The Fictional Characters and Shows We Lost in 2025

As 2025 draws to an end, it’s time to look back on all the fictional things—especially TV shows and standout characters in movies, series, and games—who won’t be moving with us into the new year. It’s the showbiz way; series get cancelled or, if they’re lucky, find their way to a carefully pre-planned end. Even heroes fall. And villains sometimes get ripped apart by mobs of children.

Well, maybe just one villain in particular, but she’s definitely on our list of fictional things we lost in 2025. Since there are some plot spoilers discussed, we’ll leave one of these here in case you’re not quite as up to date on pop culture as you should be. It’s time to catch up—and say goodbye.

The Wheel of Time

Prime Video’s lavish fantasy adaptation (the one based on Robert Jordan’s books, not J.R.R. Tolkien’s) wrapped up its third season in April. It was its strongest outing yet. But just a month later, Amazon cancelled The Wheel of Time—meaning we’ll never get to see Rosamund Pike and company fight that long-awaited, much-hyped massive battle to determine the fate of the world. A fan campaign to save the show was launched, but so far there’s been no hopeful news to report on that front.

The Handmaid’s Tale

Over six seasons, Hulu’s Elisabeth Moss-led Margaret Atwood adaptation explored a dystopian take on America that at times held a distressingly familiar mirror up to our own increasingly dystopian reality. The show premiered in 2017 and, after some time away, returned in 2025 to wrap up the story of June Osborne—or sort of wrap up, because it also did a bit of work laying the foundation for sequel series The Testaments. While The Handmaid’s Tale season six didn’t grab as much attention as its earlier installments, it was still a startling, shocking watch, albeit with a little bit more hope and catharsis as it ended.

Solar Opposites

Hulu’s raunchy animated aliens crash-landed on Earth in 2020 and, over six seasons and several holiday specials, came to appreciate the most idiotic parts of the planet they’d originally planned to take over and terraform. With such unique characters and clever writing—a blend of joyfully tasteless jokes, left-field references, and surprising moments of sincerity—propelling its sci-fi antics, Solar Opposites felt like a show that could have gone on forever… and probably should have.

Demerzel, Foundation

Apple TV’s Isaac Asimov adaptation is set to return for a fourth season, and we’re holding out hope that Demerzel, the existentially conflicted ancient robot brought to life by Laura Birn, will somehow return to the cast. It’s going to be tough, though. Demerzel spent most of season three agonizing over conflicting aspects of her programming as humanity faced a potential extinction-level event—then perished, horribly and completely, while trying to save the past-its-prime royal dynasty she was duty-bound to protect.

Joel, The Last of Us

The co-lead of HBO’s video game adaptation had his head caved in by Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby, who had some legitimate revenge-based beef with the guy. People who’d played the game knew it was coming, but even they had big feelings about Pedro Pascal’s character departing the show so abruptly in season two.

Squid Game

Netflix’s South Korean survival drama about a game show where you win or die, in various gruesome ways, returned for a second season at the very end of 2024, then dropped its third and final installment earlier this year. Perhaps if season one hadn’t been such a record-setting sensation, the disappointment wouldn’t have felt so potent; season two had its problems, but season three fell flat with an ending that made odd narrative choices on its way to that weird, tacked-on Cate Blanchett cameo in the final scene.

The Long Walk cast

Spoiler alert for The Long Walk but, uh, it does not go well. Francis Lawrence’s adaptation of the Stephen King book follows a group of young men who must walk until only one remains. So, obviously, only one person survives by the end of the film. That means you spent all this time being captivated and moved by these incredible characters, only to watch them drop dead—sometimes literally—one by one. It’s a harrowing premise that works every well, but you’ll leave the film feeling like they deserved more. Which is the point.

Aunt Gladys, Weapons

She kidnapped an entire classroom of kids. She tortured and maims her family. And yet, by the end of Zach Cregger’s Weapons, you just want more Aunt Gladys. Which, we might get in the form of a prequel, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t just a little bummed when she gets ripped to shreds. It’s rewarding and warranted but, we want more.

Mythic Quest

Apple TV+ is known for having incredible shows and one that often flew under the radar was Mythic Quest. The often irreverent, regularly brilliant show about the behind-the-scenes drama at a video game company ended rather unceremoniously in 2025 and we were sad to see it go. But, we can bask in the fact that we got a nerdy ass show from the team behind It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia that made us laugh as often as it made us cry.

Miss Huang, Severance (probably)

Severance is all about mystery so while it seems like we may have seen the last of the hugely intriguing young Lumon employee Miss Huang, you never quite know. But assuming she’s on the last bus to the Arctic Circle, we are very sad to see her go. The character represented a wholly unique spin on Severance. A child’s viewpoint. One that, we learned, overlapped with Harmony Kobel’s. There was so much to dig into. So, if we don’t see her again, it will be a shame.

Cobra Kai

It’s still hard to fathom that, over the past few years, we got to watch a sequel to a classic 1980s franchise that didn’t just push that franchise forward, it paid respect to it in every single way. But that’s what Netflix’s Cobra Kai did and when it ended earlier this year, it went out with a bang. The show went all over the map during its run but in the end, it came back to its roots, exploring how the bad guy of the original film, Johnny Lawrence, would redeem himself and become a hero. One that is, without a doubt, bigger than The Karate Kid himself. Cobra Kai was the best around. And, it never ever let us down.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

Like most Star Wars shows, Skeleton Crew isn’t officially “gone,†but we’re realists. It’s probably not coming back. Sure, in Star Wars, every new planet, concept, character, or creature that’s introduced could potentially return in the future. And yet, even so, we’d still really like to see more Skeleton Crew. It was the most popcorny, fun, adventurous new Star Wars show to date, giving us all those new characters, concepts, creatures and more that we crave. Come on now. Neel? Hello! Instant Star Wars legend. Maybe we get him and his friends back but either way, we should at least celebrate that we got it at all.

Drolta, Castlevania: Nocturne

While Castlevania: Nocturne is in the books with an anime teamup for the ages that saw big bad Erzsebet Bathory put to a permanent end, we aren’t going to give her a moment of silence as a tour de force for the Powerhouse Animation Netflix series. Instead, we’re going to bow down out of respect for Drolta, the real HBIC of the entire series. From frame one of her hitting the scene, Drolta stepped on everyone’s necks (viewers included) with how demure and oh so cool she was. We got more of her backstory in season two, making her gravitational force as a charismatic villain you can’t help but love all the palpable. If Megan Thee Stallion cosplays as you, you know you made it. And Drolta’s swag was too tough not to be the baddest woman of all time.

Momo’s memories, Dandadan

While anime fans have been enjoying watching Momo Ayase and Okarun’s slow burn romance graduate to the point of open hand holding (lewd!) in Dan Da Dan, manga readers have been getting fed with new chapters arcs into the future of their relationship. However, because it’s Dandadan, we’re still waiting for an explosive and proper confession of love between the two that doesn’t get steamrolled by whatever criptid or extraterrestrial threat is actively menacing them. And just when “Momokarun†shippers thought we’d weathered the storm, we were simply in the eye of the storm because we’re currently in a dreaded amnesia arc where Momo has forgotten basically every event that the anime and manga have covered, including her feelings for Okarun. But their chemistry seems to be speedrunning and emphasizing how destined they are to be with each other, so all of this rigamarole will hopefully conclude with their ship setting sail. For the time being, let this year be chronicled as the year an entire fandom gasped in shock at all of our lovelorn cheerleading for them rogueliking its way back to square one. Pain. Oh, also RIP to our fearless leader, Aira Shiratori, who died in an explosion at the end of season two caused by Momo witnessing Okarun kiss Vamola.

Reze, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc

From the outside looking in, Reze Arc is a film that’ll go down as yet another reason anime became a permanent fixture in pop culture, with the box office numbers to back it up. However, in the thrust of Chainsaw Man as a series, it’s also pretty much the highest point of protagonist Denji’s life before creator Tatsuki Fujimoto puts the old boy into the wood chipper. Much of that has to do with his short-lived romance with Reze. Sure, Reze was tasked with capturing his heart (literally) from the moment they met. And sure, their Sharknado-esque battle tore down half of a dense metropolitan area. But they were genuinely in love with each other. Unfortunately, it was a wrong time, wrong place romance. Anyone with a pulse can feel the heartache in what was essentially an exhibition battle between the two; both of them were constricted by their messed-up upbringings, not seeing a way out of their constrained existence beyond fighting. That’s something Fujimoto took it upon himself to mention: Reze exploding herself as bomb girl caused her immense pain, which is why she wished to avoid it at all cost. Having all of it underscored by Hikaru Utada and Kenshi Yonezu’s “Jane Doe†in tandem with Fujimoto’s promotional images of the two taking candid pictures together is the icing on the cake with how sad their “deserved better†romance is. So let’s pour one out for Reze. It’s the worst day of your life so far, Denji.

Gustave, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

The opening of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 already lets you know this isn’t going to be a happy game. There’s a lot of bleak, dour stuff in the story, and it all truly begins when Gustave, the ostensible main character voiced by Charlie Cox and played by Maxence Cazorla, is cut down by Renoir to close out the first act. That the game doesn’t even pretend he stands a chance during the brief moment of gameplay only further twists the knife and makes it all the more satisfying when Maelle and friends eventually defeat him in the game’s climax.

Andor

There’s been so much great TV throughout the year, it could be easy to forget Andor. On the other hand, it’s so hard to forget because it’s so great—a well-made show (you don’t even have to say Star Wars show; it stands alone even without that context) firing on nearly all cylinders and stacked with highs that it’s a shame it has to end. But what we got here during this time has been more than worth it.

Isla, 28 Years Later

Spike just can’t catch a break throughout 28 Years Later. After his first venture out into the zombie-infected wilderness reveals his father Jamie’s unfaithful nature, he sets out with his mother Isla to find a cure for her sickness. That he has to let her be euthanized is the saddest moment in an already bleak movie, but a moving one as he memorializes her atop Kelson’s monument of bones.

Jubei, Ghost of Yotei

If your revenge story involves your family getting killed and you’re a sibling, you can bet that the other sibling is still alive. It’s not surprising when Ghost of Yotei reveals Atsu’s brother Jubei also survived the attack on their home that night, but it makes up for that with a warm, often tense-feeling family dynamic as the two try to figure out where they stand after so much time apart. A shame he didn’t live past the game’s end, but he made the most of the time he had with Atsu and his daughter.

Mickey 17, Mickey 17

Poor Mickey Barnes is such a pathetic dope that it’s already sad to see him die, get cloned back to life, then die again throughout Mickey 17. But his penultimate clone is so charming and delightfully unhinged, you walk away from the movie wishing Robert Pattinson could get an award just for the scenes where he has to interact with himself.

Jinu, KPop Demon Hunters

The romantic lead from KPop Demon Hunters was such an impactful loss in the film. Our favorite Saja Boy helped Rumi, Huntr/x’s leader, see who she really was and accept it all. The way they empowered one another gave us a classic great love story, complete with a tragic ending. But hey, that’s some character growth, and even though Jinu sacrificed himself to the demon realm, we hold out hope he might return.

Stranger Things

The time has come to face the end of the Upside Down. Hawkins’ heroes are all grown up and have honed their skills to live out their last campaign against Vecna and his forces of evil. It really is the end of an era in appointment-binging and fandom frenzy as we hold out hope the show sticks the landing by New Year’s Eve.

Wicked Witch of the West, Wicked: For Good

Elphaba Thropp, the woman you are. The Wicked Witch of the West may have melted away (to those who feared her, at least), but it was her might and magic that changed us for good. To “Defy Gravity,†to be the villain in the story of those who don’t want to understand us and find the way to make a better home than the one that disowns us, is so relatable to those who are marginalized in society. Jon M. Chu really captured the power of the women in Wicked in collaboration with Cynthia Erivo’s once-in-a-lifetime talent. Her war cry, singing, and world of memes really solidified her as our Wicked Witch of the West.

Malik Ali, Superman

The most shocking moment of James Gunn’s Superman is its most brutal, when poor Malik, the street vendor who Clark has built a little rapport with, is hauled in front of him in captivity by Lex Luthor, to really rub in Superman’s low point. You kind of expect from the movie at this point that this is about as far as Lex would actually go, as he’s more petty than he is just outright evil… until Lex promptly whips out a pistol and starts playing a game of Russian roulette that quickly ends with Malik being executed. It’s very Superman that the biggest death of a whole modern superhero movie is that of a single civilian life, and that’s it as affecting as it is to both us and Clark himself, but damn if it wasn’t a shock.

The Psycho Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX

It felt like once GQuuuuuuX began that we were seeing a cool new riff on a classic Universal Century mobile suit every week, but the series’ mid-season twist to incorporate elements from Zeta Gundam—from the Titans to Cyber Newtypes—heralded the arrival of the legendary Psycho Gundam as what seemed like a gamechanger. And then… well, it kind of got massively owned, thanks to an unlikely tag team between Machu and Challia Bull. Poor Deux didn’t stand a chance, and just as soon as we’d been introduced to the Psycho Gundam in all its purple glory, it was blown to pieces. 

Marvel Comics’ Paul and Mary Jane Romance

We know, we know: we usually reserve this list for losses that made us sad. But sometimes you have to accept that the loss of something can be healthy and good, and that was definitely the case when All-New Venom #9 finally put a pin in the romance between Mary-Jane Watson and arguably one of Marvel’s most unpopular characters of recent history, Paul Rabin. Since his introduction back in 2022, Paul and his shock-twist love story with Mary Jane—putting an impromptu end on the only-recently reintroduced Peter/MJ love story—has existed as the symbol of every Amazing Spider-Man reader’s frustration with the creative trajectory of what is usually one of Marvel’s most popular comic series, so to finally see her dump him felt like a long sigh of relief… even if it didn’t really change much of the broader problems Paul introduced beyond giving us all a bit of schadenfreude. 

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