History Main / LeftHanging

* The 1990's cartoon ''MummiesAlive'' ended with one of the minor characters (who'd been searching for proof of there existance) listening to fellow believers on his own radio show in what boils down into an exteneded ClipShow. The series was supposed to be picked up for another season, but this fell threw do to low ratings.

* Serial mystery novel ''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'' was Left Hanging by AuthorExistenceFailure when Creator/CharlesDickens died

* ''WesternAnimation/ZorroGenerationZ'' ends on the [[BigBad corrupt mayor]] losing his reelection campaign to a much more competent crime boss who also coopted most of his former henchmen in the process. Because a second season never happened, the increased threat to the city and our hero was never resolved. Although strangely, the intro sequence that ''was'' made for the second season looks as if they would've gone back on this, showing the former villain several times.

* ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' ended with two [[SequelHook Sequel Hooks]] in TheStinger. One revealed that {{Deadpool}} was still alive, and the other had an ominous scene showing Logan in Japan. It's been confirmed that the next movie, ''Film/TheWolverine'', takes place decades later and ignores both of those bits.

* The ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'' episode "Harm" was rather bad with this. The detectives find that a woman may have been raped and murdered for helping refugees. They interview the widow of a man she helped, who claims her husband was murdered as well. They eventually book a doctor-slash-TortureTechnician for the latter crime, but at her trial, one of the jurors faints, a mistrial is called, and the doctor's fate is left ambiguous. It appears to have been intended to make you "think" about liberty vs. security and all that jazz, were it not for two facts: first, the doctor is portrayed as an entirely negative character, and second, the plot of the initial murder is just dropped.

** [[ClosingCredits "Executive Producer Dick Wolf"]] are often claimed to be the most frustrating words in the English language, due to the many episodes of LawAndOrder, and the spin offs, that end without enough resolution or sometimes any resolution at all!

!!Examples:

* The animated ''WesternAnimation/TheLordOfTheRings'' notoriously ended halfway through with no warning.
** There was supposed to a second movie to wrap things up, but it never got off the ground.
*** ''WesternAnimation/TheReturnOfTheKing'' was produced a few years later by Rankin and Bass, the company who made the animated version of ''WesternAnimation/TheHobbit''.

!Examples:

* The animated ''WesternAnimation/TheLordOfTheRings'' notoriously ended halfway through with no warning. There was supposed to a second movie to wrap things up, but it never got off the ground. ''WesternAnimation/TheReturnOfTheKing'' was produced a few years later by Rankin and Bass, the company who made the animated version of ''WesternAnimation/TheHobbit''.

!!Examples:

[[folder:Films]]
* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'': After Polly the reporter takes a photo of Joe, aka Sky Captain, he says that she left the lens cap on her camera, and her looks of joy turned into a big, big sad stare, and cut to black. Whatever happened to the falling animals, the city and their worries about the evil doctor that sent his robots, the people they rescued, and other stuff, is left to wonder.

* ''Disney/TheLionKing'': Although an interlude in ''Hakuna Matata'' explains why Pumbaa became an outcast, nothing is said about Timon's past even though you'd expect there to be a pretty good reason for a meerkat to live outside a colony.
** In a [[DeletedScene deleted (and so subsequently never-animated) verse]] from ''Hakuna Matata'', it was shown that Timon was kicked out of the colony for being lazy. This was [[RetCon retconned]] in ''The Lion King 1½'', in which Timon leaves the colony after feeling like an outcast.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'' has an unfortunate tendency to simply abandon important secondary characters and leave their fates hanging; examples include Rick from season 1; Miguel, and Lynne Kresge from season 2; Andrew Paige and (quite egregiously) Behrooz Araz in season 4; and former President(!) Charles Logan in season 6.

* The animated ''WesternAnimation/TheLordOfTheRings'' notoriously ended halfway through with no warning.
** There was supposed to a second movie to wrap things up, but it never got off the ground.
*** ''WesternAnimation/TheReturnOfTheKing'' was produced a few years later by Rankin and Bass, the company who made the animated version of ''WesternAnimation/TheHobbit''.

* The ''SilverSurfer'' cartoon [[ShortRunners ended with thirteen episodes]], because [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Marvel went bankrupt]]. Episode 13 featured Thanatos ''destroying all of the cosmos''. The second season was meant to fix this.

* ''ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' never officially explains what the Sugar Bowl secret is, they never explain who actually burned down the Baudelaire mansion... In fact, the series ends with a note that basically says, RealLife is full of mysteries. Get over it.

-->-- '''NeonGenesis''', Shinji

* The ''SymBionicTitan'' series was cancelled before any plot points could be resolved. Some people say the cancellation was due to lack of toy sales.

* ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternTheAnimatedSeries'' ends with Aya coming to her senses when she accidentally hurts Razer, then reversing her attempt to rewrite the universe and destroying the remaining Manhunter army with a virus that also affects herself, then she disappears into the aether. At the end Razer is convinced that she's still out there somewhere in space and goes off to find her, his hope for doing so causing a Blue Lantern ring to follows him.

* ''VideoGame/BloodStone'' ends with a TomatoSurprise that could been resolved in a new game, also the credits start with James Bond will return... But we know Bizarre is done for good and the next Bond game won't follow this one. You could however stretch things up and pretend somehow that Skyfall's villain was TheManBehindTheMan.

* The ''SilverSurfer'' cartoon [[TooGoodToLast ended with thirteen episodes]], because [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Marvel went bankrupt]]. Episode 13 featured Thanatos ''destroying all of the cosmos''. The second season was meant to fix this.

* Due to [[TooGoodToLast being canceled by the second season]], ''PushingDaisies'' left a lot of stuff hanging, in spite of its sweet finale. Alfredo and Oscar were PutOnABus by the end of the first season, and no one will ever find out where is [[spoiler: Charles Charles]] or what the deal with [[spoiler: Ned's father]] was.

** However there is a upcoming Avatar comic called [[AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSearch ''The Search'']] that revolves around answering that question.

** However there is a upcoming Avatar comic called the Search that revolves around answering that question.

* ''TheLionKing'': Although an interlude in ''Hakuna Matata'' explains why Pumbaa became an outcast, nothing is said about Timon's past even though you'd expect there to be a pretty good reason for a meerkat to live outside a colony.

* ''TheBrothersKaramazov'', on any number of plot points. [[spoiler:Dmitri is still wrongfully in jail, convicted of a crime he didn't commit. Ivan is still suffering from insanity. The fate of Ilyusha's family is uncertain. Alyosha's fate is uncertain.]] We've all [[AnAesop learned a lesson,]] though, so they don't need to be cleared up for us.

* ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' has lain dormant since 2003's ''Defiance'', with the Pillars of Nosgoth still destroyed and the future of the world uncertain. Crystal Dynamics' shift to the ''TombRaider'' series, the series' creator's move to Naughty Dog, and the [[AuthorExistenceFailure death of Tony Jay]] make the chances of a resolution appear unlikely.

* The original TV ending for ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' didn't resolve much, and in fact the English edition has a hilarious Easter Egg where Spike Spencer, the English voice actor for Shinji, complained (in-character) about the sheer number of dangling plot threads that were never addressed. Many of these ended up being answered in TheMovie finale, ''EndOfEvangelion''.