When it comes to creating television for the teen demographic, one network has risen above all others in the last decade: The CW. Its programming, which ranges from horror to soap operas to superhero shows, has a wide range of extremely dedicated fans, built from solid writing, timely social dynamics, and very attractive actors. The CW claims a long list of successes, but it isn't perfect. There are quite a few characters that the shows on the network would very much like everyone to forget.
These characters didn't work for a variety of reasons. Some left their shows because their actor was moving on, others were axed by the writers because fans didn't respond well. Pretty much every show in existence has some storyline or some character arc that they wish never happened, and every show has characters that left the story never to return. Not all of the characters on this list were poorly written or badly performed, but none of them wound up a part of the show's vision in the long run.
From genre shows like the Arrowverse and Supernatural to soap operas like 90210 and Riverdale, the CW's diverse slate allowed for diverse characters. Not all of them were going to work out. The CW is good about reacting to fan responses, so some characters were cut as a result. Others just didn't have a place in the future stories the writers wanted to tell. Still other character exits were caused by issues behind the scenes.
Here are 20 Characters CW Shows Want Everyone To Forget.
Dick Roman (Supernatural)
Dick Roman was the leader of the Leviathans, the main villains of season 7 of Supernatural. Their whole thing was that they were basically invincible, as it took a very convoluted process to create a weapon that could destroy them. That was kind of it-- Leviathans were only interesting because they were hard to beat. Everything else about them was really boring.
After Dick Roman was vanquished, Leviathans disappeared from the show. It's telling that in Supernatural, which has resurrected or brought back basically every other character, one of its main villains is never even mentioned. It seems pretty likely that the writers (much like the fans) want to forget Roman and his pals ever existed.
Mon-El (Supergirl)
Fans seem to be perfectly happy trying to forget Mon-El. In fact, they might have been happier if the show had tried to ditch him sooner, as he was a tricky character at the start. Debuting in Supergirl's second season, Mon-El was a classist, misogynist narcissist who took a long time to learn the error of his ways.
Mon-El may have eventually figured things out, but by the time he did, fans were more than ready to say goodbye. After being a fixture in Supergirl's second and third seasons, it was announced that the prince of Daxam would not be returning for the fourth. The show seems finally ready to put Mon-El behind it.
Linda Park (The Flash)
Linda Park shares the same fate as a lot of female characters who dated Barry Allen before he finally got together with Iris West. Basically, the show's romance was in a holding pattern until that happened. Barry dated women who eventually left him because he was too focused on Iris and being a superhero.
The Flash sort of tried to rectify this disappearance by bringing in Linda's alternate reality doppelganger, Dr. Light, a superhero in her own right. She tried to help Team Flash take down Zoom, but ended up relocating to a new city and never returned to the show. Now that Barry and Iris are happily together, the writers may prefer] we all just forgot about her-- and the other women Barry dated before Iris.
Jenny Humphrey (Gossip Girl)
This one was a real problem for Gossip Girl, as Taylor Momsen's Jenny Humphrey was one of the most recognizable faces on the show. Her character was also a vital part of the book series upon which the show is based. Momsen's disinterest in acting and focus on her music career pushed the show to cut its losses and remove her entirely. The show tried to essentially replace her with Ivy Dickens, which didn't go well.
Gossip Girl moved on, and tried its best to get Jenny's fans to move on, too. The character reappeared briefly in the series finale, which only made her disappearance more glaring.
Bela Talbot (Supernatural)
Supernatural has always been a male-oriented show, with almost every long-running character played by a man. Noticing this, the showrunners tried to change this in seasons two and three. To this end, they first brought in Ellen and Jo Harvelle, who were promptly written out in the second season, and then Ruby the demon and Bela Talbot the thief in the third season.
Bela (played by Lauren Cohan) was immediately elevated to main cast status, but she was still gone by the end of the season. She didn't have a bad character arc, but nowadays she's mainly remembered as another point in a long line of female characters bumped off by the show, which Supernatural would love everyone to forget about.
Hawkgirl and Hawkman (Legends of Tomorrow)
Legends of Tomorrow is know for being absolutely bonkers, with its chronology, worldbuilding, and cast seemingly changing every season. Because of this, the show nowadays doesn't much resemble the lineup from just a few seasons ago, back when Vandal Savage was the main villain and Hawkgirl and Hawkman (played by Falk Hentschel and Ciara Renée) were part of the team.
Once Savage was defeated and the first season was over, the writers felt that they couldn't do anything more with Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and the characters left the show. They haven't returned since, as the show seems to have definitively moved past that era. In fact, they've barely even been mentioned, signaling just how disinterested the writers are in the characters.
Markos (Vampire Diaries)
The end of the fifth season of The Vampire Diaries was a weird time, as one antagonist fell and was immediately replaced by another one. That replacement was Markos, the leader of the Travelers, and his reign as the show's main antagonist lasted a grand total of six episodes.
It seems like every Vampire Diaries fan wants to forget the Travelers story line ever happened. Nobody seemed to like it, and the show did its best to get it over and done with as quickly as possible, never bringing back Markos and his pals after their demise. Markos may have threatened that he would come back one day, but we're all happy he didn't make good on it.
Nicole Leahy (Gilmore Girls)
CW shows have a bad habit of introducing romantic interests to a main character that will obviously never last. The Arrowverse didn't start this trend, as it was already well established in the days of Gilmore Girls. One of these was Nicole Leahy, a character who showed up just to give Luke someone to smooch that wasn't Lorelai.
The annoying thing about Nicole was that her relationship with Luke obviously wasn't a good idea. From their spontaneous marriage to her betrayal, everyone could tell it wouldn't last. Once Luke divorced her, she didn't have a reason to be on the show anymore. Nicole vanished and never returned, and fans would agree with the show in that they'd rather not think about her.
Miss Grundy (Riverdale)
Geraldine Grundy is an odd figure in Riverdale, the explosive teen drama based on the classic Archie comics. Miss Grundy was Riverdale High's music teacher who gained a ton of notoriety when she hooked up with Archie just prior to the pilot episode. When this initial arc concludes, she largely vanishes from the show and is then unceremoniously bumped off.
Miss Grundy was targeted by the Black Hood in season two for having another ill-considered relationship with a student, and once she was deceased the show mostly forgot about her. Her only contributions to the plot were her predatory relationships and her demise, and now that she's gone the show definitely would rather just stop talking about her.
Ronnie Raymond (The Flash)
Ronnie Raymond was originally one half of Firestorm, a superhero partnership with Dr. Martin Stein. Ronnie ended up getting axed, though, as his actor (Robbie Amell) didn't stick around in the Arrowverse. Because the actor was leaving, Ronnie was written out, exploding in a singularity, and a new character became the second half of Firestorm.
Ronnie could have been a major character in The Flash and the rest of the Arrowverse, as the show seemed to tease that he'd come back to romance Caitlin Snow. Instead, he went out like a hero. Nowadays, it's rare for Ronnie to even be mentioned, and he certainly isn't getting a resurrection anytime soon.
Lady Kenna (Reign)
The problem with characters that only seem to exist to prove that another character is evil is that they can't stand on their own merits. Lady Kenna did this for King Henry II on Reign, acting as his woman on the side, despite his obviously abusive tendencies. After a drawn out arc where she got with Henry and then was forced by him to marry Sebastian, she finally left the show for good.
Kenna seemed to only exist to be oppressed by Henry and prove that he was a bad guy. Once he got her married off, she apparently had no more use in the story, and left the show entirely after the second season. Clearly, the writers were only interested in Kenna as long as she was a tool to understand Henry, so once he was gone, everyone forgot about her.
Susan Williams (Arrow)
Much like Barry Allen on The Flash, Oliver Queen on Arrow has his own share of former love interests that were thrown by the wayside so he could get with his endgame relationship. For Ollie, that endgame is Felicity Smoak, and her romantic rivals include forgettable entries like Susan Williams (Carly Pope).
Nothing about Susan was interesting. A reporter who debuted in season five, she had an relationship with Oliver over the course of several episodes, before he broke up with her to "keep her safe." Even this ending is cookie cutter; the same line dozens of superheroes have told dozens of failed relationships. Oliver was always going to end up with Felicity-- Pope just had the thankless role of being a placeholder. Now that she's out of the picture, the show would like everyone to forget her and focus on "Olicity."
Tabitha Wilson (90210)
One of the big gets for the first season of 90210's 2008 remake was Jessica Walter, the actress perhaps best known for her work on Arrested Development and Archer. Walters didn't end up staying on the show for long, as she never returned after the first season.
Playing Tabitha Wilson, Walter affected much of the plot of the first season of 90210, but completely disappeared by the start of season two thanks to producers restructuring the show and axing some cast members. The writers explained this away by saying the character was living in Las Vegas, and there were reports that she would return in a guest role, but that never materialized. The show was committed to moving in a different direction, even if fans wanted Tabitha back.
Catalina (Jane the Virgin)
Manipulative, deceitful characters are a tricky dynamic to nail, as they frequently feel like a distraction from the main arc of the show. Catalina Mora was definitely a distraction, as she burst onto Jane the Virgin, lingered for a few episodes, then left and never returned.
At first she seemed to introduce a fun new conflict, having a fling with Rafael that made Jane jealous. Then her secret marriage was discovered, and Catalina left the show, leaving fans to wonder why she was ever introduced in the first place. The show seems committed to pretending she never existed, and we'd be very surprised if she was brought back for any reason in the final season.
Lieutenant Suzuki (iZombie)
iZombie is a unique entry in the CW's programming slate, a meta adaptation of a comic book series of the same name about zombies functioning in society and also occasionally solving crimes. In the show, that meant working with Lieutenant Suzuki, but he ended up perishing in the show's confusing season one finale.
Suzuki turned out to be working for Blaine DeBeers, the villain of the show, who had turned him into a zombie. Suzuki then blew himself up rather than live on as a zombie, in a somewhat unclear turn of events. There are still fans confused about what exactly happened in that season one finale, but the show never seemed to care to explain itself.
Callie Cartwig (The 100)
Viewers of the pilot episode of The 100 must have been confused in later episodes, as there was a main cast member who simply disappeared. That was Callie Cartwig, aka CeCe, who was supposed to be a major character in the show. Due to budgetary concerns, the character was cut and never returned.
This was unfortunate, as Callie, played by Kelly Hu, was actually pretty interesting. She had a nice arc in the first episode that definitely didn't hint at her untimely demise, and then she was floated into space off camera. You don't usually see main characters get completely cut out of a show like that, but network television finds a way, as everything about Callie's storyline and relationships was forgotten forever.
Cecil Adams (Arrow)
The first few seasons of Arrow have many bright spots, including their villains, but they messed up some key figures from the comics. Count Vertigo is one of the Green Arrow's greatest foes in the comics, but you wouldn't know it from his depiction in the early years of the show.
On Arrow, Count Vertigo is originally Cecil Adams, a young addict who tries to poison Star City with the powerful Vertigo. Adams never really impressed in his tenure as the Count, and he was bumped off pretty quickly. Werner Zytle took over that mantle, and as played by Peter Stormare, was immediately more memorable and threatening as a villain. Nowadays, the writers would probably prefer that everyone thinks of Zytle as the true Vertigo, and forgets about poor Cecil.
Joe Bishop (Beauty and the Beast)
Joe Bishop (played by Brian White) was the police chief on Beauty and the Beast who clashed with Vincent in the first season. Joe was a major character in the early going, but he was gone from the show entirely by the beginning of season two.
Joe's exit followed a season where his arc found him in a few unsavory situations, where he strayed from his wife and then tried to go outside the law to take down Vincent. Fans didn't really connect with Joe's arc, and the show seems to have responded by removing him entirely, choosing instead to focus on other cop characters in his place.
Ethan Ward (90210)
Much like Tabitha Wilson, Ethan Ward was a main cast member of 90210 that wound up a victim of the show going a different direction for the second season. As with Tabitha, the writers of the show explained his absence by saying he moved away-- this time to Montana to live with his dad, which honestly sounds like the teen soap opera version of an old dog getting taken to a nice farm.
Ethan never came back from Montana and never made another appearance on the show, as the producers really were married to this new vision for 90210. He may not have had quite as many fans as Tabitha, but fans were still puzzled as to why the show seemed so committed to losing these characters.
Davis Bloome (Smallville)
Superhero shows have a history of failing to live up to lofty expectations created by the comics, but they don't usually mess it up this badly. Davis Bloome (played by Sam Witwer) was a perfectly fine character on Smallville, until he was revealed to actually be the superpowered monster, Doomsday.
It just didn't work. Davis convinced no one that he could pull off the role of the villain who eliminated Superman in the comics. After that reveal, Davis' days on the show were numbered. He finished out the eighth season, and then never came back. Smallville's showrunners likely want everyone to forget that they disappointed their fans this badly.
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What other CW characters are best forgotten? Let us know in the comments!