Adapted Out / Live-Action TV

• A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon)

---

• The 100 TV series leaves out Glass, one of the four viewpoint characters from the book.
• All the Light We Cannot See: Frederick, Werner's school friend who is too gentle for the Institute and is eventually sent away after sustaining brain damage from one beating too many, is not present in this adaptation. The Institute's brutality is established by Werner being hazed.
• The version of the Royal Flush Gang seen in Arrow is missing Ten, who traditionally acts as the team's other female member.
• Animorphs:
  • David, the team's Sixth Ranger Traitor, never made an appearance in the show. Several extraterrestrial races, such as the Taxxons and the Pemalites, were cut from the show altogether (due to the show's very limited special effects budget), without even one mention of them (the Pemalites in particular were a bizarre case as their creations the Chee did appear, at least in the character of Erek).
  • In this series, Jordan is absent, as Sara is Rachel's only sister present.
• Beetleborgs: The final arc of the original series, Juukou B-Fighter, featured heroes and villains returning from the previous Metal Heroes series Tokusou Robo Janperson and Blue SWAT. The battle scenes were adapted into the episodes Convention Dimension (which completely omitted the Blue SWAT heroes) and the Season 1 finale (which cut all Janperson and Blue SWAT characters).
• The Boys (2019) drops out Martian Manhunter Expy Jack from Jupiter (creator Eric Kripke explained that an alien would be too fantastic for their grounded approach^note disregarding that Jack from Jupiter wasn't a real alien in the first place and only looked like one because of his Compound V mutation, in addition to a setting where people can get super powers from Applied Phlebotinum already being divorced from reality as it is), with an original character, Translucent, taking his place as the final member of The Seven.
• Valery Legasov, the protagonist of Chernobyl, was married and had two children in real life but they're not so much as mentioned in the show. This was done to keep the story focused on the eponymous disaster and its victims and to streamline a series that only has five episodes.
• In the Dennis the Menace (US) comic strip, Dennis has a dog named Ruff. Ruff does not appear in the 1959 live-action series based on the strip. Word of God states this was because the show's producers were unable to find a good enough dog actor.
• Des (2020): In real life, three survivors testified against serial killer Dennis Nilsen at his trial. In the dramatisation, Paul Nobbs is never mentioned and only the other two appear. This is Played for Drama, with D.C.I. Jay desperately arranging for the fragile and vulnerable Carl Stottor to testify after the defence tries to discredit the first witness, Douglas Stewart. In reality, Nobbs testified after Stewart (and before Stottor) and was deemed a credible witness — the jury unanimously found Nilsen guilty of his attempted murder.
• The pilot episode of Dirk Gently, based very loosely on the book, also skips the Monk and his horse. And Professor Chronotis. And Michael Wednesday-Week. And the alien. And ... look, it's got Dirk, Richard, Susan and Gordon.
• Dirty Dancing : Most of the main and minor roles from the film are cut, not the least of which include Baby's mother and sister, Tito the bandleader, and Robbie (who becomes Composite Character Neil). In fact, Baby and her father (who are now Kellermans),Johnny, Penny and Neil are the only characters left from the film.
• Doom Patrol (2019):
  • Beast Boy doesn't show up, with fellow Teen Titans teammate Cyborg taking his place as the team's youngest member (the Doom Patrol who made a guest appearance on Titans (2018) prior to the release of this series were explained as being alternate universe counterparts).
  • Aside from Beast Boy, other members of the Doom Patrol in the comics who never appear in this continuity are Karma and Scott Fischer from the Paul Kupperberg era, Negative Man's period as Rebis from Grant Morrison's run, Lotion the Cat and Lucius Reynolds from Gerard Way's run and every new member who was introduced in Rachel Pollack^note The Bandage People George and Marion, Charlie the Doll and Kate Godwin/Coagula, John Arcudi^note Fever, Freak, Kid Slick and Fast Forward and John Byrne's^note Faith, Nudge, Grunt and Vortex runs.
  • The Sisterhood of Dada, this continuity's interpretation of the Brotherhood of Dada, combines members from both of the comic incarnation's rosters and inverts Team Member in the Adaptation in that they have nothing to do with this continuity's Mr. Nobody, but does not include Love Glove, Alias the Blur, The Toy and Number None.
  • This continuity's version of the Brotherhood of Evil is never indicated to ever have Warp, Plasmus, Houngan, Phobia and Trinity as members.
  • The vast majority of Dorothy Spinner's imaginary friends are omitted, to the extent that the only ones in the show who aren't Canon Foreigners are the Candlemaker and Darling Come Home.
  • Regarding other characters associated to Dorothy Spinner who don't appear in the television series, there is no sign of her parents Mr. and Mrs. Spinner (who were retroactively established to be adoptive parents in John Arcudi's run) due to the change of Niles Caulder being her father and her mother being an immortal cavewoman named Slava when Dorothy's birth mother in the comics remained unidentified, and Power Girl and Pythia are omitted in spite of their roles in Dorothy becoming associated with the Doom Patrol in the first place.
• The Expanse: Carlos De Baca (aka Bull) has his role on the show taken by Camina Drummer in Season 3. Unlike Bull, Drummer actually survives in the TV timeline past the point in the book timeline where Bull dies. Because he never shows up to die like in the books, he is able to show up in Season 5 of the TV show (long after the book Bull dies), to replace Alex, who was killed off due to misconduct by his actor off-set.
• Fate: The Winx Saga, the Live-Action Adaptation of Winx Club:
  • So far, Tecna, Brandon, and Timmy are not included despite being main characters in the cartoon. Bloom's rabbit Kiko is also gone. Another important character who was cut is Daphne, Bloom's Spirit Adviser and long-lost sister.
  • The Alfea teachers not included are Griselda, Palladium, and Wizgiz. While Alfea and Red Fountain were merged into one school, Cloud Tower School for Witches is completely absent, along with Headmistress Griffin and two students named Mirta and Lucy. Although, blood witches are confirmed to exist in this continuity.
• In the original BBC radio version of The Flight of the Conchords, Rob Brydon played the narrator, but is dropped completely from the TV adaptation.
• The Hexer: The series skips entirely the plot of "A Little Sacrifice", '"A Grain of Truth'" and "The Last Wish" along with some characters and subplots from the other stories. While omitting the first two stories did not harm the series' continuity, skipping "The Last Wish" is more problematic because it describes the circumstances of Geralt and Yennefer's first meeting and explains how their fates were bounded together by Geralt's final wish he gave to genie. One could argue it was justified, because a genie rampaging through a city would be probably too much for the series' budget. Instead, episode four, called "Smok" ("The Dragon", based on "The Bounds of Reason") features a brief flashback of Geralt's first meeting with Yennefer when she was nursing him after some unspecified encounter. Also, during the Origins Episodes in Kaer Morhen, Eskel is nowhere to be seen, even if it is canon all the way back to The Last Wish he and Geralt are roughly the same age and went through the training in the same time.
• Almost none of the Hulk's supporting characters show up in the seminal live-action show from The '70s. Instead of General Ross, the Hulk spends the series being pursued by a reporter named Jack McGee.
• In the Inspector Morse novels, the main character smoked heavily, had an ongoing fascination with erotica and was something of a Chivalrous Pervert. These characteristics were absent from the TV series.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): Babette Freniere, a character from the Interview with the Vampire novel, has been excised from the TV series. The only detail that survives is her surname, which was transferred to Levi, Grace's husband.
• In the TV series adaptation of the play Kim's Convenience, only one of the four characters played by the same actor in the play is still in the show, Jung's friend Alex. Mr. Kim's friend Mr. Lee becomes Mrs. Kim's friend Mrs. Lee, and Rich and Mike are nowhere to be seen. Also, Jung is married with a child in the play, but neither mother nor child exist in the show so Jung can be single and have a Love Interest going into Season 2.
• The Last Kingdom:
  • Uhtred has Named Weapons in the books: his sword Serpent-Breath and his seax Wasp-Sting. In the show they're left unnamed and his sword has a different design. Still, a nod to this remains when Earl Ragnar calls him a wasp who's lost his sting.
  • Halfdan is completely omitted.
  • Multiple characters who play important roles in the books are either omitted, condensed into other characters, or replaced by a Canon Foreigner.
• Legends of the Superheroes, a pair of live-action television specials produced by Hanna-Barbera that were loosely based on the Superfriends cartoon, omitted Superman and Wonder Woman from this continuity's interpretation of the Justice League because Superman had his own movie released the year prior to the specials airing and Wonder Woman's television series was airing on a different network (CBS rather than NBC). Strangely, while the special's version of the Legion of Doom obviously couldn't use any of Superman's enemies, the villain team still had Wonder Woman's adversary Giganta as a member. Also notably absent are Aquaman (whose absence is especially hard to miss due to the specials essentially being a live-action version of Superfriends) and Martian Manhunter (who never appeared on Superfriends anyway).
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power:
  • During Galadriel's recap of the First Age, no mention is made of Ungoliant, the spider-like Animalistic Abomination who Morgoth allied with to destroy the Two Trees.
  • Galadriel had several brothers who died in the books, but here she appears to have had only one, Finrod. In turn, Finrod died differently in the show, through hunting after Sauron instead of through joining the Mannish hero Beren on a quest due to a Life Debt and pulling a Heroic Sacrifice. Galadriel also pays her due to his body in the show, while in the books Finrod is buried close to where he died.
  • Also, it's mentioned that there have only been two Interspecies Romances between Elves and Men before - which must refer to Beren and Lúthien, and Tuor and Idril, all ancestors of Elrond. But this rules out another of Galadriel's brothers, Aegnor, who had a star-crossed romance (unlike the others) with Andreth, Beren's older relative.
• ITV's Marple adaptation of Towards Zero (which is not originally a part of the Miss Marple books) removes the Amateur Sleuth Angus Macwhiter and puts Miss Marple in his role.
• The TV version of M*A*S*H drops Duke Forrest, Tom Skerritt's character in the film, in order to tighten up the cast. Additionally, some of the film's supporting characters (Spearchucker, Lt. Dish, Ho-Jon, etc.) make scattered appearances in the first season, but were all Brother Chucked by the second season.
• Obviously the amount of characters that encompass Arthurian Legend is immense, and Merlin was never going to fit them all in (in fact, they did the now-rare move of separating the characters Morgana and Morgause, who in many adaptations are combined into a Composite Character), but there were a few key characters that never appeared: Elaine, Galahad and Kay. These three in particular usually make it into other adaptations, and fans of the show often commented on their absence here.
• When a crossover from Frozen (2013) was incorporated into Season 4 of Once Upon a Time, the important human characters — Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Hans — were brought over. Sven was also brought over. But Olaf is noticeably absent, and the events at the end of Frozen seem to have been changed so that Hans is still on the loose looking for new schemes to take over Arendelle (perhaps he escaped from the boat that was meant to ship him back to the Southern Isles). A probable reason for Olaf's absence is due to him being pretty superfluous and, meta-wise, too difficult to have around in terms of special effects.
• One Piece (2023) omits quite a few characters and elements from the original manga.
  • Richie, Mohji's lion, doesn't make an appearance. This gets lampshaded by Buggy, who expresses anger over the absence of a "dancing lion".
  • The Island of Rare Animals the Straw Hats visit after leaving Orange Town is omitted from the story, though the island does appear on the map shown in the credits. By extension, Gaimon, the man the crew meet on the island, doesn't appear.
  • The Usopp Pirates, the trio of boys who follow Usopp, don't appear in the series.
  • The Black Cat Pirates outside of Kuro, Sham, and Buchi are removed from the series. The most notable exclusion is Jango, Kuro's first mate, who, unlike the rest of the Black Cats, would continue to show up after the Syrup Village arc as the main character of his own cover story and appear as a minor recurring character. He does make a cameo on a wanted poster, though.
  • Johnny and Yosaku, Zoro's Bounty Hunter friends, are completely absent, with their role in directing the Straw Hats to Baratie being changed to the crew finding the restaurant by happenstance.
  • Carne, the head charcutier of Baratie is absent, with the role of "rival coworker" delegated to Patty alone.
  • Hatchan, the Token Good Teammate of the Arlong Pirates, does not appear in the series, likely due to the difficulty of adapting a character like Hachi into live-action. This is particularly notable, as (outside of Arlong appearing in flashbacks) Hachi is the only member of the Arlong Pirates to continue to appear after the Arlong Park arc, being the protagonist of his own cover story and playing a major supporting role in a few later arcs. On a similar note, Mohmoo, the giant sea-cow who serves as Arlong's attack dog, does not appear.
• Preacher (2016) omits several characters who appeared in the original comic book, with some of the more noticeable examples including Odin Quincannon's brother Conan, Jesse's inbred hillbilly friend Billy-Bob Bobbs and Billy-Bob's sister Lorie.
• Sherlock never got around to introducing a version of Moriarty's henchman, Sebastian Moran. His existence was alluded to in "The Great Game", where Moriarty used a sniper for his bomb scheme, but he was never identified or seen onscreen. A Lord Moran would appear in the first episode of Series Three, but had no real resemblance to the original character.
• Super Sentai to Power Rangers is an odd case, as it adapts a Japanese live action show into an American live action show. In this adaptation process many characters or concepts have a direct counterpart. However, some lack a counterpart in Power Rangers, resulting in this trope. The most common victims of this trope in Power Rangers are multiple Monsters Of The Week, as Power Rangers mostly has a shorter episode run compared to Sentai. More specific examples include:
  • The second season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers decided to keep using the suits and weapons from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, resulting in many weapons and gear from Gosei Sentai Dairanger not making the adaptation.
  • Kyūkyū Sentai GoGoV had a small robotic assistant called Mint, while Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue did not have any robotic assistant whatsoever (although Mint can be seen in episodes of Lightspeed Rescue in the Lightspeed Aquabase standing around doing nothing).
  • A minor example with Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and its adaptation into Power Rangers Samurai: Antonio's Morpher was a modified white and gold version of the Samuraizer but lacking the brush section that was left on but unused for the other Rangers except for Lauren and Ji. Genta's Transformation Trinket was instead a completely different phone called the Sushi Changer, having a textured surface to look like rice and a unique folding Power Disc that attached to the top. This is the only time a Morpher got replace during adaptation that didn't reference the original in any way.
  • Tensou Sentai Goseiger has three mecha and 1 ranger that did not make it into Power Rangers Megaforce, which are Datas Hyper^note this is due to the fact that Datas himself wasn't adapted; while he does have a counterpart, said counterpart, Tensou, looks very different from Datas, Exotic Brothers^note who only appeared in one episode, and said episode was not adapted Mystic Brothers, and Gosei Green^note Although in Green's case, this was due to the fact that he was a Posthumous Character, whose appearances were limited to flashbacks. Strangely enough, the Power Ranger version does use footage featuring a Megazord combination featuring Datas Hyper, which magically appears as a backpack whenever the combination is used^note the toyline does somewhat justify this, since the backpack is instead combined from 3 motorcycles.
  • Basco, a recurring villain from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger was completely omitted from Power Rangers Super Megaforce.
  • Neither Deathryuger, the evil ranger of Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger, nor his good variation, Kyoryu Navy, were adapted into Power Rangers Dino Charge. Ironically, his demorphed form, Ferocious Knight D, was adapted as the monster Badussa, along with his zord, Tobispino/Spinozord. ^note  The Boom Studios comics later worked in Deathryuger as The Dark Ranger, the Ranger form of Post-Heel–Face Turn Heckyll. And while the One-Winged Angel form of the Big Bad, Deboth, was adapted into Greenzilla, his true form was not.
• Umino does not appear in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon due to being a Composite Character with Motoki.
• Saturday Night Live: When Patrick Stewart hosted in 1994, there was the sketch "The Love Boat: The Next Generation" that mashed up Star Trek: The Next Generation with The Love Boat, with Stewart playing Picard and the SNL performers playing the other TNG characters. But instead of Dr. Crusher as the Enterprise's doctor, the sketch had Bernie Koppel reprising his role as Dr. Adam "Doc" Bricker from The Love Boat.
• Wonder Woman and Green Lantern were the only founding members of the Justice League never to appear in Smallville, with Wonder Woman being omitted due to the notorious legal red tape regarding her media rights. However, Wonder Woman was alluded to in the show's final season (with Chloe referencing a certain "wondrous woman" she'd encountered during her travels). Wonder Woman and the John Stewart version of Green Lantern would later appear in the Season 11 comics published after the show ended.
• The BBC series of Smiley's People adapts the book of the same name, the third part of John le Carré's "Smiley vs. Karla" trilogy. However, it's positioned as a sequel to their adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the first part of the trilogy. The second book, The Honourable Schoolboy, is completely edited out, partly because its Southeast Asian setting made it too expensive to film (the Hong Kong scenes in the novel of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy were also relocated to Portugal for the series).
• Spider-Man (Japan) didn't feature anyone from the comics besides Spider-Man and even changed his civilian identity from a New Yorker named Peter Parker to a resident of Tokyo named Takuya Yamashiro.
• Stargirl (2020):
  • A photograph showing the Justice Society of America reveals that most of the members from the comics were included, with a few notable exceptions like Dinah Drake, the original Black Canary and Al Pratt, the original Atom.
  • The Injustice Society is also missing a few key members, including Vandal Savage, Per Degaton, Harlequin and the Thinker.
• Titans (2018)
  • Most likely due to being a Justice League founder in all continuities post-Flashpoint, Cyborg is not part of the titular Titans. Interestingly however, he is a main character in the Spin-Off, Doom Patrol (2019).
  • The team's roster is largely based on the 1980s New Teen Titans comics by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, with the other main exception (after the aforementioned Cyborg) being the omission of Wally West, a.k.a Kid Flash. It's unknown if the character was left out due to his use in the live-action CW Flash series, or if the producers plan to introduce him in a later season.
  • In the original comics, Deathstroke has two sons named Grant and Joey, with Grant's death being the main reason Deathstroke ended up as an enemy of the Teen Titans in the first place. Grant does not exist in this timeline, and instead it's Joey (renamed "Jericho") who inadvertently ends up causing Deathstroke's vendetta against the Titans.
• The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries TV adaptation, True Blood, completely left Bubba out of the show.
• The Twilight Zone (1959):
  • In "Third from the Sun", Jerry and Ann Riden don't have any children. In the short story by Richard Matheson, the unnamed equivalent characters have two.
  • In "The Old Man in the Cave", Mr. Goldsmith is the leader of the Village. In the short story "The Old Man" by Henry Slesar, it is run by the Governors.
  • "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" does not include three minor characters from the short story by Henry Slesar: the bald bartender Phil who trades $112 for the title character's full head of hair, the homeless man who trades his hair to Ross for a place to sleep or Mr. Halpert's chauffeur Jan who trades access to Halpert for Ross' skills at pool.
  • "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" omits Mr. Willmes, Mary Cuberle's supervisor at Interplan who fires her when he learns that she does not intend to undergo the Transformation.
  • As "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" excises Chapter II of the short story by Ambrose Bierce, the supposed Confederate soldier who turns out to be a Union scout and lures Peyton Farquhar to the bridge is omitted.
• The Twilight Zone (1985):
  • "The Misfortune Cookie", an adaptation of the short story by Charles E. Fritch, omits Harry Folger's lover Cynthia Peters, his wife and Cynthia's husband.
  • "A Matter of Minutes" omits Gurrah, the supervisor of Limbo, a major supporting character in the short story "Yesterday Was Monday" by Theodore Sturgeon.
  • "Dead Run" omits two supporting characters from the short story by Greg Bear: a young hitchhiker named Bill and his recently deceased girlfriend Sherill, whom Bill manages to rescue from Hell.
  • "The After Hours" omits two supporting characters from the original episode: the department store sales supervisor Mr. Armbruster and the store manager Mr. Sloan.
  • "Time and Teresa Golowitz" omits two minor characters from the short story "Influencing the Hell Out of Time and Teresa Golowitz" by Parke Godwin: Bill Tait and Frankie Maguerra.
• The Untamed leaves out several things from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi, including:
  • The romance between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji is removed, though the series makes their interactions as romantic as possible without outright stating they're in love.
  • The Second Siege still happens, although it doesn't include the part where the Wen remnants briefly came back to life to help the protagonists fend off the corpses summoned by the Yin Tiger Seal.
• The Wheel of Time (2021):
  • Thom Merrilyn is only introduced in episode 3. The scene where he impresses Emond's Field villagers with tales of the First Age^note Such as Lenn, who "flew to the moon in the belly of an eagle made of fire", "Mosk the Giant, with his Lance of fire that could reach around the world", "Elsbet, the Queen of All", "Materese the Healer" and so on. is missing. In the books the scene helps drive home the idea that this is not only the past, but also the distant future.
  • The scene with Narg. In the books this is the only time a Trolloc talks to main characters and mentions his name. It had caused a lot of fan speculations, but is generally written off as Early-Installment Weirdness. In the series the Trolloc attacking Tam and Rand does not speak, but he is the only one in the episode based off a wolf rather than a goat.
  • Mordeth does not appear as a human during the first visit to Shadar Logoth. However, a vaguely human shadow briefly appears to draw Mat's attention directing him toward an ornate box that catches his eye, from which he takes a dagger, despite Lan's earlier warnings.
  • The party never arrives in Baerlon before Shadar Logoth, removing much of the build up, plus the evidence about which character is the Dragon Reborn and the prophecies that foreshadow the rest of the series. Min and her visions do appear in Episode 7, but she says very little onscreen.
  • Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, and Thom Merrilin aren't saved by the ship The Spray and Bayle Domon after escaping Shadar Logoth. In fact, the guys only meet Thom in a small mining town a few days after Shadar Logoth. Thom's You Shall Not Pass! scene happens at a remote farm rather than a river port. Bayle Domon is not in season 1 cast.
  • The Emond's Fielders travel directly to Tar Valon rather than meeting up in Caemlyn as in the book. The scene in which Logain is paraded through the streets in chains and the introduction of Loial happen in Tar Valon rather than Caemlyn, and the introductions of Elayne, Gawyn, Galad, Elaida and Morgase are skipped entirely.
  • The Eye of the World is an old overgrown building of unknown purpose. (Even the Dragon Reborn can't remember.) The pool of purified saidin (created during the Breaking to allow future male chanellers to safely repair the seals) is never mentioned. However, a sa'angreal had been created just for this purpose from the power of 100 channelers. Moiraine has been carrying it right from the start. Green Man, Aginor and Balthamel do not appear. There is no cache with treasures like the Dragon Banner, and the Horn of Valere is kept elsewhere.
• Wolf Hall and its sequel, Bring Up The Bodies, are both Doorstoppers that together break a thousand pages, so by necessity some things were excluded from the six-episode miniseries. Thomas Cromwell's Psycho Sidekick Christophe is cut, unsurprising as he was one of the only completely fictional characters. Most of Cromwell's busy home life is left out, too. His nieces are seen once or twice, but people like Helen Barre^note a probable-widow he hired who goes on to marry Rafe don't appear at all.
• Yumi's Cells removes Babi's Detective Cell (a prime cell) and Overreacting Cell (who drives much of the drama in Babi's relationships) and splits their roles between the typical Reason/Sensitivity/Love trio. Likewise, Yunhee has her roles split between Ruby (the youngest member of the friend group) and Yi Da (Daeyong's love interest).

---