Some of the best TV shows of all time only leave fans wanting more; many series finales are difficult for viewers to accept, acknowledging that it will be the last time they see their favorite characters or the world of the show that they have grown to love. However, for larger TV franchises, finding the end of multiple storylines can prove a challenge, with many loose threads left up for interpretation or forgotten altogether.
To remedy this, many such shows have simply chosen to continue the story, creating sequels that follow the same characters after the end of their original series, or branching out into spin-offs around certain lead and supporting characters. While some of these spin-off shows are canceled after just a few seasons, they extend the lifetime of their characters and plot lines so that viewers can get more context about the series’ setting.
10The Walking Dead: “Rest In Peace”
Continued With The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live & The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
The Walking Dead is arguably the most successful and recognizable zombie franchise in entertainment history. The 12-year flagship series follows Sheriff Rick Grimes who leads a group of surviving humans through a world ravaged by a zombie apocalypse and violent human gangs. Much was unfinished as of the series finale of The Walking Dead, with several lead characters missing, or on their way to a new journey, after having defeated Pamela Milton and the Commonwealth.
Show Name
Years
The Walking Dead
2010-2022
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
2023-Present
The Walking Dead: Dead City
2023-Present
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
2024-Present
This was the perfect opportunity for creators to extend the franchise by announcing two spin-off shows that had already been in the works by the finale, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Effectively, the open ending of The Walking Dead is somewhat resolved. In The Ones Who Live, Michonne and Rick get their romantic reunion at long last. Meanwhile, in Daryl Dixon, more is learned about the post-apocalyptic world abroad, as Daryl explores France and the human society that remains.
9Star Trek: The Next Generation: “All Good Things”
Continued With Star Trek: Generations
The Star Trek franchise is one of the longest-running sci-fi franchises to date. Set after the events of the original series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, follows the new generation of officers in Starfleet. However, William Shatner’s Captain Kirk has been replaced by Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard, 100 years later. The revived franchise ended up doing well with its younger audience, and ended in 1994 with its famous finale: “All Good Things.”
In the finale, many side plots were left unresolved among the supporting cast, largely focusing on Picard’s ability to predict a possible future for Starfleet. This is something explored in the following Generations films that same year. Past and present collide in this sequel, which connects the larger franchise together when two Star Trek captains meet. In this film, Captain Kirk makes a return, helping the crew fight a common enemy who attempts to destroy a planetary system.
8WandaVision: “The Series Finale”
Continued With Agatha All Along
WandaVision, starring Elizabeth Olson as Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. “The Scarlet Witch”, follows her misadventures after the events of Avengers: Endgame, as she enchants a suburban town into her perfect reality to reunite with her long-lost lover. However, Wanda instead learns more about her powers as a witch, encountering Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness along the way. The end of Wandavision may have seen Agatha lose her powers temporarily to an angered Scarlet Witch, but this is just the beginning for the famous anti-hero.
In fact, Marvel already knew it wanted to continue Agatha’s storyline with a series, by the end of WandaVision. This year, they released the new series, Agatha All Along, which chronicles Agatha’s journey to regaining her powers, by traveling along the “Witches’ Road” with the help of a mysterious teenage boy. The Disney+ show not only explores more about Agatha’s past but also the fate of Wanda’s son, Billy Maximoff (Joe Locke), who makes his MCU return.
7Young Sheldon: “Memoir”
Continued With Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage
Young Sheldon is another popular spin-off that made a name for itself separate from its source material, The Big Bang Theory. This series examines the young life of Sheldon Cooper, as he grows up while also navigating challenges as a genius child. Young Sheldon introduced viewers to members of Sheldon’s lovable family, and fans took a particular interest in George Cooper Jr., Sheldon’s playboy older brother, who unexpectedly finds himself in the position of becoming a young father.
This year, in the aftermath of George Sr.’s passing in Young Sheldon‘s finale, the universe continued in the new series, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage. This sitcom follows George and his wife as they navigate love, loss, and parenting as a young couple. Of course, familiar characters from Young Sheldon make appearances throughout the first season. There is also now news of another Big Bang Theory spinoff in development.
6Friends: “The Last One”
Continued With The Joey Show
Few sitcoms are as well-loved as Friends, the decade-long series about the lives of six New Yorkers in their 20s and 30s, who navigate love, friendship, career, and adulthood in the big city. Most of the characters in Friends were given happy endings, such as Ross and Rachel getting back together, Monica and Chandler’s adopting two children, and Phoebe’s marriage to Mike. Unfortunately for Joey, he doesn’t end up with anyone and has an unclear ending.
This was done on purpose because the writers had already planned to create a sitcom spin-off for Matt LeBlanc’s character after the events of Friends, known as The Joey Show. The short-lived series follows Joey as he moves to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film acting, where he faces a series of hilarious challenges as a working actor. Unfortunately, this sitcom only lasted one season, lacking comedic appeal and popularity without the ensemble support of the original Friends cast.
5Black-ish: “Homegoing”
Continued With Grown-ish
Black-ish also led to a spin-off centering around one of its main ensemble members. This popular sitcom follows the Johnson family, an upper-class Black family living in a predominantly white community. When Dre begins to worry that his family is losing connection to their roots, he hilariously attempts to remedy the situation. The show ends on a happy but bittersweet note, as the Johnsons decide to move out of the family home and into a new neighborhood for a change of scene as their kids slowly grow up and move away.
However, a new show had already begun by Black-ish‘s finale episode, following the daughter Zoey as she heads off to college. Grown-ish premiered in 2018, and since then has had a successful few seasons showing the excitement, drama, and chaos of college life for the over-achieving Zoey. In this sequel series’ conclusion, which ended a year after Black-ish, Zoey has grown into young adulthood and come out of her academia-focused shell.
4The Fosters: “Where The Heart Is”
Continued With Good Trouble
The Fosters also follows a family as it grows, changes, and experiences challenges collectively through the years. In this drama, Maia Mitchell delivers a strong performance as foster teen Callie Jacob, who is placed in a lesbian couple’s home while they are also fostering and adopting several other children. In The Fosters, Callie and her blended family learn to accept and support one another while also dealing with past traumas and differences in background.
In 2018, the hit show ended with several of the foster kids graduating from high school, and Callie getting accepted into UCSD for law school. Though most of the family gets a happy ending, several of the foster children’s fates are yet to be seen. It didn’t take long for the creators to make Good Trouble. Good Trouble takes place a few years after The Fosters, as Callie and Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) live in a Downtown LA community living space and deal with their new careers in law and tech.
3The Vampire Diaries: “I Was Feeling Epic”
Continued With The Originals & Legacies
The Vampire Diaries stands out as a YA drama, following a human teenager Elena Gilbert, who lives in the small town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. However, things become complicated for Elena when she finds herself involved with two vampire brothers who pose a threat to the town. After a dramatic few seasons, Elena’s story ends on a bittersweet note; she ends up with Damon and becomes human again after having been turned into a vampire earlier while mourning the loss of Stefan with his brother.
The Originals ended in 2018, a year after The Vampire Diaries. However, the story extended from here, with Legacies premiering in 2018 and following the adolescence of Klaus’s daughter, Hope Mikaelson, after the events of The Originals.
The rest of the team reunites in the afterlife, and all are at peace. Unfortunately for vampire hybrid Klaus, his story is left in the air. However, midway through The Vampire Diaries, Klaus leaves the series to continue his arc in The Originals. The spin-off show not only re-introduces fans to Klaus and his family, the oldest vampires in the world who have just moved back to New Orleans, but also provides more context about the origins of vampires over the centuries.
2Pretty Little Liars: “Til DeAth Do Us PArt”
Continued With Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists
Few teen dramas have been as explosive as Pretty Little Liars, the murder mystery program about a group of four high school girls who must work together to discover the identity of a mysterious enemy who threatens them when the leader of their friend group is found dead after going missing. The dramatic mid-season 6finale of Pretty Little Liars (again) revealed the identity of “A”, the sister of Alison DiLaurentis, known as CeCe. Cece is apprehended for her crimes against the girls, and everyone seems to be happy.
However, after the series’ time jump, which had the girls confront another mysterious blackmailer, the leads get married, start families, and launch successful careers. Surprisingly, this is still not the end of the story, and in 2019, Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists premiered. The Perfectionists was quickly canceled; it starred Sasha Pieterse as Alison and Janel Parish as Mona Vanderwaal, who become teachers at a university plagued with a similar set of tragedies and mysteries.
1Breaking Bad: “Felina”
Continued With El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
Breaking Bad is remembered as one of the best television dramas ever. The crime drama stars Bryan Cranston as Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who begins cooking and selling methamphetamine to make ends meet after a cancer diagnosis. The dangerous industry prompts the main character’s villainous arc, although Walter White was arguably always evil. The finale of Breaking Bad is not a happy one, but it is executed masterfully.
After having caused his brother-in-law’s death and broken up his family, Walt dies before he can be captured. With many complex storylines unfinished, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, was written to tell the story of Jesse Pinkerman’s (Aaron Paul) life in the Breaking Bad universe after his former business partner’s death in the finale. The film premiered in 2019, and answered many questions about the fate of Jesse, who is given a kind of happy ending after choosing to leave his life of crime in the past and start anew.
