Summary

• Many TV spinoffs never make it past the pilot stage due to poor ratings or other factors.
• Some unused footage from failed TV pilots may be repurposed in the original show.
• Spinoffs with the potential to fill gaps in the original story, like in Game of Thrones, can be canceled due to pilot quality.

There are a lot of new movie and TV show spinoffs these days, but some TV spinoffs still never make it to air. While the movie industry is busy with many unwanted sequels and remakes, TV executives are turning through a roster of ideas for new shows, and have been for years. TV is arguably the better format for trying out new ideas, as networks and streaming services can produce a pilot before financially committing to an entire series.

This is how there are many existing failed TV pilots from popular franchises, eager to see what the spinoff might have been like and how it would have expanded the existing story.

10 Bloodmoon

Game Of Thrones Spinoff

Bloodmoon was expected to be the first Game of Thrones spinoff, attracting a lot of attention with its cast including Naomi Watts, Naomi Ackie, Jamie Campbell Bower, Toby Regbo, Georgie Henley, Denise Gough, Miranda Richardson, and other notable names. Bloodmoon was supposed to be about the origins of the White Walkers, set thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones. This canceled Game of Thrones spinoff could have fixed some of the franchise's biggest flaws because of its setting.

This canceled Game of Thrones spinoff could have fixed some of the franchise's biggest flaws because of its setting.

In addition to answering a lot of questions about the Night King and making up for Daenerys' botched arc, Bloodmoon would have done a great service to Game of Thrones by showing a little-discussed period in Westerosi history. The setting predates Aegon's conquest and the establishment would have made the world even deeper by acknowledging Westerosi history that doesn't have to do with the Targaryen dynasty. Sadly, it was decided that the pilot wasn't good enough, and the show was canceled.

9 Billie Jenkins Series

Charmed Spinoff

Kaley Cuoco ed the cast of Charmed as a regular in its eighth and final season, and there was a reason for this strange timing. Showrunner Brad Kern told TV Line:

"[Cuoco was hired] to lighten the load, screen-time wise, of Alyssa, Holly and Rose. [They] needed to give someone else some of the work; [the] stars were dog tired after seven years. Just as Rose was brought in after Prue died to infuse fresh energy, Kaley’s character was supposed to try to bring new blood to an aging show.”

This statement says a lot about the state of Charmed when Cuoco came on board, setting an impossible standard for her character. Billie proved to be a divisive character for Charmed, making her proposed solo spinoff an even more interesting matter.

The mixed reception to Cuoco's character is the biggest contributor to Billie's spinoff being abandoned. Virtually nothing is known about this idea other than it would have followed Billie, presumably after the events of Charmed season 8. In theory, it made sense, as Charmed was forced to introduce Billie for logistical reasons, and she didn't have as much time for a complex character arc as the others. However, not many people are that disappointed; they would have rather seen the Charmed spinoff about the Halliwell brothers, Piper's sons.

8 Green Arrow And The Canaries

Arrow Spinoff

Season 8, episode 9, "Green Arrow & the Canaries" serves as a backdoor pilot for the proposed Arrow spinoff, Green Arrow and the Canaries. This is how many canceled TV show spinoffs began and met their end, as a one-off pilot contained within the original show. As the title suggests, this spinoff would have followed the all-female vigilante team seen in Arrow, comprising Mia Queen/Green Arrow, Laurel Lance/Black Canary, and Dinah Drake/Black Canary.

Some questions about of this group, as well as other characters in the Arrowverse, were left unanswered because of the plans for this show. However, with no news on the spinoff for some time after Arrow ended, those who hoped Green Arrow and the Canaries would amount to an amazing continuation became skeptical. The official cancellation announcement of Green Arrow and the Canaries came in 2021, citing the pandemic as the main cause and suggesting that the people involved wanted to make the show (via EW).

7 Girlfriends

Friends Spinoff

Most would agree that Friends finally came to an end when it needed to before the show went too far past its heyday. However, a couple of spinoff ideas that arose immediately afterward suggest that not all the six main cast were committed to pursuing other projects. In 2003, there were briefly rumors of a Phoebe-led spinoff called Girlfriends, starring Lisa Kudrow alongside former Friends guest star Aisha Tyler (via music.com). Not much else was ever said about this idea.

Rumors about a Phoebe-centric Friends spinoff came back around in 2017, which were promptly debunked by Kudrow (via Joey's failed spinoff right after Friends. As beloved as the characters are, this one instance proved that the magic of Friends is best left as it is, leaving certain parts of Joey and Phoebe's stories a mystery.

6 Aquaman

Smallville Spinoff

Alan Ritchson plays Arthur Curry a.k.a. Aquaman in an episode of the iconic Superman series Smallville, prompting the development of an Aquaman spinoff. This series is the furthest a Smallville spinoff ever got to becoming its own show, but was also canceled after the pilot. First, Ritchson was recast for the Aquaman spinoff because the UPN executives did not believe he was famous enough to lead a TV show; he was replaced by Justin Hartley for the pilot that was filmed.

After Aquaman wasn't picked up as a series, Hartley was recast as Oliver Queen a.k.a. Green Arrow for Smallville, a character who was also considered for a spinoff. Smallville might have managed a successful spinoff if they had just let Ritchson lead the Aquaman show when his performance as the character triggered its development in the first place. Instead, UPN was too committed to the idea of working with Hartley.

5 How I Met Your Dad

How I Met Your Mother Spinoff

How I Met Your Mother did eventually get its short-lived, gender-swapped spinoff with Hilary Duff as the main character, recounting the story of how she met her son's father. However, How I Met Your Father happened years after the original How I Met Your Dad, starring none other than Greta Gerwig as "Sally." Gerwig contributed to the writing of the failed pilot herself, which was completed sometime near the end of How I Met Your Mother. The series was canceled after this pilot was poorly received.

At this time, Gerwig had already helped write and starred in her partner Noah Baumbach's s Ha but had yet to see her directorial career take off with Lady Bird. The idea of Gerwig imbuing a How I Met Your Mother-type story with her own brand of creativity is a promising one. However, it is probably for the best that this show wasn't picked up, as it might have distracted Gerwig from making her masterpiece movies.

4 Marvel's Most Wanted

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Spinoff

Ex-spouses Agent Bobbi Morse and Agent Lance Hunter are popular characters who ed the cast of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in season 2. The characters departed the show in season 3 after S.H.I.E.L.D. as an organization is forced to disavow them and the two go on the run. This naturally gives rise to the title of the duo's planned spinoff, Marvel's Most Wanted. A pilot was shot for this series, but it was canceled soon after. Adrianne Palicki, who plays Bobbi, said (via Den of Geek) that the pilot was "really good" and wished the series had happened:

"I just think that at the time, [ABC] didn’t want to bring any more Marvel shows on that network. So it’s too bad because I think it would have really done well.”

The short-lived series Agent Carter was also on ABC at the time, while Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. managed to last for seven seasons, despite its continuity errors in the context of the rest of the MCU. Ironically, Marvel's Most Wanted might have gotten at least one season if it and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had been Disney+ shows, which seems to be more open to giving every MCU property a chance.

3 Windward Circle

Gilmore Girls Spinoff

There are two planned Gilmore Girls that never happened: one about Rory after the end of the main series (not Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life), and one about her ex-boyfriend Jess, titled Windward Circle. After the backdoor pilot of season 3, episode 21, "Here Comes the Son," showing Jess visiting his dad in California, Windward Circle would have followed him after moving to California. This show about Jess and his relationship with his dad would have set up a nice parallel to Rory and Lorelai.

Jess continued to make occasional appearances in Gilmore Girls, eventually smoothing out his post-romance relationship with Rory and remaining friends.

However, everyone quickly figured out how expensive it would be to film a series in Venice Beach, and Windward Circle was abandoned. Jess continued to make occasional appearances in Gilmore Girls, eventually smoothing out his post-romance relationship with Rory and remaining friends. Strangely, some footage from the canceled show's pilot recently went viral on TikTok (via Bustle).

2 Valley Girls

Gossip Girl Spinoff

Gossip Girl's prequel spinoff was also canceled after the pilot, which would have been titled Valley Girls and followed Serena's mom Lily as a teenager. The backdoor pilot aired as Gossip Girl season 2, episode 24, "Valley Girls." Despite featuring Britanny Snow as a young Lily and Krysten Ritter as her older sister Carol, the pilot got poor ratings and did not become a series. Dawn Ostroff, the former president of entertainment at the CW, believed that the show might have happened if it had gotten a proper pilot.

This prequel might have been welcome as it would have shown a new side to Lily, focusing on her time as a groupie and the aftermath of her parents' divorce. It also would have been an interesting exploration of the sisters' relationship and how they both rebelled against their parents. At least an original prequel series would have been preferable to another underwhelming reboot, which didn't last past season 2.

1 The Farm

The Office Spinoff

The Farm is the most famous spinoff of The Office that never came to fruition but lives on as a one-off episode for the main show. After its backdoor pilot of season 9, episode 17, "The Farm," this spinoff would have been about Dwight Schrute and his family running their beet farm after the conclusion of the office. However, the backdoor pilot did not achieve good enough ratings for the series to take off, symptomatic of The Office having been in decline for a while.

The Farm also would have upheld the mockumentary format of its predecessor, which had possibly lost some of its novelty by 2013. Modern Family was around the midway point of the series, while The Office was heading towards its serviceable end. However, with most popular franchises like The Office, there is likely someone out there who would have been delighted to see more material set in the same world.

Source: TV Line, EW, music.com, Digital Spy, Den of Geek, Bustle