by Lauren GarafanoBuzzFeedBuzzFeed StaffI'm an Associate Editor on BuzzFeed's Pop Culture team who spends my days fangirling over all my favorite TV shows and movies.

Erik Per Sullivan did not return for the upcoming Malcolm in the Middle revival. Costar Bryan Cranston explained that Erik was invited to return but declined. Bryan told the Fly on the Wall podcast, "I talked to Erik, and I said, 'Hey, we got the show! It's going to come back.' He goes, 'Oh, that's fantastic!' And I go, 'Yeah, so we're looking forward to having you back.' He goes, 'Oh, no, no, I don't want to do it. But it's fantastic.'" Caleb Ellsworth-Clark was cast in the role.

Fox

Bryan added, "He's actually going to Harvard. He's really, really smart, and he's getting his master's at Harvard right now. He said, 'Oh God, no, I haven't acted since I was nine or something. So I'm not into it.'"

When Sex and the City was revived into a sequel series, And Just Like That..., Kim Cattrall refused to return as her character, Samantha Jones. She explained, “It’s a great wisdom to know when enough is enough. I also didn’t want to compromise what the [original] show was to me. The way forward seemed clear.” She eventually returned for a brief cameo in a scene by herself.

HBO

Dylan O'Brien was offered a chance to reprise his role as Stiles Stilinski in the 2023 film sequel to Teen Wolf: The Movie, but ultimately he turned it down. "It was a difficult decision. A lot went into it," he told Variety. "The show couldn't be more dear to me. It was the first thing I ever did, and so many people there are extremely dear to me. It was something I was trying to make work, but it all happened very fast. We didn't really know that it was happening, and they kind of just threw it at us a little bit, which is fine because we all love the show. We were trying to figure it out."

MTV / © MTV / Courtesy Everett Collection

He added, "Ultimately, I just decided it was left in a really good place for me, and I still want to leave it there. I wish them well, and I'm going to watch it the first night it comes out. I hope it fucking kicks ass, but I'm not going to be in it."

Teen Wolf costars including Tyler Posey, Holland Roden, Crystal Reed, Colton Haynes, and Tyler Hoechlin all returned for the movie.

The sitcom iCarly got a revival in 2021, with almost all of the original cast reprising their roles. Jennette McCurdy, who played Sam Puckett in the original series, was noticeably absent and opened up in her memoir about her mental health being the main reason she didn't return to the series. "Miranda, I'm not doing the reboot. There's nothing you can say to convince me," she wrote, recalling a conversation with costar and friend Miranda Cosgrove. "She tells me she thinks the reboot could be an opportunity for all of us in the cast to 'get back out there,' maybe get some other opportunities from it."

Nickelodeon

Miranda also said that "it's really good money" to try to convince her, but Jennette felt some things were more important than money: "And my mental health and happiness fall under that category,'" Jennette recalled telling Miranda. "There's a moment of silence. It's one of those rare moments where I feel like I didn't say too much or too little. I feel like I represented myself accurately, and there's nothing I would change about the way I said it. I feel proud. We wrap up our conversation, promising to keep in touch and hang up."

The series lasted three seasons, with Miranda, Jerry Trainor, and Nathan Kress returning to their original iCarly roles.

Adrian Grenier is noticeably missing from all The Devil Wears Prada 2 trailers. And it turns out he wasn't actually invited back. "We're all fans of the movie, whether or not we were in it," Adrian told Page Six. "Obviously, it was a disappointment that I didn't get the call to be in the sequel. But I also understand there was some backlash with Nate, the character, so that might have something to do with it."

20th Century Fox

"Either way, it's a disappointment, and either way, it leaves room for a beautiful spinoff in which Nate has his own film," he continued.

In 2016, Full House returned with a Netflix reboot called Fuller House, a continuation of the Tanner family's story, set up similarly to the original series. Almost all of the main cast returned to act in the series in some capacity except for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who played Michelle Tanner. Both were offered the chance to return, but Ashley told executive producer Bob Boyett that she didn't "feel comfortable acting" after not being on camera since she was 17, while Mary-Kate felt that the timing wasn't right.

Years later, in an interview with Andy Cohen, Full House costar John Stamos explained that he was heartbroken when he first heard the news but totally understood. "We were disappointed, but we understood," he explained. "I remember Lori

13 Actors Who Refused To Return For Reboots