History Main / WrittenInAbsence

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'': The Hudson Hornet [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim Memorial Piston Cup]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Look Before You Sleep" (which only has three main characters to begin with) showed Twilight Sparkle explaining that Spike is away in Canterlot.

* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Dr. Crusher's absence (throughout season two) was explained as being "transferred to head Starfleet Medical". In real life, the actor's complaints about the writing had led to a falling out with the showrunner, and instead, season two returned with a different approach in Dr. Pulaski. This didn't work out, and there was pressure to bring Crusher back, so she returned in season three, where she remained for the rest of the run. No explanation was given for where Pulaski went.

*** In "The Offspring", Commander Riker is mentioned to be "away on leave" early on due to Johnathan Frakes directing. Riker later appears in a scene that plays his being away and not aware of the plot happening for comedy.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'', "Maddie and Marcy"

* On ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', the writers pulled out all the stops to justify Andy's absence in season 6 while Creator/ChrisPratt was filming ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' - the entire show took a two-episode trip to England (where ''Guardians'' was filmed) and left Andy behind.

** In the episode "Bubble Buddy", to justify why SpongeBob has to create Bubble Buddy instead of just playing with Patrick or Sandy, the former is out getting more giant paper while the latter went south for the winter.
** In the episode "Choir Boys", SpongeBob mentions when he first appears that Patrick is at a family reunion.

->'''Sprig:''' Do you ever think it's weird when the main characters aren't in an episode--\\

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' did a good job [[HideYourPregnancy hiding Alyson Hannigan's pregnancy]] during season 4, but had to cover her absence in episodes 20-23. In the ColdOpening to episode 20, Barney tells her a dirty joke. She's so offended she doesn't return for three weeks, the end of episode 23, having finally got over the joke. In case you're interested, [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] says the joke is as follows; "What's the difference between peanut butter & jam? [[spoiler: I can't 'peanut butter' my dick down your throat.]]"

* Partly avoided in the second ''Film/AustinPowers'' film, where we actually ''see'' the departure of Austin's wife (Liz Hurley, who gets an opening credit mention despite [[spoiler:exploding]] before the opening credits) and are told [[spoiler:she was a RidiculouslyHumanRobots all along]].

* ''The Klumps'', sequel to ''Film/TheNuttyProfessor1996'': This one has a lab hand talking about Sherman Klump's (Creator/EddieMurphy) previous partner/love interest (Creator/JadaPinkett) transferring to another university. Music/JanetJackson serves as a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute for Jada as his new partner/love interest.

*** Neither Odin nor any of the other Asgardians save for [[Comicbook/TheMightyThor Thor]] appear, and Loki explains why; the Bifrost Bridge had been destroyed at the close of ''Film/{{Thor}}'', and Odin had to expend a dangerous amount of dark energy just to send Thor back to Earth.
*** Comicbook/WarMachine from ''Film/IronMan'' was absent as well, but no explanation was given. [[AllThereInTheManual The prequel comic]] to ''Film/IronMan3'' finally cleared this up by stating that he was busy fighting terrorists in China during the events of ''The Avengers''.

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

* ''Film/MenInBlackII'': Jay (Creator/WillSmith) and his boss (Rip Torn) are talking about how Jay is burning through partners really fast. Somewhere in there, Jay says "You can't count L. She wanted to go back to the morgue." L, played by Creator/LindaFiorentino, had been first shown as a morgue worker, then shown as Jay's partner at the end of the first movie, and then carried over to the [[WesternAnimation/MenInBlack Animated Series]]. The given reason for Laurel being written off was Linda Fiorentino apparently being an insanely difficult actress to work with.

* ''Film/{{Supergirl|1984}}'': The producers couldn't get Creator/ChristopherReeve to make a cameo appearance, so the movie includes a radio news report that ComicBook/{{Superman}} has just left Earth on an intergalactic peacekeeping mission. Reeve's Superman ''does'' briefly appear once in the movie (sort of), as a poster in Lucy Lane's dorm room.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' actor Iain De Caestecker was involved during the filming of the first few episodes of Season 5. The writers worked with this by [[spoiler:having his character, Leo Fitz, left behind when the rest of the team is sent forward in time to fix a BadFuture, then going after them later when he's informed they'll run into trouble with the ArcVillain.]] De Caestecker's filming schedule conflicted with the show's again during the majority of (the admittedly shorter) Season 7, [[spoiler:which resulted in his character needing to stay behind on a TimeTravel mission to provide a [[AlternateTimeline link between timelines]] to get the rest of the team back home in the last few episodes. His absence is actually [[PresentAbsence a plot point]] for much of the season, and his partner Jemma Simmons even has a brain implant to suppress her memory of his location in case the enemies try to coerce it from her.]]

* In the ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "[[{{Recap/AngelS05E08Destiny}} Destiny]]" (season 5), Angel and Spike have a conversation in the teaser where Spike's asking for an office and asks if he can just take Wesley's because Wesley's gone. Angel retorts that he's not gone, he's taking a leave of absence, which was given the in-universe justification that he had thought he had killed his father in the previous ep "[[{{Recap/AngelS05E07Lineage}} Lineage]]". In real life, Wesley's actor Alexis Denisof was having his wedding with Creator/AlysonHannigan.

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

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' episode "Hunting Palismen", Amity is notably absent from Palisman Pairing Day, something Luz brings up to Willow. When informed that Amity is staying home for the day, she notes that it makes sense [[spoiler:since Amity is probably avoiding her out of embarrassment for kissing her at the end of the previous episode.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' episode "Lightspeed", the titular heroes are nowhere to be seen. The replacement squad, Titans East, had "Returned to Steel City" so the villainous H.I.V.E. five thought they could have free run of the city. A hero does show up later, but he's apparently not affiliated with the Titans (yet).

* Many episodes of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' won't feature the full team. Since there's a lot of superheroic antics going on outside of what we see in the main plot, the reasons given for whatever member's absence, if any, vary.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}''

* ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'' is a special case, with a character's InUniverse absence from a place that's used to write the absence of another in. Lois Lane doesn't go back to work at the Daily Planet following the death of Superman, so no scene takes place there. This is because Creator/LaurenceFishburne was not available to reprise the role of DaEditor Perry White from ''Film/ManOfSteel'' and ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''.

* In a non-temporary example, perhaps the weirdest subversion of this in the history of ''ever'' came in the third season of ''Series/DueSouth''. When David Marciano left the show, his character, Ray Vecchio, was actually recast with a replacement character who, apparently, shared the same name. His replacement was actually Stanley Raymond Kowalski, an undercover cop pretending to be Vecchio, while they explained that the real Vecchio was undercover elsewhere. (If you can think of a weirder way to explain in-story why an actor is gone, I would be very interested to hear it.)

* ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'': ComicBook/BlackWidow is often missing due to her work with ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}, while [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk the Hulk]] is sometimes implied to be off with his ''[[WesternAnimation/HulkAndTheAgentsOfSMASH other]]'' team.

A few of these are justified in that the actor died in the interim (and some are categorized in TheCharacterDiedWithHim). Also compare NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp, where the character isn't there because they aren't important to the plot.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' had a good number of instances of this in its KTMA season, but seeing as Joel and the 'bots can't leave the Satellite this resulted in such bizarre episode plots as Crow being frozen and decorated as a Christmas tree and Joel being locked out of the ship stark naked--although sometimes [[AbsenteeActor it wasn't explained at all]]. In the season, Trace Beaulieu (Crow/Dr. Forrester) was absent three times and Joel Hodgson was absent once.

** Parodied in "[[Recap/StargateSG1S10E6200 200]]" - when one of the leads for ''[[WhoWouldWantToWatchUs Wormhole Extreme]]'' looks like he could be an AbsenteeActor, the SG-1 crew suggests they write his character as turning invisible - and use fake flashbacks of this happening to [[CommutingOnABus O'Neill]] to set the precedent.

* The first ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' Sound Stage has a scene where Nanoha decideds to visit her family's bakery when work ends up bringing her to her home city. Her older brother Kyouya is the only one who is absent, with it being explained that he's currently in Germany with his girlfriend.

* Partly avoided in the second ''Film/AustinPowers'' film, where we actually ''see'' the departure of Austin's wife (Liz Hurley, who gets an opening credit mention despite [[spoiler:exploding]] before the opening credits) and are told [[spoiler:she was a robot all along]].

* Tank of ''Film/TheMatrix'' was said to have died between it and ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'' (by Tank's sister, Zee, who said she lost two brothers on the Nebuchadnezzar) after Marcus Chong's salary demands and conflicts with the Wachowski siblings led to him being fired.

* ''Film/Supergirl1984'': The producers couldn't get Creator/ChristopherReeve to make a cameo appearance, so the movie includes a radio news report that ComicBook/{{Superman}} has just left Earth on an intergalactic peacekeeping mission. Reeve's Superman ''does'' briefly appear once in the movie (sort of), as a poster in Lucy Lane's dorm room.

* ''VideoGame/DisneysHadesChallenge'' has Hercules busy fighting giants, so it's up to you to help Phil and prove your worth.