Trouble is, author Brian Jacques got addicted to the universe he'd been writing in and had written 22 books (plus additional material) by the time he died.
* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'': ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' was originally intended to be a single, self-contained story. Then Lewis decided to write [[Literature/PrinceCaspian a sequel]]. Then he wrote [[Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader a third book]], and made sure to make it very "final": the characters sail over the edge of the world and find themselves in Aslan's (i.e. God's) country, the two protagonists remaining from the first book are told that they will not be returning to Narnia, and Aslan reveals to them his full glory. He ended up [[Literature/TheSilverChair writing]] [[Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy more]] [[Literature/TheMagiciansNephew books]], but stopped at [[Literature/TheLastBattle seven]], deciding it was a good number to end on.
* Just before ''Silence'' -- the third book of the ''Literature/HushHush'' trilogy -- came out, the author announced that she would be writing a fourth book (''Finale'') too.
* Creator/SergeyLukyanenko originally just wrote ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' as a single novel. Following its success (in Russian-speaking countries), he continued with ''Day Watch'' and ''Twilight Watch'', with the co-author of ''Day Watch'' writing a spin-off featuring none of the main characters. Then followed ''Final Watch''... and ''New Watch''. Many fans agree that the series has long ago [[JumpingTheShark jumped the shark]]. In 2014 Lukyanenko published ''Sixth Watch'', stating it to be [[ExactWords "the last novel about the magician Anton"]], and where [[RefugeInAudacity shark jumping]] [[WorldOfHam became a spectator sport]]. Earlier the same year he turned the series into a SharedUniverse, inviting younger authors and promising strict quality control over what gets published. As of 2015 fans' reaction to new collaborations is still mixed and undecided.
* Creator/SpikeMilligan's war memoirs started with ''Literature/AdolfHitlerMyPartInHisDownfall'' and were planned as a trilogy. Eventually, there were seven books, extending out significantly beyond the actual war.
* Averted with ''Literature/TheLightbringerSeries''. The author intended for it to be a trilogy, but purposefully named it "Series" just in case he went over. And indeed, he later started with a fourth... and a fifth.
* Brian Lumley's ''Literature/{{Necroscope}}'' series was supposed to be a trilogy, and book three does have a fairly solid BittersweetEnding, but then he figured it was too much of a downer and wrote two more books which ended the series on another bittersweet ending. This was expanded by another three books (''Necroscope: Vampire World'') providing ''another'' bittersweet ending to the series. Which was then continued in a pair of {{Interquel}} works which ended on a flat out DownerEnding just to shake things up. Finally another three books followed in which, not only was there another bittersweet ending, but also Lumley decided to TorchTheFranchiseAndRun. Which closed out the former trilogy on book ''thirteen''. Except for the novella, short stories, and another {{Interquel}} book he later wrote.
* S. Andrew Swann's Literature/MoreauSeries had a fourth book, ''Fearful Symmetries'', added on five years after the original trilogy was completed.
* Lois Lowry's ''Literature/TheGiver'' (1993) had two sequels, ''Literature/GatheringBlue'' (2000) and ''Literature/{{Messenger}}'' (2004), and was fittingly referred to as "the ''Giver'' trilogy" for eight years. Eight years later, ''Literature/{{Son}}'' was released, definitively tying up loose ends and making it a quartet.
* ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'': It was a trilogy, then along came the announcement of a prequel. The page is still called "The Bartimaeus Trilogy", even after the release of the prequel. This is reasonably fair, though, as the prequel book is very much a self-contained story and only features two characters seen in the original novels: Bartimaeus himself and his long-time antagonist, Faquarl. That said, the series is now known officially for advertising/publication purposes, and on Wiki/TheOtherWiki, as ''The Bartimaeus Sequence''.
* An odd case in the case of the Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy. The first book set up the story, the second was more or less a PerspectiveFlip from Teera's POV, the third dealt with the fallout of the events on the first two books. But... Snyder decided to play DeathByNewberyMedal on a lead character and realized she shot herself in the foot. Then, a software designer shows up, wanting to make an adaptation of her books. Cue what was perhaps the first video game to be called a {{canon}} sequel.
* Inverted with ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': when Tolkien finished it, it was in six 'books', with Tolkien wanting it published either all at once or possibly in two volumes. His publishers split it into three volumes ("trilogy" is inaccurate because it is still a single novel).
* Early editions of ''[[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians The Lightning Thief]]'' and ''The Sea of Monsters'' had "Percy Jackson & the Olympians '''Trilogy'''" written on their spines. There ended up being 5 books in the series, plus [[Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus a sequel pentalogy featuring characters from the original pentalogy]], plus two spinoff trilogies exploring the [[Literature/TheKaneChronicles Egyptian]] and [[Literature/MagnusChaseAndTheGodsOfAsgard Norse]] mythologies, ''[[RunningGag plus]]'' [[Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo a second Greek sequel pentalogy starring a new protagonist]]. And that's not mentioning the myriad short stories, crossovers, and supplementary materials that Creator/RickRiordan churns out every so often.
* Philip Pullman's ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' series was originally a trilogy. It was followed a few years later with two novellas, ''Lyra's Oxford'' and ''Once Upon a Time in the North'', and another full novel, ''The Book of Dust'', was expected... and ended up morphing into a trilogy of its own.
* For the first two books, the ''Literature/TheLostYearsOfMerlin'' was advertised as a trilogy. With the third book, T.A. Barron claims that [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis Merlin himself]] told him that two more books would be needed, turning it from a "trilogy" to a "saga". Later, two new [[SequelSeries sequel]] trilogies (''Literature/TheGreatTreeOfAvalon'' and ''Literature/MerlinsDragon'') were written after, plus a guidebook that basically recaps everything. Nowadays the twelve books are marketed as the ''Merlin Series/Saga.''
* When the first novel of the ''Literature/WindAndSparks'' cycle was published, Alexey Pehov said that the story got too long for a single book, but he'd wrap it up in the second one. Then in the third. It ended up as four novels and two prequel short stories. The irony? It was inspired by ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' (but less epic, a bit darker, much snarkier), with a helping of ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' and ''Literature/GarrettPI''.
* A 1979 boxed set refers to ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime'' and its sequels ''A Wind in the Door'' and ''A Swiftly Tilting Planet'' as the Time Trilogy. Officially it's the Time Quartet (as of ''Many Waters)'' or the Time Quintet (including ''An Acceptable Time)''.
* ''Literature/MissPeregrinesHomeForPeculiarChildren'' was a trilogy, everything nicely wrapped up in ''Library of Souls''. Nobody was really expecting another installment; however, ''A Map of Days'' was released in October 2018. This book is said to be the start of a new trilogy, but it takes place following the events of the third book and features the same characters on a new adventure.
* Lucy and Creator/StephenHawking originally intended ''Literature/GeorgesSecretKeyToTheUniverse'' to be a trilogy. However, in 2014 a fourth book was published, and the series went on to be six books long. However, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools books 4-6 are arguably even better than the first three]].
* The original ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety'' series featuring Reynie, Sticky, Kate and Constance could be considered a trilogy (the final book having been released in 2009), as the other two books were a prequel set well before their adventures and a supplementary book of puzzles and games and such. However, on September 24, 2019, a new title was released featuring more of the adventures of the Mysterious Benedict Society as well as a new member, ''The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages''.
* Creator/AnthonyHorowitz intended to end the ''Literature/AlexRider'' series in 2011 with the ninth book, ''Scorpia Rising'' (barring a prequel focusing on the backstory of Yassen Gregorovich, a character from the first and fourth books), in part because he was worried he was running out of ideas. However, a few years later his publishers decided to collect a number of short stories set in the series' universe previously published in magazines, newspapers and other stories together in a new anthology, and Horowitz felt some of them were too short or sketchy to justify such a release and rewrote them to make them more substantial. The rewriting went well, and Horowitz decided to write a few new short stories for the collection as well. The first new story became one of his favourite things he'd ever written, and he realised that he missed writing for the characters so much, and that he still had plenty of ideas, and he decided to revive the series with an entirely new novel, ''Never Say Die'' (released in 2017). He expects there to be at least two more books in the series after that.
* Victoria Aveyard originally planned for ''Literature/RedQueen'' to be a trilogy, but she eventually settled on a tetralogy, plus two short story collections.
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' ended up taking this path when in 2019, Creator/SuzanneCollins announced out of nowhere that she was writing [[Literature/TheBalladOfSongbirdsAndSnakes a new entry]] to the series. To be fair, it ended up being a prequel, so the books focusing on Katniss Everdeen remain a trilogy.
* Creator/StevePerry's ''Literature/MatadorSeries'' started as a TwoPartTrilogy in TheEighties, ''The Man Who Never Missed'', ''Matadora'', and ''The Machiavelli Interface''. Perry penned a prequel in 1988, then another prequel, then three sequels, and finally an OriginsEpisode for the series' main FantasticFightingStyle after a thirteen-year hiatus.
* ''Poor Unfortunate Soul'' was advertised as the last novel in a ''Literature/ATaleOf'' trilogy when it was released, but it ended with a SequelHook and ''Mistress of All Evil'' arrived the following year.
* Jennifer A. Nielsen's ''Literature/AscendanceTrilogy'' has become this, with her planning on writing at least two more books in the series.
* Marie Lu's ''Literature/LegendTrilogy'' ended with a DistantFinale that proved conclusive but ''very'' [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]]. Four years later, Lu wrote two novellas that somewhat addressed this, but eventually decided to write a fourth novel, ''Rebel'', which provided the happy ending that fans longed for.
* Creator/BrandonSanderson managed to do this with not just a trilogy, but a trilogy of trilogies. The Mistborn series was intended to be three sets of three books each, but after the first trilogy, he decided to write a short story, ''Literature/TheAlloyOfLaw'' set in between the first two trilogies. That short story became a full novel, and that novel became a series on its own, with three published books and a fourth book planned to come out soon.
* ''Literature/Aeon14'' is a pre-planned version. ''Destiny Lost'', now the transition point between ''The Intrepid Saga'' and ''The Orion War'', was the first book M.D. Cooper completed. However, she felt ''The Intrepid Saga'' was necessary to establish Tanis Richards and the fundamentals of the setting, so that trilogy came out first and the rest of the SharedUniverse built on it.
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* Creator/OrsonScottCard, who discussed this trope above, is no stranger to this.
** ''Literature/TheTalesOfAlvinMaker'': The fourth book of going-on-seven opens with a chapter-length rant from the author that's titled "I Thought I Was Done" and justifies its existence by meandering into and out of setting background.
** ''Literature/EndersGame'' began as a novelette. When he tried to expand it into the novel ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'', he realized it would have a very slow, boring beginning--but if he stretched that beginning out even further, and turned it into a novel of its own, he'd be able to add details and character development and make it more interesting. Then his publisher accidentally wrote out a contract for "the Ender trilogy," and he had to [[DolledUpInstallment rewrite a planned standalone]] called ''Philotes'' into the third book. Then he realized just how long ''Philotes'' was, and split it into two books, ''Literature/{{Xenocide}}'' and ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheMind''. [[spoiler:Killing off the main character]] nearly ended the series, but then he realized the thousand-year TimeSkip between books 1 and 2 allowed for plenty of {{Interquel}}s. Now the series is up to double digits, including one that takes place during the TimeSkip at the end of the first book.
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''
** Creator/DouglasAdams' "trilogy" eventually ended with the fifth book, ''Literature/MostlyHarmless''. He [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] it by calling it a "trilogy in four parts" after the fourth book came out and an "increasingly inaccurately-named trilogy" after the fifth. The first three books go together quite well, and the last two seem a bit awkwardly tacked on. The fifth book seemed to be a case of TorchTheFranchiseAndRun, but he later revealed that [[CreatorBreakdown the ending was more due to his mood]] than anything and he regretted it. He would have un-torched the 'verse in a sixth book, [[DiedDuringProduction but alas, unfortunately]]...
** Eoin Colfer (writer of the Literature/ArtemisFowl books) has written ''Literature/AndAnotherThing'', making this a trilogy of six. The book emphasizes the idea of "no endings" throughout, and while it could be a conclusion to the series, it points furtively in the direction of an ongoing story. The book's cover states that it is "Part Six of Three".
** ''Literature/TheSalmonOfDoubt'', which contains excerpts from an additional ''Dirk Gently'' novel that Adams was developing at the time of his death, includes notes that he was beginning to feel ''Mostly Harmless'' was not the appropriate place to end the ''Hitchhiker's'' series (it was a bad CreatorBreakdown, ending with [[spoiler:all AlternateUniverse Earths destroyed and and 80% of the main cast dead.]]), and implies that ''Salmon'' would either have been retooled into the sixth part, or a {{crossover}}.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''{{Literature/Foundation}}'': In the [[TheFifties early 1950s]], all of the stories from [[TheVerse the setting]] were [[OrwellianRetcon re-edited]] for publication as ''Literature/TheFoundationTrilogy''. Dr Asimov's publishers would repeatedly ask him for more stories in the ''Foundation'' setting, until he finally caved in and published ''Literature/FoundationsEdge'' in [[TheEighties 1982]]. At this point, he began consistently publishing {{Novel}}s in the setting every few years[[note]](his last, ''Literature/ForwardTheFountation'', came out the year after his death)[[/note]]. Many of the newer stories also [[CanonWelding tie the original trilogy to other settings]], such as ''Literature/TheEmpireNovels'' and his ''Literature/RobotSeries''. Both he and his estate also [[OutlivedItsCreator authorized other authors to write additional works]] within the ''Foundation'' setting. The entire setting now covers over a dozen books, and ''The Foundation {{Trilogy}}'' now refers to only the original nine short works.
* When Bernard Cornwell was inspired by the popularity of the ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'' television series to write some more novels, he wrote three books set prior to the Peninsular War setting of the existing novels. They were quickly dubbed the prequel trilogy by fans. Then he wrote two more. (Although as the first three concerned Sharpe's adventures in India and the other two dealt with the earlier part of the Napoleonic conflict, they seemed to have been rebranded the India trilogy.) In the end, he only moved on to other projects when he ran out of early 19th century wars for [[TheGump Richard Sharpe]] to fight in. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools The quality of writing remained consistently good throughout.]]
%%* Creator/AnneRice's ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles''.
* Creator/MargaretWeis seems particularly prone to this:
** The ''TabletopGame/{{Dragonlance}} Chronicles'' trilogy received a fourth book, ''Dragons of Summer Flame'', which wasn't written until after several other series and standalone works had been made in the same verse. It was written 14 years after the third book, took place 30 years after, and didn't star any of the characters from the originals (though some of them did have supporting roles). Many feel that the only reason it was dubbed part of the ''Chronicles'' series was for [[DolledUpInstallment marketing purposes]].
** The ''[[Literature/TheDarkswordTrilogy Darksword]]'' "trilogy" by Weis and Hickman consists of four books. The fourth is written in a somewhat different style than the rest (taking place after a TimeSkip and being narrated by a new character), but does conclude important plot threads that the third book left dangling. There is also another book (Darksword Adventures) which is half novella set in the same setting as the trilogy, and half {{RPG}} system.
** Weis's solo series ''Literature/TheStarOfTheGuardians'' had its third book conclude with the main character rightfully crowned king and all the main characters getting what they deserved... Including the NominalHero, who faked his death and returned to a life of penitent obscurity in light of his now-dead OneTruePairing. Then Weis published a fourth book to clean ''them'' up. (And, even better, she then took her version of the MagnificentSeven to AscendedExtra levels by publishing a trilogy about ''them''! They're not really related, and main characters from ''Guardians'' rarely appear in ''Mag Force 7'', but, still.)
* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' is an interesting example. ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' was actually conceived as one long book, with the sequels ''Literature/DuneMessiah'' and ''Literature/ChildrenOfDune'' fitting directly after the first. ''Messiah'' was fleshed out while writing ''Dune'' and eventually became its own novel, which due to its expansion then warranted ''Children'' to be expanded as well and also became its own book. ''Literature/GodEmperorOfDune'' and the last two in the series, ''Literature/HereticsOfDune'' and ''Literature/ChapterhouseDune'' are genuine examples of a trilogy creep, though the fact that the story is now over ''10,000'' years past in the originals, it's fair to say that they're a trilogy of their own. [[DiedDuringProduction Before he died]], Herbert planned to write a seventh book which would've been the last of a trilogy, with ''God Emperor'' serving as a bridge between the first and second trilogies. With this all said, someone "found" notes in a safe/vault/deposit box supposedly with a lot of notes on how the series was supposed to end. What happened? A [[Literature/PreludeToDune prequel trilogy leading up to the original Dune]] novel. Followed by a [[Literature/LegendsOfDune pre-prequel to the whole series set in the distant past]]. And finally the [[Literature/SandwormsOfDune closure of the series]]... followed by [[Literature/HeroesOfDune more books in the form of interquels]](?). The canonicity is up for debate among fans.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' was supposed to be a trilogy. Eleven books later, [[DiedDuringProduction the author died]]. And what was meant to be the twelfth and final book has since expanded to form its own trilogy. At World Con 2008 Tom Doherty of Tor Books finally put this long-standing rumour to rest: it was originally planned to be six books when Robert Jordan proposed the series to him in 1984, before he even started writing the first book. It's also been stated that Jordan planned for it to be three but Doherty made it a six-book deal due to Doherty's knowledge that Jordan always wrote more than he thought he needed in the first place. Jordan's original plan was for Rand to get Callandor at the end of the first book.
* ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' also got a fourth book. The page was originally called ''The Inheritance Trilogy'' until the announcement. In this case, it's because the fourth book didn't expand the story, the third and fourth book just got too long to release as one. The last book is 866 pages long. The third book, ''Brisingr'', is another 750 pages so splitting it up was a logical choice. In 2018, a new series of short stories ''The Tales from Alagaesia'', which would continue the series, was announced.
* For many years there were three novels in Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's Literature/{{Earthsea}} setting, and they were called the Earthsea Trilogy. Then came ''Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea'', and the series was renamed to the Earthsea Cycle. "The Last Book of Earthsea" was followed by another novel. And that's without mentioning the short stories.
* The ''Literature/{{Belgariad}}'' was planned to be a trilogy ("Belgarion", "Ce'Nedra" & "Torak"). Eddings explains in ''The Rivan Codex'' that due to length and the publishing standards of large book chains at the time, his publisher convinced him to do a pentalogy instead. Then, when he was writing book four, he realised that he was going to have plenty of material left over, and the second pentalogy was planned. And when that wasn't enough, they went and planned a prequel, that in fact saw the light as two... Of two books each. ''Literature/TheElenium'', on the other hand, ''was'' a trilogy that received ''another'' trilogy of sequels.
* Creator/PiersAnthony lampshades this by marveling at how long the ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' "trilogy" has become in the afterword to one of the books. He then mentions the possibility of working on more books in the ''Apprentice Adept'' series, since that trilogy was "looking a little sparse" at only three books. It eventually reached seven. The first Xanth "trilogy" happens to have 27 books, with the last of these being titled "Cube Route" (and since 3 cubed is 27, this is another of Piers' in/famous puns). In fact, this seems to happen to Anthony a lot. The Cluster trilogy ended up being supplemented with two {{Interquel}}s. The ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'' series, though never a trilogy, ended up three books longer than originally planned. As for the Literature/ApprenticeAdept Trilogy - it's now two trilogies and a seventh standalone.
* Mickey Zucker Reichert's ''[[Literature/TheLastOfTheRenshai Renshai]]'' trilogy started out as a stand-alone trilogy. Then she wrote a sequel trilogy. And then she wrote a sequel to the sequel trilogy.
* Mostly averted by Creator/TadWilliams; his novels are about as {{Doorstopper}} as they come, but his series last exactly the number of books that he intends them to last. However, ''To Green Angel Tower'' (of the ''Literature/MemorySorrowAndThorn'' trilogy) was split into two books for the paperback edition and at least one translation. This inadvertently happened with another trilogy of his, in that the book became so huge that it had to be split in half. It's not so much "trilogy creep" as "trilogy overflow."
* Creator/RobertRankin's ''Brentford Trilogy'' has seven books. The ''Armageddon'' series, perhaps in reference to this, is called an Octology, despite there only being three books in it.
* Creator/StephenKing declared in his afterword to ''Literature/TheGunslinger'' that he foresaw ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' eventually comprising six to seven novels, spanning 3,000 or so pages, and taking anywhere from 20 to 300 years to write. He made good on the ''letter'' of his promise; the finished series is seven books and runs a little over 3,000 pages, but the series itself [[CanonWelding spilled over]] into over a dozen of his other novels, which amounts to tens of thousands of pages overall.
* In the foreword for ''Literature/BlandingsCastle'', Creator/PGWodehouse jokes about this by referring to the 'saga affliction' that grabs the attentions of unwary authors and forces them to think up more and more ideas for what was intended to be just one story.
* John Marsden's ''[[Literature/TheTomorrowSeries Tomorrow, When the War Began]]'' series was originally a very tightly written trilogy, that afterwards ended up seven books. There is also a post-war series, which did actually manage to end at three books, but effectively forms part of a single narrative bridging all ten volumes.
* Creator/RaymondEFeist's ''[[Literature/TheRiftwarCycle Riftwar Saga]]'' was written as a trilogy (''Magician'', ''Silverthorn'', ''A Darkness at Sethanon''). The first book was [[ExecutiveMeddling edited for size]] by the US publisher. Later, for the paperback edition the original content was restored, but the resulting text was split into two books (''Magician: Apprentice'' and ''Magician: Master''). The UK publisher still produces ''Magician'' as a single volume.
* Creator/JohnChristopher's ''Literature/TheTripods'' had a prequel added to it about 20 years after the original. This was not a bad story ''by itself'', but some felt it was a poor fit to the classic series.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** The saga was originally slated to be three books. By the end of book two, Creator/GeorgeRRMartin realized he couldn't do it in three, and so expanded it to four. Since then, he's expanded that to six, and then splitting the fourth book in two, making it seven. If he can keep it that way, it would be fortuitous, as within the world of the books seven is an important number.
** The French translations of large fantasy cycles almost never use the words "trilogie", or "tetralogie", or whatever, even when they were used for the original. This is because the publishers smelled the cash-cow and made it an habit to split each book into two, three, or even four parts. The French version of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' is currently a ''dodecalogy'' and this bizarro-version of the TrilogyCreep will eventually require the French speaking fans to shell upward of 200 euros just to get the completed series in paperback.
** In the UK, books three and five of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' were each published in two parts, so as of 2012, there are already seven books in the series.
** ''Literature/FireAndBlood'' was supposed to be one book and released after the final installment of ''ASOIAF''. But the book grew too large, while the main series kept getting delayed, so Martin decided to split it in two, then release the first half before ''The Winds of Winter'' is released.
* Creator/JohnScalzi's ''Literature/OldMansWar" trilogy has now gained a fourth book, retelling the events of the third book from another character's POV.
* Stephenie Meyer's ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' was originally envisaged as a duology: ''Twilight'' and ''Forever Dawn''. But Meyer decided to split the latter into multiple installments, to explain more about Jacob and the werewolves. Her publishers wanted her to stop at three books, but she ultimately took four to finish out the story. She has also written a prequel about one of the minor characters in the series, a gender swapped version of the original novel and another additional version of the first book from [[PerspectiveFlip Edward's point of view]]. Meyer mentioned in later interviews that she has plans for at least two more stories set in the Twilight Saga that will revolve around Edward's and Bella's daughter Renesmee becoming the focal character.
* Lynn Flewelling's ''Literature/{{Nightrunner}}'' series gained a fourth book years after the first three were originally published, but this wasn't a change of plan: book three had an author's note explicitly stating that "This is not a fantasy trilogy; it's a series that happens at the moment to be three books long".
* David Gerrold originally planned for his ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr'' series to be a trilogy, before he realized he was going to need more room. It's currently up to four books.
* Creator/RobertLudlum's ''Literature/TheBourneSeries'' has a clear ending in book three, as [[spoiler:Bourne/Webb finally kills his nemesis Carlos the Jackal]]. After Ludlum's death, Eric van Lustbader continued the series. He ended up writing ''eleven'' books before the series was handed over to Brian Freeman. Interestingly [[Film/TheBourneSeries the film adaptations of the books]], which bear only the most superficial resemblance to their source material, also provide a definite ending in [[Film/TheBourneUltimatum the third entry]]. But then they made [[Film/TheBourneLegacy two more]] [[Film/JasonBourne films]].
* Anne Bishop's [[Literature/BlackJewels The Black Jewels Trilogy]] has six books (and a short story/novella) collection. Averted in that the first three books are a coherent trilogy (all with titles Noun of the Noun), followed by a prequel, followed by the collection which has prequel, inter, and epilogue stories, followed by two epilogue novels.
* The ''Literature/MaximumRide'' series was originally planned to end after ''Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports''. Many fans think that this should've happened, as it resolved everything except the Fang/Max subplot ([[spoiler:In that version of the plot, Jeb really was the voice]]), and there was a significant drop in quality after that book. ''Angel'' was supposed to be the next finale to the series, then the next book ''Nevermore'' was, and then ''Maximum Ride Forever'' was released.
* Diana Gabaldon's ''Literature/{{Outlander}}'' was originally supposed to be two books, then three, then four, then a double-trilogy. The seventh book came out in Fall 2009. The author never explicitly said to her publishers that it was ''supposed'' to be a trilogy-- only that she had at least two more books after the first in her, and she ran with that. Several of the Lord John stories exhibit short story creep, since Gabaldon's idea of a [[{{Doorstopper}} short]] story grew into a publisher's idea of a complete novel.
* Creator/HarryTurtledove, particularly since it was unexpected: his [[Literature/{{Timeline191}} TL-191]] series started with a one-off prequel, ''How Few Remain'', then a trilogy called ''The Great War''. All of which fitted the planned releases that had been "Coming Soon" in the fronts of his novels for years. Then suddenly the one round-up book that would have dealt with events later on, called ''The Great War: Settling Accounts'', grew to '''seven huge books''', the ''American Empire'' trilogy and then the ''Settling Accounts'' tetralogy. The vast amount of padding and repetition involved in these seven, along with what is broadly considered to be a significant decline in writing quality, has led [[Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom some]] to accuse Turtledove of deliberately writing {{Doorstopper}}s to put his kids through college.
* Jane Yolen's ''Pit Dragon Trilogy'' became the ''Literature/PitDragonChronicles'' when a fourth book was released... [[SequelGap over two decades after the trilogy "ended."]]
* ''Literature/TheEmigrants'' by Vilhelm Moberg was originally intended as a trilogy, but the third book was split into two. It is even more noticable in the original Swedish titles, where the fourth book has an OddNameOut (''The Emigrants'' about leaving Sweden, ''The Immigrants'' about arriving in America and traveling to where land is handed out, ''The Settlers'' about starting up farming in a new country - and ''The Last Letter Home'' continues that story). The second book is normally called ''Unto a Good Land'' in English.
* Scott Westerfeld dedicated "[[Literature/{{Uglies}} Extras]]" to "everyone who wrote to me to reveal the secret definition of the word 'trilogy'". Proving Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, "Extras" is essentially a companion piece with some trilogy characters as {{Special Guest}}s.
* Chris Walley's ''Literature/LambAmongTheStars'' trilogy is actually an {{aversion}} in that when the third book was written and found to be a {{Doorstopper}}, Walley went back and edited the first two books into a single book. The new third book ends the series in such a way that it would be incredibly difficult to continue it. This was a case of subverted ExecutiveMeddling, since Tyndale asked him to do it. Subverted in that having three similar-sized books works much better than two small and then two large.
* Creator/CassandraClare's ''Literature/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' provide a rather outrageous example. She originally only planned to write the first three books of ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments,'' but then expanded it to six books. It's particularly blatant because the main conflicts really do tie up in book #3; a secondary villain escapes and there's some MaybeEverAfter in the side pairings, but overall things are done. The last three books are a de facto SequelSeries. Since then we've added two completed trilogies [[note]]''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'' and ''Literature/TheDarkArtifices''[[/note]], two ongoing trilogies [[note]]''Literature/TheEldestCurses'' and ''Literature/TheLastHours''[[/note]], three anthology novels [[note]]''Literature/TheBaneChronicles'', ''Literature/TalesFromTheShadowhunterAcademy'' and ''Literature/GhostsOfTheShadowmarket''[[/note]] and a few other companion books, such as ''Literature/TheShadowhunterCodex''. Clare also hinted at one more planned trilogy, ''The Wicked Powers'', which will hopefully conclude the franchise. Since it started in 2007, there has been one ''Shadowhunter'' book churned out every year except 2015, when Clare instead published the ten short stories that got collected into ''Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy'' the following year.
* ''Literature/TheIcemarkChronicles'' was originally supposed to be a trilogy, but the author has announced he intends on writing a fourth, set before the trilogy.
* The first three books of ''Literature/TheLastDragonChronicles'' form a definite trilogy, with a complete story, and a ''very'' definite ending. The rest do continue it, but begin a new story arc altogether.
* The Literature/SecretHistories series was originally planned to be a trilogy, but the series proved so popular that Creator/SimonRGreen decided to make it into an ongoing series.
* From Creator/JohnRingo:
** His ''Literature/TroyRising'' series was originally planned to be a trilogy, but word on the Ringo forum on [[Creator/BaenBooks Baen's Bar]] is that his Muse is insisting on continuing the series, much to the joy of many of his readers. The current plan is for five books total, unless Ringo's Muse insists on more.
** As mentioned in the foreword for ''Strands of Sorrow'', there were originally only supposed to be three main books in the ''Literature/BlackTideRising'' series, with at least one collection of short stories written by various writers set in the Black Tide Rising universe, but Ringo's Muse wouldn't let go, and at the insistence of a wife that was getting tired of his pacing around ''Strands'' was written.
* Meg Cabot's ''Literature/ThePrincessDiaries'' series was planned to be a trilogy, and the first three books do make for a complete story, but Cabot kept writing books until they reached the number of ten, not counting spin-offs.
* The "The New Prophecy" arc in ''Literature/WarriorCats'' was conceived of as a spin-off trilogy, but turned into a six-book sequel series.
* ''Mattimeo'', the third book in the ''{{Literature/Redwall}}'' series, ended on a note that was clearly supposed to be a wrap-up. Trouble is, author Brian Jacques got addicted to the universe he'd been writing in and had written 22 books (plus additional material) by the time he died.
* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'': ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' was originally intended to be a single, self-contained story. Then Lewis decided to write [[Literature/PrinceCaspian a sequel]]. Then he wrote [[Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader a third book]], and made sure to make it very "final": the characters sail over the edge of the world and find themselves in Aslan's (i.e. God's) country, the two protagonists remaining from the first book are told that they will not be returning to Narnia, and Aslan reveals to them his full glory. He ended up [[Literature/TheSilverChair writing]] [[Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy more]] [[Literature/TheMagiciansNephew books]], but stopped at [[Literature/TheLastBattle seven]], deciding it was a good number to end on.
* Just before ''Silence'' -- the third book of the ''Literature/HushHush'' trilogy -- came out, the author announced that she would be writing a fourth book (''Finale'') too.
* Creator/SergeyLukyanenko originally just wrote ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' as a single novel. Following its success (in Russian-speaking countries), he continued with ''Day Watch'' and ''Twilight Watch'', with the co-author of ''Day Watch'' writing a spin-off featuring none of the main characters. Then followed ''Final Watch''... and ''New Watch''. Many fans agree that the series has long ago [[JumpingTheShark jumped the shark]]. In 2014 Lukyanenko published ''Sixth Watch'', stating it to be [[ExactWords "the last novel about the magician Anton"]], and where [[RefugeInAudacity shark jumping]] [[WorldOfHam became a spectator sport]]. Earlier the same year he turned the series into a SharedUniverse, inviting younger authors and promising strict quality control over what gets published. As of 2015 fans' reaction to new collaborations is still mixed and undecided.
* Creator/SpikeMilligan's war memoirs started with ''Literature/AdolfHitlerMyPartInHisDownfall'' and were planned as a trilogy. Eventually, there were seven books, extending out significantly beyond the actual war.
* Averted with ''Literature/TheLightbringerSeries''. The author intended for it to be a trilogy, but purposefully named it "Series" just in case he went over. And indeed, he later started with a fourth... and a fifth.
* Brian Lumley's ''Literature/{{Necroscope}}'' series was supposed to be a trilogy, and book three does have a fairly solid BittersweetEnding, but then he figured it was too much of a downer and wrote two more books which ended the series on another bittersweet ending. This was expanded by another three books (''Necroscope: Vampire World'') providing ''another'' bittersweet ending to the series. Which was then continued in a pair of {{Interquel}} works which ended on a flat out DownerEnding just to shake things up. Finally another three books followed in which, not only was there another bittersweet ending, but also Lumley decided to TorchTheFranchiseAndRun. Which closed out the former trilogy on book ''thirteen''. Except for the novella, short stories, and another {{Interquel}} book he later wrote.
* S. Andrew Swann's Literature/MoreauSeries had a fourth book, ''Fearful Symmetries'', added on five years after the original trilogy was completed.
* Lois Lowry's ''Literature/TheGiver'' (1993) had two sequels, ''Literature/GatheringBlue'' (2000) and ''Literature/{{Messenger}}'' (2004), and was fittingly referred to as "the ''Giver'' trilogy" for eight years. Eight years later, ''Literature/{{Son}}'' was released, definitively tying up loose ends and making it a quartet.
* ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'': It was a trilogy, then along came the announcement of a prequel. The page is still called "The Bartimaeus Trilogy", even after the release of the prequel. This is reasonably fair, though, as the prequel book is very much a self-contained story and only features two characters seen in the original novels: Bartimaeus himself and his long-time antagonist, Faquarl. That said, the series is now known officially for advertising/publication purposes, and on Wiki/TheOtherWiki, as ''The Bartimaeus Sequence''.
* An odd case in the case of the Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy. The first book set up the story, the second was more or less a PerspectiveFlip from Teera's POV, the third dealt with the fallout of the events on the first two books. But... Snyder decided to play DeathByNewberyMedal on a lead character and realized she shot herself in the foot. Then, a software designer shows up, wanting to make an adaptation of her books. Cue what was perhaps the first video game to be called a {{canon}} sequel.
* Inverted with ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': when Tolkien finished it, it was in six 'books', with Tolkien wanting it published either all at once or possibly in two volumes. His publishers split it into three volumes ("trilogy" is inaccurate because it is still a single novel).
* Early editions of ''[[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians The Lightning Thief]]'' and ''The Sea of Monsters'' had "Percy Jackson & the Olympians '''Trilogy'''" written on their spines. There ended up being 5 books in the series, plus [[Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus a sequel pentalogy featuring characters from the original pentalogy]], plus two spinoff trilogies exploring the [[Literature/TheKaneChronicles Egyptian]] and [[Literature/MagnusChaseAndTheGodsOfAsgard Norse]] mythologies, ''[[RunningGag plus]]'' [[Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo a second Greek sequel pentalogy starring a new protagonist]]. And that's not mentioning the myriad short stories, crossovers, and supplementary materials that Creator/RickRiordan churns out every so often.
* Philip Pullman's ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' series was originally a trilogy. It was followed a few years later with two novellas, ''Lyra's Oxford'' and ''Once Upon a Time in the North'', and another full novel, ''The Book of Dust'', was expected... and ended up morphing into a trilogy of its own.
* For the first two books, the ''Literature/TheLostYearsOfMerlin'' was advertised as a trilogy. With the third book, T.A. Barron claims that [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis Merlin himself]] told him that two more books would be needed, turning it from a "trilogy" to a "saga". Later, two new [[SequelSeries sequel]] trilogies (''Literature/TheGreatTreeOfAvalon'' and ''Literature/MerlinsDragon'') were written after, plus a guidebook that basically recaps everything. Nowadays the twelve books are marketed as the ''Merlin Series/Saga.''
* When the first novel of the ''Literature/WindAndSparks'' cycle was published, Alexey Pehov said that the story got too long for a single book, but he'd wrap it up in the second one. Then in the third. It ended up as four novels and two prequel short stories. The irony? It was inspired by ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' (but less epic, a bit darker, much snarkier), with a helping of ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' and ''Literature/GarrettPI''.
* A 1979 boxed set refers to ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime'' and its sequels ''A Wind in the Door'' and ''A Swiftly Tilting Planet'' as the Time Trilogy. Officially it's the Time Quartet (as of ''Many Waters)'' or the Time Quintet (including ''An Acceptable Time)''.
* ''Literature/MissPeregrinesHomeForPeculiarChildren'' was a trilogy, everything nicely wrapped up in ''Library of Souls''. Nobody was really expecting another installment; however, ''A Map of Days'' was released in October 2018. This book is said to be the start of a new trilogy, but it takes place following the events of the third book and features the same characters on a new adventure.
* Lucy and Creator/StephenHawking originally intended ''Literature/GeorgesSecretKeyToTheUniverse'' to be a trilogy. However, in 2014 a fourth book was published, and the series went on to be six books long. However, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools books 4-6 are arguably even better than the first three]].
* The original ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety'' series featuring Reynie, Sticky, Kate and Constance could be considered a trilogy (the final book having been released in 2009), as the other two books were a prequel set well before their adventures and a supplementary book of puzzles and games and such. However, on September 24, 2019, a new title was released featuring more of the adventures of the Mysterious Benedict Society as well as a new member, ''The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages''.
* Creator/AnthonyHorowitz intended to end the ''Literature/AlexRider'' series in 2011 with the ninth book, ''Scorpia Rising'' (barring a prequel focusing on the backstory of Yassen Gregorovich, a character from the first and fourth books), in part because he was worried he was running out of ideas. However, a few years later his publishers decided to collect a number of short stories set in the series' universe previously published in magazines, newspapers and other stories together in a new anthology, and Horowitz felt some of them were too short or sketchy to justify such a release and rewrote them to make them more substantial. The rewriting went well, and Horowitz decided to write a few new short stories for the collection as well. The first new story became one of his favourite things he'd ever written, and he realised that he missed writing for the characters so much, and that he still had plenty of ideas, and he decided to revive the series with an entirely new novel, ''Never Say Die'' (released in 2017). He expects there to be at least two more books in the series after that.
* Victoria Aveyard originally planned for ''Literature/RedQueen'' to be a trilogy, but she eventually settled on a tetralogy, plus two short story collections.
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' ended up taking this path when in 2019, Creator/SuzanneCollins announced out of nowhere that she was writing [[Literature/TheBalladOfSongbirdsAndSnakes a new entry]] to the series. To be fair, it ended up being a prequel, so the books focusing on Katniss Everdeen remain a trilogy.
* Creator/StevePerry's ''Literature/MatadorSeries'' started as a TwoPartTrilogy in TheEighties, ''The Man Who Never Missed'', ''Matadora'', and ''The Machiavelli Interface''. Perry penned a prequel in 1988, then another prequel, then three sequels, and finally an OriginsEpisode for the series' main FantasticFightingStyle after a thirteen-year hiatus.
* ''Poor Unfortunate Soul'' was advertised as the last novel in a ''Literature/ATaleOf'' trilogy when it was released, but it ended with a SequelHook and ''Mistress of All Evil'' arrived the following year.
* Jennifer A. Nielsen's ''Literature/AscendanceTrilogy'' has become this, with her planning on writing at least two more books in the series.
* Marie Lu's ''Literature/LegendTrilogy'' ended with a DistantFinale that proved conclusive but ''very'' [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]]. Four years later, Lu wrote two novellas that somewhat addressed this, but eventually decided to write a fourth novel, ''Rebel'', which provided the happy ending that fans longed for.
* Creator/BrandonSanderson managed to do this with not just a trilogy, but a trilogy of trilogies. The Mistborn series was intended to be three sets of three books each, but after the first trilogy, he decided to write a short story, ''Literature/TheAlloyOfLaw'' set in between the first two trilogies. That short story became a full novel, and that novel became a series on its own, with three published books and a fourth book planned to come out soon.
* ''Literature/Aeon14'' is a pre-planned version. ''Destiny Lost'', now the transition point between ''The Intrepid Saga'' and ''The Orion War'', was the first book M.D. Cooper completed. However, she felt ''The Intrepid Saga'' was necessary to establish Tanis Richards and the fundamentals of the setting, so that trilogy came out first and the rest of the SharedUniverse built on it.
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