Cliffhangers can be a thrilling way to keep audiences interested between seasons of TV
or installments of a movie franchise, but if a show gets cancelled or a film flops,
it's all build-up and zero payoff.
Here are a few instances of frustrating cliffhangers we may never get the answers to.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
The only Terminator-related TV show to date ended on a cliffhanger that completely wiped
out the entire Terminator storyline.
In the finale, John Connor gets sent to the future, meaning he didn't stop Judgment Day
in the present, so nobody in the future had ever heard of him.
That's how the series ended: the once-savior of humanity reduced to anonymity, eliminating
any reason for Arnold Schwarzenegger to try and terminate his mother and prevent him from
being born in the first place.
Rather than give Sarah a chance to fix this time paradox, Fox canceled the show because
it was too expensive and wasn't getting great ratings.
As for what could've been, we have no idea.
The show's creator has refused to even speculate, so it sounds like we're stuck with the ending
we got — the one where it all just never happened.
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
It was a rare Superman story that focused just as much on Superman's relationship with
Lois as the part where he's a superhero that keeps saving the world.
And the end of Season 4 of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman included a suitably
domestic plot twist: Lois and Clark find a baby in Clark's old bassinet, along with a
note saying the kid now belongs to them.
Unfortunately, the network chose to cancel the series before we could learn anything
about the baby, a moved that irked Superman fans hungry for more.
Lois and Clark's executive producer later said that the kid would have been Kryptonian
royalty with Superman-like powers, given to Lois and Clark by his mother to protect him
from assassins.
He would also "grow at an abnormal rate, turning into a pre-teen in a matter of a few months."
Will this Superkid ever reunite with his real parents?
Who are these mysterious assassins?
We'll never know, because ABC yanked the show over low ratings.
28 Weeks Later
Original fast zombie flick 28 Days Later begat 28 Weeks Later, which ended on a cliffhanger
that foretold what would almost certainly be 28 Months Later.
At the end of Weeks, survivors fleeing London get chased out of their helicopter by ravenous
zombies, and as the shaky cam settles down, you see the Eiffel Tower in the background,
meaning the plague has spread across the English Channel.
Sadly, to date, nobody's followed up on this massive plot thickening at all.
Part of the issue is that Alex Garland, who wrote Days but not Weeks, has little interest
in returning to the zombie world he created.
In a 2015 interview, Garland said he shared a concept for 28 Months Later with director
Danny Boyle, but Garland won't otherwise be involved in any sequels, and there's no word
on when or if they will ever get produced.
Deadwood
This exquisitely vulgar and violent HBO western ended on an ambiguous note, which likely satisfied
very few of its fans.
The long-awaited showdown at the end of Season 3 between baron George Hearst and the town
of Deadwood wound up not being a showdown — Hearst just backed down and left, but
not before forcing Al Swearengen to kill a woman at his request.
Last we see, Swearengen is scrubbing her blood off the floor, attempting to cover up his
crime.
What was the fallout?
We don't know, because HBO wouldn't let us know.
"Why ain't you up and running again?"
"I'm in despair."
While ratings for Deadwood were fine, the price tag was not.
HBO only agreed to finance a six-episode Season 4, a so-called "short order" that creator
David Milch refused.
In April 2017, Milch submitted a script for a two-hour Deadwood movie to HBO, but as of
now, there's no word on if it will actually get produced.
If it doesn't, actor Ian McShane says to blame HBO.
"That's all I have to say on that subject, except next round is on the house."
Hannibal
Despite glowing reviews from critics and a devoted cult following ...
"An interesting place to start."
… NBC pulled the plug on Hannibal in 2015 after three seasons.
Unfortunately, this axing happened before the series' storyline wrapped up, leaving
us with a final image of Will Graham, plummeting over a cliff with Hannibal.
The camera pans down the cliff to show rocks, crashing waves … and no visible bodies.
Did Graham survive?
Did Lecter live to cannibalize another day?
We may never know.
Hannibal showrunner Bryan Fuller expressed interest in shopping the show to other networks,
but nothing is currently in the works.
Taking the already violent and gory show to cable or streaming would surely reinvigorate
the fanbase.
A cannibal drama on Netflix or HBO?
Delicious.
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