Adapted Out

When a work is adapted, liberties on how it is handle has to be made. Mainly due to time, length, or something else entirely, like the actor dying, some of the things have to be deleted or rework to fit the adaption. Occasionally, it involves taking out a character whose role is important in the original piece.

This happens thanks to Adaptation Distillation, Compressed Adaptation, or just being pragmatic. Sometimes the character is saved for potential sequels.

Compare and contrast with Chuck Cunningham Syndrome and Canon Foreigner.

Film

 * The Ghostbusters Pinball which is based on the first two movies, for some reason Vigo the Carpathian is nowhere to be seen.
 * The Beetlejuice doesn't have the Maitlands, who are very central protagonists in the original film.
 * Sony's Peter Rabbit does this with Josephine Rabbit, Mrs. McGregor, and a few others.
 * The Casper video game adapations omits Dibs, yet keeps Carrigan.
 * Some Oliver and Company storybook adaptations removes Georgette.
 * Petra's father in The Magnificent Seven, who is also a couterpart of Manzo in the Seven Samurai, he never appears despite the fact that he's mention.
 * The Space Jam Pinball game completely omitted Lola Bunny.
 * The Thor: The Dark World video game's earth supporting cast is absent, especially Jane Foster. This means the whole plot about her getting possessed by the Aether was dropped, it's now the Dark Elves using the Uru-forged weapons to destroy the universe.
 * In Disney's 2016 The Jungle Book reboot, Shanti is cut, this ends with Mowgli staying at the jungle instead of following her and living with humans.
 * In the theater version of the Little Shop of Horrors, Seymour is an orphan, however his mother in the original film was a fairly major character.
 * Shrek The Musical:
 * The UK version omits the Magic Mirror. Lord Faraquaad gets all his much needed information from The Gingerbread Man. Plus, some of the fairy tale characters were also remove and replaced with ones that are recognizable to the UK audience.
 * In community theaters, the Magic Mirror is cut, mainly because it uses motion capture and most theaters cannot afford that.
 * The Revenge of the Sith's video game adaptation leaves Padmé out entirely. (Natalie Portman was probably feeling a bit burned out; see the Thor: The Dark World example.
 * Certain toys and Hannah, Sid's Sister, were adapted out from Toy Story: The Musical.

Literature

 * In the film versions of Harry Potter numerous characters were adapted out. Some are omitted entirely, like Ludo Bagman and Peeves, others are absent in the earlier films, yet show up later when they're important with explanations to explain their absents (Like with Bill and Charlie Weasley), and others (like Nearly Headless Nick and Firenze) appear in earlier films but are absent in the later ones. The same thing occurs in the video game adaptations, but there's multiple versions of each game for different platforms, nearly every non-major character that's absent for one game or another without explanation, this leads to many cases of Remember the New Guy? in later games. Kreacher was almost removed from the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, until the screenwriter heard from Rowling that the house elf is gonna be important later on.
 * Twilight ends up cutting up several human characters and Pair the Spares by getting two characters, who had their love interests taken out with each other.
 * The adapations of The Lord of the Rings various examples:
 * Both Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, his wife, and the Hobbits' entire "Old Forest" adventures are absent from both of the films so far.
 * Glorfindel is gone from both adaptations, as well: In the Peter Jackson films, his part of saving Frodo from the Nazgûl was given to Arwen. Though in the Bakshi cartoon version, this role is given to Legolas.
 * Prince Imrahil was omitted from both the Jackson and the Rankin/Bass versions. He played a major role in The Return of the King, were he supporting Gandalf's Minas Tirith defense and Aragon as King of Gondor are fairly important plot points, and he's the main one that figures out that Aragon knows of a cure for Nazgûl victims.
 * In most adaptations, Beregond is cut. He (and his son's) role as Pippin's friend is Faramir in the Jackson films. Since his role in defending the latter from premature cremation is also cut, so Pippin's dash for Gandalf is just as desperate and only came just in time as the pyre is about to be lit. According to Ian Hughes' his character was originally meant to be Beregond but was change into Irolas and the role was reduce.
 * Ghan-burh-Chan and Elrond's twin sons, Elladan and Elrohir, are also gone from the Peter Jackson films. Whereas Quickbeam, the ent, has a Demoted to Extra role.
 * In The Swiss Family Robinson, there's a fourth son. But he was dropped from the Disney movie.
 * Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line's film adaptation has to axe several major characters, especially the Queen the Texan. Mainly due to the novel having Loads and Loads of Characters.
 * The Chronicles of Narnia's animated adaptation of the The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Father Christmas is absent. Instead it was Aslan who gives the children their weapons. In 2005, there was an original plan to do the same in the live action version, that's before someone designed a suited for the story Father Christmas.
 * The Disney adaptation of The Jungle Book omits several characters, notably Tabaqui, the Jackal. Same with some of the live action versions (Though Mowgli's Story has some of them, including Tabaqui, this makes this sequel as more loyal).
 * In Animal Farm's animated adaptation, Benjamin the donkey fills in for Clover, since the latter is absent.
 * Mollie is gone entirely.
 * This happens with Watership Down, because of Adaptation Distillation. Those that didn't appear in the film are:
 * Those Two Guys: Hawkbit, Speedwell, and Acorn.
 * Plucky Comic Relief: Bluebell
 * Strawberry, one of the Cowslip warren refugees.
 * Hyzenthlay's friend, Thethuthinang and Nelthilta, a turncoat doe.
 * The mouse that Hazel saves from a hawk on Watership Down, a character in the books that informs the rabbits that the Efrafans are planning to attack.
 * Jurassic Park's movie version removes Ed Regis, the publicist. Gennaro is a Composite Character of him and the book's Gennaro.
 * The Cider House Rules's adapted screenplay was written by the novel's author, deletes Melony and Angel. This alters the story's second half.
 * In most Oliver Twist adaptations, especially Oliver!, the Monks and the Maylies are omitted. Meanwhile, in the Alan Bleasdale mini-series, both Monks and Rose Mayle are retained, but Rose is Mr. Brownlow's ward.
 * The animated film of The Hobbit the characters of Beorn, Bolg, Roäc, and the Master of Lake-Town are gone.
 * In many adaptations of A Christmas Carol, many are adapted out, like:
 * The Ghost of Christmas Present, who shows Scrooge two kids, who are named Ignorance and Want, and warns that he must avoid them. Some adaptations the Ghost doesn't show Scrooge, the children.
 * Fan, Scrooge's younger sister, is removed in some, like the Mr. Magoo version, which also gets rid of Fred.
 * Many adaptations reduce the six Cratchit children, who are Tiny Tim, Martha, Peter, Belinda, and an unnamed boy and girl, just to three, four, or five.
 * In Dickens, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come takes Scrooge to see some isolated groups of people celebrating: some miners, two lighthouse keepers, and some sailors. This scene is usually always Adapted Out, albeit very few versions, like the animated 1971 film and the 1999 version includes these scenes.
 * The scene were Marley takes Scrooge to the window, Scrooge then sees a crowd of chained spirits, some he even recognizes and old business acquaintances. Few adaptations include this.
 * The Pensieve Flashback scene, were Scrooge sees himself during his boarding school years, the characters from his favorite books - The Arabian Nights, Robinson Crusoe - All manifest themselves as real. For brevity's sake, tons of adaptations leave this out.
 * The two young debtors that are celebrating the death of Scrooge are almost always remove.
 * The Percy Jackson and the Olympians film adaptations have some. The Lightning Thief leaves out several characters, including, who are two major antagonists in the book series. Others, like Clarisse and Dionysus, were remove. But the sequel has Clarisse, Dionysus, and , but Circe, Tantalus, and the Party Ponies were shafted.
 * In Journey to the West, it's hard to find any adaptation that didn't reduce Yu Lung's role or outright remove him entirely, but Enslaved: Odyssey to the West does that, but removes Sha Wujing.
 * Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has Loads and Loads of Characters that were on the Golden Ticket tour, but most of the adults have their dialogue/plot functions that are handed to others easily. Depending on the adaptation, some fall under this trope, while others are just Demoted to Extra.
 * The 1971 film adaptation made Mr. Bucket suffer a Death by Adaptation, long before the main action begins.
 * The Johnny Depp version Replaces Mr. Beauregarde and Mrs. Teavee, with a Mrs. Beauregarde and Mr. Teavee.
 * The Golden Ticket opera drops Charlie's parents, Mr. Gloop, Mrs. Salt, Mrs. Beauregarde, and Mr. Teavee.
 * The 2013 stage musical dumps Mrs. Salt and Mrs. Beauregarde. - Making both Veruca and Violet into Daddy's girls. - Though the latter was mentioned in Violet's introductory song.
 * The film adaptations of Disney Fairies ignored major and minor characters, like Rani, Bess, Prilla, and Mother Dove.

Live-Action Television

 * Once Upon a Time's Season 4, introduce and incorporate Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Hans, and Sven. Though Olaf is gone and the events of the film are changed, so that way Hans is on the loose and still scheming up on how to take over Arendelle.

Radio

 * The BBC radio version of The Flight of the Conchords Rob Brydon plays the narrator, but he's dropped entirely from the TV adaptation.
 * In Episode 6 of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Haggunenons were written out and replaced by the Disaster Area in the novelized version as part of The Restaurant At the End of The Universe. This eliminated the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal's only actual appearance, yet the latter is still mention in some of the Guide's entries that were moved up earlier in the books. It seems that the Hagguenons were John Lloyd's idea and Adams doesn't want the complications of including concepts that were not his own.

Western Animation

 * In TaleSpin both Bagheera and Kaa didn't get roles.