Where is Charlie in The Santa Clauses Season 2?

The Santa Clauses Season 2 has seen the return of Tim Allen’s Scott Calvin just in time for Christmas – but you may be wondering: where the hell is Charlie?

Allen first donned the cozy red-and-whites in 1994’s The Santa Clauses, which put him in a festively sticky spot: after Santa falls off his roof and dies, he unwittingly takes on the mantle of Father Christmas.

The movie was a big success, eventually spawning two largely forgotten sequels, The Santa Clause 2 and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, before last year’s sequel series on Disney Plus (you can read our earlier one-star review here).

Now, the show has returned for a second season, with Scott training his kids to take over the North Pole after his retirement, not to mention the emergence of “the Mad Santa.” However, there’s a notable absence this time around: where is Charlie?

Charlie’s absence in The Santa Clauses Season 2 explained

Charlie isn’t in The Santa Clauses Season 2 for two simple reasons: Eric Lloyd has essentially retired from acting, and Charlie has no place in the story anymore.

Lloyd reprised his role briefly in the first season, with Scott paying his son (now married with children of his own) a visit to ask him if he’d consider succeeding him as Santa. He’s flattered, but turns his dad down. “The North Pole is not the right place to raise kids. The job is not conducive to being an engaged parent,” he says.

In an earlier interview with TVLine, the show’s creator Jack Burditt explained how they wanted to follow-up with Charlie as an adult, but he was never going to be in it for the long haul.

“We certainly talked a lot about whether it should be Charlie who is the successor… Charlie just seemed like too good of an answer, and it’s too easy of a transition,” he said.

Executive producer Jason Winer added: “On a practical level, Eric Lloyd has retired as an actor. He has a whole other career and a whole other life, so we reached out to him and kind of convinced him to rejoin us and to make an appearance for this crucial, pivotal moment in the story.”

Instead, Season 2 sees Scott focusing his efforts on teaching Cal (Austin Kane) how to be Santa, while Sandra (Elizabeth Allen-Dick) will take on a similar role to David Krumholtz’s Bernard.

The Santa Clauses Season 2 is streaming on Disney Plus now, which you can sign up for here.