How to Replace a Character in Your Cast (Without Irritating Readers)
Have you ever watched a show or read a series in which a character ends up replaced–whether the original character dies or goes off on their own adventure, and their place is taken by someone new–and the transition leaves you with a strong distaste for the new character? “What do you mean this is who’s replacing so-and-so?” Yeah, me too. But I recently saw a transition like this done well in Leverage (this post will include some season 2 spoilers), so I decided to analyze what made this cast replacement work when so many others simply leave viewers or readers irritated. Here’s what I came away with.
Know What Purpose and Role Your Character Serves
Before you can effectively replace a character, you need to know what it really is you’re replacing. Every character should have a certain purpose and role in the story–one that you have a clear understanding of, even if your reader only picks it up on a subconscious level. Generally, when you’re considering replacing a character, you’re replacing a member of a team, which means that their purpose and role within that team should be part of their overall purpose and role within the story.
For the sake of this post, I’m going to define your character’s “purpose” as their external, plot-focused function in the story. To use the example from Leverage, Sophie is the actress/con woman on a team of criminals. She’s the one who sells their cons.
“Role,” then, is the character’s emotional function–where the character fits in with the rest of the story’s cast. Sophie is the team’s “grifter,” but she’s also a bit of a “motherly” or “big sisterly” figure; she’s the one the rest of the team goes to for emotional support, and she’s the one most likely to call them out when they’re being stupid or failing to take proper care of themselves (which she does in a mostly nurturing sort of way).
For a less episodic example, so we can look at a more over-arching story purpose instead of one that’s somewhat “fresh” every episode, let’s take Nyla from the Lightning duology as a character study. Her “purpose” is to provide a working, thought-out plan of escape from Grantech; she’s called upon to balance out Erika’s impulsiveness and ensure they don’t get themselves in worse trouble than they started in. Her “role” is as the best friend/confidante, the one who provides encouragement and empathy to those around her.
It’s important to know your character’s purpose and role, because it’s critical to know what you’re removing from the story by taking them out of the picture (whether temporarily or permanently). If you’re not clear on the purpose and role you’re leaving empty, your replacement character might end up filling a completely different space and leaving the original character’s space empty–which can leave readers dissatisfied. It’s important to know both, because some replacement characters will only fill an original role or purpose–which can be used to your advantage, as we’ll look at next.
Leave a Gap
While your new character shouldn’t neglect the space left behind by the original character, it’s also important to recognize that your original cast member is unique and your reader doesn’t want that character treated as replaceable. Your character should fulfill their role and purpose in a unique way (as should their replacement), therefore there should be some gap between what the old character accomplishes and what the new character accomplishes, and you should leave space for your readers–and other characters–to acknowledge and mourn the loss of the original character. It’s also important to recognize that your replacement cast member should be unique and shouldn’t even be able to fill the role in the exact same way the original character did.
There are a couple of ways to do this. You could create a replacement character who can fill the original character’s purpose or their role–not both. Or you could create a replacement character who does fill both the purpose and role left behind… but in a very different way than the original character did.
In Leverage, Sophie is replaced by Tara. Tara is another grifter, so she’s able to fill Sophie’s “purpose,” and she’s assigned to look out for the team so that Sophie’s “role” isn’t neglected either. However, her style of work is very different, she’s a lot more bossy, and her lack of connection with the team means she can tell them when they’re being stupid but she’s much less personal about it. Tara fulfills the needs of the story–and of the team–so that it doesn’t completely fall apart as soon as Sophie leaves, but she is no replacement for Sophie on an emotional level, whether for the characters or the viewer. The critical thing is that the writers don’t try to make her one. The writers let Sophie be Sophie and Tara be Tara, and they leave the other characters to handle the change in a realistic way, acknowledging Tara’s strengths as well as acknowledging where Sophie is missed–which allows the viewer to do the same.
The key to an effective cast swap is to make the original character and their replacement similar but different–the function within the team still needs to be filled, but the replacement should fill it in their own unique way–and to acknowledge that in the way that other characters respond.
Let Other Characters Fill In
The weight of filling the gap left behind by the original character shouldn’t fall solely on the replacement’s shoulders; other established characters should fill in some of the needs left behind, also.
Existing cast members have the benefit of familiarity with the original character and with their role and function in the group; they should begin to fill that space among themselves even without the help of the replacement–even if they try and fail in doing so.
One of Sophie’s key roles in Leverage is to keep Nate from going off the deep end. The whole team knows this, which means that when she leaves, the other members of the team try to contribute to keeping Nate on track. They’re not especially effective, which contributes to the acknowledgment that Sophie had a unique part to play in the cast, but it shows that the characters understand what’s needed and what is lost when Sophie leaves, and they do their best to fill in the space left behind.
Letting other characters fill in takes some of the pressure off of the replacement character to be exactly as likable and effective as the character they’re replacing; it gives readers more grace for the new character (though, obviously, they should still be a strong character in their own right!), reducing the chances of readers automatically hating the replacement because they’re the replacement. It also provides an opportunity to stretch the other members of the cast and show growth in them, as they branch into new purposes and roles, and can strengthen the cast’s bonds with one another.
Be Mindful of Time
Sometimes, writers replace a beloved character with someone new and essentially ask the reader to, “Just wait! You’ll see that they’re not that bad! You’ll come to love them!” (Often the replacement character is much more obnoxious and/or abrasive than the original, which is an additional hurdle, but I digress.) Truthfully, they’re often right; often, those writers do have a plan to endear the replacement character to the reader or viewer, and eventually the new character comes to be just as (or almost as) beloved as the character they replaced.
But, the longer it takes the reader to adjust to a replacement character, the more the initial bitter taste will linger when the reader thinks back on the transition (and the replacement character), even if they eventually come to accept the new character.
The Flash TV show was really bad about introducing obnoxious characters to the team and making viewers put up with them for episodes upon episodes before those characters finally mellowed out. Some of them I never got around to liking, but one who did eventually win me over was Ralph. He was the worst when he first came on, and he took forever to mellow out. Thinking back on the show, I know and remember that I came to appreciate his character eventually, but he’s still stuck in my head as that character they forced in when he was super annoying. My feelings about him as an addition to the cast are overall not positive, even though I ultimately came to like him.
Tara, on the other hand, established herself very quickly as a character who was not Sophie, didn’t do things the way Sophie did, but fulfilled the purposes the team (and the show) needed her to fulfill. She was established as a “replacement” who was yet her own character, which made her much easier to warm up to much more quickly.
The smoother you can make the transition between one character and another, the more positive the reader will feel about that transition (and the new character) as a whole
Those are my tips for effectively swapping out characters in the cast of your story: know what you’re replacing, don’t make the replacement exact, let other characters fill in, and be mindful of the time you require of your readers to adjust.
Have you ever had to replace a character in a series? Do you have plans to do so in the future? Which tip did you find most helpful? Comment your thoughts below!
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