He's just become the strongest man on Earth, defeated the King of Demons (twice), turned down a God Job and gotten married. And it's got three more (or four more) acts to follow!
The final spacecraft developed in this project, signifying its end. No new R-Fighters will be created henceforth. The developers, Team R-Type, disbanded after its development.
At least, that was supposed to have been the case...
At least, that was supposed to have been the case...
— Description for R-101 Grand Finale, from R-Type Final 2
A Series Fauxnale is an installment of a work that was originally planned to serve as its conclusion, but ultimately becomes known as just another (if particularly impressive) episode.
Perhaps the creators were uncertain of the future, so they produce something that can quickly tie up the big loose ends in the event they aren't able to continue, but then they were told they could. Perhaps they actually did complete the Myth Arc and this was the Grand Finale they always planned, but the work's immense popularity has the powers that be demand for them to continue onward. Whatever the reason, a series finale of some kind was created, but the series went on after that, making that previous series finale a "fake" one.
It is likely to have all the attributes of Stock Series Finales. The natural result of a Post-Script Season, though some shows last for many, many years thereafter. If the following years of the work are poorly received, there'll be more than a couple of fans that claim Fanon Discontinuity on them and say that this was when it really ended.
Can overlap with Status Quo Is God, Happy Ending Override, Trilogy Creep, or (if done repeatedly) Yo-Yo Plot Point if the new season, book, or film downplays, reverses, or just plain attempts to ignore anything done in the Series Fauxnale that would prevent the characters from engaging in their usual hijinxs.
It's a highlight of the Layout of a Season, the kinda Strictly Formula structuring of a show's seasons.
As this is an Ending Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.
Subpages:
Examples:
open/close all folders
Comic Books
- Asterix:
- Asterix and Son feels like it could have been the final story, with the darker than usual villain who Would Hurt a Child, the very personal stakes for Caesar as revealed by the end, the village being completely destroyed, burnt to the ground by the villain's forces, though Caesar himself promises to rebuild it out of gratitude, and the Gauls and Caesar enjoying the Once an Episode concluding feast together, seemingly reconciled forever. The next one, Asterix and the Magic Carpet, was made four years later, the longest gap between stories at the time. There Caesar only has a bit role but still views the Gauls as a nuisance, and later stories by Albert Uderzo would have him still plotting against the Gauls.
- It didn't seem as they were any plans of Albert Uderzo to continue the Asterix-series after Asterix and the Falling Sky didn't land with readers and critics. He then did the Milestone Celebration album Asterix and Obelix's Birthday: The Golden Book for the 50th anniversary of the series, whoch pretty much rounded up the series with a lot of characters being Back for the Finale. Uderzo retired after that book. However, in 2013 a new album - Asterix and the Picts - came out with a new creative team and the series is still running until today.
- Astro City: "The Voice of the Turtle" ends with Steeljack believing that he's stopped the Kiefer Square murders by driving off the Chessmen and saving the Mock Turtle. The issue even closes with the "You Are Now Leaving Astro City" street sign, signaling the end of the "Tarnished Angel" story arc. The next issue opens with the death of the Mock Turtle, indicating the case is far from over.
- Superman:
- The Death of Superman: The last issue of the second arc, "Funeral for a Friend," ends with Superman's body being returned to its final resting place, Lois accepting that her fiancee is gone now, Luthor getting past being unable to be the one to kill Superman himself, and Jonathan Kent apparently succumbing to a grief-induced heart attack as the last page shows him flatlining. The title of the story was even called "The End," and both the title and issue credits came at the end of the comic, and the issue was filled with tons of Continuity Porn flashing back to key events from Superman comics since the Post-Crisis reboot began. After that all the main Superman books went on hiatus for a couple months, with only a few specials and one-shots getting published during that period, before the books finally came back and began the "Reign of the Supermen" arc. In reality, DC was never intending to end Superman for good, and only put the books on hold to help build up the hype for Superman's eventual return.
- Also invoked years earlier with Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, a story intended as a finale for the character of Superman before he was to be rebooted in the miniseries The Man of Steel.
- Supergirl (2005) has two false conclusions. Knowing he was being kicked out of the book, Sterling Gates used his final story arc Day of the Dollmaker to tie up most of his run's last ongoing subplots. By the end, Supergirl is an experienced superhero who has greatly matured since her career's beginnings, has defeated most of her enemies and is presently happy with her life. You would be forgiven to think it was Post-Crisis Supergirl's final story, but her book went on for eight issues more. This Is Not My Life (2011), the book's final arc, ends with Kara making several life-changing choices, and subtly asking the readers to not forget about her before the Supergirl (2011) reboot.
- Reign of Doomsday worked as a grand finale by the Post-Crisis Superman before the 2011 reboot. By the end of the story, the Superman family is alive and well, Earth has been saved, and most of Superman's enemies are dead, banished to the Phantom Zone or similarly disabled.
- Batman:
- After Bruce Wayne's apparent death in 2009, the character of Batman received his own finale with Whatever Happened to The Caped Crusader? – once again it was a two-part out-of-continuity story, with one part in the Batman comic and the other in Detective Comics. Both series then went on hiatus, replaced by the three-part miniseries Battle For the Cowl. Afterwards, both series then picked up right they'd left off, with Dick Grayson as the new Batman.
- Throughout Tom King's run on the main Batman title, Bruce and Selina Kyle's relationship is well and truly solidified as an endgame pairing despite several ups and downs. King had intended to marry Bruce and Selina Kyle off for real at the climax of his run following a prior fake-out in the midst of their saga, tying it into the ending of one of the Batman annuals that he had penned that showed the Bat and the Cat had grown old together, but plans changed and King was removed from the book before he could implement this massive change. He was ultimately allowed to conclude the story in a maxi-series for the Black Label brand, Batman/Catwoman, where Bruce and Selina finally tie the knot. Glimpses of their future throughout this series show Bruce ultimately dies peacefully in bed surrounded by his extended family, his wife, and his daughter, while a grieving Selina goes on to murder the Joker before ultimately being shot and killed in crime alley years later. The story, being an elseworlds, would have no impact on the mainline continuity, which would follow a divergent path where Bruce and Selina ultimately decide to take a long-term break and only occasionally still get together.
- Chip Zdarsky's Batman run was intended to end in 2024 with the conclusion of the Failsafe storyline in the Absolute Power event, with Bruce reconciling with Selina and the two enjoying a brief second honeymoon before the final battle. However, his replacements, the returning superstar team of Jim Lee and Jeph Loeb, required more time to develop their issues, so Zdarsky's run was extended to March/April 2025 and the book returned to running once a month with a Post-Script Season storyline.
- Mister Miracle (2017) is an interesting case in that while it ostensibly fits in with canon of the DCU and especially the New Gods mythos, it is a very self-contained story designed with finality in mind, shattering the status quo entirely by the end — Orion, Highfather, and Darkseid are all dead, the war on New Genesis and Apokolips begins to wane, Scott Free and Barda stay Happily Married and with children, etc.. However, the narrative itself makes it clear that whatever reality Scott and the series takes place in isn't real, implicitly because of some kind of Lotus-Eater Machine, but leaving specifcs up in the air, allowing the possibility for future writers of the character to pull him out and return him to the "real" DCU. The book itself is also seemingly aware of this, as evinced by Scott's final conversation with Oberon:
Oberon: Scott, listen, that world, that other world Metron showed you. All those crises and continuities that never really make sense. That world full of superheroes who always end up hunky-dory? You think that's more "real" than that wife of yours? [...] Kid, all this, it'll break your heart. Can't escape that. But if you're good, if you stay good, you'll know... there's someone out there who'll help you put it back together.
- A company-wide version of this happened just before the New 52, with all the characters with running series "signing off" In-Universe at the end.
- The intended finale of Milligan's Shade, the Changing Man was supposed to be a Downer Ending, at the end of the "A Season In Hell" arc. Executive Meddling forced the creator's hand, and what followed may have made a better story under a different title (as Milligan probably intended.)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) Issue 50, aptly titled "Endgame", certainly has that final issue feel to it — Dr. Robotnik was dead, Sally (who was thought to be dead) was alive, Sonic and Sally had the Big Damn Kiss and Relationship Upgrade, everyone was safe from Robotnik's tyranny and, if the series stopped there, things wouldn't have felt off. Of course, from the writers' perspective it likely was going to be the final issue since the two cartoon series the comic was based on were recently canceled and the general feeling was the comic was sure to follow, so why not end things with a bang? Of course, the sky-high sales of the last several issues thanks to said cancellations by fans wanting more Sonic meant Archie Comics wasn't going to put the golden goose on the chopping block just yet. In fact, it's the only reason Sally actually survived rather than being Killed Off for Real.
- Spider-Man:
- Issue #33 of the original The Amazing Spider-Man (Lee & Ditko) was outright labelled "The Final Chapter", and was indeed the finale of the ongoing If This Be My Destiny...! Story Arc. The story ended with Peter Parker successfully saving Aunt May's life and transitioning to a new life as a college student. Ditko himself would continue to work on the next five issues, with the series remaining a flagship title and Long Runner well after his departure.
- The controversial One More Day served as the 'finale' to the original uninterrupted 1962-2007 continuity for the 616 variation of the wall-crawler, with the ongoing continuing on with a revised timeline where Peter and Mary Jane Watson had never been married.
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2018), written initially by Nick Spencer, is a follow-up to OMD and gradually builds into a fauxnale for the Brand New Day and Dan Slott-penned eras of The Amazing Spider-Man, addressing the plot points from a highly divisive Audience-Alienating Era of stories from the last decade including the controversial Sins Past; Peter not only reconciles with MJ, the love of his life, but he also lets the Black Cat back into his confidence, his archrival Norman Osborn is also cured of his sins and his true origins are revealed. Spencer's run on the volume itself ends with a 'fauxnale' that concludes Peter's battle with the demonic remnant Kindred, and teases that Peter and MJ's daughter will be the one to defeat Mephisto, the demon responsible for the erasure of the Parker-Watson marriage. Zeb Wells and a few other writers then took over and the fifth volume continued for a while longer with Spider-Man Beyond, a storyline focused on Ben Reilly and his tragic association with the Beyond Corporation, before relaunching with The Amazing Spider-Man (2022), written almost entirely by Wells with John Romita Jr and Ed McGuiness as his lead co-artists. Much of the Brand New Day elements would be reinstated in this volume, and Dan Slott would ultimately make a comeback to the franchise following up on his Superior Spider-Man and Spider-Verse storylines and creating a new character in Spider-Boy.
- Titles such as Spider-Girl, The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, and the Newspaper Strip can be considered final endings for the character as he is able to live a content life with his wife Mary Jane Watson, while dealing with the pressures of more adult responsibilities such as raising children. The 2009 remake of The Clone Saga, The Real Clone Saga, also works as an open-ended finale with almost everyone that was killed in the original saga surviving and Peter becoming a father. All these endings have since been established as part of the vastly growing alternatives in the Spider-Verse, while the mainline continuity proceeds with the status quo of an unmarried Peter Parker.
- The miniseries The Lost Hunt, by J. M. DeMatteis, set in the time of the 616 Clone Saga, is considered a potential candidate for a finale as DeMatteis admitted to a fan comment on his personal blog that he was treating the story like it were separate from the events that follow in 616 continuity, and that as far as he was concerned, Peter and MJ (and presumably Ben Reilly also) all get their happy endings, with Lost Hunt completely ignoring the revised post-OMD timeline and explicitly stating that Peter and the very pregnant MJ are husband and wife. The climax of the 2024 miniseries Shadow of the Green Goblin makes JMD's stance on Peter adamantly clear with the closing narration revealing Peter has at this point in his life grown into a loving husband and father. Meantime, the franchise soldiers on with the post-OMD revisions, and it's less likely the audience will ever truly see how this comes to be.
- Sinister 60th, by Dan Slott, appears to be this for his own take on the wall-crawler, set in a distant future where Peter is still webswinging well into his golden years and appears to have grown old with Mary Jane, who he's once again married to.
- End of the Spider-Verse, also by Slott, is one for the Spider-Verse saga. Here, every single Spider in the multiverse find themselves under threat from the insect totem queen Shathra, forcing them to ally with their greatest nemesis Morlun, they all succeed in overcoming her in a gargantuan battle across New York City. The MC2 version of Spider-Girl is finally reunited with her father. Peter, cut off from the Web of Life and Destiny, finds himself in a world where he may be crippled, but Uncle Ben is alive, he works for a sane Norman Osborn, he dates Liz Allan, and is Cindy Moon's tech-savvy sidekick. Despite possessing no powers, plain ordinary Peter is ultimately the one to vanquish Shathra (with the aid of his equipment). Once the Status Quo Is God ending kicks in, Peter finds he is no longer the chosen one of the Spider-Verse, Cindy is. He decides to accept only the responsibility of protecting his own world.
- For a book titled Spider-Girl: The End, it is ironically little more than a grand fauxnale for the character of Mayday Parker. While the MC2-based Spider-Girl title hasn't been relaunched since, its lead character found renewed life in the many Spider-Verse storylines published by Marvel. The End is more a Grand Finale for Mayday's clone April Parker, who sacrifices herself to prevent a dystopian future populated by Symbiotes, which resulted from the fallout of Mayday's death. This future averted, Mayday grieves April's loss before deciding to act on her feelings for her loyal friend Wes. Later stories set in the Spider-Verse crossovers and published in the Spider-Man Unlimited app on Marvel Infinity would provide Mayday with some controversies, and there are small instances of Happy Ending Override as well, though there have been many walkbacks on those controversies since then, so things ain't all that bad in Mayday's world compared to Spidey in 616...
- Zeb Wells was originally intending to leave Amazing Spider-Man with the climax to the Sins of the Green Goblin saga, with the final issue of the story even given a big bold-texted 'THE END' to signify this. However, Marvel requested his run be extended a little longer so they could have more time to prepare teams for the next storyline Eight Deaths of Spider-Man, so Wells put together a postscript story involving Tombstone seeking revenge on his daughter, and ended with ASM#60, tying up remaining loose ends in the issue with a collection of short Slice of Life stories.
- Teen Titans: The Darkening marks the end of the initial line-up (Robin/Nightwing, Starfire, Raven, Cyborg and Changeling) of New Teen Titans (which at that point had been retitled to New Titans) as they all go their separate ways and looks to be the end for the series as a whole if not for the fact that the penultimate issue of the storyline (#99) introduces the former Speedy under his new title of Arsenal who then takes over as leader of the Titans.
- Transformers:
- The Transformers (Marvel) may have ended with Issue 75, which functioned as a Grand Finale: The Autobots and Decepticons unite to save Cybertron from Unicron, resulting in a large battle in which several people are killed (including commanders Optimus Prime and Scorponok) but the Transformers emerge triumphant. The title ran for another five issues, during which Optimus Prime was resurrected.
- The title was originally planned as a four-part miniseries, with Issue 4 (actually entitled "The Last Stand") ending with all the Decepticons collapsing after their fuel is poisoned. Two endings were prepared: One had Optimus Prime making a speech declaring the end of the war but the one used had new Big Bad Shockwave suddenly appearing and gunning down the remaining Autobots.
- The Transformers (IDW) had a deliberate example. Issue 31 of the ongoing series is purposely written so that it can be used as the final issue for the entire IDW continuity. As such, exactly what's happened between the previous issues and Issue 31 is unclear. It takes place hundreds of years in the future, Ironhide and Alpha Trion are some of the few remaining members of the original Autobots, the Transformers live on Gorlam Prime instead of Cybertron, and Megatron and Optimus Prime have disappeared. This has since been Jossed; The Transformers: Dark Cybertron saw Gorlam Prime destroyed and left Ironhide concerned and suffered with depression that the happy ending he saw will not come to pass.
- The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: Just in case editorial had the series cut short, the author James Roberts scripted a finale to conclude the series, but since he was given the go ahead for Season 2, this all got released during the season's second arc. It has all the signs of "finality" in it, as the mysteries set up in the very first issue of Season 1 (Brainstorm's briefcase, how the Sparkeater got into the ship, who sent the foreboding message from the future) are answered in a time travel plot that also details the start of the war (notably Megatron's birth), and we even learn how the ship the series takes place on, the Lost Light, was created. It also closes out the trilogy of Flashback arcs that were sporadically told throughout Roberts's and Costa's runs.
Fan Works
- Adventures of a Line Hopper: The Bringer Of Death was intended to be the finale, answering some series-spanning Futureshadowings and ending with Buffy deciding that she should stop actively trying to reunite with the Doctor. Since The Bringer of Death was the darkest fic in the series at that point, the author found ending the series this way was too depressing and continued it with Happy Endings which gives Buffy a happier ending and ends up spawning an entire sequel series The Child of Balime.
- Code Prime: R2 - Revolution climaxes with a Final Battle between The Alliance and the Decepticons that ends with all of the latter either dead or fleeing, followed by a Dénouement Episode showing everyone celebrating at Oghi and Chigusa's wedding and planning for the future, seeming to end the series on a hopeful note... and then there's a couple of Sequel Hooks showing rising new threats from Zilkhstan and Unicron, setting up another entry in the series.
- The Halloween Unspectacular series was supposed to end with the conclusion of its Myth Arc in its fifth volume in 2014, due to the author getting tired of coming up with new entries each year. This seemed to hold up as 2015 came and went with no sixth volume, only for said sixth volume to come out in 2016, kickstarting a new Myth Arc and effectively serving as a Continuity Reboot, all thanks to the author getting back into the swing of things.
- I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC: After ten years of Marvel and DC butting heads and comparing their movies, the failure of Justice League (2017) and the hype behind Avengers: Infinity War has pretty much made the DC heroes disillusioned as hell about their franchise and the vitriol their arguments set off. Fed up with how their cinematic universe has been mocked to hell and back, the DC heroes concede that Marvel has won the debate. Both sides shake hands and head out to see Infinity War as friends, with Spider-Man telling a customer that Stan's Bar is closed... Then Deadpool appears and reveals he's hatching a plan with Rorschach to get the heroes to complain about each other again.
- The Loud House fanfiction Lincoln's Memories: Someone in the comments of "Nothing But the Tooth
" thought it was going to be the last chapter, when really the last one was the next in line.
- Notably averted by The Pokémon Squad. The series was originally meant to end with Season 7 due to a lack of new episode ideas, so three episodes were written to send it off: "Sailor Pikachu Gets Put on a Bus", "The Exiting", and "The End". The series managed to survive, so the three episodes were scrapped (two other episodes, "We Lied!" and "Sailor 'Chu R" were written after the series was Un-Canceled, but since the endings were scrapped, so were these).
- Ultra Fast Pony's Season 1 finale, "The Longest Episode", plays out like an ending for the entire series. It ends with an oddly sincere Friendship Moment between the main cast, and is followed by a text "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue. Then the end credits are extended, with the series creator Wacarb thanking everyone who's helped or inspired him. However, in his notes on the video, Wacarb states that he fully intends to continue with a season two. Sure enough, the second season followed, a few months later.
Films — Animation
- Although Hilda and the Mountain King adapts the Grand Finale of the graphic novel series and features an appropriate sense of conclusiveness for Hilda by ending with humans and trolls finally reconciling with one another, author and showrunner Luke Pearson stated a year before its release that he was interested in continuing the animated series past it. Sure enough, just a month before the film premiered, Silvergate Media confirmed that a third and final season was in production.
- Pooh's Grand Adventure could have served as the finale to not only The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh but all Winnie the Pooh media altogether as it deals with Christopher Robin leaving the Hundred Acre Wood. However, since its release there have been numerous sequels and additional TV shows.
- Shrek Forever After was supposed to be the final Shrek film, but then it was followed by the Spin-Off movie Puss in Boots (2011). Puss in Boots: The Last Wish which ends on a Sequel Hook that heavily teases a return to Far Far Away, and in July 2024, it was announced that Shrek 5 will be released on July 1, 2026.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: The first film, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, was indeed supposed to be the finale due to the creator's uncertainty concerning the continued popularity of the show. Nickelodeon insisted on producing more episodes as soon as production wrapped on the movie however, and the series has continued to run ever since, even spawning additional movies and spin-offs.
- South Park:
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was originally produced as the last hurrah, since Trey Parker doubted the franchise had much steam left in it and didn't think the movie would do well. This is why the ending plays out very much like a series finale, with nearly every single character who'd appeared in the series up to that point making a cameo in the crowd scene (and being featured on the poster).
- South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid could be interpreted as a Grand Finale for South Park given that the kids are all grown up in the end with Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and even Butters getting a happy ending, while Cartman finally gets karma for all the bad stuff he's done. Except that South Park was renewed to 2027, with 12 more movies expected to come out on Paramount Plus and Season 25 premiering in February 2022.
- Toy Story 3 was clearly meant to be the series finale. It takes place a full ten years after the first two films, is full of Call-Backs to the first two, ends with the grown-up Andy passing his toys on to another child, and has a shot of a cloud-filled sky as its final image, recreating the shot of Andy's sky-and-cloud wallpaper that opened the first film. But then came the announcement that Toy Story 4 was in the works. Lampshaded by Ducky and Bunny in the teaser reaction video. Then, after it seemed like 4 would be the final film, Toy Story 5 was announced in early 2023.
- WinxVerse: Winx Club was clearly intended to end with the first film Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom, where Bloom finally finds her birth parents after three seasons searching for them, and Sky asks her to marry him. But then we're given a Sequel Hook where the Ancestral Witches (whose spirits were freed when Bloom saved her home) possess the Trix. The creator of the series, Iginio Straffi, said in an interview that he always planned the show to end after the third season. The show was eventually renewed for a few more seasons and given two more movies (the first of which resolved the Sequel Hook), but Straffi wasn't heavily involved with them.
Literature
- The Alex Rider series ended pretty conclusively in Scorpia Rising, with Alex losing Jack, the closest thing he had to a living parental figure and moving to America, seemingly done with adventuring for good. To drive the point home, the next book was a prequel. Then Horowitz decided to continue the series anyway. By the end of Never Say Die, Jack has turned out to be alive after all and Alex is back in England, the status quo restored.
- Chronicles of Ancient Darkness was a six-book series with the last one published in 2009, ending with the main characters heading into the unknown. Ten years later, Michelle Paver decided to write three more sequels, with the first, Viper's Daughter, released in 2020.
- The third book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series finished off all the content from the web comics, with a big "THE END" at the end of the book, but because the series became more popular in book form, the books continued for more installments.
- The Harry Potter series was supposed to end definitively with Deathly Hallows. Then came a sequel, not in book form, but in theater: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a Spin-Offspring that deals with the aftermath of the "happy ending" of the last book, which turns out to be not that happy. And of course, there is no shortage of post-series supplementary materials churned out regularly by the author, many of which were released before Cursed Child was even a thing.
- After five books, L. Frank Baum grew tired of writing Land of Oz novels despite their popularity. He issued The Emerald City of Oz in 1910 as a finale to the series, going so far as to state in the final chapter that with Oz now magically cut off from the rest of the world, there would be no further installments, as Dorothy could no longer communicate with him. Three years later, the financially struggling Baum found that his non-Oz books weren't selling and resumed the series with The Patchwork Girl of Oz, offering the in-universe explanation that the "wireless telegraph" enabled further communication between him and Dorothy. Thereafter Baum published seven more Oz volumes before his death, and the official series, under various writers, continued until 1963.
- An in-universe example in Misery, where Annie forces Paul to write a sequel to Misery's Child, even though he had intended it to be the last of the series, and had gleefully killed off the main character.
- Mog: "Goodbye, Mog" was initially meant to be the last book in the series and Mog appeared to be dead, but then "Mog's Christmas Calamity" got written and she was alive and well again. When asked about this, Judith Kerr simply said she never thought of the books as being written in chronological order.
- The Mortal Instruments was supposed to end with the third book, City of Glass. Compared to later series finales, it doesn't have as many hanging plot threads, and could have served as a satisfiable finale. The second half of the series was originally conceived as a standalone spin-off centered on Simon Lewis. This is why the fourth book, City of Fallen Angels, puts so much focus on him, but the following two books don't.
- Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars series was originally intended to end after the eighth book, "Wanted", and the earliest editions advertise it as the final installment. It fully repairs the girls' friendship and wraps up their character arcs, albeit with a The End... Or Is It? ending. Then the series continues, and "Wanted" ends up only being the halfway point; we also get a prequel, an interquel, and eight more books, wherein there's some Happy Ending Override and Aesop Amnesia for the series to continue. "Vicious", the 16th main-line book, is the true finale, and likewise ends on a The End... Or Is It? note.
- Ramona Quimby: Ramona Forever definitely reads as if it were meant to be the last book of the series, ending with the birth of a new Quimby sister and with Ramona reflecting on all the past misadventures of her young life, with subtle Shout-Outs to events from the previous books. But fifteen years later, Beverly Cleary followed it up with the true series finale, Ramona's World.
- Most famously, "The Final Problem" for Sherlock Holmes, in which Arthur Conan Doyle killed Holmes off in a struggle with Professor Moriarty. Because of public outcry, he eventually retconned the death and resumed the series.
- Warrior Cats: The Last Hope was intended to be the finale of the series as a whole, with there being a large climatic battle sequence, cameos and appearances from many characters, and a new era of sorts for the Clans. While new books did get released, the next few were mostly prequels. However, the releases of Dovewing's Silence, Bramblestar's Storm, and then further arcs and side books quickly proved that the series wasn't going to end soon.
Music
- ABBA's The Visitors was written in the midst of fierce inter-member conflicts and was written with the intent of making it their last bow, with the group disbanding not too long after its release. While it remained their finale album for 40 years, the band eventually regrouped and released a more proper Grand Finale album, Voyage, in 2021.
- AJR invokes this with Neotheater, especially with the final track "Finale (Can't Wait To See What You Do Next)". Feeling that they've gone harder than they ever had, the brothers consider ending their careers on a high note and acknowledge the possibility that they have nothing left to offer for their listeners. However, a chorus of presumably fans, friends, and family urge them to not go and continue doing what they do, promising to support them in their future endeavors. Within the context of the song however, the band is still on the fence about following it up due to fears of Tough Act to Follow. Neotheater was indeed not their final album and OK Orchestra was announced for 2021.
- Bathory intended for their final album to be 1991's Twilight of the Gods. Perhaps an example of where this shines best is the final listed track Hammerheart, which reads out like a man's final speech on his deathbed, using the more solemn, calm tune of Thaxted with an orchestra, rather than the more metal-oriented sound of the rest of the album, and the only instance of a guitar is in the ending line. It also hints at Quorthon's (the sole member for most of the band's history) heart condition. After some years, though, in 1994, they would release their next album, Requiem.
- Sadly inverted, as while working on the third of four planned albums in his Nordland saga, Quorthon died of this same heart condition in 2004 at the age of 38.
- The Beatles: In 2023, the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, worked with Peter Jackson to produce "Now And Then", a John Lennon demo the then-three-surviving Beatles had originally worked on during the sessions for The Beatles Anthology, promoting it as "The last Beatles song". However, a week later, thanks to the positive reception to the song, Jackson said that there may be more Beatles songs to produce with the unused material they have.
- For around a decade, David Bowie's Reality was treated as his de-facto finale thanks to his heart attack-induced retirement and the finality of that record's closing track, "Bring Me the Disco King". After two years of recording in secret, Bowie returned to releasing music with 2013's The Next Day before making his actual Grand Finale in the form of 2016's ★, which released just two days before his death from cancer.
- In 2010, Judas Priest decided that it was time to retire and announced their farewell Epitaph World Tour. However, they stated both in press conferences and online that they will release at least one more studio album afterwards. And then, they decided not to retire after all and would continue touring.
- Queen's 1989 album The Miracle was made after Freddie Mercury's HIV/AIDS diagnosis, which he disclosed only to his family and bandmates. Since viable antiviral medications for HIV weren't available at the time, the virus was a functional death sentence, leading Freddie to record the album under the impression that it'd be his last with Queen. However, he was miraculously able to live long enough to record 1991's Innuendo, though only managed to record vocals for three songs on Made in Heaven before his passing in November 1991 (the rest were cobbled together from whatever the band had on-hand).
- After escalating Creative Differences, Yellow Magic Orchestra intended to wrap up their careers with their fifth album, Technodelic, with the closing track "Epilogue" in particular being intended as their Grand Finale. However, due to contractual obligations, they were only able to go on a hiatus at most, and put out two more albums— Naughty Boys and Service— before being allowed to split up in 1984. Even that didn't last, with them eventually reuniting to make Technodon in 1993 and a few non-album singles in the 2000s, continuing as an on-and-off live act until Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto's deaths in 2023.
- Eminem:
- Eminem intended Encore to be his final album thanks to a mix of burnout and drug addiction, featuring lyrics about settling scores, apologizing for his past bad behavior, and passing the torch to his protégés. The next year, he furthered this intention with Curtain Call: The Hits, a Greatest Hits Album whose new material took a Torch the Franchise and Run approach. However, after surviving a near-fatal overdose, he cleaned up, which allowed him to return to making music.
- Eminem's unreleased album King Mathers was intended to serve as an official retirement announcement. It is full of depressing songs about his fame and emotional torment following the murder of his best friend Proof. The penultimate track "It's Been Real" has him singing a simple tune about how he can't rap any more due to the stress, before shouting out the members of his team who helped him. He scrapped the album after his drug overdose and recovery gave him a new lease of life.
- The Marshall Mathers LP 2 gives this impression — the intro track pays off on a conflict set up in his songwriting masterpiece, and contains a verse about him being too old and stuck in a social milieu where he is outdated, and refers to the album as "the final chapter in the saga". The final track has him reiterating that he's a relic and comparing his situation to Ma$e's retirement. The gap between MMLP2 and the release of Eminem's 2017 album Revival was longer than the time he took off to deal with his drug addiction, and appeared to have been motivated by Eminem's disgust at the political situation.
- KMFDM's then aptly titled Adios was slated to be the group's final send-off due to mounting internal tensions, particularly with long-time members En Esch and Gunter Schulz, but two years later, Sascha K. reformed the group as MDFMK, who would shortly after revert to KMFDM.
- FM Attack's 2021 album The Never Ending was supposed to be Shawn Ward's final album under the moniker, but then he returned with new singles in 2022, followed by Cosmic in 2023.
Pro Wrestling
- The purchase of World Championship Wrestling by the then-World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) coincided with the cancelation of WCW Monday Nitro on TNT, so a great deal of rivalries and loose ends were tied up. Booker T reclaimed the WCW World Championship from Scott Steiner, Ric Flair and Sting, who squared off on the first ever edition back in 1995, book-ended the show with a main event match, and in a special simulcast, Shane Mcmahon appeared on Nitro to give the promotion a Ray Of Hope ending by announcing he had purchased the organization from underneath his father's nose. WCW would continue to be promoted on editions of WWF Monday Night RAW and Smackdown as part of the ill-fated 'Invasion' angle, before being granted a Fully Absorbed Finale at the November 2001 edition of Survivor Series, where in a Downer Ending, it was dissolved in a winner take all elimination match by the World Wrestling Federation, ending the storied rivalry between the organizations once and for all.
- The 2015 revival of Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling could have ended after a year with FMW For Whom the Glory is Final ~ FMW Disbands Immediately If it Doesn't Become a Full House Special. The turnout was apparently adequate, though, as it kept going.
- As it wasn't clear if Lucha Underground would get picked up for a second season, the first season ended with Femme Fatale Catrina, Wrestling Monster Mil Muertes, and Terrible Trio the Disciples of Death capturing most of the championships and taking control of the Temple, while Corrupt Corporate Executive Dario Cueto had to go on the run.
- Due to an aging talent 's tendency to 'never say never' in regards to comebacks in professional wresting, several high stake retirement matches over the years have been overturned by a talent's return to in-ring action
- Mick Foley intended to hang up his tights for good at the close of WWF No Way Out 2000 after losing a championship Hell In A Cell match to Triple H, he wound up returning to the ring the very next month and selected to compete for the championship again in the main event of Wrestlemania 16. After losing that match, Foley would enjoy a few years in retirement and serve as an on-air authority figure and guest official, before again coming out of retirement in 2004 to feud with Randy Orton. Foley would then spend more of the 2000s as a recurring in-ring competitor in both WWE and TNA Wrestling, securing a few more World titles along the way, before retiring for good in 2012.
- Due to his mounting injuries, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin intended to end his career with a bout against The Rock at Wrestlemania 19, with Austin putting Rock over. Austin would return shortly after and become a recurring authority figure. He eventually made a proper in-ring come back two decades later at Wrestlemania 38 against Kevin Owens, defeating Owens in a brawl.
- Wrestlemania XX was this for Brock Lesnar, who left WWE at the close of his bout against Goldberg to pursue a career in the NFL. After Lesnar was cut from the NFL, he put together an impressive combat resume in Ultimate Fighting and ultimately returned to the WWE in triumph, becoming a multiple time World and Universal champion with title runs that often lasted years.
- Wrestlemania 24 was this for Ric Flair, with Shawn Michaels defeating him in a career threatening match. While Flair would never wrestle for WWE again, he returned to active competition many more times in other promotions (usually to try and earn some money to pay off his increasing number of ex-wives)
- Wrestlemania 26's 'career vs streak' bout between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker was intended as Shawn's swang song, Michaels would lose the match and, per the stipulation, stepped away from the squared circle. Shawn was true to his word for well over eight years, before teaming with his lifelong best bud Triple H in 2018 to take on Undertaker and Kane at WWE's inaugural Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia. Shawn gave his all, but the match had so much miscommunication, blown spots, and real life injuries, that it went down on record as one of the worst matches in every one of those men's careers.
- The years 2017-2020 were this for The Undertaker as well, which was documented in the documentary series The Last Ride. His second ever defeat at Wrestlemania against Roman Reigns was the catalyst, as Undertaker was not satisfied with the match quality, leading to numerous comebacks, all with mixed levels of reception.
- Terry Funk had a lengthy record of retirement matches, some of them taking place on a big stage, and some held in backwater towns. Many of his rare WWF/WWE matches even took place after some of these matches.
- The First Blood match that headlined the1999 Fully Loaded PPV was billed as the The End of An Era and the climax of the rivalry between Steve Austin and Vince Mcmahon. The stipulation being that if The Undertaker could not defeat Austin, then Vince would be forced to leave the promotion. Austin won the match and Vince complied, only to return about a month or so later to feud with Triple H instead. The Austin/Mcmahon rivalry briefly restarted during the WCW/ECW invasion angle of 2001, but ultimately came to nothing and fizzled out. Nostalgic call backs to it would continue over the years, usually whenever Austin made a cameo in the company and gave Vince (or any of his family) a stunner.
Puppet Shows
- According to this Defunctland podcast, the final episode of Bear in the Big Blue House was going to be "And To All A Good Night", which had several signs of it being a finale, with the most notable being the scene where every character who ever appeared on the show sang the Goodbye Song together and having different closing credits than any other episode of the series. This was because the cast was not sure if the show would be renewed for a third season.
- A Show Within a Show example in Between the Lions; the author of the Cliff Hanger books decides to end his series with Cliff finally getting off the cliff and washing onto a beach because he has run out of ideas for his books. However, due to the lions helping him remember how to get ideas (as well as the fact that the helicopter singers from the books were bothering everyone), he soon starts the series back up with Cliff being washed off the beach and getting blasted back onto the cliff by a whale (presumably the same one that helped him get off).
Toys
- LEGO Ninjago was originally intended to end in the first half of 2013, with the sets' boxes even being labeled as "The Final Battle", not to mention that the storyline in the TV series was also wrapped up with a series finale depicting the events of said Final Battle. And then? LEGO releases this teaser image◊, signaling the toy series' comeback and the announcement of a season 3 for the TV series.
- BIONICLE was supposedly originally planned to only last for three years, hence why 2003 ended with the Big Bad Makuta seemingly defeated by Takanuva. In spite of this sense of finality, there's still The Reveal of Metru Nui and behind the scenes concept art that show that the twist of the Matoran Universe actually being within Mata Nui who is a giant robot was planned from the very beginning.
- The 2008 Karda Nui series gave closure to the main Series Goal set up back in 2001, bringing back the Toa Nuva and Takanuva and having them clash with the Brotherhood of Makuta. If comic and book writer Greg Farshtey is to be believed, at one point this was intended as a finale, with the last book even being titled The Final Battle, and the franchise would take a hard shift afterward. According to Farshtey, he played a part in convincing LEGO not to end the story and start a new one but to expand it, hence the arc ultimately ended on a Sudden Downer Ending that was followed by the retooled setting of Bara Magna in 2009. Though introduced as its own world and story seemingly unrelated to what came before, the cliffhanger from the original story would be woven into the Bara Magna plot-line by the end of that year.
- This eventually expanded even to the actual Grand Finale of the toyline, as the storyline continued in the form of online serials after the main story was wrapped up in the books, comic and online content... Said serials were ultimately Left Hanging.
Visual Novels
- Though the localizers realized the game wasn't gonna end with him too late, the Ace Attorney series originally had the phocus, sorry, FOCUS, on Phoenix Wright. By the time the third installment was brought to America for the Nintendo DS, however, a sequel was already in development. So however Phoenix's (and several supporting characters') story arcs came to a close, a bunch of them got a Happy Ending Override with Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Since then the Happy Ending Override itself got a an override, with two more sequels, two spin-offs, a crossover, and two prequels set in ye olden Victorian times.
- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony can come across as a finale towards the Danganronpa franchise as a whole, despite it existing in a separate continuity from the other installments, as the final chapter has Shuichi and co. ending the entire Danganronpa Show Within a Show. However, in 2025, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair was announced to be getting a remake that comes with an alternate scenario that is stated to be as long as the original Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (or possibly longer).
- Week 7 of Melody (2019) was supposed to be the final week of the story. However, as the story grew, it became the halfway point instead. However, some of the early elements for this planned finale were kept.
Web Animation
- Animator vs. Animation originally ended with the third episode, in which the Chosen One and the Dark Lord manage to destroy Alan's computer. A few years later, Alan launched a successful Kickstarter campaign for a fourth installment taking place on Alan's new computer, and that spawned numerous side stories where the sticks do things like explore the world of Minecraft, fight a personification of YouTube, etc. Even the proper sequels revealed that the sticks from the original three episodes had escaped from Alan's old computer (Victim via a rocket he built, and the Chosen One and the Dark Lord through Alan's internet router) and were living in a world beyond the internet since then.
- The season 1 finale of Battle for Dream Island, "Return of the Hang Glider", feels and looks like it was intended as the final episode of the series, with the Announcer leaving Earth, Firey and Leafy flying off to find a new Dream Island, all the recovery centers being destroyed, and the first and last words spoken in the show being the same. But then, season 2 was announced and the series, while going through many hiatuses, hasn't shown any signs of stopping anytime soon.
- DEATH BATTLE!'s hosts had to release a video soon after the Season 1 finale battle between Goku and Superman ended with the Earth being destroyed, letting fans know that there's going to be more Death Battle — this was just a Season Finale, not the Series Finale.
- Eddsworld's final Legacy episode "The End" was originally intended to be the series finale, as it was the last full-length eddisode produced with Thomas Ridgewell as showrunner. However, shortly after the release of "The End (Part 1)", Edd's mother Sue Gould revealed on twitter that she would be taking over as showrunner, which was later confirmed by Edd's sister Vicky Gould.
- Happy Tree Friends: The season 1 finale "Happy Trails: Part 1" was going to be the final episode of the series, but once Mondo Media requested additional episodes, this became the first part of a season-bridging two-parter that was concluded nearly a year later. The show went on to have four additional internet seasons and a TV series.
- Khonjin House parodies this. Every season ends with an episode titled "Finale," complete with a more extensive credits sequence, and the next season just picks up like normal. There are still few straight examples:
- The Season 5 finale puts an end to the plot threads concerning Pent and Smack that started in Season 3, but the show continued from there with the main cast's continuing antics in the Khonjin Takes a Break and later seasons.
- The Season 7 finale was titled "The End" instead of the usual "Finale" specifically to signify that the show is over. That didn't last, as the show got another season few years later.
- Muffin Films: The last short released in 2000 was "Muffinale", its Portmantitle a clear indication that it was originally intended as the end of the series. However, six more shorts were released a decade later and two Christmas shorts subsequently came out in 2011 and 2015 respectively.
- The end of each story arc of Red vs. Blue, especially Episode 100, which actually served as a Grand Finale when it was released. Notably, it had multiple endings thanks to the magic of the internet, and wrapped up the five seasons of the Blood Gulch Chronicles and could easily have ended the series. The endings of Season 8, 10 and 13 are all deliberately poignant and could serve as series finales.
- Sonic for Hire originally ended in 2013 after seven seasons. The series eventually got revived for an eighth season in 2019 after the rights to the show were given to Rooster Teeth following the abrupt shutdown of Machinima, where the series was originally uploaded at. And then around 2020, Lowbrow Studios, the actual creators of Sonic for Hire, got the rights to the show back and confirmed production of a ninth season.
- All three arcs in the SMG4 Cosmology Lore saga could debatably qualify as this.
- The YouTube Arc contains countless references to past videos, has series Big Bad SMG3 serve as the Arc Villain, reveals why SMG3 hates SMG4 and ends off with SMG3 seemingly getting mauled to death by an Ugandan Knuckles. Not only would this not be the finale (as SMG3 is quickly revealed to still be alive), but it’d merely be the start of a three part saga.
- The Genesis Arc explains SMG4’s backstory, introduces the show’s Greater-Scope Villain, contains references to multiple past videos throughout, and ultimately ends off with the very first major character death from the main cast, with Axol. The ending also has Zero seemingly killed and the Guardian Pods being hidden by SMG1 and SMG2 to avoid any more evil finding them and using them for their goals. And to top everything off, two episodes in the arc (The Beginning of the End (which admittedly was renamed to The Day HE Arrived) and The Final Piece) would both work for a Grand Finale. The arc however would end up not being the end, and barely even a month after, the story continued.
- The Revelations Arc ties up all the loose ends left behind by the Genesis Arc, explaining SMG0’s backstory, revealing where the Internet Graveyard came from, introducing more concepts built off of the Genesis Arc, and ultimately concluding with Niles dead, the God Box destroyed and Melony having finally mastered her Deity powers. On top of this, the finale for the arc is a 50 minute Big Damn Movie, which would perfectly work for a Grand Finale. However, the show would keep going, with another arc coming the exact same year.
- Translations Gone Wrong: The translation-gone-wrong for "I'll Fly" has a montage of previous translations and the words "The end", because Nevel the creator wouldn't have enough time on his hands to make more videos for a while... but when that while ended, he started making more translations.
- Evaporate: The 16th episode ends with Jacob waking up and the text saying “The End”, but only a few months later….
Webcomics
- Back when the Mega Man Sprite Comic was just a series of Filler Strips, Bob and George ended the sprite comic in September 2000 by having Dr. Wily kidnap the Author and kill him, paving the way for the intended real comic (a hand-drawn one) to be launched the following month. After more than a week of the hand-drawn comic, the Author felt it wasn't working out, so he abruptly brought the sprite comic back for good and had the storyline be about the title characters stuck in the Mega Man universe.
- While work had began on issue #11 already, issue #10 of Sonichu, finished in 2010, was clearly planned as a potential series finale, with the vast majority of the antagonists being conclusively defeated and ending with a final speech from the Author Avatar. After a 5-year Series Hiatus, work on issue #11 resumed, and new issues would be occasionally released over the following years.
Web Videos
- Break It to Make It: Episode 86 is marked as the "FINAL EPISODE" on the Vat19 channel. However, it is not actually the final episode. It's just the last one on the regular Vat 19 channel with all future episode airing on their new channel Vat9Team.
- Originally, Dream's "Minecraft Speedrunner VS 3 Hunters FINALE" and the rematch was going to be the final episode of the 1v3 Minecraft Manhunts. Two weeks after the rematch, however, due to popular demand, Dream released a grand finale that would be the end to all 1v3 Minecraft Manhunts.
- Dream SMP: The Disc War Finale and thus the end of the Disunion Era saw Dream stripped of his power, turned on by just about everyone on the server (except George and the Anarchists), and imprisoned in Pandora's Vault. The server celebrated the end of a tyrant, and everyone believed it was the end of the conflict (Tommy's stream was even titled the finale of the SMP). However, there are still several unresolved issues (the Anarchists and the Crimson Egg, among others), several unanswered questions (such as DreamXD and the End Portal), and that's not mentioning that Dream might not be down for good (as Wilbur's spirit warns Tommy that Dream is too dangerous to be left alive, not to mention that Dream still has his favor from Technoblade). It's fitting for the Season 2 finale, but there's clearly still more to come.
- Epic Rap Battles of History: "Nice Peter vs EpicLLOYD 2" had so much Reality Subtext and so many personal potshots between the two that fans became genuinely concerned that the two had grown disillusioned with their baby and were calling it quits with this season finale, not helped by the ending directly implying that working on the series was causing rifts in their friendship and the realization of that convinces them to take a break. Thankfully, the hiatus seems to be just that and ERB came back swinging about two years later.
- Jake and Amir had a multi-part Grand Finale when creators Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld left the website then known as CollegeHumor, since the site still owned the IP. When CollegeHumor dissolved and became Dropout, they bought the IP back and began making new Jake and Amir sketches under the branding of their new company, Headgum.
- Oddity Archive ended Series 3 with "The Death of Analog TV", which opened with Ben claiming that "higher ups in the geek community" had cancelled Oddity Archive and that the episode would be the series' last. He went all-in on the gimmick, even running the "final" analog TV-style sign-off at the end of the show. Of course, watching to the end of the credits would've allowed one to hear a snippet of a song lyric claiming "Goodbye doesn't mean forever"...and indeed, Series 4 of Oddity Archive premiered a little under a month later, with "Microbroadcasting". Even before that, Ben took to social media to assure his fans that the show was not, in fact, coming to an end.
- Phelous's Jacob's Ladder review, which sets up what seems to be Phelous's final death. His living room, usually covered in his toy collection slowly empties, and upon realizing he's pretty much gotten everyone he possibly can to cameo on his show already, he resorts to having his Real Life self cameo instead. By the end of the review, Phelous realizes that he's been dead since the Mac and Me review and exits his house, saying goodbye to his audience. Come the next review, Phelous comes back to life and continues to review things. Though, considering he no longer dies in his videos, the Jacob's Ladder review did serve as a finale of sorts.
- The Spoony Experiment nearly ended with the Final Fantasy VIII series. Noah was having camera issues, and was about to move out of his parents' house, and didn't know whether or not he'd be able to pick up where he left off so he killed off :"The Spoony One" leaving in a Sequel Hook by a Linkara cameo.
- To Boldly Flee was intended to be the end of The Nostalgia Critic, as Doug Walker felt he had exhausted any new ideas for the character. However, in "The Review Must Go On", it was announced that the Critic would be coming back due to Doug coming up with more ideas to do with the character. The show also underwent a slight Retool to aid in relieving production stress; reviews were scaled back from weekly to bi-weekly, with editorials from the Critic filling the gaps. note
- Video Game Legends by Brainfreezerrr Studios was supposed to end in January 2014 with its 14th episode. There was even an in-episode montage of the series up to that point. Cue 'Reunion' not even five months later.
- Zigzagged with Episode 60 of Dragon Ball Z Abridged. While it did seem like a finale, a teaser was present at the end for Season 4. However, the prospective fourth season wound up being cancelled due to creative fatigue and the belief that Episode 60 made an excellent Grand Finale. However, then came the spin-off show HFIL, an original plot that follows right after Episode 60, starring the now-dead Perfect Cell suffering punishment in Hell with the series' other villains.
