10 Actors Who Returned To A TV Series After Leaving

Not like motion pictures, the enjoyable factor about tv is that TV exhibits can, hypothetically, go on perpetually. If a present has a solid-enough engine and showrunners who’re dedicated to the tales they’re telling, TV is made to be endlessly renewable. As followers, we change into connected to the individuals on our favourite long-running exhibits, discovering consolation in the way in which their weekly installments give our personal lives a type of construction and routine.

Behind the scenes, although, that repeatability is usually a curse simply as a lot as it’s a blessing. Actors usually signal tv contracts for a number of years at a time; in spite of everything, everybody loves job safety, and a part of the enjoyable of tv is attending to discover a personality with a lot larger depth than you’ll in a movie. As these years stretch on, nevertheless, artists get stressed and need to transfer on. Generally, an actor is compelled out for different causes; generally the story calls for it, and generally the funds is accountable.

In different phrases, followers like to comply with the drama that goes on when the cameras aren’t rolling, and when a significant actor leaves a significant present, it will possibly change into main information. A couple of years later, although, plenty of actors make the time to cease in on their outdated haunts, reviving their characters for yet one more go … although they could have sworn they by no means would. Learn on for the tales of 10 actors who’ve returned to their exhibits after leaving.

It may be exhausting sufficient to maintain a forged engaged when your present stretches previous the two-decade mark, however within the early years of “Gray’s Anatomy” — again when it was a flashy new sensation fairly than a long-running staple — followers had been simply as fascinated by tales of the behind-the-scenes chaos on the “Gray’s” set. One in all its earliest, greatest scandals occurred in 2007, when Isaiah Washington was fired for utilizing a homophobic slur towards fellow castmate T.R. Knight. Creator and showrunner Shonda Rhimes informed The Hollywood Reporter that she did not count on the present would be capable of get well, remembering, “I imply, that was the factor we thought was going to kill the present. And it is humorous, each ‘Gray’s’ actor I speak to who was there throughout that point continues to be traumatized by that incident. Folks nonetheless discuss it.”

Although he received the chop in Season 3, Washington however returned as Dr. Preston Burke in a Season 10 episode meant to assist ship off Sandra Oh’s character, Dr. Cristina Yang. Burke, we realized, had been operating a hospital in Switzerland, and he tried to poach Cristina away from Seattle by providing her a job. Oh, it appears, was instrumental in getting Washington again in Rhimes’ good graces. “She refused to go away the present with out my return, and he or she gained that battle,” Washington wrote on X in 2025. “I really like me some Sandra Oh!”

Earlier than she was forged because the rebellious teenager Jenny Humphrey on the smash-hit CW sequence “Gossip Lady,” Taylor Momsen was a baby star. She was maybe greatest often called Cindy Lou Who within the live-action adaptation of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” that means that by the point her “Gossip Lady” tenure stretched on, Momsen was fairly prepared to hold up her hat. She’d lengthy since realized that she was extra excited by music, anyway, and her band, The Fairly Reckless, was doing fairly effectively.

“I awakened one morning and went, ‘Wait a second. I haven’t got to do that? I haven’t got to do that different job? I can simply play in my band and tour, and write songs? I can simply try this?” Momsen remembered pondering on an episode of co-star Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast. After all, there was that pesky contract to fret about. “They went, ‘Effectively, we won’t allow you to out of your deal, however we are able to write you out of the present,'” Momsen mentioned. The one caveat was that she would not be capable of act in some other tasks. That was fantastic together with her.

Her departure from “Gossip Lady” brought about a minor media firestorm, and her co-star Connor Paolo blasted critics of her determination, even hinting at Jenny’s return. In the end, although, Momsen would not reappear on the present till its 2012 sequence finale, when Jenny confirmed up at Blair and Chuck’s marriage ceremony.

Every little thing on “The Workplace” orbited round Steve Carell’s hapless, well-meaning, incompetent paper firm boss Michael Scott, however Carell finally left the present after Season 7. Although it was initially positioned within the media as merely time for him to step away, manufacturing sources later revealed in a ebook referred to as “The Workplace: The Untold Story of the Best Sitcom of the 2000s” (through IndieWire) that Carell’s exit was the results of contract negotiations that turned bitter. Carell had been keen to remain on longer, however NBC merely did not hassle to renegotiate his contract when it expired. Casting director Allison Jones recalled, “NBC, for no matter purpose, would not make a take care of him. Anyone did not pay him sufficient. It was completely asinine. I do not know what else to say about that. Simply asinine.”

Although Carell repeatedly insisted that he would not return to the present, Michael did certainly attend the marriage of Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) and Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey) that shaped the centerpiece of the sequence finale. “We simply thought it could be enjoyable if it had been to be a shock,” Carell informed E! Information. “We lied rather a lot.” And whereas we’re within the enterprise of bringing individuals again, listed below are 10 “The Workplace” characters we would prefer to see on Peacock’s spinoff “The Paper.”

How effectively do you bear in mind the two-hour premiere of ABC’s “Misplaced”? Should you’ve retained something from the knockout present’s first season, you in all probability bear in mind Harold Perrineau’s character Michael and his son Walt (Malcolm David Kelley). These are two characters who grew to become more and more necessary as that first season went on. Sadly, the present’s sluggish timeline meant Kelley aged a lot quicker than his character, and Perrineau was finally written out, too. “It grew to become fairly clear that I used to be the Black man. Daniel [Dae Kim] was the Asian man. And you then had Jack and Kate and Sawyer,” Perrineau informed Maureen Ryan for her ebook “Burn It Down” (through Self-importance Truthful).

“I used to be f***ed up about it. I used to be like, ‘Oh, I simply received fired, I feel,'” Perrineau recalled. On the time, he gave an interview about his exit and complained brazenly about the truth that Michael and Walt did not get to shut the ebook on their storyline. “Walt simply winds up being one other fatherless little one,” he mentioned. “It performs into a extremely massive, bizarre stereotype and, being a Black individual myself, that wasn’t so fascinating.”

Perrineau did return to the island a number of occasions after Season 2, together with within the present’s “flash-sideways” last season. “I am by no means going to remorse advocating for the character and for myself, as an actor,” Perrineau informed BuzzFeed. “Let the chips fall the place they fall.”

Lauren Cohan performed Maggie on “The Strolling Useless,” and he or she was one of many present’s greatest characters; she’s a headstrong survivor who is aware of her approach round a weapon. She joined in Season 2 and rapidly grew to become one of many present’s most important characters, thanks partly to her romance with Glenn (Steven Yeun) and her above-average zombie-killing expertise. 

After Season 8, information broke that Cohan won’t be returning for the present’s ninth season. Sources reported that she was attempting to barter in order that she was paid the identical as male co-stars like Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus, although Cohan denied these particular rumors. On Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM present “Radio Andy,” she defined, “In a time of parity within the trade and in my present … it wasn’t truly that I used to be asking for extra, it is that my contract completed. That is a reasonably commonplace renegotiation.”

The negotiations fell aside, and as a substitute Cohan starred on the ill-fated ABC sequence “Whiskey Cavalier.” When that present collapsed, she rapidly returned to “The Strolling Useless.” Talking with The Hollywood Reporter, Cohan insisted that she’d held on to the character throughout her absence. “I knew she was going to return again; we simply did not know precisely when. I mentally all the time had her in a quadrant of my mind and soul.” The principle sequence has now concluded, however Cohan now leads “The Strolling Useless: Useless Metropolis,” a derivative that focuses on Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan.

Within the early days of “The Simpsons,” the titular household was usually contrasted with the way more non secular one which lived subsequent door. Ned Flanders is among the greatest characters on “The Simpsons,” and, alongside along with his spouse, Maude (Maggie Roswell), each are pious and explicit about elevating their kids, whereas Homer (Dan Castellaneta) and Marge (Julie Kavner) positively usually are not. Within the Season 11 episode “Alone Once more, Natura-Diddily,” nevertheless, Maude was shockingly killed off, and all of a sudden Roswell was not voicing one of many present’s authentic characters.

The voice actor, it seems, had moved to Denver, although “The Simpsons” data its audio in Los Angeles. “I used to fly into L.A. on Thursday and fly again that night time, and try this on Monday once more,” Roswell informed The Denver Publish. “It was attending to be an excessive amount of, too costly, [and] they would not give me a increase.” She give up, and so they killed Maude.

Fortunately, Roswell and the producers had been capable of work one thing out in order that she may file from Denver, and Roswell returned to the forged a number of years later. Although she nonetheless often voices Maude Flanders in ghost type, Roswell now primarily stars as Helen Lovejoy. “I do it from dwelling, and I couldn’t be extra grateful. We work from March till November, two weeks on, one week off. I get SAG insurance coverage. It is nice,” she informed the newspaper. “I’m dwelling the life.”

In its a long time on the air, “Saturday Night time Stay” has served as a proving floor for loads of comedians, giving megastars like Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy, and plenty of extra their begin. Not everybody breaks out, although, and loads of forged members do not final greater than a season or two earlier than Lorne Michaels provides them the chop.

In 1993, when she was solely 22, Sarah Silverman was forged on the present. She would later discover plenty of fame on her personal, due to her well-received sketch present and caustic stand-up comedy, however she was fired after one dangerous yr at “SNL.” Talking with GQ, Silverman mentioned she primarily served as an viewers plant throughout monologues. “I used to be not a completely realized individual,” she mirrored. “I positively was not prepared for it, however it was a tremendous expertise, and positively ready me for the remainder. Every little thing else was fairly simple after that.”

Not like most people who find themselves fired after just one season on “SNL,” Silverman later returned to Studio 8H as a bunch. She helmed an episode in 2014, and he or she informed GQ that the present nodded to her historical past as a monologue ringer. “I took questions from the viewers, and all of the questions had been me from 1994, asking questions,” she mentioned. “It was type of superior, as a result of it was just like the candy, little harmless lady asking me questions, and it was me from so way back.”

“The Strolling Useless” was recognized for its surprising forged exits, because the showrunners had no downside killing off beloved characters with little warning. One such character who received brutally lower was Jon Bernthal’s Shane Walsh. He is a longtime buddy of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) from earlier than the zombie apocalypse, and the 2 hyperlink again as much as uncover that Shane has tried to maintain Rick’s household secure.

Shane was killed off within the second season, and Bernthal informed Conan O’Brien on “Conan O’Brien Wants A Buddy” that he took it fairly exhausting. He sat and watched them movie the primary episode with out him, and it was a troublesome expertise. “I simply palpably understood, , I am not a part of that anymore,” he mentioned. “I sat there and I [wept], and I felt sorry for myself, and I knew it was over.”

Bernthal has returned to the present twice, together with within the Season 3 episode “Made to Endure.” As soon as once more, due to a hallucination, Shane received killed another time. Nonetheless, Bernthal does not remorse something about his time on the present. He defined to O’Brien, “I assume getting killed off was one of the best factor that ever occurred to me in my profession, and I am flabbergasted and grateful for all of it.”

Within the first season of “Supernatural,” Jeffrey Dean Morgan performed John Winchester. He was the daddy of Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles), two younger males who take over the household enterprise; on this case, it simply occurs to be killing demons. Sadly, John died within the Season 2 premiere, sending his sons spinning emotionally as they tried to carry the forces of evil at bay.

In 2019, Morgan returned to “Supernatural” due to an episode that concerned some run-of-the-mill time journey. Sam and Dean get to go to an alternate actuality the place their father had survived, and so they fill him in on every part they’d been as much as in his absence. The episode was the present’s three hundredth — that is numerous time away from that iconic Chevy Impala — however Morgan informed Leisure Weekly he’d remained shut with the actors enjoying his sons. “To step into it once more, it is like sporting an outdated pair of shoes. I am mates with these guys, so it is a pleasure to return in,” he mentioned.

In truth, it was becoming that Morgan performed a proud father to the Winchester boys as a result of he himself was happy with his mates’ accomplishments on the present. “It makes me get choked up as a result of they’ve performed so effectively right here,” he mentioned. “Episode 300? That is unprecedented.”

Steve Burton has performed Jason Morgan on “Basic Hospital” for a really very long time, ever because the character was aged up in 1991. He is taken just a few hiatuses from the cleaning soap opera, together with for a stint on “The Younger and the Stressed,” however for essentially the most half, Burton has lengthy been one of the vital recognizable actors on one of many solely remaining soaps.

In 2021, nevertheless, Burton was fired from “Basic Hospital” for refusing to adjust to the set’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates. He introduced the choice in an Instagram video, revealing, “I did apply for my medical and spiritual exemptions and each of these had been denied, which hurts. However that is additionally about private freedom to me. I do not assume anyone ought to lose their livelihood over this.” On the time, ABC required that anybody on set who would not be sporting a masks be vaccinated to guard others from the illness.

By March 2024, nevertheless, restrictions had loosened, and “Basic Hospital” introduced Burton again to Port Charles. In a behind-the-scenes video of his first day on set shared by the present on YouTube, he gushed, “It simply feels actually good to be again on set with my individuals.”