The Best Fan-Written Endings for Cancelled TV Shows

Sometimes the fans finish what the networks started. Here are the most satisfying fan-conceived conclusions for your favourite cancelled series.

Television shows get cancelled. It's a fact of the streaming era. According to a 2023 study by the streaming analytics firm Luminate, more than 500 original scripted series were released across all platforms in 2022 alone — and fewer than 40% of them were renewed for a second season. The odds of any given show telling its full story are worse than ever. But a cancelled show doesn't have to mean an unfinished story. More and more, fans are taking the ending into their own hands — writing the conclusions that networks never gave them.

At CancelledEndings, that's exactly what we do. Here are some of the best fan-written endings on the site — each one carefully crafted to honour the characters, tone, and unresolved threads of the original series. Every ending is built on a close reading of the show's existing arcs, picking up the exact threads the creators left dangling and weaving them into conclusions that feel earned, not forced.

1. Startup

Crackle's tech-crime thriller ended on a brutal cliffhanger: Nick, Ronald, and Izzy are left disposing of NSA agent Stroud's body after Nick shot her in the Season 3 finale. The show, which ran from 2016 to 2018, was one of Crackle's flagship originals, but the streaming service's pivot away from scripted content left the story unfinished. According to Deadline, Crackle's sale to Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment in 2019 effectively ended all original programming on the platform. Our ending picks up three months later — the psychological fallout, LH7 closing in, and a mysterious offer from Costa that could make everything disappear. It's dark, tense, and refuses to give the trio an easy out — because the show never would have.

2. Scorpion

CBS's team of genius misfits ran for four seasons from 2014 to 2018, averaging 9.5 million viewers per episode — a respectable number by network standards. Yet the series was cancelled, leaving fans with a team breakup, a rival faction called Centipede, and Paige shutting the door on Walter. Our ending brings them back together for a personal mission against the weapons dealer who nearly killed Paige. Walter chooses to stay. The final scene is a new mission in Antarctica. Team Scorpion lives on.

3. Teenage Bounty Hunters

Netflix cancelled this beloved comedy after just one season — right after the bombshell reveal that Sterling and Blair are actually cousins, not twins. The show premiered in August 2020 and earned a 93% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the best-reviewed Netflix comedies of the year. The cancellation was announced in October 2020, just two months after release. Our ending jumps ahead one year. The cousin-secret is out. Bowser and Yolanda are together. Sterling is applying to Emory, Blair is looking at Georgia State. And they're still working cases out of Yogurtopia.

4. The OA

The most ambitious show Netflix ever cancelled ended with OA bleeding on a TV set while "Jason Isaacs" stood over her. Part I debuted in 2016 and grew a dedicated cult following. Part II arrived in 2019 to even stronger reviews — 90% on Rotten Tomatoes — but as Variety reported, Netflix cancelled the series less than two months after Part II's release, despite Brit Marling's five-season plan. Our ending follows Steve into the hospital room, where he performs the movements and calls OA back. She wakes up, remembers everything, and together they walk out into a dimension where nobody believes them — ready to make them believe anyway.

5. Friends from College

A tricky show to end — two seasons of messy relationships, an affair, a pregnancy, and the question of whether the group could ever heal. The show landed on Netflix in 2017 with a stacked cast including Keegan-Michael Key and Cobie Smulders, but earned mixed reviews. Netflix cancelled it in February 2019, roughly one month after Season 2 premiered. Our ending sets the baby shower six months after the finale. Sam has moved to LA. Nick is sober. Ethan and Lisa are in couples therapy. No clean slates — just people who refuse to give up on each other.

6. Archive 81

Dan wakes up in 1994 with no way home. Melody is free in the present. Netflix's supernatural horror series premiered in January 2022 and became a genuine word-of-mouth hit, spending several weeks in the platform's global Top 10. Despite this, it was cancelled in March 2022 — one of the fastest renew-to-cancel reversals in Netflix history. Our ending uses the Baldung witches and a reversed ritual to create a single thread between timelines. Melody steps through — not to the Otherworld, but to 1994, to the ruins of the Visser, to Dan. They start over together.

7. Dexter: Original Sin

Dexter's origin story ended with a hopeful family dinner and Brian watching from the shadows. The prequel series premiered in December 2024 on Paramount+, exploring Dexter Morgan's early years as he transitions from medical student to avenger. Our ending jumps two years: Dexter is a full blood-spatter analyst, Harry questions the Code, Debra is at the academy, and Dexter — checking his kill kit — speaks the words that define the series: "Tonight's the night."

8. 1899

From the creators of Dark, Netflix's 1899 was one of the most ambitious international productions ever attempted — a multi-language period mystery set on a steamship crossing the Atlantic. The show premiered in November 2022 and quickly topped Netflix's global charts. It was cancelled in January 2023, with creator Jantje Friese confirming that the story was always planned for three seasons. Our ending uses the show's existing simulation framework to reveal the true nature of the Prometheus and the 1899 passengers, offering a conclusion to the layered mystery the creators had mapped out.

What Makes a Great Fan Ending?

A good fan-written ending doesn't just wrap things up neatly. It honours what came before. It respects the characters' arcs. It acknowledges the darkness without abandoning the hope. And it gives the audience — finally — the closure they were denied. As TVLine and other industry outlets have noted, the surge in fan-written endings reflects a broader dissatisfaction with the streaming model's cancellation practices. When platforms treat shows as data points rather than stories, fans become the custodians of the narrative.

Research from the streaming analytics firm Nielsen indicates that the average viewer now hesitates to start a new series before checking whether it was properly concluded — a behaviour known as "cancellation avoidance" that directly impacts viewership for first-season shows. Our fan-written endings are part of the solution: proof that even a cancelled story can find its ending. For the stories behind the fan campaigns that tried to save these shows, read how fan campaigns have saved cancelled shows. Browse our full library and see for yourself.