24 Actors Who Didn’t Return for Their TV Show’s Revival
TV revivals have always been pretty polarizing, but there’s one thing every fan can agree on: If you’re going to bring a show back to life, you’d better do it with as many of the original actors as possible!
Unfortunately, as we’ve seen far too many times, that is easier said than done.
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From behind-the-scenes disputes to professional retirements, there are plenty of reasons why a performer might choose not to reprise a role years (or even decades) later. To that end, TVLine is taking stock of many times a series vet was MIA in its revival. (We’re also updating this round-up by subtracting, now that Sex and the City vet Kim Cattrall has literally phoned in a visit to And Just Like That….)
As always, this list comes with a big ol’ SPOILER ALERT. We’re going to be looking back at a pretty eclectic mix of revivals, from Girl Meets World to Criminal Minds, so you’d better be all caught up. Or just not care. Either one works for us!
Two notes: For this list, we did not include actors who died prior to their show’s revival (because that would be messed up), nor did we include reunion movies.
Which of these shows suffered from a missing star? And which would you add to our list? Drop a comment with your thoughts below.
Matthew Gray Gubler and Daniel Henney, Criminal Minds: Evolution
Criminal Minds got (most of) the gang back together when its Evolution-themed revival debuted in November 2022.
Paget Brewster (as Emily), Joe Mantegna (David), A.J. Cook (JJ), Kirsten Vangsness (Penelope), Aisha Tyler (Tara) and Adam Rodriguez (Luke) all appeared in both seasons of the Paramount+ revival. Unfortunately, original cast member Matthew Gray Gubler and Season 13 addition Daniel Henney have thus far been MIA, with Special Agents Spencer Reid and Matt Simmons away “on assignment.” (As showrunner Erica Messer has noted, the first two Evolution seasons covered only about eight weeks.)
James Remar, Dexter: New Blood
The November 2021 follow-up to Showtime’s original, eight-season Dexter drama picked up 10 years later and relocated the action from Miami, Fla. to the fictional Iron Lake, N.Y. — so it was understandable that much of the OG cast/Miami Metro PD characters didn’t come along for the ride. One Dark Passenger was conspicuously absent, however: Dexter’s late father Harry, who on the regular served as the devil on the serial killer’s shoulder.
For New Blood, “We weren’t going to do the same thing with James Remar.” Instead, “We had a great opportunity to do it with Deb (played again by Jennifer Carpenter),” showrunner Clyde Phillips explained on THR’s TV’s Top 5 podcast.
Said Remar himself in a May 2021 video to a fan, “[T]hey just didn’t ask any of the original cast back and so I don’t know what they’re doing. I really have no idea. It’s too bad.”
David Hyde Pierce and Jane Leeves, Frasier
As Paramount+’s Kelsey Grammer-led Frasier revival heads into its second season this fall, brother Niles continues to be a no-show.
Original cast member Peri Gilpin guest-starred as Roz Doyle in Season 1 and will be back as a series regular for Season 2. (John Mahoney, who played Frasier and Niles’ father, passed away in 2018.) Season 2 will also feature appearances by Harriet Sansom Harris (as unscrupulous agent Bebe Glazer) and Dan Butler and Edward Hibbert (as Bob “Bulldog” Briscoe and Gil Chesterton). And Bebe Neuwirth already has popped up once as Frasier’s ex-wife Dr. Lilith Sternin.
Pierce, though, has been in no rush to join something that, he argues, doesn’t need him.
“It’s not like I said, ‘Oh, I don’t ever want to do that again,’” the Frasier alum told the Los Angeles Times in December 2023. “It was that I wanted to do other things. And when we got into real talks about the reboot, I had just started on [Max’s] Julia TV show and was working on a musical and going to do another musical… And I also thought, ‘They don’t actually need me.’ Frasier has moved on to a new world [in Boston]. They have new characters. And I think I’m right…. [T]he new people they have are great.”
Niles’ continued absence, even with his and Daphne’s grown son David on hand in the revival (played. y Anders Keith), would seem to preclude a visit from leading lady Jane Leeves’ Daphne herself.
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Fuller House
As the only member of the Tanner family M.I.A. from Netflix’s Fuller House, Michelle’s conspicuous absence became a running joke throughout all five seasons of the Full House revival. It was mentioned in the pilot that Michelle was “busy in New York running her fashion empire,” a not-so-subtle nod to the Olsen twins.
“Personally, I’ve given up asking them,” series creator Jeff Franklin told TVLine after the show’s second season. “The door is open, but I’m not going to be calling them anymore to invite them. They just don’t seem interested in coming. It’s been three years of invitations, so they know the door is open. It’s up to them to decide if they want to come play or not.”
Fuller House ended its 75-episode run on June 2, 2020, and the Olsens never came to play — though they did partake in a May 2024 cast reunion to mark the late Bob Saget’s birthday.
Maitland Ward, Girl Meets World
Facts are facts: If a character so much as breathed on-screen during Boy Meets World‘s initial run, there was a good chance they were brought back — or at least invited back — to appear on Disney Channel’s follow-up series.
From extended members of the Matthews family to once-fearsome high school bullies, all seemed welcome on Girl Meets World. Heck, the show even bent the rules of time and space to feature both Morgans in the same scene. Sorcery!
This made it even more conspicuous when beloved BMW characters like Rachel (played by Maitland Ward) were left out of the reunion. And we can’t possibly imagine why Ward wasn’t invited to appear on a Disney Channel series. (Perhaps she’ll write about in her upcoming memoir My Escape From Hollywood: Why I Left to Become a Porn Star?)
Jennette McCurdy, iCarly
As the title character’s bitingly sarcastic bestie, McCurdy’s work on iCarly was instrumental in the Nickelodeon comedy’s six-season success — so it came as quite a shock when the actress confirmed that she wouldn’t be returning for the show’s Paramount+ revival.
McCurdy revealed in March that she quit acting “a few years ago to try my hand at writing and directing,” explaining that she never really wanted to act as a child. She now says, “I’m so ashamed of the parts I’ve done in the past. I resent my career in a lot of ways. I feel so unfulfilled by the roles that I played and felt like it was the most cheesy, embarrassing… My friends at 15, they’re not like, ‘Oh, cool, you’re on this Nickelodeon show.’ It was embarrassing.”
Sam has been mentioned several times throughout the revival’s first season, beginning with the explanation behind her absence in the premiere. “I don’t need a partner, I need Sam,” Carly told Freddie. “But she’s off following her bliss with that biker gang.”
Multiple actors, Law & Order
When NBC dusted off the original Law & Order for a February 2022 revival, franchise vet Sam Waterston returned as fan-favorite DA Jack McCoy, while Anthony Anderson reprised his role as Det. Kevin Bernard.
But of the other series regulars on hand for the original run’s “final” season in 2009-10, S. Epatha Merkerson (who played Lt. Anita Van Buren), Alana de la Garza (ADA Connie Rubirosa) and Jeremy Sisto (Det. Cyrus Lupo) all have been busy starring on other Dick Wolf series — NBC’s Chicago Med and CBS’ FBI. Linus Roache (EADA Michael Cutter), meanwhile, has kept busy with roles on The Recruit, Fellow Travelers and Billy the Kid.
Richard Moll, Night Court
The sad, sad truth is that at the time that NBC greenlit its Night Court revival in September 2021, the only surviving main cast members from the original 1984-92 series were John Larroquette, Marsha Warfield and Richard Moll.
Larroquette headlines the revival as prosecutor-turned-public defender Dan Fielding, and Warfield has guest-starred in a few episodes thus far as former bailiff Roz Russell. Moll, alas, passed away in October 2023, before he could put in a cameo as Aristotle Nostradamus “Bull” Shannon, the onetime bailiff who was abducted by aliens in the series finale — not that Moll was necessarily open to the idea.
Moll told TMZ back in 2013 that, if a Night Court revival were ever to come to fruition, he’d “run in the other direction.” He then explained (sans details), “I love show business; it’s the people in it I can’t stand.”
William Fichtner, Prison Break
On-screen bros Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell, as well as Sarah Wayne Callies, Amaury Nolasco, Paul Adelstein, Robert Knepper and Rockmond Dunbar, all reprised their roles from the original Fox thriller for Season 5, which premiered in April 2017 and picked up seven years after the “death” of Miller’s Michael Scofield.
In fact, arguably the revival’s only conspicuous absence was that of Alex Mahone, the onetime FBI agent who dogged the Fox River 8 back in Season 2 and stuck around through the original series finale (and the Final Break made-for-DVD movie that teed up Michael’s “death”).
“[Prison Break creator] Paul [Scheuring] loves Bill Fichtner and I love Bill Fichtner,” co-star Knepper explained at the July 2016 San Diego Comic-Con. “He’s a brilliant actor. But Paul honestly said to me, ‘I don’t know what to do with that character.’ He didn’t want to just bring everybody back, so that the audience goes, ‘Oh, look, it’s Bill Fichtner again!’”
Dustin Diamond and Dennis Haskins, Saved by the Bell
Of the original series’ main cast members, Dustin Diamond (aka Screech) was the only former Bayside High School student not asked to make an appearance in the Saved by the Bell revival, which premiered in November 2020. (Though she isn’t pictured above, Lark Voorhies as Lisa appeared in multiple Season 1 and 2 episodes.)
It was explained in the revival’s Season 1 reunion episode that Screech and his robot Kevin are now living on the International Space Station. Two months later, Diamond passed away at age 44 following a brief battle with Stage 4 lung cancer. SBTB‘s November 2021 Season 2 premiere in turn honored the actor and character with a scene that heavily implied that Screech too had died, and in which Zack, Kelly, Slater, Jessie and Lisa warmly remembered their friend’s greatest hijinks.
The original series’ Dennis Haskins also never appeared in the Peacock revival, though that is likely because, canonically, Bayside principal Mr. Belding moved to take a job in Tennessee. But Belding is alive and well, the revival made clear in a passing reference.
Danny Masterson, That ’90s Show
That ’70s Show‘s Topher Grace (as Eric), Laura Prepon (Donna), Ashton Kutcher (Kelso), Mila Kunis (Jackie) and Wilmer Valderrama (Fez) all have popped up on Netflix’s That ’90s Show, which stars fellow franchise vets Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp as Red and Kitty.
That left just one ‘70s flashback unaccounted for — loner Steven Hyde’s portrayer, Danny Masterson, who was arrested back in June 2020 and charged with raping three women (in separate incidents between 2001 and 2003).
In September 2023, Masterson was sentenced to 30 years to life after being convicted of two counts of rape.
Kiefer Sutherland, 24: Legacy
Four years after 24 wrapped its eight-season run, Sutherland returned to Fox as Jack Bauer for 24: Live Another Day, a direct follow-up to the original series.
Sutherland did not, however, return for 2017’s 24: Legacy, a new series set in the same world as the original; instead, Corey Hawkins headlined as Eric Carter, a war hero and ex-United States Army Ranger Sergeant who turned to CTU for help when he and some buddies were targeted by terrorists. Sutherland considered returning in some form, according to executive producer Howard Gordon, but it never came to fruition. (Maybe he’ll pop up in the 24 movie now in the works…?)
Lara Flynn Boyle, Twin Peaks: The Return
Scheduling conflicts kept Boyle from playing Donna Hayward in the 1992 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me prequel movie, but she seemingly has never spoken of why she did not participate in Showtime’s 18-episode revival, which brought back Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee, Sherilyn Fenn, “Log Lady” Catherine E. Coulson (just prior to the actress’ passing) and others.
TVLine asked series co-creator David Lynch himself about Donna missing out on 2017’s The Return, and his response was wonderfully, Lynchian cryptic.
“These days people love strange Hollywood side stories that have nothing to do with the film,” he said. “You can go talk to Lara Flynn Boyle. This is a story that takes place without her.”
Tina Majorino, Veronica Mars
Early into Hulu’s summer 2019 revival of the UPN/The CW series, Kristen Bell’s titular sleuth remarks off-handedly that her super-hacker bestie, Mac, had gone AWOL in Istanbul. Series boss Rob Thomas explained at the time, “I didn’t want the audience to think Mac was just four blocks away and we’re just not seeing her.”
Veronica Mars vet Tina Majorino in turn confirmed exclusively for TVLine that she bowed out of Season 4 when it became clear that Mac was not going to be “an integral part” of the episodes.
“I have a very deep love for the character of Mac and my goal from the beginning has always been to give her and her trajectory the respect she deserves,” Majorino explained. “Mr. Thomas told me up front that his vision for Veronica Mars was going in a different direction and that Mac was not an integral part of this new path. I respect that greatly.”
“There was no room for my beloved hacker queen and, as conversations continued, that only became more clear,” she added. “So, I made the decision not to participate.”
Shelley Morrison, Will & Grace
Despite thrilling viewers as Karen’s mistreated maid for all eight seasons of Will & Grace‘s original run, Morrison had already retired from acting when NBC revived the comedy in 2017. To explain Morrison’s absence, her character was killed off in a powerful-yet-polarizing episode titled “Rosario’s Quincea?era.”
Sadly, Morrison died of heart failure on Dec. 1, 2019. She was 83.
Gary Sandy, The New WKRP in Cincinnati
The reason why WKRP in Cincinnati front man Gary Sandy did not reprise her role as Andy Travis in the 1991 sequel series is as clear as… the closing theme song’s lyrics. Gordon Jump (as Arthur Carlson), Frank Bonner (Herb Tarlek) and Richard Sanders (Les Nessman) all starred in the follow-up, Howard Hesseman recurred as Dr. Johnny Fever, and the likes of Loni Anderson and Tim Reid all put in cameos. Sandy’s Andy, though, was nowhere to be seen.
Then again, Sandy’s relationship with the 1987-92 sitcom is… complicated. After WKRP, “I was pigeonholed…. I never had the career I wanted,” he shared in a 2021 interview. “Does it bother me that I’m known today for a 1970s TV series? Absolutely.”
Robert Patrick, The X-Files
The truth was still out there when Fox in 2018 revived The X-Files for Seasons 10 — but Agent Doggett wasn’t.
Robert Patrick joined the sci-fi series during Season 8 of its original run as a replacement of sorts for David Duchovny’s Mulder, but the character never materialized during the two-season revival.
“I know we tried to get Robert Patrick a couple times,” X-Files executive producer Glen Morgan explained at the winter 2018 Television Critics Association press tour. Alas, Patrick’s series-regular role on CBS’ Scorpion got in the way. “It was just a scheduling issue,” said Morgan. (Annabeth Gish did, however, reprise her role as Monica Reyes in a few revival eps.)
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