History Main / WrittenInAbsence

* In ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda4'', Po is asked where the Furious Five is, to which he explains that they are off on their own missions, whilst Mantis is trying to [[MantisMatingMeal literally keep his own head,]]. TheBusCameBack at the end of the film, where they train Zhen.

* In ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda4'', Po is asked where the Furious Five is, to which he explains that they are off on their own missions, whilst Mantis is trying to literally keep his own head. TheBusCameBack at the end of the film, where they train Zhen.

** In Season 17's "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", Julia has to perform the autopsy on the victim of the week because regular coroner Violet Hart was away on vacation.

* During the filming of series four of ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses'', Lennard Pierce (Grandad) was suddenly taken into hospital, which was explained by having a character ask after the missing Grandad's health. Pierce then died; in the next episode, Grandad's funeral is held and he is replaced by his brother, Uncle Albert.

* ''TheBigComfyCouch'': Granny Garbanzo was absent in the first two episodes before making her debut in "All Aboard for Bed"

** ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' (which incidentally, the above ''Rugrats'' episode spawned) had a Christmas special without Angelica (a feat in and of itself, because on ''Rugrats'', Angelica was ''the'' main plot of that show's Christmas episodes), with Susie saying one line about Angelica spending her holidays in Aspen. They also explained Dil's general absence in a vacation episode by showing him sick in his room and having Tommy mention that Dil had the flu.

* An especially poignant example occurs in ''Series/DadsArmy'', in which Captain Mainwaring reads out a note left by Private Walker to excuse his absence - the actor who portrayed Walker, James Beck, had fallen into a coma before the episode was filmed and passed away, meaning that he never returned.

* Max Russo's actor Jake T. Austin took a short break from ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' to attend college and to finish his role on the Creator/BlueSkyStudios film, ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}'' during the fourth and final season of the series; his absence was explained by a story arc in which Alex botched a [[FreakyFridayFlip transformation spell]] during a ZanyScheme to restore her powers, and Max was changed to a girl named Maxine (played by Bailee Madison).

* ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'': ComicBook/BlackWidow is often missing due to her work with ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}, while the [[Characters/IncredibleHulkBruceBanner Hulk]] is sometimes implied to be off with his ''[[WesternAnimation/HulkAndTheAgentsOfSMASH other]]'' team.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' often had various members of the team missing for one reason or another, which was usually justified with a HandWave line of dialogue. ComicBook/AntMan might be conducting a scientific study, [[Characters/MarvelComicsCarolDanvers Ms. Marvel]] might be busy with her S.W.O.R.D. work, ComicBook/BlackPanther might be dealing with politics in his native Wakanda, [[Characters/TheMightyThorThorOdinson Thor]] might be visiting his family in Asgard, and so on.

** It was often said that Superman was averting a natural disaster somewhere; after all, having Superman around every episode would often undermine the tension. Subverted once when he actually showed up later in the episode saying the disaster turned out to be relatively minor.
** This happened pretty often to other members too, as most episodes were missing at least one of the Leaguers, although the absences weren't always explained. One example would be the Christmas episode, which explains that Batman is busy doing monitor duty, although the other absence from that episode - Wonder Woman - is never explained. Of course, even when it's not explained, given that they're superheroes it is easy to assume that they're just busy handling their own crises. Or in that case, she doesn't really celebrate Christmas, given she has actually met Greek gods and is a literal Amazon.

*** Creator/NataliePortman was unavailable to appear as Jane Foster due to pregnancy. Her absence was explained as Jane being transferred to a secure location in an observatory for her protection since the villain abducted one of her colleagues.
*** Neither Odin nor any of the other Asgardians save for [[Characters/TheMightyThorThorOdinson Thor]] appear, and Loki explains why; the Bifrost Bridge had been destroyed at the close of ''Film/{{Thor}}'', and Odin had to expend a dangerous amount of dark energy just to send Thor back to Earth.
*** [[Characters/IronManHeroes War Machine]] from ''Film/IronMan'' was absent as well, but no explanation was given. [[AllThereInTheManual The prequel comic]] to ''Film/IronMan3'' finally cleared this up by stating that he was busy fighting terrorists in China during the events of ''The Avengers''.

** While the majority of the movie superheroes appear in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' to fight off [[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos Thanos]], Comicbook/{{Hawkeye}} and Comicbook/AntMan are absent because they are under house arrest as part of a plea deal they made to be able to stay with their families after violating the Sokovia Accords and aiding Captain America in ''Civil War''.

* Max Russo's actor Jake T. Austin took a short break from ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' to attend college during the fourth and final season of the series; his absence was explained by a story arc in which Alex botched a [[FreakyFridayFlip transformation spell]] during a ZanyScheme to restore her powers, and Max was changed to a girl named Maxine (played by Bailee Madison).

* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' had its entire plot reworked when Creator/CrispinGlover wanted too much money to reprise his role as Marty's father. Instead of a trip to the 60s (where George was a flower child), we go to an alternate 80s where Biff had become extremely wealthy thanks to [[GraysSportsAlmanac a certain book]], [[spoiler:and George was dead]].

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': After Chandler and Monica get engaged during the sixth season finale the celebratory GroupHug is interrupted when Phoebe notices that Ross isn't there. He's missing because Creator/DavidSchwimmer had left production early to work on ''Series/BandOfBrothers''.

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]], Tom Baker declined to reprise his role as the Fourth Doctor, so it was claimed that Four got caught in a time eddy when he was retrieved from the timestream. He only appears in stock footage from the unaired story "Shada".

* Creator/AshleyJohnson's characters [[TheHeart Pike]] and [[AloofDarkHairedGirl Yasha]] in both campaigns of ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' have this going on (due to her recurring role on ''Series/{{Blindspot}}''). For Pike, she picked up extra-party obligations that precluded her traveling with the group (first a church to her [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly deity]], and then a bakery in Whitestone). Yasha, on the other hand, merely begins with a reputation for "Yasha-ing" off on NoodleIncident errands.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': After Chandler and Monica get engaged during the seventh season finale the celebratory GroupHug is interrupted when Phoebe notices that Ross isn't there. He's missing because Creator/DavidSchwimmer had left production early to work on ''Series/BandOfBrothers''.