History Main / PostScriptSeason

* Marvel's original ''ComicBook/{{Micronauts}}'' series concluded with a BittersweetEnding. The BigBad was finally KilledOffForReal, but the heroes' Homeworld had been reduced to a lifeless ruin. With Homeworld in ruins and the war over, the Micronauts decide to go off and explore the Microverse as the series ended. Then the series was relaunched as ''Micronauts: The New Voyages''. Under a new creative team, the series picked up where the original left off, but the series ended up being mostly dull and pointless as the Micronauts (and the story) wandered aimlessly. Eventually, they returned to Homeworld to restore it to life as the series ended.

* Season 3 of ''Anime/SonicX''. Ratings had been mediocre in Japan, so the anime was unable to get past the initial 52 episode order and had to quickly wrap up its TrappedInAnotherWorld premise... and then [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff it became an absolute hit in the international market]], resulting in a somewhat DarkerAndEdgier season that had barely anything to do with the rest of the series before it. A bit of an odd case in that this season did not air in Japan whatsoever all the way until 2020, possibly due to low ratings during its initial run.
** Notably, this is one of the few cases in which the general consensus is that the post script season is actually better that the seasons before it.

** The MythArc of the original game covered the first three campaigns and decisively ended in ''Nightfall'' with the death of [[OverarchingVillain Abaddon]]. ''Eye of the North'' was largely disconnected from the original story and introduced new enemies, races, and massive paradigm shifts for two pre-existing races, serving as an obvious setup for the [[VideoGame/GuildWars2 sequel]].

** The Dark Dragon story arc of ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' was itself a post-script season. Originally, the show was intended to last only through the Baby storyline, but Bandai asked Toei to kept the show going afterward in order to [[CashCowFranchise help promote]] their ''Dragon Ball Final Bout'' fighting game for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation.

*** The "Invicible" duo are also this. Almost all of the [[Anime/Daitarn3 Meganoids]] have been eliminated, and the plot of ''Anime/Zambot3'' is stopped early at the apex of the plot of ''Gundam 00's'' second season when Celestial Being is reported to have driven the Gaizok out by themselves. [[spoiler:That being said, Kappei's family still averts SparedByTheAdaptation.]]

** The post-Shura arcs are a more conventional example of a postscript season, as there are no more major martial arts factions after Kaioh is defeated and the manga becomes more around Kenshiro acting as a force of nature for the characters and situations surrounding him. It's for this reason that the anime series never adapted these later chapters. The second installment of ''VideoGame/FistOfTheNorthStarKensRage'', which adapts almost the entirety of the manga series, also leaves most of the post-Shura content out, only includes the final arc featuring the villain Bolge.

** The post-Shura arcs are a more conventional example of a postscript season, as there are no more major martial arts factions after Kaioh is defeated and the manga becomes more around Kenshiro acting as a force of nature for the characters and situations surrounding him. It's for this reason that the anime series never adapted these later chapters.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' was designed as a six-part story arc revolving around Anakin Skywalker (which originally skipped the first 3). In George Lucas' words, "It was started when he was 9, it ends when he died. There’s no more story to tell." Then came a third trilogy once Creator/{{Disney}} became owners of the franchise. Of course, the movies were always a tiny part of the story to anyone who followed the absolutely massive [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Star Wars]] [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]].

* The fifth season of ''Series/{{Community}}'' has the cast end up failing their goals and back in Greendale.

Oh no. [[WhatDoWeDoNow What are you going to do now?]] You [[Series/StarTrekVoyager got Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant]], sank the ''Bismarck'', resolved all the [[UnresolvedSexualTension sexual tension]], and/or [[Series/BabylonFive saved the galaxy]]. There's nowhere else for the story to ''go''.

Oh no. [[WhatShallWeDoNow What are you going to do now?]] You [[Series/StarTrekVoyager got Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant]], sank the ''Bismarck'', resolved all the [[UnresolvedSexualTension sexual tension]], and/or [[Series/BabylonFive saved the galaxy]]. There's nowhere else for the story to ''go''.

Oh no. [[WhatWeShallDoNow What are you going to do now?]] You [[Series/StarTrekVoyager got Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant]], sank the ''Bismarck'', resolved all the [[UnresolvedSexualTension sexual tension]], and/or [[Series/BabylonFive saved the galaxy]]. There's nowhere else for the story to ''go''.

Oh no. What are you going to do now? You killed off [[Literature/HarryPotter Lord Voldemort]], [[Series/StarTrekVoyager got Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant]], sank the ''Bismarck'', resolved all the [[UnresolvedSexualTension sexual tension]] and/or [[Series/BabylonFive saved the galaxy]]. There's nowhere else for the story to ''go''.

* ''Series/NightCourt'': Season 8 is over. Dan quits his job and loses the Phil Foundation fortune. More importantly, Harry and Christine have professed their love to one another. OK, that's the end. What's that? We've been renewed? Oh, crap! ''Series/ThirtyRock'' devoted [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_with_the_Cast_of_Night_Court an episode]] to the idea that several of the characters on that show were unhappy with the Season 9 ending to ''Night Court'', so they staged a "fake" episode, reuniting several of the actual cast members (Harry Anderson, Markie Post, and Charles Robinson), and they had Harry and Christine get married.

** ''Wizard'' had a two-parter that served as an anniversary special (since it ended with the 15th anniversary of the Heisei-era shows); this included both an EarlyBirdCameo by Gaim and the return of Series/KamenRiderDecade star Masahiro Inoue as a plot where Haruto is pulled into a realm where the Riders' defeated enemies reside and plan on returning to Earth.

** The fourth season of ''WesternAnimation/Ben102016'' concluded in a similar manner to the original season: a GrandFinale movie which introduced Azmuth and had Ben traveling to space to face off against Vilgax one last time. However, the network ordered an additional three hour-long specials constituting a "Season 5" afterward: "Ben 10,010", "Ben Gen 10", and "Alien X-tinction", which are a TimeSkip, a {{crossover}} with ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'', and an IntraFranchiseCrossover (respectively).

* The original plan for Anime/PokemonTheSeries was to cover only [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue the first generation games]], while giving sneak peaks to the Pokémon of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Gold and Silver]]'', which would launch shortly after the anime's end. This was because video game adaptations to other media [[VideoGameMoviesSuck have not had good track records]]. Of course, [[FranchiseZombie things turned out differently]] [[LongRunners than what they planned for]].

* ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'' is essentially this trope, with Masashi Kishimoto repeatedly stating that he wanted to end ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' and have some time for himself. The series, however, had become a juggernaut of a CashCowFranchise, and Shueisha really wanted to keep the money coming in, despite ''Naruto'' ending with the biggest villain defeated and all loose ends tied up. ''Boruto'' wound up being a compromise in which a different author wrote and drew it with Kishimoto having a distant supervisory role and instead focuses on the [[SpinOffspring children of the main characters]] and their unique conflicts and struggles. In a twist, though, Kishimoto eventually returned and took control of the series' direction after chapter 51, following the departure of Ukyo Kodachi, the new writer.

* One of the big causes of the ContinuitySnarl that is ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} is the fact that ''Hawkworld'' was just meant to be a mini series, detailing the post-crisis origin of the hawks (alongside ComicBook/BatmanYearOne, ComicBook/TheManOfSteel and several others). But great sales caused DC to extend it into an ongoing and make it take place in modern times, despite how already established canon would make that impossible.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' was originally planned on being a trilogy, ending with ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders''. However, said part, which introduced the iconic [[FightingSpirit stands]] to the franchise, ended up being more popular than the manga's author, Creator/HirohikoAraki, had intended and he decided to continue it from there. This led to the next part, ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', feeling much more stand-alone in comparison to other parts, and ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo'' was even ''more'' standalone.[[note]]The only returning cast members from part 4 are Jotaro and Koichi; moreover, its titular Jojo is related not only to just another Joestar (in this case, Jonathan from "Phantom Blood") but to [[BigBad DIO]].[[/note]] ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'' averted this, since it was a distant sequel to ''Stardust Crusaders'', and as for ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun'' and ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureJojolion'', they take place in an AlternateContinuity.

* ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'' is essentially this trope, with Masashi Kishimoto repeatedly stating that he wanted to end ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' and have some time for himself. The series, however, had become a juggernaut of a CashCowFranchise, and Shueisha really wanted to keep the money coming in, despite ''Naruto'' ending with the biggest villain defeated and all loose ends tied up. ''Boruto'' wound up being a compromise in which a different author wrote and drew it with Kishimoto having a distant supervisory role and instead focuses on the [[SpinOffspring children of the main characters]] and their unique conflicts and struggles.

** The show was then picked up ''again'' for a ninth season, and was given a [=retool=] which replaced several cast members and introduced a new BigBad. Season 9 was made knowing that the show would be renewed for at least another year and then, finally, the show was cancelled after the end of Season 10. The final episode "Unending" was not quite a GrandFinale and the real resolution of the series happened in the DVD movie ''Film/TheArkOfTruth''. They made one more movie, ''Film/StargateContinuum'', which ended the final remaining plotline, which was what had happened to System Lord Baal.

** The show was expected to be cancelled after five seasons, and so ended on a decent (but not Grand) finale ("Revelations"). The expectation was that they would then move on to TheMovie which would segue into the SpinOff ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', which was very different in concept at this stage. Then the show was renewed for a sixth season.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'' had this happen multiple times, with seasons 6, 7, 8 and 9. The show was expected to be cancelled after five seasons, and so ended on a decent (but not Grand) finale ("Revelations") -- the expectation was that they would then move on to TheMovie (to be called "Stargate: The Lost City" or something similar) which would segue into the SpinOff (''Series/StargateAtlantis'', which was very different in concept at this stage). Then the show was renewed for a sixth season, and so was given a GrandFinale ("Full Circle") which introduced the planned concept of TheMovie. Then the show was renewed for a seventh season, so TheMovie was cancelled and its concept was rewritten as a season-long arc that would finish with a two-part GrandFinale ("Lost City") which would segue into the SpinOff instead. Then the series was renewed for an eighth season, so the GrandFinale's ending was changed to make more of a cliffhanger to be resolved in the Season 8 premiere, and ''Stargate Atlantis'' started running concurrently to ''Stargate SG-1''. It was expected that the eighth season would be the last, however, so the end of the season was once again devised to close the book on the series: both major galactic threats were taken away in a three-episode arc ("Reckoning" Parts 1 and 2 and "Threads" -- interestingly, these came just ''before'' the GrandFinale), and then the series ended with yet another two-part GrandFinale ("Moebius") involving time-traveling to ancient Egypt. The show was then picked up ''again'' for a ninth season, and was given a [=retool=] which replaced several cast members and introduced a new BigBad. Season 9 was made knowing that the show would be renewed for at least another year -- and then, finally, the show was cancelled after the end of Season 10. Whether the final episode ("Unending") was a GrandFinale is doubtful; the real resolution of the series happened in the DVD movie ''Film/TheArkOfTruth''. And then there was another DVD movie, and more planned... until ''Series/StargateUniverse'' underperformed. Ooops.

* The seventh season of the Canadian coroner drama ''Series/DaVincisInquest'' ended with most of the major plot threads tied up (including the arrest of the series' BigBad, who was prevalent throughout the last three seasons) and most of the characters getting a decent send-off. Although the series ended with a vague SequelHook (in which the main character, Dominic Da Vinci, announces his intent to run for Mayor of Vancouver), it was the end... until the show was retooled a year later as ''Da Vinci's City Hall'', skipping the entire process of the mayoral election and going straight to Da Vinci in office. Although the postscript season still integrated a handful of characters from the previous seasons, the show bled viewers and was subsequently cancelled at the end of its season.

* ''Series/PrisonBreak'' was an odd case of unplanned seasons. While the creators mentioned the show was only designed for two seasons, Fox squeezed a third season out of them in 2007-2008. This unfolded the same year when... you guessed it... the writer's strike happened. As a result, the third season was truncated to 13 episodes, and forced the writers to produce a fourth season to wrap up the show. Depending on who you ask, the fourth year was either a creative resurgence from the mediocre third season or a godawful train wreck of epic proportions. The controversial series ending was even more polarizing. And let's not even get into the cash grabbing DVD movie, The Final Break. Despite the series allegedly ending for good, a ''fifth'' season is set to premiere in 2017.

* In the end of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', the Enclave is decisively defeated, and depending on player choices, clean, safe drinking water is returned to the Capitol Wasteland (or not) and [[spoiler:the player character may even have died]]. But fan dissatisfaction with certain {{Plot Hole}}s in the ending and the fact that ending the game meant you couldn't continue exploring the wasteland (plus desire for more of [[MoneyDearBoy that sweet sweet skrilla]]) lead Bethesda to release the "Broken Steel" DLC as a sort of coda chapter. Turns out that reports of the death of the Enclave [[spoiler: and, potentially, the player]] are highly exaggerated, and they have a KillSat that needs taking down before it takes down the protagonists. The missions themselves are fairly middle-of-the-road-- not as good as the best of the game's DLC packs, not as bad as the worst-- but the ability to continue exploring the wasteland post-ending is a worthwhile addition.