They decided to go ahead and recast the Hogwarts headmaster with actor Michael Gambon. Michael’s casting came alongside a change in director and the combination led to a darker, more eery film than the first two, a style that remained for the next six movies. Michael’s portrayal of Dumbledore was entirely different from Richards’s. While some fans could argue that Richard’s was more similar to the book’s description of the wizard, Michael still very much became Dumbledore to an entire generation of viewers. The emotional goodbye, which began with New Directions performing “Seasons of Love” at Finn’s funeral, didn’t include a cause of death for Finn. Kurt instead said, “Everyone wants to talk about how he died too, but who cares? One moment in his whole life — I care more about how he lived.” They’d filmed the episode just a month after Cory’s death which cast and crew remember being incredibly difficult. Despite the show going on for almost two whole seasons more, writer Ryan Muphy believes they probably should have ended it after Cory’s passing. Here’s what Ryan said: “If I had to do it again, we would’ve stopped for a very long time and probably not come back.” As one of the core characters, and being so irreplaceable, the show wrote-in Pual Hennessy’s death, making for a highly emotional episode where the family had to begin dealing with his death. The show continued for one more season after John’s death, but it decided to cancel it after that, fans would agree that it just wasn’t the same without the brilliance of John. Sadly, John only appeared as Sam in two episodes, but he was fantastic in both, and the show had plans for John to become more involved in the show, with Sam featuring more regularly. We’d have loved to see John become a more prominent character because the few scenes he had were hilarious. The show addressed the character’s death, with Sam’s death leading to J.D’s brother, Dan becoming depressed and bath-bound. When Carol sadly died in her sleep, the writers were faced with a decision. Unlike most cases of an actor dying, in this case, the audience had almost never seen her appear on the screen (apart from one brief moment in season six). She’d instead become a classic side character, mainly from comically shouting down to Howard at home, offscreen. However, like Scrubs, they decided to write the death of Howard’s mother into the script, leading, of course to the emotional journey that Howard went on, including having to eat all of her last bits of cooking as the freezer defrosted. This is what they eventually did, but not before they made the strange decision to CGI her onto a body double in order to give her and Tony’s relationship more of a completion. The result (as it was rather poor CGI) was clunky, quite cringey, and in the end probably unnecessary. Screenwriter David Franzoni described what happened in the bar, saying: “He’s in this bar in Valletta and this British destroyer is anchored in the bay and the crew comes in. He challenges the crew to some sort of drinking debauch. He drinks some, passes out and dies. I still have his bar tab, by the way.” Oliver played a crucial role as a former gladiator who buys and trains Maximus. His death meant that they had to rewrite the script and, instead of using a body double, they decided to digitally graft his face onto that of an extra and used previously shot takes to support these digitally imprinted scenes. Respectfully, Luke’s family were consulted as much as possible in the writing of the episode, and they even read the full script beforehand. Furthermore, the pictures of Fred that Mary looks through were real photos of Luke that his family had provided. The fitting tribute also included a guest appearance from Shannen Doherty, who Luke had talked about getting on the show since season one. The episode was a tear-jerker alright, but it was also well and respectfully done. Riverdale continued until season six, with its final season in the works already. What he hadn’t finished, however, was his lead role in Guillermo del Toro’s Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, where he voiced Jim. Anton had recorded two seasons of the show before he died, and when the time came to record season three, they decided to recast the role, and it was Emile Hirsch who stepped in. Here’s what he said about taking over: “This is super personal for me. After my friend and fellow actor Anton Yelchin tragically passed away far before his time a couple of years ago, the creators of the Netflix show Trollhunters approached me about taking over what had been Anton’s role of voicing Jim Lake Jr. It was important to them to have someone play Jim who was connected to Anton." The show acknowledged the voice change in the scene below. Being such an important character, the writers felt like they had to address it, and we all agreed that it was the right thing to do, however sad it was. The death of Richard, although leaving Emily, Lorelai, and Rory devastated, also made them enter a new chapter of their lives while giving Edward and Richard the send-off they deserved. Perhaps the most famous scene where the technique was used is the emotional farewell scene, with him and Vin Diesel’s Toretto driving off down separate roads as they each go their own directions after showing a touching tribute to Paul. Paul’s character, Brian remains alive in the Fast universe, however, and has been referenced in the movies since his death. Edna never had an on-screen death, however, seven years after Marcia’s death she and Edna were given a real tribute. The reason for this was addressed by AL Jean: “she was so beloved by everybody that worked on The Simpsons, that we just sort of wanted to give her one last moment on the show in her memory.” The show did include several scenes with Edna after Marcia had died, with previously recorded material, with the permission of the estate of course. Trail of The Pink Panther starring Peter Sellers came out in 1982, with Peter having passed away 18 months before production. The filmmakers used clips that had been discarded and not made it into the previous movies in order to stitch together a film that they called a tribute to Seller’s genius. The film was poorly received, however, particularly by Seller’s wife, who ended up suing the movie, and was awarded $1 million in damages. They were forced to change certain scenes, in one instance giving the lines that would have been Philip’s to Woody Harrelson’s via a letter. They obviously also had to reduce the screen time for Philip’s character, which Frances Lawrence regretted, saying: “I regret to have that … label of it being his last film. Because obviously, there’s not quite enough of him in it. I would have liked his role to be larger.” In order to make certain scenes work, they also employed some digital tricks and cut together some unused footage as well. Sadly, Marlon’s death in 2004 prohibited Bryan from filming any new footage, but that didn’t stop him. With the help of various bits of unused footage from the previous Superman films, they were able to digitally insert Marlon into the movie. On the decision to recast, and the process of doing so, Chris Albrecht had this to say: “Since no one can really replace Andy, we realized that we should instead find an actor who can truly lead Spartacus forward. It was important to us to have Andy endorse the idea of recasting this part, which he did in the same heroic manner that he’s dealt with his whole ordeal.” They brought in Liam McIntyre to take over the role in his own way, and Spartacus ran for two more seasons, coming to an end after its third. Peter sadly passed away in 1994, but 22 years on he’d be appearing in another Star Wars movie. They used Guy Henry as a body stand-in for Peter and then used facial movement trackers in order to animate photos of Peter, all with the consent of the estate of course. The use of these methods posthumously has come under a fair amount of fire, however, with people questioning the ethics of such a process. The Visual effects supervisor, John Knoll rejected the notion that they were doing anything unethical or disrespectful, saying: “We weren’t doing anything that I think Peter Cushing would’ve objected to. I think this work was done with a great deal of affection and care." In fact, they waited until Thanksgiving to tell viewers about the death of Mr Hopper, as Donna Williams of Public Broadcasting Service explained: ‘It’s a family day. Parents would be there with their kids to answer questions.’’ The show had a sequence where they explained Mr Hopper’s death to Big Bird, and carefully described what death is and the thoughts and emotions that come with it. Producer Fran Kaufman said about being so frank about it: ‘‘Sesame Street has always been honest and direct, not sugar-frosting on real life.’’ They had Andrew die on an American Airlines flight and they revealed afterwards that he had squandered his wife’s fortune.
