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1[[quoteright:270:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deadfic.JPG]]
2[[caption-width-right:270:Yet another proud member of the JustForFun/CandleJack Appreciation Cl]]
3
4->'''6.''' ''They stick the first half of a two-part story in their first issue, little realising that 95% of 'zines that follow this course are destined never to produce issue 2.''
5-->-- "Ten Silly Things That Fanzine Editors Do", ''Series/DoctorWho: The Completely Useless Encyclopedia''
6
7When the author of a series abandons the storyline entirely -- either from lack of interest, time, money, inspiration, or [[DiedDuringProduction pulse]] -- the series is said to be orphaned.
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9This isn't much of a problem among professionally produced works, as their large team of creators, [[MoneyDearBoy profitability]], and susceptibility to ExecutiveMeddling make it unlikely for them to be dropped for any reason other than {{cancellation}}, though it isn't unheard of.
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11Unfortunately, the same can't be said for FanFiction, WebComics, role-playing {{fora}}, and other amateur works, on and offline. In fact, this is a particularly common problem with them, as many are created part-time by enthusiasts who've never written, drawn, or scripted anything before. They start on the first chapter, strip, or post, only to promptly forget about it. And if not that, they suffer from longer and more frequent {{Schedule Slip}}s until either they take an [[SeriesHiatus "extended" hiatus]] that becomes permanent or they simply drop the work altogether.
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13Sometimes, though not always, enough time passes that the abandoned work [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes disappears]] from the site(s) hosting it. Usually this happens because the account or website hosting it dies off. On rare occasions, such a series resurfaces if the original artist returns to it. Or a fan may even "adopt" the series and pick up where the original artist left off. This is rare, and one reason is that fanfiction writers often find after some years that what they made is [[CreatorBacklash now regretful]] and they would rather forget about it.
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15Orphaned series are liable to have a bad effect on free hosting services. Lists of works get clogged with abandoned entries, and sites become littered with hundreds of introductory strips. They can also engender a mistrust of the authors who abandon their work, as readers become wary of investing in anything they write in the future.
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17See also DeadFic, where a fanfic gets this status (often without any reason given for the abandonment). Compare {{Vaporware}}, which is something the creator claims ''not'' to have given up on -- but almost all the fans have; StillbornFranchise, which is when a work could have gotten a series of {{Spinoff}}s, {{Sequel}}s, and {{Prequel}}s, but didn't; and CliffhangerWall, where a work ends on a cliffhanger, but the creator then pivots to making prequels, interquels, remakes, and spinoffs instead of resolving the cliffhanger. For when the work is orphaned in a more ''literal'' sense, see also DiedDuringProduction. If a creator has multiple examples of this on their record, see AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder.
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19It should not be confused with "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_work orphaned works]]", where a copyright holder of the work is known, but the whereabouts are unknown or cannot be contacted, thus the work cannot be used without the unknown holder's permission unless under Fair Use.
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21----
22!!Example and standalone works Subpages:
23
24[[index]]
25* OrphanedSeries/{{Webcomics}}
26* OrphanedSeries/RiffTrax
27[[/index]]
28
29!!Other Examples:
30
31[[foldercontrol]]
32
33[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
34* The manga ''Chicago'' abruptly ended after two volumes, with an apology from the writer stating that she couldn't handle the schedule at the end of the second volume.
35* ''Akane Chan Overdrive'' lasted two volumes, the last of which had two chapters that were side-stories, without any resolution of the plot.
36* Manga artist Miwa Ueda orphaned the series ''Manga/PeachGirl: Sae's Story'' after two and a half volumes, because the birth of her child left her with little time to work on it.
37* ''Manga/AquaKnight'' was abandoned by the author Yukito Kishiro in order to work on ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita: Last Order''. He promised to be back later in the future, but even after finishing ''Last Order'' in 2014, there have been no signs of ''Aqua Knight'' continuing. With Kishiro focusing his efforts on ''Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle'', the chances of Aqua Knight ever continuing look slim.
38** For that matter, only two OAV episodes of the ''Battle Angel'' anime were ever produced. Even if anybody was interested in reviving an anime version, it wouldn't legally be possible without the involvement of Creator/JamesCameron, who purchased the adaptation rights to the series to produce a live-action film adaptation. While [[Film/AlitaBattleAngel the film adaptation]] was released in 2019 [[SavedFromDevelopmentHell after years of development hell]], there has been no word on any further anime adaptations of ''Battle Angel Alita''.
39* The prequel manga of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'' prematurely ended due to the artist quitting before Volume 3.
40* The manga ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}: The Dawn''. 6 chapters since 2007 and then dropped. Not enough to even release a ''single'' collected volume.
41* ''Manga/SailorMoon'' artist Creator/NaokoTakeuchi had several orphaned series in the wake of the end of her hit franchise. The first was ''[=PQ=] Angels'', which was discontinued abruptly after only 4 chapters, and Kodansha lost the proofs of the portion that had been written. The manga was never published outside of its original serial run. Her second series, ''Love Witch'', ran for three chapters, at which point Takeuchi had written that she was taking a vacation from which the series never returned outside of a one-shot side story. It was not until the 2005-2006 run of ''Toki* Meca'', expanded from the one-shot ''Toki-Meka'', that Takeuchi saw a series through to its completion again.
42* ''Manga/ShamanKing'' formerly ended with NoEnding since Hiroyuki Takei dropped it. However, the re-release of the manga eventually led to two new volumes to end the series.
43* Creator/{{CLAMP}} has several of these.
44** ''Manga/{{Clover}}'' had a story that concluded after two volumes. The third and fourth volumes are made of flashbacks, and according to CLAMP, two more volumes are needed to complete the story, but they haven't made anything yet,
45** ''Manga/{{Gate7}}'' managed to have 4 volumes until it went into a hiatus in 2014.
46** ''Manga/LegendOfChunHyang'' was dropped after a single volume, but CLAMP did mention that they would like to continue it in the future.
47** ''Legal Drug'' was halted for a few years, but it continued in 2011 under a new title, ''Manga/DrugAndDrop''. Then, they dropped it again in 2013.
48** ''Manga/{{X 1999}}'', perhaps their most infamous example, has been on hold since ''2003'', with 18 out of a planned 21 volumes released. It ended on a cliffhanger, and the story was building towards a resolution. The magazine that had been publishing it (''Monthly Asuka'') has since folded, and CLAMP has, supposedly, been searching to put it in a proper magazine - though at this point there are doubts that the group is still making serious efforts to pursue this or continue the work.
49* ''Fire Candy'''s mangaka left off her work after two volumes to begin another, although she did state in her last note that she'd like to return to the series after gaining more experience.
50* One of the more notable [[OELManga OEL]] titles to go out like this was ''No Man's Land'', which the publisher heavily promoted and commenced work on a Flash adaptation of. Problems with the creator's schedules sadly led to the series dying after only two volumes.
51%%* The ''Literature/StrawberryPanic'' manga.
52* ''Manga/MillenniumSnow'' was orphaned by Bisco Hatori in 2002 after her breakout hit ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' got popular. After finishing ''Ouran,'' she would eventually return to and finish ''Millennium Snow'' in 2013, just over 10 years later.
53* The short-lived series ''Manga/ShanghaiYoumaKikai'' was put on hold so Creator/HiromuArakawa could work on ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''.
54* ''Manga/BeetTheVandelBuster'' was 12 volumes into its publication when production suddenly stopped in September 2006, due to artist Koji Inada's sudden illness. The manga started up again ten years later in 2016, though at a slower schedule than before since it moved to a monthly publication as opposed to a weekly one.
55* Happens constantly with fan translations of manga and fansubs of anime. One example that left readers disappointed is that of ''Manga/YawaraAFashionableJudoGirl''. When Creator/AnimEigo licensed the series, the circle that had been fansubbing it stopped out of respect. Then [=AnimEigo=] dropped it just a third of the way through its 122-episode run, leaving the series doubly-orphaned for a while. Finally the fansubs were started again and completed the run.
56* This happened to a number of manga series – both Japanese and OEL – due to the closure of Creator/{{Tokyopop}}, one of the largest English-language manga and light novel publishers around. Pray another company picked it up, though chances are no one did.
57** Tokyopop was also hit with this a few years earlier due to a contract dispute with Kodansha that resulted in TP losing a large chunk of their catalog. Among the biggest losses were ''Manga/{{BECK|1999}}'' (stopped a third of the way through the story) and ''Manga/GetBackers'' (stopped just before beginning the final story arc).
58** The hardest losses to take were titles like ''Manga/PeacemakerKurogane'' and ''Manga/{{Aria}}''. Both manga were originally published in English by ADV before they went belly-up. Then Tokyopop rescued the series, only to close not long after.
59*** ''ARIA'' eventually got a complete release by Nozomi Entertainment (using Tokyopop branding) after a successful preorder campaign not unlike their similiarly successful Kickstarter of the anime five years earlier. However, they made it VERY clear the early-2023 release would likely be the last chance to ever get the series in print.
60** The English translation of ''Manga/Life2002'' was cut short by Tokyopop, meaning over half of the series has never been released internationally.
61** Creator/ImageComics collaborated with Tokyopop in order to get the final half of ''ComicBook/KingCity'' out.
62* Like the Tokyopop example above, when Random House's (Del Rey's) manga division was taken over by Kodansha, only top-tier titles like ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' and ''Manga/{{Genshiken}}'' were continued or reprinted; everything else was dropped.
63* The decade of the 2000s is littered with the corpses of failed English-language manga publishers, most of whom only had a few series before dying. Casualties include Studio Ironcat, [=ComicsOne=], and Creator/DCComics-backed CMX (who at least got out all of ''Manga/EmmaAVictorianRomance'' before Creator/DanDidio killed it).
64** In addition, several of the US anime houses briefly got into the manga game by publishing the comic versions of their anime titles (and nearly all of ''them'' are gone too): Creator/ADVFilms (''Manga/{{Yotsuba}}'', though it was rescued by Creator/YenPress), Media Blasters (''Eiken''), Creator/BandaiEntertainment (''Manga/LuckyStar''[[note]]rereleased by Creator/VIZMedia[[/note]] & ''[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Gurren Lagann]]''), and Creator/CentralParkMedia (the ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'' manga; there's a ''reason'' their alternate name was "U.S. Manga Corps").
65* Due to the continuing collapse of the English-language manga market – closely tied to the collapse of traditional bookstores, most of the remaining publishers have at least a few cancelled series under their belt.
66** Viz has cancelled ''Manga/GinTama'' and several of their sports titles ([[AmericansHateTingle sports manga never sells well in North America]]). Viz also orphaned ''Manga/ZatchBell'' due to the original author getting all rights to his series away from Shogakukan and subsequently [[NoExportForYou refusing to do international licensing]].
67** Dark Horse orphaned ''Translucent'', and ''Eden'' (the latter was cancelled and uncancelled several times), among others.
68* ''Net Sphere Engineer'' was announced to be the sequel to ''Manga/{{Blame}}'' The first chapter excited many. A second chapter never came. While nobody actually knows what happened to the rest of the story, many opt for the answer that it was abandoned.
69* The story of ''Anime/FinalFantasyUnlimited'' was plotted to last two seasons, but only the first season was animated. The story of the second season can be found in various supplemental media ([[NoExportForYou available in Japanese only]]).
70* ''Anime/StellviaOfTheUniverse'' was originally meant to be (at least) three half-seasons, but due to personality conflicts the team broke up at the end of the second. At least it was a natural break-point.
71* ''Manga/ZombiePowder'' lasted only four volumes before it was cancelled, due to [[CreatorBreakdown various issues and complications in the author's life at the time]].
72* ''Manga/DescendantsOfDarkness'' has been on hiatus since December 20th, 2002, due to Yoko Matsushita suffering a hand injury. Her art style has changed somewhat since because of this and she did work a little more on the manga afterwards. However beyond brief periods of "SHE'S GOING TO FINISH IT!" now and then, there's been nothing else beyond a few chapters after volume 11, all of which are finally being put in a 12th volume. Fans are just pretty much begging to hear how she planned to end the series now.
73* The English translation of the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' manga ended on ''Kingdom Hearts II Vol. 2'' after [=TokyoPop=] decided to discontinue the series due to financial problems. Good that there are [[{{Scanlation}} fans who translate where TokyoPop can't, right?]] The series has since been picked up by Yen Press, and as of October 2013, the manga adaptations for the [[Manga/KingdomHeartsI first]] [[Manga/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories three]] [[Manga/KingdomHeartsII games]] has been re-released, with [[Manga/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 another one]] upcoming.
74* ''Manga/GunBlazeWest'' only got up to its third volume when it was cancelled due to a combination of low readership and Creator/NobuhiroWatsuki feeling he couldn't go any further with it. The series ends before the heroes even reach the fabled destination.
75* More of Orphaned Spin-Off, one of the manga-only arcs of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', Utsutsukowashi-hen (Reality Breaking Chapter) abruptly ended after three chapters in 2007.
76* Dub only example: For unknown reasons, Creator/BandaiEntertainment had stopped releasing the dub of ''Anime/DiGiCharatNyo'' They stopped at episode 72, leaving the remaining 32 episodes with no dub. The company's closure pretty much killed any remaining hope of the dub being completed.
77* In Mexico, the most important publisher of comics was Grupo Editorial Vid, who published a large variety of titles for a bit more than 50 years. By the end of the 90s, they started to publish manga with Spanish translation. Plenty of titles were published for the Mexican market, but then, by the end of the 2000s, due to bad management choices (and mostly, due to the new Chief Editor decided to focus in other business, along with helping his children's artistic careers), they stopped publishing manga, leaving plenty of manga series without continuation, some of them just a few volumes before reaching their final volume. Even many series that were promised by them were completely canceled. Thankfully, around 2013, then-new comic and manga companies such as Panini and Kamite began to publish manga, the latter formed from what could be rescued from Vid's remains and the former rereleased ''Naruto'' and ''Bleach'', both series previously launched by Vid (but stopped at vol. 24, so it will take 2 years to reach where Vid left them).
78* Happened with some manga in Brazil, especially by publishers Conrad and Panini (the former due to low sales and the latter due to financial difficulties). The most infamous examples are ''[[Literature/FullMetalPanic Fullmetal Panic Sigma]]'' and ''Otomen'' published by Panini which were put on hiatus for 4 years before being canceled. Other notable examples are ''Literature/GuinSaga'' (manga version), ''Manga/CrayonShinChan'', ''Manga/DoctorSlump'', ''Manga/PeachGirl'' and the deluxe edition of ''Manga/DragonBall''. Subverted with ''Manga/EdenItsAnEndlessWorld'' which was cancelled by Panini but was republished by [=JBC=] years after. The same happened with ''Manga/{{Monster}}'' and even ''Manga/OnePiece'', which were canceled by Conrad and republished by Panini (in the latter case, the publisher folded right as the [=CP9=] arc was reaching its climax; Panini retranslated everything from the beginning while continuing the series from where it originally stopped).
79* The 90s {{hentai}} manga series ''Dragon Pink'' by ITOYOKO had nothing after its fourth volume; it [[CutShort stopped]] on a cliffhanger of Pink, its main female protagonist, being impaled by a sword, the sort of cliffhanger you'd expect a series to follow up on. ITOYOKO himself is still active in the H manga drawing scene, making it strange how he hasn't yet finished the story.
80* While the remake manga did get an ending, the original ''Manga/BirdyTheMighty'' manga just petered out after a while. Similarly, despite wrapping up the main plot and the arc of the second season respectively, the OVA series and ''Decode'' both still had subplots left unresolved.
81* ''Manga/{{Prism}}'' ended up being put on "hiatus" then eventually cancelled due to a plagiarism scandal. The mangaka has done other series since.
82[[/folder]]
83
84[[folder:Comic Books]]
85* The ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry1'' spin-off comic by Dreamwave was abandoned due to the company folding.
86* ''ComicBook/JaxEpochAndTheQuickenForbidden'' has only two volumes, Borrowed Magic and Separation Anxiety, with the third volume, Flannel Sorceress, still in progress since 1996.
87* It took David Lapham several years to find the time to complete the final issue of ''Stray Bullets.'' He claimed that after the birth of his child he was no longer able to rely on the inconsistent revenue and heavy time investment of a self-published series and that he had chosen to primarily seek work-for-hire and creator-owned work at the major publishers. He often stated a desire to finish the series, or at least the current arc, but a lack of time to do so. He was finally able to finish and release the final issue in 2014.
88* During the '90s, Joe Madureira started a comic called ''ComicBook/BattleChasers'', an epic fantasy story of which the first few issues hinted at a huge backstory. But it quickly started slipping from its schedule (because Joe Mad was spending all his time playing ''Final Fantasy VII'', or so the legend goes) to the point where issue 7 was released 16 months after issue 6. The editorial in issue 9 promised that 10 would be out soon, but then Joe Mad left the comic industry altogether, basically leaving the story hanging (although a [[VideoGame/BattleChasersNightwar video game]] based on the comic has since come out).
89* Artist George Perez's creator-owned series ''Crimson Plague'' was ended after its first issue. Perez revived the series a few years later with Image Comics, only to end a second time after one new issue and a reprint of the original comic.
90* Martin Wagner signed a deal with Antarctic Press in 1996 to reprint the 12 issues of his self-published comic, ''Hepcats'', and then start publishing new material. The only new material to emerge was a #0 issue; Wagner abandoned ''Hepcats'' before issue #13 made it to print, right in the middle of a multi-issue story arc called "Snowblind." 10 years later, Wagner announced that he would finish "Snowblind" as a webcomic, but after 4 years of virtually no progress, he threw in the towel and left the comics industry for good.
91* Marvel series ''ComicBook/{{NYX}}'' was slated to be an ongoing series but after numerous delays by both the writer (Joe Quesada) and the artist was declared a limited series simply to finish out the first story arc.
92** Marvel later released a follow-up mini-series, with a different writer and artist this time around.
93** ''NYX'' did, however, win a place in history as the first appearance in comics continuity of the successful CanonImmigrant Laura Kinney, aka ComicBook/{{X 23}}.
94* ''Film/GoldenEye'' had a ComicBookAdaptation that only got the first issue out of the planned three released, with rumours that the cancellation happened due to the [[https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5aedd3c72971149a59a49bfb/1537553280714-MBWYLE20T76UPR4SDO8Z/scan0001.jpg?format=500w suggestive]] cover for issue 2.
95* The comic M. Rex ended after two issues. About ten years later it received a [[WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex cartoon]] that started to delve into the abandoned plots and more.
96* ''Sokora Refugees'', a manga-inspired (in both art and story) comic, was super-popular before its abrupt end after two volumes. The comic's site, after two years in operation, stopped updating in November of 2006 and died completely a few months after. The artist mentioned the author had some personal issues after a few weeks of no new strips. What seems to have actually happened is that the creator landed her own syndicated daily comic strip, ''ComicStrip/MyCage''. The demands of doing four panels a day pretty much ensures that ''Sokora Refugees'' will remain an orphan unless something happens to ''My Cage''. And now, [[http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2010/08/25/my-cage-to-come-to-end-on-october-31/ we've jinxed it]].
97* Creator/AlanMoore's miniseries ''Big Numbers'' stopped after two issues. This was particularly frustrating as due to the more literary, kitchen-sink-drama nature of the series, the audience didn't learn what direction the series was going in, how the groups of unrelated characters were going to interact, or what all the untranslated dialogue in some Indian language was about. The main cause was that illustrator Bill Sienkiewicz left the series and he was replaced by a nineteen-year-old assistant of his named Al Columbia. Columbia had to replicate the gritty, photo-realistic technique Sienkiewicz utilized for illustrating the previous ''Big Numbers'' issues, and he had to do so by specified deadlines. Columbia cracked under the pressure of such a herculean task and as a result, he not only left his ''Big Numbers'' work unfinished, but he destroyed much of his work, including two unpublished issues. Columbia, despite having a cult following generated by grotesque works such as ''The Biologic Show'', remains somewhat a pariah in the comic industry.
98** Moore never finished ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}'' or ''ComicBook/NineteenSixtyThree'' for various reasons that aren't really his fault, either. Moore's last script for ''Supreme'' (which did not resolve ongoing storylines) was finally illustrated and published twelve years later, preceding Erik Larsen's revival of the series.
99** ''ComicBook/TheBalladOfHaloJones'' reached a fairly satisfying conclusion, but only got a third of the way through Moore's original plan for the saga.
100* In the early '00s there was a quirky British comic titled ''ComicBook/BazookaJules'', by [[http://steve-huge.deviantart.com/ Neil Googe]], about a 16-year-old schoolgirl named Julie Glocke who gets mixed up in a plot involving aliens and super-science and gains the ability to turn into a [[MostCommonSuperpower ridiculously well-endowed]] ActionGirl who can spontaneously pull [[{{BFG}} gigantic pieces of armament]] out of thin air. It was criticized for the underage {{Fanservice}}, but fans and critics enjoyed the humor and Googe's expressive art style. Anyway, around issue #3 (it was planned to run for six), Googe took seriously ill and someone broke into the publisher's building, stealing the material for the planned future issues, which were never recovered. Googe got better and planned a relaunch of the series with artist [=LeShawn=] Thomas, but before it got off the ground they hit some copyright issues, Thomas left to do animation work on ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'', and Googe himself eventually signed an exclusive deal with Creator/DCComics. Neil Googe has retained Julie as a sort of signature character, but as a comic, ''Bazooka Jules'' seems to be as dead as it gets at this point.
101* Classic fantasy comic ''ComicStrip/{{Wormy}}'' (sort of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] Pogo) stopped in mid-arc when David A. Trampier dropped off the face of the earth. [[spoiler:[[HesJustHiding He became a taxi driver]].]]
102* ''ComicBook/TheTick'' comic series ended abruptly (right before a big fight with the bad guys) when author Ben Edlund decided to spend time working on the cartoon. He never made it back, and given the current success of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', it's unlikely he'll be making it back anytime soon.
103** And especially given that the series has been relaunched under writer Benito Cereno.
104* Creator/WarrenEllis has a number of these to his name, many of them due to a hard drive crash in 2008 (as explained [[http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=7158&page=1#Item_0 here]]). It didn't help things at all that he already had a reputation for [[ScheduleSlip Schedule Slippage]] prior to this. Projects affected by this include ''ComicBook/{{Fell}}'', ''ComicBook/DesolationJones'', ''New Universal'' and ''ComicBook/DoktorSleepless''. ''ComicBook/{{Planetary}}'' and ''Ministry of Space'' both experienced lengthy schedule slips, but were, eventually, completed.
105* Pretty much everything by Creator/RobLiefeld after he and the other Image founders left Marvel. He's become notorious for starting new comic titles (or revamping the existing ones) only to abandon his plans partway through. The list of mishandled crossovers alone can make a significant portion of this list. Most notoriously, he's gone ''SIXTY-TWO MONTHS'' between issues of a ''ComicBook/YoungbloodImageComics'' limited series.
106* Mike Baron's ''Sonic Disruptors'' (a DC limited series from the late 80s) ended on a cliffhanger after seven of an originally-announced twelve issues, with no explanation given at the time. Eventually, Baron admitted he had been making it up as he went along and simply realized he had no idea where the story was going. It may be just as well; after an excellent first issue, it got SoOkayItsAverage fast.
107* ''ComicBook/XenozoicTales'' started in 1987 as a bimonthly, but the artist's increasingly detailed drawings necessitated a gap before issue 4 and a reschedule to come out once every three months. This reschedule lasted only three issues before hitting another gap and ceasing to have a regular schedule beyond "when we get it ready." Space between issues got increasingly long, with only two issues released in 1989. The series had one issue a year each April for the next three years, then skipped 1993 entirely. Issue 13 came out in 1994 and issue 14 came out in 1996. There have been no issues since, though the author/artist has been known to claim in interviews that he will get back to it. Should we hold our collective breath?
108* ''ComicBook/ScudTheDisposableAssassin'' was this for ten years, due to CreatorBreakdown. It was finished up, working this into the plot as a TimeSkip.
109* ''Unicorn Isle'' was a fantasy comic by Lee Marrs, c.1987, originally slated to run for 12 issues but cancelled after only 5 for unknown reasons.
110* Creator/ArchieComics once made a comic based on ''VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams'' and had made the initial three issue mini-series into a ongoing series in the same vein that the ''Knuckles The Echidna'' ongoing spun out of its second mini-series. However, after its second three issues, they put the series on indefinite hiatus and classified issues 4-6 as a second mini-series.
111* When Creator/SevenSeasEntertainment was first starting out and before they began to publish licensed manga, they released several [[OELManga original titles in the manga style]]. Having vastly misread the market for such titles (as well as the rapid decline of the publishing market since the company's founding), several of these series were cancelled due to low sales, while some others were stopped short due to other issues. Seven Seas has since largely switched to either one-volume releases (with sequels as sales demand), printed versions of original web series that have a high enough readership (such as ''Manga/AoiHouse''), or licensed series. Some of the casualties:
112** Seven Seas debuted with four OEL series, ''Manga/AmazingAgentLuna'', ''No Man's Land'', ''ComicBook/LastHope2005'', and ''Blade for Barter''. ''Blade for Barter'' was cancelled after a single volume (with the conclusion to the cliffhanger [[ConclusionInAnotherMedium published online]] to make it up to people who actually bought the first volume). ''Last Hope'' ran for two volumes with a third teased but then hit a wall when a contractual dispute arose between the publisher and the author that eventually led to the series being cancelled due to market concerns. ''No Man's Land'' was originally heavily publicized and also had a flash series started, but both the books and flash series were scrapped originally due to the artist and author having too many other commitments, and have been essentially cancelled due the company's concerns over the declining publishing market.
113** ''The Outcast'' sold well and the publisher intended to continue with it, but the author abruptly left it midway through the second volume for other commitments.
114** Both ''Unearthly'' and ''Captain Nemo'' never moved past their first volumes due to the author, who also runs the company, being forced to stop writing in order to run the company instead.
115** ''Ravenskull'' had a teaser for a second volume, but never moved past one. The artist was juggling multiple projects at the time, which led to delays before the second volume was quietly cancelled. No reason was ever given, though looking at Seven Seas response to other properties that have languished in development hell, its probably a safe bet this one won't be returning either.
116** Seven Seas have several manga and light novels they've licensed, and then never released, such as Ryohgo Narita's ''Vamp''. The kicker is that a few of them are fully translated and ready to be printed, but SSE are reluctant to release them due to market concerns (in the case of ''Vamp!'', they're worried that the series won't appeal to the ''Twilight'' crowd... which it wouldn't, but they're looking in the wrong place. It's doubtful those fans would be interested in a novel series featuring a vampire T-rex).
117* Bill Willingham's ''Coventry'' lasted two issues before it was discontinued. Willingham later wrote two short novels in the same universe. Arguably, his later series ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'' may be a continuation of the ''Coventry'' universe, so perhaps it was not entirely orphaned.
118* In the mid-90s, three different companies produced comics based on ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers''. The first company, Gladestone, published two mini-series set in Season Two before passing it to Marvel. Marvel did an adaptation of ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie'' and started two series set in Season Three (one with the Rangers in morphed state and a flip book with the team in Ninja form coupled with stories based on ''Series/VRTroopers''). Only six issues of ''those'' were made before it was passed over to Awesome Comics where only ''one issue'' of a ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'' comic and an ad talking about a crossover between the Zeo team and ''ComicBook/YoungbloodImageComics'' was made. Moral of the story - don't make comics set in an ever-changing continuity.
119* ''ComicBook/{{Wildsiderz}}'' was abandoned by writer/artist J. Scott Campbell after the second issue. In fact, he stopped doing SequentialArt altogether around then -- now he does pin-ups and covers. Basically, this is a case of "100% uninterested in finishing it."
120* Randy Green's ''Dollz'' was, like ''M. Rex'' and ''Wildsiderz'', a two-issue series that was never finished. As far as anyone can tell, Green got too caught up with other projects to bother with it. He still, however, produces art of the characters now and then, sort of like Neil Googe does with Julie Glocke.
121* Creator/KevinSmith's second Comicbook/{{Batman}} miniseries, ''The Widening Gyre'', follows the events of Cacophony and has been on hiatus after 6 issues since early 2010. Smith's reasoning for the delay boils down to "Being stoned all the time".
122* Before that, there was the infamous ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}/Bullseye: The Target'' mini-series. Long story short, Kevin Smith did a highly acclaimed ''Daredevil'' run in the 90s, and one of the most memorable issues had Bullseye killing Karen Page, Matt's girlfriend. Once Smith finished his run, Creator/JoeQuesada asked him to enter into a gentlemen's agreement that Smith would get the first shot at writing any future confrontation between Daredevil and Bullseye, as he'd set the stage for their inevitable showdown quite nicely. A few years later, Creator/BrianMichaelBendis had made it known that he wanted to have Bullseye return to the franchise, and Smith reminded Quesada of the deal they'd made. Quesada agreed to let Smith write Bullseye's return instead of Bendis, but on the condition that he do it immediately as part of a limited series. The ensuing limited series (''The Target'') only ever saw one issue released before Smith lost interest and scrapped the whole thing. He's since said [[CreatorBacklash that he regrets agreeing to do the mini-series]], as he did it more to hold Quesada to his word than any genuine desire to do another Bullseye story.
123* After an already erratic release schedule, Creator/FrankMiller's ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'' abruptly ceased publication in 2008. A continuation called ''Dark Knight: Boy Wonder'' was announced in 2010, but as of 2020, it's yet to actually appear.
124* As stated above in Manga/Anime, Grupo Editorial Vid. It was the most important publisher of comics for the Mexican market, but then since the first half of the 2000s, they started to have problems, like losing the rights to publish Creator/MarvelComics in Spanish, then losing the rights to publish Creator/DCComics, Image, Dark Horse, etc. Thankfully, other publishers decided to work on these titles.
125* Director Creator/JonFavreau partnered with superstar artist Adi Granov for a four issue mini-series called ''ComicBook/IronMan: Viva Las Vegas''. The series was meant to be released alongside the first ''Film/{{Iron Man|1}}'' movie as a gateway book to get new fans interested in the comics, but only two issues were published before it fell victim to ScheduleSlip and was then cancelled altogether. Also not helping matters was the fact that Favreau had a [[CreatorBacklash massive falling out]] with Marvel over the ExecutiveMeddling he put up with while making ''Film/IronMan2,'' meaning that even if he ever had any interest in finishing the mini-series, it's certainly not going to happen now.
126* ''ComicBook/BadPlanet'' by Creator/ThomasJane was planned to be a 12-issue long series, but it was plagued by ScheduleSlip during its development cycle. Volume 1 containing the first six issues was concluded, but the second volume hasn't been updated since ''2013''. Due to lack of funding, it's unknown if the series will ever see its conclusion.
127* French comic artist Olivier Ledroit wrote and drew a comic, ''The Scarlett Door'', about a group of cyborg {{Transhuman}}s who wake up from hibernation in a post-apocalyptic North America, which was discontinued after a single issue and ended on a cliffhanger.
128* After running non-stop for 24 years, Creator/ArchieComics' restructuring and financial troubles led to the cancellation of their ''ComicBook/{{Sonic the Hedgehog|ArchieComics}}'' series. The last few issues were meant to head into a new arc but the axe came down at that point and nixed any future plans. The comics at the least were able to finish up the "Shattered World" arc (a.k.a the ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' adaptation) and was as far as a proper closure the comic was going to get despite a ton of lingering plot lines. Sega since then [[ChannelHop gave the comic license to IDW]]. While the comic has the same writers, they opted to reboot the comic world rather than continue the previous universe.
129* On 2018, ''Cosmo The Merry Martian'' was rebooted as as the action-oriented ''[[ComicBook/Cosmo2018 Cosmo the Mighty Martian]]'' with the former writers of Archie's ''ComicBook/{{Sonic the Hedgehog|ArchieComics}}'' series, most likely in an attempt to retain the latter's reader base after its cancellation. After five issues, the miniseries suddenly came to a stop in 2020 for no apparent reason, although since the writers were also working on [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW IDW's own Sonic series]] at the time, it's a moot point.
130[[/folder]]
131
132[[folder:Fan Works]]
133* Platform/ArchiveOfOurOwn allows an author to ''literally'' orphan a fic (original or otherwise), disowning a work that they no longer want to be attached to, with the "new" author being [[AlanSmithee orphan_account]]. This can be done with both unfinished and completed works, and naturally, a vast majority of the fics "written" by orphan_account are of the former.
134* ''Harry Potter and the Breeding Darkness'' seems to unfortunately have been discontinued due to lack of interest and time to continue writing for it, and has now been put up for adoption.
135* ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'' was this for a long time. The author, who started the story in 1980 and began posting it online in 1997, abandoned it in 2002 due to real life problems preventing her from devoting time to it. The two-thirds of the book she'd finished remained on her website. She maintained that she would probably never finish it, but in early 2009 she was hit by literary lightning, wrote 300 pages in 3 weeks, and finished the whole story. (The final product in book form is over 650 pages long.) She has now released the first half of the long-promised sequel, ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone''.
136* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7350801/1/Colonization_First_Contact Colonization: First Contact]]'' is a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic with the typical "human in Equestria" premise, except with a twist: instead of the typical self-insert, it features a space expedition of scientists and soldiers who stumble upon the planet Equestria. Unfortunately, it petered out after only five chapters, with an unfinished piece of the sixth on the author's profile. The author later announced he will not be finishing the fic (and offers it to any enterprising author who would like to finish it).
137* Platform/FimfictionDotNet allows authors to label their stories as being "On Hiatus" or "Cancelled", though whether or not an orphaned fic will actually make use of either label is a toss-up.
138* Invoked by the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fanfic "Our Obligations", where the writer specifically wrote the last chapter as a NoEnding just to give people this impression.
139* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4464089/1/Yellow-Submarine Yellow Submarine]]'', a ''Harry Potter'' fic, was almost finished when its author decided to wrap up an earlier loose end. The related subplot was reintroduced, then abandoned.
140* The ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' fanfic series ''Consequences of Our Pasts'' was meant to be an exploration of the Avatar cycle starting with Aang and show the results of having no Airbenders left for the cycle to use, as well as explore how [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin events in the distant past made the canon war inevitable]]. Midway through the second of five projected stories, the author put it on hold for over two years due to RealLife concerns, then expressed dissatisfaction and burnout (as well as belief that ''FanFic/EmbersVathara'' expressed his intended themes more effectively) before finally removing it all from Platform/FanFictionDotNet. Only the first part of the first story, ''The Aftermath: Aang's Book'', is now archived [[http://davidvanbeveren.nl/archive/airbender.net/index.php?PHPSESSID=e19a100b7894c1c780096fd7e1b9d97e&topic=2793.0 here]], and that is mostly setup.
141* [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/720750/1/His-Brother-s-Keeper The]] [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/846174/1/Victimized "Partners"]] [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1344444/1/Change series]] by Nate Grey will never be finished due to the author losing interest in ''Manga/PilotCandidate'' over the years.
142* Obscure ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' fanfiction ''Orange and Blue'' by Inkling Studios. It was first cancelled as a fanfic in late 2016, then [[SubvertedTrope being revived]] in early 2017 as a webcomic...[[HistoryRepeats only for THAT to be cancelled as well]] due to the creator losing interest in the game and having poor experiences with the fandom.
143* ''Fanfic/TwilightPrettyCure'' was abandoned after the author was accused of mishandling sensitive subjects such as rape. Though she tried to address this problem by rewriting the story to make it less offensive, the backlash against it eventually caused her to give up on it completely, with several of the revised chapters still not reposted.
144* When the ''Manga/MonsterMusume'' anime first aired back in 2015, several artists and anons met on imageboards to discuss the series, and decided to create a parallel story starring the [[EnsembleDarkhorse Bicycle Cop]] and girls from the most dangerous liminal subspecies available, as a sort of "evil" counterpart of Kimihito's harem. So ''[[http://dailylifewithamonstergirl.wikia.com/wiki/Everyday_Life_With_Bicycle_Cop Everyday Life with Bicycle Cop]]'' was born. High-quality art of the girls was made, along with backstories and info pages that perfectly replicated Okayado's writing and drawing style. Several strips were made to show the interactions between the girls and the cop, like a very funny and occasionally sweet sitcom. Unfortunately the artists either got bored, had other commitments, or jumped to other fanbases, so the project slowed down and eventually came to a halt. The anons sent the whole work to Okayado as a sign of gratitude.
145* ''WebAnimation/{{Grej}}'' created a ''WebVideo/{{Jreg}}'' fan series called ''Realicide''. Officially, three episodes have been released with shorts in-between. It was given the ApprovalOfGod and is a piece of AscendedFanon, with the events of ''Realicide'' being acknowledged in ''Centricide'' to be simultaeneously occuring. Jreg even expressed desire to collaborate with the ''Grej'' team one day. However, the series was officially canceled in mid-2021 as the creators were burnt out and wanted to move on to other projects.
146* The fic ''Fanfic/HellAndHighWater'' was cancelled in 2022, though at that point the last chapter was written two years prior, which itself was written a year after the previous one. The author cited these long update gaps as one of the reason for dropping the fic. The other was the bloated nature of the plot, as he felt [[KudzuPlot there were too many needlessly complicated details, characters, and plot beats]]. He did suggest that he may revisit the story in the future, albeit completely rewriting it to be more condensed and focused.
147* The ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' fic series ''Fanfic/LegacyOfHope'', a reboot of ''Fanfic/ANewHopeDanganronpa'', was ultimately shelved due to story fatigue and loss of communication with the original author (the reboot is ghostwritten). As such, ''A New Luck'' abruptly ends on the third story arc, but the author gave out the list of killers, victims, and survivors.
148* ''FanFic/UniverseFalls'', a ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' and ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' crossover retelling was 102 chapters in, and halfway through what they called "Arc 9" of a planned 11 arc story. There were even preliminary plans to do a sequel series once they finished, with the titles for the remaining episodes posted online to sho what the general flow/themes of the remaining parts of the story would be. But in mid 2022, the author announced that he was putting the fic on "indefinite hiatus", partly because of sheer exhaustion for having worked on it for 7 years and no longer considering it fun, and partly because they had [[Fanfic/KeysToTheKingdomkingdomhearts other stories]] they were now more invested in.
149[[/folder]]
150
151[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
152* The first two instalments of Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''Space Odyssey'' series, ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' and ''[[Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact 2010: Odyssey Two]]'' have film adaptations, but not ''2061: Odyssey Three'' or ''3001: The Final Odyssey''. Creator/TomHanks expressed interest in doing film adaptations of the last two, but now that Douglas Rain has died and Keir Dullea is probably too old to do the rest of the series, it seems unlikely that anything will come to fruition.
153* ''Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' survived a ChannelHop of distributors (from Disney to Fox), but then Creator/WaldenMedia's contract with the Creator/CSLewis estate ended and so did the film series. The third film's poor reviews and AdaptationDecay certainly didn't help. While a planned adaptation of ''The Silver Chair'' was announced back around 2013 which would have be a reboot directed by Creator/JoeJohnston, it has since been cancelled in favor of a new reboot of some sort for Creator/{{Netflix}}.
154* Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse:
155** Creator/ZackSnyder planned an arc of five films that would see the birth, fall, and rise of the Franchise/{{Justice League|Of America}} and apocalyptic fights against the ComicBook/NewGods in a BadFuture. Ultimately, only three films were made -- ''Film/ManOfSteel'', ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', and ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'' due to the studio (now called Creator/DCStudios) and Creator/WarnerBros having been disoriented by the ferocious backlash upon the release of ''Batman v Superman'' (which caused the ''Justice League'' film to suffer from it, and the version of Snyder could only be saved thanks to a [[SendingStuffToSaveTheShow fan campaign]]) and having distanced themselves from Snyder as a result.
156** Creator/PattyJenkins had planned a third ''Wonder Woman'' film after the [[Film/WonderWoman2017 2017]] one and ''Film/WonderWoman1984'', but the tepid reception to the latter and a DC movie universe ContinuityReboot plan by Creator/JamesGunn caused Jenkins to quit and the third film to be canned. Whether or not Creator/GalGadot will carry on in the reboot remains to be seen.
157* ''The Literature/{{Divergent}} Series'' suffered this fate, given that the final book ''Allegiant'' was split into two movies (''Allegiant'' and ''Ascendant'')...that were not shot concurrently.[[note]]This was unlike Lionsgate's previous YA franchise ''Film/TheHungerGames'', whose two-part finale was filmed back-to-back, so it was able to release the second even if the first underperformed (which it didn't). ''Divergent'' obviously wanted to [[FollowTheLeader follow its lead]], but the series never generated as much interest as ''The Hunger Games'' and [[{{Foreshadowing}} the second film underperformed]], which should be enough writing on the wall for Lionsgate to cut the films' funding.[[/note]] Part one ended up being a BoxOfficeBomb, so the next one never materialized.
158* ''Film/{{Eragon}}'' never had any sequels despite 3 later books to adapt. The film underperformed--[[PresumedFlop not financially]], but regarding its critical and audience reception--and there wasn't enough interest in continuing it.
159* ''Film/TheLastAirbender'' only adapted the first season of the three season animated series it was based on, but due to a poor critical and audience reception, the planned sequels were never made.
160[[/folder]]
161
162[[folder:Literature]]
163* OlderThanPrint: At the beginning of ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'', the characters are all heading to Canterbury for various reasons, and it's stated that each one will (for a story contest) tell two stories on the way there, and two on the way back. However, it breaks off before they make it to Canterbury or even have one character tell more than one story (in some cases, such as the Cook's Tale, the story is incomplete). Whether or not Creator/GeoffreyChaucer simply abandoned it or meant to finish it but [[DiedDuringProduction died first]] is unknown. (An alternative explanation is that the work was completed, but no complete version of the manuscript has been retained or recorded.)
164* Some scholars consider ''Literature/TheTaleOfGenji'' an example. It cuts off abruptly with the potential for plenty more story.
165* Creator/RobinJarvis seemingly abandoned his ''Literature/{{Hagwood}}'' trilogy after the first book. Indeed, for over a decade there was only one book, but the final volumes were released in 2013 and 2016, respectively. However, his ''Intrigues of the Reflected Realm'' series still only has one book, ''Deathscent''. ''Hagwood'' and ''Intrigues of the Reflected Realm'' debuted at about the same time, and now the latter has remained unfinished for longer than the former.
166* ''Quest Of the Gypsy'' by Ron Goulart was supposed to be six books long, but stopped after the second book in 1977.
167* Stieg Larsson's ''Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy'' was planned to be a decalogy, but was cut short in 2007 after only three books by [[DiedDuringProduction his sudden death]]. The series' publisher would later hire David Lagercrantz to continue the series in Larsson's stead, releasing the fourth installment in 2015.
168* Creator/KimNewman writing as Jack Yeovil's ''Demon Download'' series for Creator/GamesWorkshop's Literature/DarkFuture universe has been awaiting the fourth and final installment since 1991. Despite GW republishing the earlier works, there's no sign of the final volume ever appearing in print.
169* ''Tales of the Nine Charms'' by Erica Farber and J.R. Sansevere had two books published in 2000 and 2001 respectively and claims to be a trilogy. As of 2014, the third book has yet to materialize.
170* ''The Architect of Sleep'' by Steven R. Boyett ends on a cliffhanger that may never be resolved. After wrangling with his publisher over the sequel, Boyett took the unusual step of buying the rights back and has stated repeatedly that he no longer has any interest in finishing the series.
171* Creator/CharlesStross has [[http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/09/books-i-will-not-write-4-escha.html explained]] that he will not be continuing Literature/TheEschatonSeries beyond its existing two installments because he feels he made some worldbuilding mistakes so serious at the end of ''Iron Sunrise'' as to make that universe unviable.
172* Creator/GeorgeRRMartin attempted to start a number of short story series (he says in ''Dreamsongs'', "My career is littered with the corpses of dead series") before settling on Haviland Tuf, chronicled in the ''Literature/TufVoyaging'' fixup novel.
173* ''Changeling'' and ''Madwand'' by Creator/RogerZelazny set a stage for multidimensional conflict of technology vs. magic vs. {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and just stop there. In over a decade the author never came back to the setting.
174* Creator/RoaldDahl's third book about [[Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory Charlie Bucket and Willy Wonka]], ''Charlie in the White House''--which would have picked up from the SequelHook at the end of ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator''--never got further than Chapter One.
175* ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr'' is at great risk of becoming this, as David Gerrold is pushing 80 years of age and [[DevelopmentHell has yet to finish Book 5 (of a planned 7)]], after Book 4 ended on a {{cliffhanger}} thirty years ago.
176* Creator/LilithSaintcrow's ''Literature/{{Steelflower}}'' trilogy wound up subverting this. At one point, the author stated on her website that she would not be continuing the series due to [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil heavy piracy of the ebook edition of the first installment]], but wound up releasing the second and third installments of the trilogy nearly ten years later.
177* ''Literature/EmpireFromTheAshes'' (''Dahak'') sets the stage for an interstellar war of epic proportions, where human ancestors have been fighting genocidal aliens, whose invasions kept nearly (but not quite) exterminating them for millions of years. The first book, ''Mutineer's Moon'', is about a stranded picket [[PlanetSpaceship planetoid]] waking from 50 000 years of sleep to enlist the help of the LostColony Earth. ''Armageddon Inheritance'' is about figuring what killed the rest of the interstellar Imperium/Empire and fighting the invasion, this time with a fleet of planetoids and using exploding stars as death traps. ''Heirs of Empire'' is about slowly preparing a counterstrike while surviving a coup and establishing order on another LostColony, this time [[MedievalStasis stuck in the flintlock era]]. And then nothing since 1996. Presumably, Creator/DavidWeber is busy writing about Literature/HonorHarrington and [[Literature/TheWarGods Bahzel]]. Meanwhile the animated adaptation has been in pre-production limbo since the early 2000s.
178* Creator/TerryJones's ''The Lady and the Squire'', the sequel to the children's novel ''Literature/TheKnightAndTheSquire'', ends on a {{downer|ending}} with two major characters [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat missing-presumed-dead]] and the three main characters splitting up. It was published in 2000 and never continued.
179* ''Literature/DragonQueen'', a WebSerialNovel, stopped updating in March of 2015, with eight chapters up.
180* Creator/DianeCarey had initially planned at least one or two more books revolving around Piper, the character she introduced in what would eventually be called the ''Literature/FortunesOfWar'' story, but those novels never came about.
181* ''Literature/IsaacAsimovTheCompleteStories'': The introduction of ''Volume 1'' makes it clear that Dr Asimov was intending to work with {{Creator/Doubleday}} to republish all of his fiction in a format that would make finding his stories easy, but having only 88 stories/poems when his short ScienceFiction is more than two hundred shows that at least two more volumes would be needed. Once you add in the MysteryFiction and {{Poetry}} counts, the two lonely volumes look very incomplete.
182* The ''Literature/MaradoniaSaga''. The last new book to be released was ''Maradonia and the Law of Blood'', all the way back in 2010. The series presumably stalled due to its author Gloria Tesch preferring to focus on TheMovie. It seems like the creators ran out of money and gave up on the series after the film's premiere, making the story [[CutShort end on an unresolved cliffhanger]]. Several other factors point towards the series being cancelled: as of January 2020, the ''Maradonia'' websites are down, none of the e-books are available for purchase, the only physical copies for sale are used, and Gloria Tesch's website focuses on her modelling. To make matters worse, Gerry Tesch, Gloria's father and the one person who helped promoting and publishing the series, died in 2018. In December 2019, Gloria Tesch released ''The Secret of Moon Lake'' (under the new name/pseudonym Sofia Nova) and called it her debut novel, effectively disowning ''Maradonia''.
183* ''Literature/ErecRex'' was supposed to be an eight-book series. The fifth entry was published in 2012. [[http://www.erecrex.com/ The official site]] currently has a headline "Book Six is underway!"...from 2014.
184* ''Literature/TalesOfElethiya'', a planned ten book length web serial novel seems to have stalled out at three instalments and the website where they were available is offline leaving the series in limbo.
185* ''The Starkillers Cycle'', a serialized online SpaceOpera novel available on Tumblr that was co-authored by Creator/SarahJMaas and Creator/SusanDennard. It was first uploaded in 2014 but then stopped being updated and has since been taken down. It's been speculated this is because of Dennard and Maas breaking off their friendship (the details aren't public but it's been noted they no longer interact during interviews/panels or post about their friendship, and they've stopped following each other on social media).
186* ''Literature/TheFamiliar'', an ambitious book series written by Creator/MarkZDanielewski that was planned to span 27 volumes, with each volume being a whopping 800+ pages filled with interlocking stories and characters, was prematurely halted at less than 25 percent complete after the fifth volume was released, as the publisher lost faith in it with sales being poor.
187* ''Literature/GirlsKingdom'''s fourth volume ends on a cliffhanger, with Misaki noting that things are going to get crazy. However, despite the first four volumes being released in less than a year through 2021, there has been no sign of a fifth, leaving fans frustrated. Creator/JNovelClub's site lists the series as ongoing, suggesting that it hasn't been QuietlyCancelled, at least.
188* ''Literature/AgeOfSteam'' series of novels by Creator/DevonMonk has only three installments, with the third being released in 2013. This is despite the fact the series sets up that there will be seven novels (one for each "Holder" fragment the characters are searching for) and the many plot threads left unresolved.
189* ''Literature/TheFeyAndTheFallen'' by Stina Leicht ends after only two novels, ending on a cliffhanger as the protagonist decides to work with the church to hunt demons, learns his little sister has magic, has discovered there are multiple fairy courts and learns of a fairy king who has been suspiciously silent in the past few decades while demons have been ravaging the mortal lands. Liecht has gone on to write other works, and while she has never gone on record saying why the series was orphaned, the timing coincides with the publisher, Night Shade Books, going bankrupt.
190* Likewise, Creator/CatherynneMValente ''has'' gone on record saying that [[https://catvalente.livejournal.com/676890.html?rfrom=yuki_onna the closing of Night Shade]] has affected her ability to publish the third and final ''Literature/DirgeForPresterJohn'' novel.
191* Creator/EricFlint's two ''Literature/JoesWorld'' satirical fantasy novels were among the first things he ever wrote for professional publication, and he hoped to extend the series, but he had to divert his attention to more marketable works, and passed away twenty years later with a third novel only partially finished.
192
193[[/folder]]
194
195[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
196%%* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' was a dead-then-resurrected-then-dead series which wasn't able to put out a full season before its final-and-actual cancellation. Some closure was given to the story of River and the Academy with the movie ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', by which time Creator/JossWhedon was certain it would not be revived. However, the franchise then continued in tie-in comics and soon spawned a tabletop RPG and eventually an {{MMORPG}}, ''VideoGame/FireflyOnline''.
197* ''Series/ChappellesShow'' when Dave couldn't handle the fame and pressure after the success of the first two seasons. He literally walked out on the production of the third season, even after Comedy Central offered a bigger paycheck. He is currently focusing on performing stand-up.
198* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'', the kid-friendly spin-off of the modern ''Series/{{Doctor Who}}'' series, ended halfway through Series Five following the death of star Creator/ElisabethSladen (the production team weren't willing to replace her or carry on without her). Fortunately, although one story arc -- related to Sarah Jane adopting an alien girl -- was left incomplete, the series' storylines were standalone enough to avoid any loose ends.
199* ''Series/TwinPeaks'' was this for over 25 years. The movie, ''Fire Walk With Me'', rather than concluding the story, was supposed to mark the transition from TV to films, but after its failure at the box office, the follow-up was never made. A revival series eventually aired in 2017, concluding the story at last ([[GainaxEnding or not]]).
200* Technically, you might say this of ''Series/SonnyWithAChance''. Season 3 ended with Sonny Munroe (sort of) reconciling with Chad Dylan Cooper and landing a job singing songs in an outdoor café. Before the fourth season was to continue the plot line, [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Demi Lovato went to rehab to treat self-harm, bulimia and drug and alcohol abuse, as well as her bipolarity]], and she decided at the end that returning to ''Sonny'' wouldn't be a good thing for her recovery. ''Series/SoRandom'', which only loosely brought back the SWAC characters and cast (with a few additions) as part of their "ShowWithinAShow Becom(ing) A Show", [[{{Unperson}} did not mention Sonny or "Channy" at all]], [[GoKartingWithBowser used Chad Dylan Cooper as a Random]], and was canceled after one season. Demi never even got to guest on an episode as herself or Sonny.
201* Though the stories of its characters would be continued in film, ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' doesn't cover all of the five-year mission of the ''Enterprise'', ending unceremoniously.
202* Creator/BryanFuller is the victim of this trope way too frequently:
203** ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}'' had completed a full season of episodes but only four aired before FOX pulled the plug. The story behind the Muses remains unresolved and several planned stories, including a lesbian's mystery pregnancy and a stint by Jaye in a locked ward never played out.
204** ''Series/PushingDaisies'' ended after two shortened seasons with many unanswered questions and dangling plot threads, not least of which is the source of Ned's ability.
205** Although ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'' made it through three seasons and seemed to come to a conclusion, WordOfGod confirms that [[spoiler: Will and Hannibal both survived the Fall]]. Fuller had planned on five seasons and has expressed repeated interest in adapting ''Film/SilenceOfTheLambs''.
206** Fuller also has two failed pilots to his credit, ''Series/MockingbirdLane'' and ''Series/HighMoon''.
207** Even his ''{{Film/Carrie 2002}}'' counts. It's an adaptation of the Stephen King novel that was talked about expanding into a TV series, so it ends openly in the hopes that the story could continue. Despite strong ratings justifying a series, he soon realised the network weren't interested.
208* Creator/TheBBC adaptation of Creator/JohnChristopher's trilogy ''Literature/TheTripods'' was cancelled after the first two series (covering books one and two) leaving it in limbo.
209* ''Series/NewAmsterdam2008'': Fox halted production of the show after only filming eight episodes out of a planned 13. The only reason the show even aired was because the network was starving for material during the 07-08 writer's strike. After airing all of the completed episodes, Fox officially canceled it.
210[[/folder]]
211
212[[folder:Manhwa]]
213* While ''Manhwa/{{Chonchu}}'' had its first part driven to completion, its second part is still pending 10 years after the end of the first part and there's no prospective date for a release.
214* Many manga/manhua/manhwa continued until the end but their non-official fans-translations didn't. Manhwa ''Metal Heart'' is such an example.
215** ''Yoo Ah Dok Jon'' only ran 15 chapters then was abandoned without any news.
216** ''Manhwa/PhDPhantasyDegree'' aka ''Master School Olympus'' only ran to 10 volumes, while the author seemingly moved on to do other projects.
217** ''Manhwa/CavalierOfTheAbyss'' was abandoned just after a big twist was revealed and nearly reaching a climax.
218[[/folder]]
219
220[[folder:Music]]
221* The Music/{{Vocaloid}} series "Synchronicity" was thought by fans to have been abandoned, since the third and final video in the trilogy has yet to be released. This notion was perpetuated when an incomplete version of the final video was allegedly posted on Japanese video sharing site Website/NicoNicoDouga before quickly being removed. However, the creator of the series, Hitoshizuku, claimed that no such video was ever uploaded, and she has confirmed on her blog that the conclusion to the series is in progress, though she stated that fans might have to wait awhile for it to be released.
222* The 1995 Music/DavidBowie album ''1. Outside'' was intended to be the first part of a trilogy of concept albums. Bowie apparently lost interest in the project.
223* Similarly, Music/GeorgeMichael's 1990 album ''Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1'' was intended to be part one of a DistinctDoubleAlbum, 'Volume 1' containing pop-rock and soul influenced tracks. 'Volume 2', which was intended to be a dance album, was never finished because of disputes with the record company. Michael had recorded 4 tracks for it. He contributed three of them -- "Too Funky", "Do You Really Want To Know", and "Happy" -- to the ''Red Hot + Dance'' AIDS charity album. "Too Funky" was released as a single with the b-side "Crazyman Dance", also recorded for the cancelled album. The ''Vol. 1'' single "Waiting For That Day"'s b-side "Fantasy" may also have been intended for the album as it fits in stylistically. It isn't known if Michael recorded any more songs for the cancelled Vol. 2 or carried them over to his later albums ''Older'' or ''Patience''. It is unlikely the record company wanted him talking about unreleased material so it may not be known for a while.
224* [[Music/{{Garbage}} Shirley Manson]] recorded a solo album. The studio refused to release it considering it non-commercial, and she also gave up putting the songs out on her own.
225* Music/SimpleMinds recorded a promo video for This Is It, and clips were shown in a promo video for the album ''Graffiti Soul''. The song was ultimately not released as a single, and the full video has not been released.
226* Music/TheBeachBoys had planned for a ''Stars & Stripes'' series featuring various other artists (primarily in CountryMusic) doing remakes of their most famous hits. After ''Stars & Stripes, Vol. 1'' bombed, they abandoned any plans for a ''Vol. 2'', although one track for what would have become ''Vol. 2'' (a cover of "In My Room" with Tammy Wynette) later appeared on one of Wynette's compilation albums.
227* Music/TheResidents intended on releasing a six-part "mole trilogy" set in the same universe as the ''Mark Of The Mole'' ConceptAlbum: They cut things short after a disastrous tour supporting ''Mark Of The Mole'' itself, and only put out three albums and an EP revolving around the concept. One of those releases is a LiveAlbum presentation of ''Mark Of The Mole'' itself (''Mole Show''), and all the others (''Tunes Of Two Cities'', ''Intermission'', ''The Big Bubble'') are supposed to be music made InUniverse by the feuding societies depicted in ''Mark Of The Mole'', so the whole story-line ultimately has NoEnding.
228* Music/LimpBizkit EP ''The Unquestionable Truth, Part 1'', bore a more serious tone than usual LB fare, and served as a comeback record for guitarist Wes Borland. Naturally the title implied there would be another part, but EP sold badly and Borland walked away again after its release (he rejoined the group later, but little was heard about the second part since then, especially with their main album stuck in Main/DevelopmentHell).
229* Music/MileyCyrus was originally planning in 2019 to release a 3-part album project called ''She Is Miley Cyrus'', releasing it in the form of 3 [=EPs=] throughout the year. Only the first EP, ''She Is Coming'', saw a release, with the later two, ''She Is Here'' and ''She is Everything'', being indefinitely postponed after [[CreatorBreakdown her tumultuous breakup with Liam Hemsworth]]. In the following year, she announced that the project was scrapped and rebooted from scratch (she claimed that it didn't make sense to continue on with the pre-breakup material), culminating in the release of an entirely new album, ''Plastic Hearts'', near the end of 2020.
230* Music/KanyeWest's first three albums between 2004 to 2007 (''The College Dropout'', ''Late Registration'', and ''Graduation'') heavily revolved around college and themes of growing up into adulthood, with Kanye planning immediately after ''Graduation'' to complete the series with an album titled ''Good Ass Job''. [[CreatorBreakdown Then Kanye was hit with multiple of personal tragedies all at once]], including the sudden death of his mother and breakup with his fiancé, which prompted an almost complete overhaul in musical direction with ''[=808s=] and Heartbreak''. The last news that anyone has ever heard of ''Good Ass Job'' was Kanye announcing in 2018 that it would be salvaged as a collaboration with Chance the Rapper, [[DevelopmentHell but word of that too has since stagnated]], with Kanye focused on other projects since.
231[[/folder]]
232
233[[folder:Pinballs]]
234* The Pinball 2000 line from Creator/WilliamsElectronics, heralded as the future of {{pinball}}, debuted with ''Pinball/RevengeFromMars'' and ''Pinball/StarWarsEpisodeI''. Although both machines were well-acclaimed and decent sellers, Williams' shareholders decided to pull out of the arcade gaming business all together to focus solely on slot machines.
235[[/folder]]
236
237[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
238* In a sort of ShowWithinAShow style example, this phenomenon got a reference in the RPG sourcebook ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Fantasy II'', where the greatest poet of a certain ancient civilization has been suffering a writer's block for ''thousands'' of years, his magnum opus left one volume short of completion. Rather than an isolated case, this is another symptom of said civilization's stagnated nature.
239* While the game itself has continued without a hitch, Konami is notorious for creating and then dropping various deck archetypes for the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' card game. While the anime-based ones are forgivable, the original ones are not, especially when some of those archetypes are left orphaned with only an opening hand's worth of cards to their name. Fortunately, Konami seems to be realizing that they have those archetypes orphaned, and are starting to readopt them with new support in the game's more recent sets.
240* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'''s revised Convention books, covering the groups of the game's primary antagonist group, the Technocracy. The first book in the series, ''Iteration X'', was released in 2002, proving to be a considerable improvement over the original... then Creator/WhiteWolf went and ended the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness. Fans thought that was it for the Convention books. However, at Gencon 2011, WW announced they'd be doing the remaining four Convention books, and finally completed the set in October 2013.
241** On the subject of the [=oWoD=], both ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'' and ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheDreaming'' were ended before the other lines, and both were left incomplete. Wraith's Guildbook series was left unfinished, with five of the thirteen Great Guilds not covered. In Changeling's case, meanwhile, ''Book of Glamour'' was announced, but never saw light of day (and is unlikely to, its intended content being superseded by Changeling's 20th Anniversary edition), and the Kithbook series was cut short, with the Boggans and Sidhe not done (though ''Nobles: the Shining Host'' is considered an unofficial Sidhe Kithbook). Fortunately, a Boggan kithbook was funded as a stretch goal for the Kickstarter to fund a deluxe version of the Changeling 20th Anniversary corebook.
242[[/folder]]
243
244[[folder:Video Games]]
245* In a particularly early example, the ''Horace'' series of video games on the Platform/ZXSpectrum became orphaned following the departure of its creator from the video game industry in the mid-80's after suffering a collapsed lung. The series came to a close in 1985, with a standalone game appearing ten years later, and then nothing since.
246* Any game released on an episodic schedule can be prone to this if the first episodes don't stir up enough interest and the developers are fired (as is the case with ''VideoGame/SiNEpisodesEmergence'', whose development studio was disintegrated after the release of the first episode ''Emergence'') or lose interest and move on to other, better things (Creator/TelltaleGames, for example, released only the first two episodes to their ''Bone'' series, which were met with lukewarm reviews, before moving on to the much more successful ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' series).
247* After ''VideoGame/HalfLife2 Episode 2'' ended on a cliffhanger, gamers eagerly awaited a resolution in ''Episode 3'' which was supposed to come in by the end of 2007. However, after Valve missed this deadline the project was never seen or heard from again, with ''Half-Life 2 Episode 3'', or eventually, ''Half-Life 3'' becoming one of the most infamous pieces of {{Vaporware}} in video game history. During 2016 and 2017, most of the key creative story staff from the ''Half-Life'' series left Creator/{{Valve}}, which many saw as the final nail in the coffin for ''Half-Life 3'''s chances of ever getting made.
248** 2020 saw the release of a VR interquel named ''VideoGame/HalfLifeAlyx'', the first Valve-produced entry in the Half-Life series for over a decade, which follows the exploits of Alyx Vance 5 years before the events of ''Half-Life 2'', with the ending suggesting that the timeline was rebooted. This, along with announcements from Valve stating their plans to continue the series, may mean the long-awaited subversion of this trope.
249* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' was another victim to "Creator/{{Valve}} Time", in this case most regarding [[Webcomic/TeamFortress2 its comic series]]. Initially announced in 2013 for a bi-monthly 7-issue story arc, [[ScheduleSlip only 6 issues were completed between 2013 and 2017]], and the final issue nowhere to be seen. Following issue 6's release, the development team of ''[=TF2=]'' had massively downsized, and in 2019, [[https://makanidotdot.tumblr.com/post/183034248261/not-to-be-inconvenient-or-rude-but-if-you-were series artist Heather Campbell confirmed]] that issue 7 was not in active development as everyone moved onto different projects, and barring the possibilities of "waiting to see if/when the stars align", it seems it'll stay that way.
250* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' was yet ''another'' series that was left abandoned by Creator/{{Valve}} (Starting to see a pattern here?). The last game was ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' which was released all the way back in ''2009''. This is despite the fact that both the first and second game being released merely a year apart. Although there have been hints on Valve attempting to make a sequel, they were merely rumours and nothing substantial has been released, despite fans ''begging'' Valve to make a sequel due to the game's aging engine.
251* The Creator/LucasArts adventure game ''VideoGame/{{Loom}}'' was conceived as the first game in an epic fantasy trilogy, with an [[GainaxEnding extremely confusing]] {{cliffhanger}} ending to get players interested in a potential sequel. For years, many fans speculated that the sequels were dropped because ''Loom'' wasn't as critically acclaimed as [=LucasArts=] had hoped (it was) or because it didn't sell very many copies (it did), but [=LucasArts=] would later confirm that the sequels were dropped because no-one at the company wanted to work on them.
252** ''VideoGame/FullThrottle'' sold well enough that the company intended to create sequels. However, two different attempts to put one together fell apart in the process. As the creator Creator/TimSchafer left [=LucasArts=] not long after the first sequel attempt to form Creator/DoubleFine, and [=LucasArts=] went under in 2013, it's safe to call this one dead (outside of a remake).
253* Creator/TimSchafer is cursed with these.
254** ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' was intended to be the first title in a series and the ending has a SequelHook. The second game had even started pre-production at Double Fine when Creator/ElectronicArts swiftly cancelled it in response to low sales of the first title. Years later, when EA dropped support for the title, DF gained full rights to the game, allowing them to finally release a PC port, and the fate of the sequel or new content all depends on whether the PC port sells well or not (which, so far, it seems to be doing ''much'' better on PC than on consoles).
255** Tim stated in 2017 that a sequel can and will happen eventually, he just needs to work on ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'' first. The ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' crowdfunding campaign did say that it passing would make the sequel much more likely. Eventually it was successfully funded and the sequel was released in 2021 to much applause from the fans. [[{{Squee}} Awesome.]]
256* ''VideoGame/BetrayalAtKrondor'' enjoyed immense success and is now a cult classic. The team that put it together was just starting to work on a sequel when the studio broke up the RPG department and crashed the whole project. A SpiritualSuccessor, ''VideoGame/BetrayalInAntara'', and a thematic successor, ''VideoGame/ReturnToKrondor'', eventually appeared, but the first had nothing in common with its predecessor except for the general game engine, and the latter was a sequel in name only. (And ''Betrayal in Antara'' would get abandoned ''itself'', though fewer people cared about that.) The actual project intended by the creators of ''Betrayal'' to expand on that storyline and tie off all the loose ends, called ''Thief of Dreams'', never saw the light of day.
257* This trope seems to have hit Creator/{{Sega}} particularly hard:
258** Before being released, six episodes for ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' were planned. The first episode was critically acclaimed, but [[AcclaimedFlop flopped financially]], so they decided to make the series shorter, by merging episodes 2, 3, 4 ''and'' 5 into a single episode, leaving the series with only 3 episodes. But ''Shenmue II'' (still universally acclaimed as an awesome game) flopped even ''harder'' than the first one (all thanks to the game being released as an Platform/{{Xbox}} exclusive in America, and the Platform/{{Dreamcast}} dying out in Europe and Japan), so plans for future games in the series were abandoned by Sega. Creator Yu Suzuki managed decades later to get a ''Videogame/ShenmueIII'' done with the help of crowdfunding. But the story still ends on a SequelHook and the game has a letter hoping for a ''Shenmue IV''.
259** ''VideoGame/ElDoradoGate'' was intended to be released in 24 bimonthly installments. Due to the death of the [[Platform/SegaDreamcast Dreamcast]], the last 14 volumes were canned. Slightly averted in that Creator/{{Capcom}} [[AbortedArc planned for this ahead of time]], and gave the game a proper ending in Volume 7.
260** SEGA also had the honor of publishing High Voltage Software's ''VideoGame/TheConduit'' and its [[VideoGame/Conduit2 sequel]], both designed to fully capitalize on the Platform/{{Wii}}'s processing power. Unfortunately, even though they both end with a {{Cliffhanger}}, poor sales of the latter discouraged High Voltage Software from continuing the series.
261* ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen'' ends rather suddenly with an impending battle between Commander Keen and his arch nemesis who intends to destroy the universe. Both ''Commander Keen 5'' and ''6'' make reference to this impending conflict, but the story was never finished. Unless you count the Game Boy Color version, which [[CanonDiscontinuity doesn't exist]].
262* ''VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe'' claimed that there'd be two more times the world needed to be saved at the end of the first game and the sequel ends on a cliffhanger. Odds of the 3rd game ever coming out are pretty damn low now that Clover Studios doesn't even exist anymore, and most of the employees are working at Creator/PlatinumGames now, which isn't associated with Capcom.
263* ''VideoGame/{{Drakan}}'' and ''VideoGame/TheSuffering'' are both duologies made by Surreal Software and published by Creator/{{Psygnosis}} (later [[Creator/SonyInteractiveEntertainment Sony]], after the former was bought out by them). Granted both series achieved positive reviews and have loyal (but small) fandoms, however neither of them were huge moneymakers while the second ''[=The Suffering=]'' game is considered inferior to the original and sold significantly less. The developers then helped with the creation and porting of ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing'', then later worked on a game called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Vegas ''This is Vegas'']] (a [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto Grand Theft Auto]] and [[VideoGame/TheSims The Sims]] hybrid) for the [[Platform/MicrosoftWindows PC]], Platform/PlayStation3 and Platform/Xbox360... which got cancelled. Even worse is that both Creator/MidwayGames and Surreal Software closed in 2011 after going through bankruptcy, got merged with Creator/MonolithProductions and bough out by Creator/WarnerBros. If anybody ever wants a third ''Drakan'' or ''[=The Suffering=]'' video game, the IP copyright license is in purgatory between Warner Bros and Sony, therefore unless a miracle happens any chances of a sequel to either are sadly almost zero.
264* ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' was last seen with the BigBad still at large and many plot lines still hanging. Due to the death of a major voice actor and the departure of the main writers (and the death of another), the story will never be completed.
265* ''VideoGame/{{Anachronox}}'' ended on a cliffhanger. The game was a critical hit with a cult following, but didn't sell too well. Then there's the fact that that the development team was fired the day before the game was released. So no sequel for you.
266* ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever'' was abandoned by Monolith in favor of ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'' and ''VideoGame/CondemnedCriminalOrigins''. The odds of a modern reboot, sequal, or remaster are unlikely now since now no one's sure who even owns the IP.
267** ''Contract J.A.C.K.'' probably [[FranchiseKiller killed the franchise anyways]].
268* The four-part ''VideoGame/{{Swordquest}}'' series from Atari was cut short with the release of ''Waterworld'', the third game in the series, thanks to MediaNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983.
269* ''VideoGame/FreedomForce'' is a pair of light-hearted yet brilliant superhero pastiches that blended pastiche with actual overarching plots and solid gameplay. Unfortunately, they didn't sell that well so development on the third entry died. Since then the studio has become so focused on (and rich by) making the ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock}}'' series that the cliffhanger ending of the second game will likely never be cleared up.
270* The ''VideoGame/{{Croc}}'' series ended after two normal games and two mobile games, due to Argonaut Software folding. The mobile games have long been unavailable for download, so the only games most people will play are Croc 1 and 2. A 3rd game in the series was announced but never released. The games were serious contenders to ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' and ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'' at the time, and could have gone on to better things.
271* Sadly, ''VideoGame/{{Klonoa}}'' had fallen victim to this for years, the series' last console game released in 2001, and last handheld game released in 2005 (outside Japan). There was a brief revival, when the first game was remade for Wii, but sales were very low, so the series was stuck in limbo again. Fortunately, there was an announcement for a CompilationRerelease of both the first and second console games called ''The KLONOA Phantasy Reverie Series'', meaning that the series is starting to get some activity once again.
272* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFire'' fell victim to this after the release of ''[[VideoGame/BreathOfFireDragonQuarter Dragon Quarter]]''. Though Camelot Software Planning offered to revive the franchise, nothing ever came of it.
273* ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'' has unfortunately become this with ''3'' being cancelled.
274* Continuing with Mega Man, ''VideoGame/MegaManMaverickHunterX'' was intended to kickstart a series of ''Mega Man X'' remakes whose story was more in line with Keiji Inafune's original vision. Unfortunately, poor sales killed that idea after the first installment.
275* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' had a second season of DLC campaigns planned with episodes dedicated to Ardyn, Noctis, Lunafreya, and Aranea that would fill in the gaps in the story, similar to the episodes for Gladiolus, Prompto, and Ignis. Unfortunately, due in part to the departure of head developer Hajime Tabata, the second season of DLC was cancelled, making Episode Ardyn the last DLC campaign released for the game.
276* ''VideoGame/{{Bonk}}'' also appears to sadly be another victim of this, with ''Bonk 3DS'' and ''Brink of Extinction'' being cancelled due to the dissolution of Creator/HudsonSoft.
277* ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'', due to the dissolution of Nautilus.
278* ''VideoGame/MonsterRancher'', aside from a bare-bones freemium mobile app, was last seen as a handheld game in 2010, and hasn't had a proper numbered console installment in over a decade. The only speckle of hope is an homage to the series in ''[[VideoGame/{{Deception}} Deception IV]]'' in the form of a Suezo trap. This ended in 2020, where a remaster of the first game was announced.
279* While the remakes of ''VideoGame/LunarTheSilverStar'' may very well never end, it's safe to say there will probably never be a brand new installment in the ''VideoGame/{{Lunar}}'' series, due to Studio Alex no longer existing and the absolute trainwreck that was ''VideoGame/LunarDragonSong''. Sad, because a "Lunar 3" was apparently in development at one point.
280* ''VideoGame/WildArms'' appears to be orphaned, given Creator/MediaVision has moved on to other projects, such as ''Shining Ark'', ''VideoGame/ShiningResonance'', ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuth'', and some of the later games in the ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' series (''3'', ''4'', and ''VideoGame/ValkyriaRevolution'').
281* ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'' hasn't gotten a proper sequel since the fifth, with Konami ultimately announcing on their Facebook page that they had no new announcements on the series, and that the development team behind the franchise had been disbanded.
282** Not quite dead, given the announcement of ''Genso Suikoden: Centennial Tapestry'' (official English title, if the game is localized, may differ), although the series that takes place in the same universe has been orphaned for years.
283* Sony left ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter: Logan's Shadow'' hanging on a {{cliffhanger}}, then abandoned the franchise.
284* ''VideoGame/{{Blinx|TheTimeSweeper}}'', due to the dissolution of Artoon, poor reception from critics and gamers alike, [[AmericansHateTingle the failure of the Xbox line in Japan]] (where Blinx was supposed to help the Xbox catch on), and because Microsoft elected [[Franchise/{{Halo}} Master Chief]] as the Xbox mascot instead.
285* The ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest'' series, after ending with a teaser for Space Quest 7, has been abandoned as Sierra, like [=LucasArts=], had moved away from adventure games, and later went under. Some fan made sequels do exist, but nothing official is ever likely to appear.
286** Although [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spaceventure/two-guys-spaceventure-by-the-creators-of-space-que/ the original creators are working on a spiritual sequel]].
287* The ''VideoGame/DarkCloud'' series appears to have ended with ''VideoGame/DarkChronicle'', now that Creator/{{Level 5}} has moved on to other projects.
288* The ''VideoGame/{{Oddworld}}'' pentalogy. It was planned to be at least 10 games. To very few people's surprise, this turned out to be not an easy task. So far, there have been 4. Every year or so there's been news about the company making a new game (At least 3 different sequel ideas have been completely scrapped,) or making sequels in the form of films, but nothing ever comes of it. It seems like they may have finally given up on completing the series. They're working on remakes of their old games instead.
289* Creator/{{Activision}} fired the makers of the ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' series in the late 2000s, which is why ''VideoGame/CrashMindOverMutant'', released way back in 2009, is the latest canonical game in the series. Activision has since released remakes of [[VideoGame/CrashBandicootNSaneTrilogy the first three games]] and [[VideoGame/CrashTeamRacingNitroFueled a racing spin-off]], and the success of those remakes has led to the announcement of ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime'', breaking the streak. At least until Activision downsized Toys for Bob and made them a support studio for Call of Duty, causing the studio's leadership to leave and seemingly orphaning the series once again.
290* The ''VideoGame/WorldOfMana'' series, with ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' having replaced it as Creator/SquareEnix's flagship action RPG franchise.
291* Also on Square, attempts to follow on ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' have been VaporWare for quite a while. And yet many attempts of fans to remake or create sequels to predecessor ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' [[ScrewedByTheLawyers are met with cease-and-desist letters]]. Yasunori Mitsuda and Masato Kato are interested in another installment but want to have the Dream Team together again.
292* ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos'' has had new installments planned, but scrapped for unknown reasons.
293* ''Lennus'' (''VideoGame/PaladinsQuest'' to North American gamers) got [[VideoGame/LennusII one sequel]] that remained in Japan, and that was it.
294* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' due to a really bad case of executive meddling in the former, and perceived lack of interest in the latter. Notably, while the person behind ''Xenosaga'' would love for it to at least be remastered, even he doesn't think there's enough fan interest for it to be profitable. ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' continues on the series, [[InNameOnly but the only thing it has to do with the previous games]] is UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}}. And that one got [[VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX multiple]] [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 sequels]] [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3 of its own.]]
295* The ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' {{game mod}} ''Return To Marathon'' was planned to be an episodic scenario, but only the first chapter was completed before it was scrapped.
296* This is what happened to ''VideoGame/DeBlob'', with THQ's bankruptcy in 2013 and the closure of developer [=BlueTongue=].
297* Silicon Knights. Making M-rated games that were published by Nintendo? Check. Being bought out by Microsoft? Check. Making lackluster games at Microsoft, and then dying because (in a rare case where it'd be positive) they refused to do any ExecutiveMeddling to keep [[SmallNameBigEgo Denis]] [[PointyHairedBoss Dyack]] in check like Nintendo did? Check. Silicon Knights were planning on making an ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness 2'', but it never happened because after the release of ''Videogame/TooHuman'' and ''VideoGame/XMenDestiny'', the company folded due to a lawsuit with Creator/EpicGames and plaigarism of the Unreal Engine.
298* ''Virus Invasion 7'' was announced in 2008, then fell into extreme ScheduleSlip; the final nail in the coffin was October 2011, when its creator, Blublub, first announced that it would be done within a week, then dropped off the face of the Earth. There were attempts to salvage the series, first by Pteriforever with a fansequel, ''Virus Invasion Spectrum'', and then by [=SpeedyVelcro=] with a generally-inferior SpiritualSuccessor, ''Advanced Invasion''. ''Advanced Invasion 4'' seems to have been orphaned in its own right.
299* This seems to have been the fate of ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter''. A highly-successful franchise on the [=PS2=], but when Creator/NaughtyDog went on to working on other projects such as ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' and ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', the ''Jak'' series was left in limbo. There was a new game released for the PSP in 2009, but it was poorly received, and Naughty Dog has said that they tried to make a ''Jak 4'' or a reboot, but couldn't get it to feel like ''Jak'', so--aside from an HD compilation--it looks like we might not see another ''Jak'' game for the time being.
300* Though the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' series is itself going strong, this has happened to many of its spinoffs. The ''VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries'' is the best example, as Sega decided to abandon it after ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheBlackKnight'' met with poor sales and even poorer reviews.
301* Creator/ZapDramatic's ''Ambition'' ended on a cliffhanger and was supposed to be continued in a sequel series. It hasn't happened yet.
302* ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'' hasn't seen a new installment since 1997. Capcom re-released ''Vampire Hunter'' and ''Vampire Savior'' in 2013 as ''Darkstalkers Resurrection'', but Capcom later stated that they had no plans for a new ''Darkstalkers'' game, citing poor sales of the re-release.
303* ''VideoGame/PowerStone'' similarly stopped after ''Power Stone 2'' in 2000. Capcom re-released both games as part of a collection for the Playstation portable in 2006, with no signs of life from the series since.
304* Big Huge Games' ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'' was found to have had developed plans for future installments. Unfortunately, with the studio's closure, the fate of the RTS series is up in the air.
305* The [[HarsherInHindsight unfortunately titled]] ''Insecticide: Part 1'' released in 2008 and has yet to see a part 2.
306* TheRemake of the ''VideoGame/PhantasyStar'' series, ''Phantasy Star Generation'' was abandoned after two games in favor of [[ArcadePerfectPort porting the originals]]. Further more, the remakes were [[VaporWare announced]] for a US and EU release but [[NoExportForYou never released]].
307* The ''VideoGame/FZero'' franchise has been on a standstill since 2004 (the last game being released on the Game Boy Advance) due to Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto simply having no idea how to progress with the franchise without resorting to just throwing in only new characters and tracks.
308* ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre'' started with "Episode VI" in the same fashion as ''Franchise/StarWars''. Only four games were ever released.
309* ''VideoGame/LEGOTheHobbit'' was released containing ''An Unexpected Journey'' and ''The Desolation of Smaug''; ''The Battle of the Five Armies'' was promised as a future DLC but it was ultimately canceled, leaving it unfinished.
310* ''The Forgotten: It Begins'', published in 1999, was developed as the first installment of a seven part series, and most reviewers agreed that it seemed like more of an introduction to a story than a complete game. Unfortunately the series was never continued, and because of disputed ownership rights between the developers almost certainly never will be, leaving the game as an orphaned first chapter.
311* ''VideoGame/ObsCure II'' ends on a cliffhanger revealing the existence of a GreaterScopeVillain, but the third game fell into DevelopmentHell for several years. By the time it was finally released, it had evolved into a [[DivorcedInstallment non-canon spinoff]] called ''Final Exam'' that only loosely references the events of the first two games.
312* An in-universe example is found in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition''. As part of Cassandra's romance/friendship arc, the Inquisitor can persuade Varric to un-orphan a story series he had given up writing - just because she loves it and wants to know how it ends. Despite stating that he didn't like the series and it sold poorly, he agrees, then after he sees [[{{Squee}} her reaction]] he says that it was WorthIt.
313* ''VideoGame/{{Cursery}}'' was a series of PC point-and-click games from Blue Tea Games, sort of a sister series to their ''VideoGame/DarkParables'', which took classic nursery rhymes and twisted them into dark mysteries. Only one installment, ''The Crooked Man and the Crooked Cat,'' was ever produced before this trope went into effect; Blue Tea Games made the decision to shift focus to their mobile titles, and all of their PC game series were either sold to other developers or orphaned.
314* ''VideoGame/NexusWar'' was called off in a GrandFinale when the creator was unable to continue his work for financial and contractual reasons. One of the supporting developers revived the series not long after with ''Nexus Clash'', but the sequel isn't as well-known and took several years of development to get itself back to the level of quality that players had come to expect from the original.
315* ''VideoGame/TombRaiderAngelOfDarkness'' was supposed to be the first of a new trilogy, however, due to Eidos' constant meddling, it failed spectacularly and Core were stripped of the very series they created. Eidos handed the series to Crystal Dynamics and the original series was suddenly ended in favor of a reboot, starting with ''[[VideoGame/TombRaiderLegend Legend]]''. Core made a last ditch effort to release a 10-year anniversary ''Tomb Raider'' game, but Eidos simply nabbed all of their concept art and scripts and gave them to Crystal Dynamics for them to make the game -- ''VideoGame/TombRaiderAnniversary'' -- instead, leading to poor Core Design ceasing to exist.
316* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' was set up with {{Sequel Hook}}s for DLC content at the end but Creator/BioWare, citing poor sales, canceled it and placed the series on a hiatus in favor of ''VideoGame/Anthem2019'' and a future ''Franchise/DragonAge'' installment, and a new ''Mass Effect'' announcement in 2020 teasing the return of Shepard's crew may be the final nail on the coffin for ''Andromeda''. However, Bioware has hinted that this new ''Mass Effect'' game may explore some threads left open by ''Andromeda''.
317* The ''VideoGame/SlyCooper'' series was infamously abandoned by Creator/SanzaruGames in November 2014, even when [[VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime the latest game]] ended with a major cliffhanger. This led to fans [[FanonDiscontinuity rejecting the game as canon]] to restore the happy ending of ''VideoGame/Sly3HonorAmongThieves''. Sanzaru was later purchased by Oculus Studios, eliminating all chances of a sequel from them. Time will tell if Creator/SuckerPunch or another developer will rescue the franchise and either provide a sequel or [[CanonDiscontinuity a different fourth game]].
318* For a long time, ''VideoGame/{{Stinkoman 20X6}}'' was missing its last level, Level 10, and since 2005 never received an update. While there was an announcement for the level in 2018, it would not see completion until 2020, coming with an all-new opening, new levels, and an AntiFrustrationFeatures mode.
319* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'' ended on a cliffhanger where [[spoiler:Alex, the BigBad from the previous game, is still alive, Isaac is missing, and there's a massive psynergy vortex hanging over the lookout point from the beginning of the game]]. Due to poor sales and mixed reception, Camelot effectively shelved the series and all dangling plot threads were left unresolved.
320* ''VideoGame/DinoCrisis'' had moderate success with the first two games, but the third game was critically panned by critics and fans. Between the poor sales of the third game and Capcom wanting to focus on other projects, ''Dino Crisis'' fell off the radar since 2003 and there hasn't been a word of when or if the series would ever return.
321* ''VideoGame/MySims'' ended on a rather abrupt note after ''[=SkyHeroes=]'' came out in 2010, and aside from a few references in ''VideoGame/TheSims4'', was never really heard from again. It doesn't help that Creator/ElectronicArts shut down Visceral Games, the franchise's primary developer, a few years after ''[=MySims=]'' went dormant, meaning it isn't likely to come back.
322* ''VideoGame/GardensInc'' has four games, with a "To Be Continued" {{sequel hook}} at the end of the fourth one. Said fourth game was released in 2016, and the devs have indicated that they will not be moving forward with any more games.
323* The ''VideoGame/DarkTales'' released its 18th installment in August 2020. Despite being one of the best-loved developers of the {{hidden object game}} genre, [[Creator/ERSGameStudios AMAX Interactive]] seems to have closed its doors since then, being either rebranded or bought out by another company, and as far as anyone can tell has orphaned ''all'' of its game franchises.
324* ''VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided'' was quite transparently the [[TwoPartTrilogy middle third of a story]] intended to finish with a third game. Publishers Square Enix meddled with the game by forcing a pay to win microtransaction cash shop, reportedly ''two weeks'' before Eidos were going to send the game off for certification, siphoned off a team to create "Breach" mode which was a horrendous game within a game with extreme freemium paywalls, wasted $50,000 on one part of the marketing campaign that gained no traction, royally pissed off the player base with a egregious pre-order bonus stunt and set a release date that competed with ''Madden'', ''No Man's Sky'', ''Resident Evil 4'' and a ''World of Warcraft'' expansion, among other things. The massive 5 year dev cycle and wasteful spending required a 3 million sales figure to break even but it came up a million short, Square's executives labelled it a failure, cancelled the 3rd game and put the franchise on ice while redeploying Eidos to work on Marvel-licensed games. In 2022, the ''Deus Ex'' IP was acquired by Embracer Group along with several other [=IPs=] that Square Enix was sitting on, which could see a return of the series in the future.
325* Creator/EmilyShort's ''When in Rome'' series was planned to run for five episodes, but only the first two were released (both in 2006), leaving the story unfinished. In 2022, she said it was canceled due to [[https://twitter.com/emshort/status/1566530853852758016 a lack of player interest]] and she [[https://twitter.com/emshort/status/1566534355375251458 doesn't remember what the rest of the plot was intended to be]].
326* 2001 InteractiveFiction game ''Fine-Tuned'' has a chapter structure. The first four chapters are finished and playable, and when you get to the end, it says you and your party are ready to drive off and prevent the hero's arch-enemy from boarding a train to steal an artifact from the museum. Then "To Be Continued" text appears. The game was never finished properly, and the author has not been active in the IF scene since the late 2000s, meaning no conclusion will happen.
327[[/folder]]
328
329[[folder:Web Animation]]
330!!Object Shows
331According to rough statistics, nearly a ''third'' of ObjectShows get cancelled/abandoned very early on without any resolution or reboot (Hence the astonishing number of ShortRunners in the Object Show Community). The reasons may vary in one way or another:
332* Disinterest/Demotivation is a popular reason for object shows to drop off the face of the earth with little fanfare. These types of shows rarely past five episodes:
333** 5 episodes - ''WebAnimation/ArticleInsanity'' and ''[[WebAnimation/ObjectUniverse Object Twoniverse]]''
334** 4 episodes - ''WebAnimation/ShapeBattle''
335** 3 episodes - ''WebAnimation/ChaoticAmbition'', ''WebAnimation/EntityFrenzy'', ''WebAnimation/ObjectExplosion'' and ''WebAnimation/UltimateInsanity''
336** 2 episodes - ''WebAnimation/AfterSchooligans'', ''WebAnimation/EpicObjectBattle'', ''WebAnimation/FightInFlight'', ''WebAnimation/InsaneFury'', ''WebAnimation/ObjectHavoc'', ''WebAnimation/ObjectMadness'' and ''WebAnimation/ObjectRedundancy''
337** [=1 episode/=]{{Pilot}} - ''WebAnimation/BeckyBucket'', ''WebAnimation/MelodyStar'', ''WebAnimation/ModernObjects'', ''WebAnimation/ObjectShow'' and ''WebAnimation/WelcomeToWyvernWynne''
338* The creator [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor getting accused of one or more vile behaviors]] is a surefire way.
339** ''WebAnimation/BattleForObjectDestination'' and its SpinOff ''Earthquake'' were abandoned with major cliffhangers, one on the first half of a [[MultiPartEpisode two-parter]] and the other on its very first episode, after evidence of Maxwell Hall (The creator of both shows) acting shadily towards a minor online came into light and he had to leave the internet entirely.
340** ''WebAnimation/ObjectCringe'' (Alongside ''WebAnimation/ObjectCringeAgain'') flip-flopped from being cancelled and UnCancelled because of [=Clankybot777=]'s indecision to continue the series. It was re-cancelled seemingly for good after Clanky was accused of alledgedly grooming a minor online and the following disaster of her confusing apology note.
341** ''WebAnimation/AfterSchooligans'' was cancelled after 2 episodes. More were planned for the series but they were eventually scrapped after allegations [=LorenTzel=] (The creator of the show) regarding racism at the 2022 BFDI + II Meetup came into light and he had to leave the internet entirely.
342* ''WebAnimation/AwesomeFuturisticObjects'' lasted six episodes (With its last episode only being half-completed) due to [=SizzleFlicks=]'s lack of motivation and school. He then [[SoftReboot restarted the series]] with ''Awesome Futuristic Objects: The Double Season''...[[HistoryRepeats only to scrap it for the same reason]] after ''three'' episodes (Also with a half-completed last episode).
343* ''WebAnimation/ObjectAsylum'' is particularly noteworthy since [=SnowyPackel=] didn't want go through with the stress of making a full series and left it on ''half'' an episode as in all the voice-acting was completed but the animations and background weren't.
344* ''WebAnimation/ObjectFiller'' discontinued production as stated in the description of the fifth episode because of [=Diamondcup67=]'s personal issues and losing the drive to keep the show going.
345* ''WebAnimation/ObjectOverload'' had this happen twice. The first time was due to Niall Burns not liking how the show was turning out as the series went on. When the ContinuityReboot came around, only one episode was made when Niall became demotivated.
346* ''WebAnimation/TheObjectShow'' had seven episodes until the creator stop continuing the series out of CreatorBacklash.
347* ''WebAnimation/{{Sinful}}'' got ditched by Creator/ConnerDean before production could even begin due to some controversy on Twitter. Now deemed [[CreatorBacklash unreleaseable]], Connor had [[BuryYourArt removed all promotional material, images, and a good amount of lore for the show]] with its TV Tropes page being the only living relic left due to Administrivia/TheFicMayBeYoursButTheTropePageIsOurs. He has since replaced ''Sinful'' with a fictional nature documentary called ''Gikumo''.
348* ''WebAnimation/SuperDumbJokeShow'' deliberately ran on AprilFoolsDay before [=EpicBattler3=] deleted it from her [=YouTube=] channel and never talk about it again. Its only episode ended with a viewer vote on who to eliminate that remains undisclosed to this day.
349* ''WebAnimation/TownAttack'' was discontinued after four episodes because [=OpalStatus=] wanted to focus on her other show, ''Gerenal Mayhem'' in spite of the former being more popular with the viewers than the latter.
350* ''Webcomic/WishfulThinking'' went dead silent just a month (two chapters and a interlude) into its runtime, right before the competition could officially start. The creator was never heard from again with their last webcomic update dating back in 2018.
351[[/folder]]
352
353[[folder:Web Original]]
354* ''WebAnimation/TvTomeAdventures'' was seemingly orphaned for a while because it wasn't getting its creator any money or attention. However, a [[TheRemake full-fledged continuity reboot]] called TOME was released, so this trope was subverted. DoubleSubverted because the Reboot doesn't exactly follow the continuity of the original, so the plot of Tv Tome Adventures still ended up being unresolved and likely never will be except through [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary material on the creator's [=DeviantArt=].]]
355* A fanmade animation by [=NipahDUBS=] based on the horror RPG ''VideoGame/MadFather'' ran on Platform/YouTube with the goal to have six episodes, according to the [[https://youtu.be/6fdI6fLIoDs description]] of the first episode. However, only two episodes were made (that tells a little about the beginning of the story) and the project was dropped, according to the [[https://youtu.be/zOEXpeWIqpk second episode]]'s description. It has only "PART THREE IS CANCELLED." written on it, with no reason explained. Both episodes on Platform/YouTube had the comments section disabled.
356* A well written and hilariously machinima of ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' known simply as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNTp37Enwnc "The Quest"]] was started in 2006 only to be left to rot at the end of part two due to the creator apparently contracting AIDS. Needless to say that should the creator wish to continue the work, they couldn't. Runescape has since had a [[TechnologyMarchesOn massive graphics update]], making this machinima completely dead. [[AwesomenessWithdrawal Its fandom isn't taking it well.]]
357* The Newgrounds series ''Joe Zombie'' by Robert [=DenBleyker=] was supposedly meant to be concluded with Episode 7 as said in Episode 6 (from 2006). More than half a decade later however and a final episode has still not been produced.
358* ''Evil Rebellion'' trilogy by Konejo, the first two parts came up and the third was announced for 2007 but never came to be. First two parts can be seen in [[http://konejo.newgrounds.com/ Newgrounds]].
359* The first incarnation and reboot ''Roleplay/DarwinsSoldiers'' on Furtopia were never finished and will probably remain that way.
360* ''Literature/TrintonChronicles'' never had a proper finish and was cut short before its final story.
361* ''WebAnimation/XiaoXiao'' ended with a demo of a beat-em-up game back in 2002. In particular, the Mutilator story, which featured a ProfessionalKiller out to take out an evil boss, ended in an up-in-the-air ending, with the bad guy getting away after a motorcycle chase and the protagonist being reduced to hitchhiking with no success; there was supposed to be a third installment of that storyline that would wrap things up, but it never got made. There have been no signs of the beat-em-up demo or the series ever continuing since then. In fact, the author's whereabouts are unknown as well.
362* ''Sapphire Spindle Paw'': Mystic([=TheSpiritWolf=]) created a prologue video and then a first episode, then posted about his/her intentions to make a third video, and then left the site. Searching "Sapphire Spindle Paw", with quotes, gives around four or five results. There is no sign of an episode 2.
363* [[Website/SomethingAwful Rock Tumbler's]] LetsPlay of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' was discontinued due to his drug use. His former partners have started it up again and finished it.
364* [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony's]] LetsPlay of ''Deadly Premonition'' is looking like it won't ever be continued (at least not any time soon), having only Part 1 up on the site. This doesn't stop fans on the forums starting a new thread every few weeks or so asking when he's going to finish it...
365* Website/AtlasOfMedievalAmerica was a very intriguing concept that never got more than a couple months of updates. AlternateHistory buffs have tried to carry on.
366* ''WebAnimation/SuperMarioBrosZ'' due to how time consuming it took to the animate the fights, as well as ArtistDisillusionment. What was meant to be twenty six episodes ended at eight after the creator called it quits. The series has since been revived, however, with just the first episode so far, so there may yet be hope.
367** Then fans' hopes were severely dashed when the reboot was stopped after ''one episode'' because of Alvin Earthworm's worsening mental health struggles. ''Then'' on February 2, 2020, he posted a sample footage from his 2nd episode, giving viewers of the series another big sigh of relief.
368* The WebVideo/GameGrumps are notorious for the amount of playthroughs they've left unfinished, the most infamous ones being ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 Sonic '06]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Pokémon FireRed]]''. While some (such as the ones just mentioned) have legitimate reasons for their abandonment (Dan doesn't want to butt in on an adventure he was never a part of, and Arin wants to grind up so that he can face the Elite Four in a fair fight, respectively), most of them are just dropped for no apparent reason.
369** The ''[=FireRed=]'' playthrough was eventually finished, over two years after it began.
370* The Website/SCPFoundation story "[[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/metafiction Metafiction]]" (one of the most popular tales on the site) ends with a ''to be continued'' on a very interesting cliffhanger since 2010. The discussion page is filled with requests, pleads and threats to the author to just finish the damn thing already. The author himself made several promises over the years that he will most definitely finish it, any minute now, honest.
371* The ''WebVideo/YogscastMinecraftSeries'' ''Tekkit'' playthrough with LetsPlay/LewisBrindley, LetsPlay/DuncanJones, LetsPlay/SimonLane, LetsPlay/{{Sjin}} and LetsPlay/{{Sips}} was cut short after the crew got fed up with what they were doing; they had reached their initial goal of building a factory, but after attempting to revive the series by focusing on bees they decided to call it quits.
372* The Music/{{Area 11}} ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' machinima, titled GIGACRAFT, was eventually cut short after four episodes. This was in part due to the difficulties in getting Beckii Cruel to record ''Minecraft'' videos with them, as well as a general lack of time.
373* LetsPlay/CaptainSparklez did a playthrough of the ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' remakes, which ended after only four episodes. The reasons for this are unknown, though given the iffish content policy of Nintendo some fans believe that to be the reason.
374* Website/PlatypusComix has two orphaned subsections: ''The Warner Bros. Club'', a Warner Bros. animation fansite not updated since 2008, and ''For Portlanders Only'', a collection of UsefulNotes/{{Portland}}, Oregon-related ephemera that has sat untouched since 2010.
375* ''WebVideo/TheWebsiteIsDown'' released 5 videos in 2009 and 1 more in 2011. The last one was titled ''Episode 4.5: Chipadmin part 1''. More were promised to come soon, but haven't appeared yet (as of June 2016). The website spent years slowly deteriorating (for example, the blog domain expired around 2011). In 2014 Joshua Weinberg announced that the series will continue as an AdventureGame. As of summer 2016 he was still busy playing and analyzing the classic adventure games in [[http://thewebsiteisdown.com/twidblog/category/epic-procrastination-adventure-game-research-project/ his blog]] and started actual work on the game only in January 2016.
376* This happened to a number of LetsPlay/{{Sips}}' playthroughs, according to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT1SIdQdogs&lc=TGJiEYq0EPtryQHI4q16wUUHBPBmGLSV38Pt_XicApQ&feature=g-user-c this comment]].
377* Comic Book [=YouTube=] Channel [[https://www.youtube.com/user/B3Comics/videos B3Comics.]] The channel was running smoothly but after a update video (Which was upload after a month long hiatus) they completely disappeared. Not even updating their Facebook or Twitter either.
378* The ''WebAnimation/DeadFantasy'' series has been orphaned with the sudden and tragic passing of the wonderfully talented animator Creator/MontyOum in February 2015. On the upside, his other major work, ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', [[OutlivedItsCreator continued on without him]].
379* Webvideo/MovieRehab's Trailer Jailor was discontinued after the 13th episode since Jack Skyblue himself has stated that he has lost his passion for reviewing movie trailers.
380* Following the cancellation of ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'''s product line, writer Greg Farshtey volunteered to continue its plot in his series of online stories. Since this he could only do in his free time and had other occupations and family matters to deal with, the serials ended after only a few chapters, and were officially scrapped once their website got deleted. Greg has since cleared some of the cliffhangers up in his discussions with fans.
381* ''Labelscar'' was a popular blog dedicated to shopping mall history, with stories and photos of various shopping malls across the United States. The site abruptly stopped updating in 2013, due in part to one of its two writers and most of its fanbase shifting to Facebook.
382* Many Platform/YouTube reaction videos where someone watches a certain series end up unfinished. Although sometimes it's not because the "reactor" became unable or uninterested, but because [[ScrewedByTheLawyers the ones holding the copyright make the video be pulled]] (and three strikes terminates the channel).
383* ''Film/HighAndTight'' was going to have more episodes exploring the war and how the characters' lives have been affected - alternating between the soldiers who went off to the front lines at the end, and the friends and family left back home. However James Healy moved to Canada, Thomas Fitzgerald became too busy with college work, and Bobby Calloway lost interest - developing ''WebVideo/TheGumdrops'' instead. The film however was initially written to be standalone and has an open ending.
384* Creator/LindsayEllis:
385** She stopped doing 'Loose Canon' - where she analyzed different incarnations of a famous character (eg. Hades, Starscream etc) - [[WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings after people kept complaining about which adaptations she left out]] - and has focused on specific video essays ever since. She said she still has plans for it, but hasn't uploaded one since 2017.
386** She's also discontinued ''The Whole Plate'' - a series examining various film theories in relation to the Michael Bay ''Film/{{Transformers|FilmSeries}}'' films. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=267&v=azw-FP9Gb-U&feature=youtu.be Her final word on the series' state came in August 2018]], where she said it was on hold due to entering more controversial territory (of the particular film theories she began introducing the series with, critical race theory had yet to be tackled), but it never came to be.
387* ''Website/DivaDirt'' introduced a new feature called 'Fanline', where David would do a podcast with a wrestling fan talking about their interests re: the Divas, Knockouts etc. Three episodes were released and then it was abruptly stopped.
388* ''Wizards of the Coast'' has a notorious anti-drama policy, so when it came to light that ''WebVideo/DiceCameraAction'' cast member Jared Knabenbauer ran seven sex blogs and was accused of cheating on his wife with co-star Holly Conrad, that was the anticlimactic end to the Waffle Crew.
389* ''ARG/TheWyomingIncident'' is an infamous AlternateRealityGame whose fate is hard to decipher, but it's likely this. Started in 2006 by a mysterious video of an alleged video hijacking, the game lead to an anonymous forum known as the Happy Cube, unraveling a story of people tied by the act of [[DeadlyEuphemism "cubing"]]... [[KudzuPlot and then about a billion other directions]] with threads about worshipping malicious gods, moderator civil wars, [[RecursiveCanon the Wyoming Incident itself turning into an in-universe ARG, with its supposed creators being characters]], and more. If there was ever meant to be an answer to the mystery behind the video, ''nothing'' has turned up conclusive -- it's widely believed that at some point, [[OffTheRails the ARG was hijacked by anonymous users who quickly derailed the whole setup]], leaving it an inscrutable mess.
390* While VisualNovel {{Lets Play}}er [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFxXeNftClLyVatq0ea3qw Bosskwar]] had this happen to a couple of his [=LP's=] (such as with ''VisualNovel/AokanaFourRhythmsAcrossTheBlue'' [[ScrewedByTheLawyers due to issues with Spryte]]), he was diagnosed with cancer in November 2023, and [[DiedDuringProduction unfortunately passed away in early December 2023]], meaning any visual novel playthroughs he was doing at the time, (such as the ''VisualNovel/GrisaiaSeries'', ''VisualNovel/ChaosHead'', and ''VisualNovel/MajikoiLoveMeSeriously'') will never see their completion.
391[[/folder]]
392
393[[folder:Web Video]]
394* [=SHiFT=]'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djkC8vLJ6Vw web documentary]] covering the Any% {{Speedrun}} history of ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarePantsBattleForBikiniBottom'' was originally planned to be in four parts. However, due to the ''[[VideoGameRemake Rehydrated]]'' remake's unexpected release at the time of production followed by [=SHiFT=]'s declining motivation to continue with the project since he wanted to focus more on improving his records, the documentary series was put on indefinite hiatus after just two parts, with the second part ending on a cliffhanger teasing the rest of ''BFBB''[='=]s history from 2017 onward which still remained a mystery.
395* The fan-made ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' AudioPlay ''Transformers: Elite'', which focused on Elita One and her team of female Autobots in their fights against Slipstream's group of Decepticons on Cybertron, got up to twenty-two episodes and then stopped on a cliffhanger about an unknown prisoner in Shockwave's lab, whom Elita and her teammates argued about whether or not to rescue. The project's [[https://transformerselite.tumblr.com/ Tumblr]] blog also went inactive, with no updates since 2016. It took three years afterwards for the head artist to [[https://web.archive.org/web/20230815111913/https://www.tumblr.com/kananeski/186691738412/what-happened-to-transformers-the-transformers confirm]] that the series was canceled, explaining that real life responsibilities got in the way and the crew had already split up and moved on to new things by the time those responsibilities were cleared up.
396[[/folder]]
397
398[[folder:Western Animation]]
399* Creator/RalphBakshi's 1978 animated version of ''WesternAnimation/TheLordOfTheRings'' only covered the first two-thirds of Tolkien's three books. It was then concluded by the Rankin-Bass ''The Return Of The King'', but with a very different style and tone, and much cheaper animation. A big cause of this was that the costs were massively underestimated, and the final result had to be pieced together from unfinished footage (for instance, every live-action character was supposed to be animated over). It would take twenty years for a [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings live-action version]] to be made covering the entire story.
400* ''WesternAnimation/PerfectHairForever'' was scheduled to have 17 episodes made for the internet but the creators only made 1 due to lack of interest.
401** On AprilFoolsDay 2014, an eighth episode was aired as a stealth premiere after a long period of being orphaned with seven episodes.
402* ''WesternAnimation/ThePiratesOfDarkWater'' eventually simply stopped, after about eight of the thirteen [[MacGuffin treasures of rule]] were collected. A lack of budget and {{Channel Hop}}s were the responsible issues, here.
403* Generation 3.5 of ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'', which amounted to a style revamp of the G3 designs, lasted only a single year, having just one special and a few toys to its name. But then it was meant as a stopgap while ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Generation 4]]'' was in development, with executives hoping that it would revive the franchise. It did.
404* ''WesternAnimation/RoughnecksStarshipTroopersChronicles'' ended abruptly before finishing the final story arc.
405* Disney's adaptation of Lloyd Alexander's ''Chronicles of Prydain'' series is incomplete, with ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron'' only covering the first two books. However, as of March 2016, the company has bought up the film rights to the series once again, and has announced that they are now re-adapting it altogether in live-action instead.
406* Joe Murray spent less and less time working on ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' after his first wife committed suicide. He needed some time to [[CreatorBreakdown get stuff in order, and to process what happened]], and that not only took a lot of time, but made him less interested in working on the series, until he finally gave up on it altogether. For a while, he occasionally blamed the series for his wife's suicide.
407** A similar turn of events happened with ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo,'' this time the result of a messy divorce.
408* ''WesternAnimation/StormHawks'' had a ridiculously high-toned CliffHanger as the season finale, which seemed to be building up a huge journey through the EldritchLocation of the series... only to abruptly end. To make matters worse, even the main character drops a MASSIVE SequelHook just before the ending.
409* ''WesternAnimation/TronUprising''. The show went for one major arc, then production stopped in 2013 with many threads still unresolved. The reasons for this are largely speculation at this point.
410* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats2011'' got hit hard with this, ending the first season with a massive cliffhanger [[spoiler:revealing that Pumira was EvilAllAlong ''and'' DeadAllAlong, among other things]]. Then Cartoon Network announced that the show was cancelled.
411* Despite being renewed for a second season a week ahead of its finale, ''WesternAnimation/MaoMaoHeroesOfPureHeart'''s first season would ultimately end up being its last due to being part of a massive tax write-off following the Creator/WarnerBrosDiscovery merger.
412[[/folder]]

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