TV Shows With Time Jumps: ‘One Tree Hill, ‘Riverdale,’ More (2024)

Let’s do the time warp again! TV shows allow fans to take a deep dive into characters’ lives for an extended period, but sometimes the medium requires a jump forward to keep the story line moving.The Resident, for example, dealt with a shocking exit in August 2021 when Emily VanCamp chose to leave the Fox drama after starring for four seasons as Nic Nevin.“I spent so many years on network television, but then suddenly priorities shifted,” the actress told Deadline in October 2021, referring to the birth of her daughter, Iris, with husband Josh Bowman. “I think there comes a moment in every woman’s life — in every person’s life — where it becomes less about work and more about family, and that’s what happened while I was making the show.”As a result of VanCamp’s decision, her character was killed off, and the show jumped ahead three years to catch up with Nic’s widower, Conrad Hawkins (Matt Czuchry), and their daughter, Gigi, after they had mourned.[sendtonews type="float" key="qqMRnBF5Pu-2836636-14453"]“Conrad losing Nic is a terrible tragedy, and we felt like if we were going to tell a true story of grief, it would last for a really long time. And I don’t think we wanted to spend multiple episodes, 10, however long it takes for a man to lose the love of his life and the mother of his 9-month-old child. We felt like we would play the loss and the grief and the ‘What the hell just happened?’ for a couple of episodes and then do the time jump so we could find Conrad recovered, on the brink of, ready for whatever new version of his life there would be,” executive producer Peter Elkoff told Entertainment Tonight in October 2021. “It was really to avoid a prolonged grieving story because we wouldn’t want to shortchange it and have him suddenly, three episodes later, without jumping time being like, ‘No, I’m fine now.’”Some shows, on the other hand, have struggled with shifting beyond high school, so time jumps allow for new creative avenues and aging the characters to more closely match their portrayers. Riverdale, for instance, fast-forwarded seven years into the future in February 2021.“We did decide very quickly because all of the kids were seemingly going to different colleges and we didn’t want them to all go to, like, Riverdale University. And in terms of drama, for me, college is a less appealing version of high school stories,” creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told Entertainment Weekly at the time. “In terms of what we’re most excited about is that after four seasons of pretty elaborate, complicated storytelling, this time jump allows us to start with a clean slate, drop in the middle of stories and then have people catch up. And it allows us to play new dynamics.”Scroll through the gallery below to revisit TV shows that featured time jumps.[podcast_block]

The hit Netflix series jumped ahead during the season 3 finale after the core group found the City of Gold. Season 4 of Outer Banks is set to take place 18 months after the El Dorado treasure hunt.

The teen drama left high school behind for young adulthood and a new mystery in season 6, which aired in 2016. The Liars returned to Rosewood five years later to find themselves stalked by “A” all over again.

The young residents of Tree Hill spent four seasons in high school before a time jump took them four years into the future in the 2008 season 5 premiere. The move gave the series new life, throwing curveballs at the core couples, establishing careers for the group and changing up the status quo.

The AMC drama jumped ahead six years after Andrew Lincoln departed in 2018 during season 9. The remaining characters mourned Rick Grimes off camera, while several new faces joined the show to offset the loss.

The CW show bypassed a whopping seven years in season 5, taking the characters from high school to their mid-20s in the blink of an eye. Fan-favorite couples broke up and everyone moved away from Riverdale, but that did not stop them from returning to save the town they grew up in.

The NBC sitcom shifted three years into the future for its final season, which aired in 2015. The jump brought new mysteries to the table — the reason for Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and Ron Swanson’s (Nick Offerman) feud, for one — and allowed the characters to develop more before saying goodbye.

The final season of the Showtime drama introduced Joanie Lockhart (Anna Paquin), the daughter of Alison Bailey (Ruth Wilson) and Cole Lockhart (Joshua Jackson), in 2019 after the former series regulars’ exits. The ambitious idea required the show to jump 30 years into the future.

Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) did not know what had hit her at the end of season 2 in 2003 when she woke up in Hong Kong with amnesia and discovered that her boyfriend, Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan), married someone else during the two years she was missing. Fans were taken on a wild journey as they learned alongside the spy what happened during her time away.

The show had to deal with a dilemma after Nic died, leaving behind Conrad and their baby. A time jump three years into the future allowed the family to grieve before moving on with their own stories.

The CW series pulled off one of its signature twists in season 3 after Michael Cordero (Brett Dier) died suddenly in a 2016 episode. A time jump saw his widow, Jane Villanueva (Gina Rodriguez), getting on with her life three years later, ensuring that the show did not lose the comedic tone for which it was beloved.

The final season, which premiered in 2018, fast-forwarded three years to show Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel) and her friends finally stepping into adulthood and leaving the loft behind.

The ABC drama shook things up at the end of season 4 in 2008 by jumping ahead five years to introduce new characters as well as new relationships and careers for the ladies of Wisteria Lane.

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