List of retroactive continuities

The following are examples of retroactive continuities (or retcons).

Film

• Creed (2015), the seventh entry of the Rocky film series which serves as a sequel and spin-off to 2006's Rocky Balboa (the sixth film), contains a major change into the continuity of the previous films. Creed establishes that during the events of Rocky IV, Rocky's friend and rival Apollo Creed had an affair that resulted in a woman's pregnancy shortly before his boxing match against Ivan Drago during which Apollo dies on the ring. Months after the fight, the woman gives birth to Adonis "Donnie" Creed, the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed. Donnie never meets his father and is the protagonist of the film Creed; furthermore the film reveals Apollo won the fight at the end of Rocky III implying that that is the reason why Apollo agreed to fight Ivan Drago.
• In Iron Man 2, Jon Favreau's son Max appears as a child wearing an Iron Man mask whom Stark saves from a drone. This was retroactively made the introduction of a young Peter Parker to the MCU, as confirmed in June 2017 by eventual Spider-Man actor Tom Holland, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts.
• In a flashback scene of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, it is revealed that Jack Sparrow's compass was given to him by the former captain of Wicked Wench. However, in the second installment of the franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Tia Dalma said that the compass was bartered by Jack from her. Moreover, the majority of the plotlines of the previous film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides were totally dismissed, leaving only the Black Pearl in the bottle. The fleet in the bottles of Blackbeard stolen by Mr. Gibbs never appears in the film.
• In Jurassic Park, most of the dinosaurs were genetically cloned in Isla Nublar, however in The Lost World it is revealed that Isla Sorna is the actual "factory floor" by shipping already cloned Dinos to Nublar.
  • After the events of the two films, Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler broke up which resulted Ellie to get married to Mark Degler in Jurassic Park III and had two children. But in Jurassic World: Dominion (set 20 years later) she and Mark got a divorce, resulting Ellie to restart her relationship with Alan.

Star Wars

Main article: Star Wars in other media

• Star Wars (1977) features Obi-Wan Kenobi telling Luke Skywalker that Anakin Skywalker (Luke's father) was betrayed and killed by Darth Vader. The sequel film The Empire Strikes Back (1980) has Vader reveal himself as Anakin Skywalker. George Lucas decided to merge the two characters while writing The Empire Strikes Back. The following film Return of the Jedi (1983) has Obi-Wan justifying his original description of Vader having "murdered" Anakin as being truth "from a certain point of view": from his point of view, when Anakin became Vader, he destroyed everything that was good about his former friend and apprentice. Similarly Princess Leia had been previously set as an upper-class romantic interest for the farm boy Luke, but in Empire Strikes Back Leia falls in love with Han Solo. In order to avoid a possible love triangle, Return of the Jedi reveals Leia as Luke Skywalker's twin sister (and therefore, daughter of Darth Vader). Lucas had originally planned Luke's sister to be a separate character, before deciding to accommodate her into the already established Leia.
• Rogue One (2016) explains the improbable vulnerability of the Death Star in A New Hope to small rebel ships as a consequence of deliberate sabotage on the part of Galen Erso, the key Death Star architect. The retcon was positively received.
• Boba Fett and Darth Maul both returned to life after ostensibly dying in previous films.
• Star Wars IX: Rise of Skywalker: In the final film, Rise of Skywalker, it is revealed that the smuggler-turned-Jedi Rey is the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine, who is revealed to be alive on the planet Exegol and secretly building a new Empire. The means of Palpatine's returned were only explained in a tie-in novel, a decision which received negative reception.
  • Screenrant noted that Darth Sidious should have been able to stop shooting the deflected lighting that was killing him, since his former apprentice Count Dooku was able to do so in Attack of the Clones, and that Darth Sidious should have been aware of the dangers of a lightsaber deflecting his Force lighting back at him, since Mace Windu deformed his face using the same technique in Revenge of the Sith.
  • Episode III: Revenge of the Sith established that the ability to become a Force ghost requires special training in life. As noted by website Screenrant, the return as a Force ghost by certain characters clearly contradicts how Force ghosts worked in the previous films, and brings into question why those characters did not appear during the events of the original trilogy. Qui-Gon is shown starting the training of Yoda to become a Force ghost, which required a complicated set of special trials, in the Season 6 finale of The Clone Wars animated series. According to Gizmodo, the technique took years to learn, and no one knew the ability other than the Force priestesses that originally taught the technique to Qui-Gon. The only characters to learn the technique from Qui-Gon were Yoda, Obi-wan, and possibly Luke, while Anakin was the only one who naturally achieved it without training.

Literature

• When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off his character Sherlock Holmes by plunging him to his death over the Reichenbach Falls with his nemesis Professor Moriarty, the public's demand for Holmes was so great that Doyle was compelled to bring him back to life in a subsequent story, where he explains that Holmes had merely faked his death.
• Though the term "retcon" did not yet exist when George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, the totalitarian regime depicted in that book is involved in a constant, large-scale retconning of records. For example, when it is suddenly announced that "Oceania was not after all in war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia and Eurasia was an ally" (Part Two, Ch. 9), there is an immediate intensive effort to change "all reports and records, newspapers, books, pamphlets, films, sound-tracks and photographs" and make them all record a war with Eastasia rather than one with Eurasia. Often it was enough to merely substitute one name for another, but any detailed report of events demanded care and imagination. Even the geographical knowledge needed in transferring the war from one part of the world to another was considerable.
• Although he is declared dead in Jurassic Park, Ian Malcolm returns in The Lost World. Malcolm was the most popular character in the first novel and Michael Crichton decided that he needed the character for the sequel.

Television

• In 2004, Coronation Street retconned the Baldwin family after Mike Baldwin's nephew Danny and wife Frankie moved to the area from Essex, with their two sons Jamie and Warren. Mike had been portrayed as an only child prior to this moment, with his father appearing in the program between 1980 and 1982 to confirm the notion.
• First of the Summer Wine, the prequel to the long-running British sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, retconned the character Seymour Utterthwaite as a pre-World War II friend of the other central characters. Seymour had been introduced into later series of Last of the Summer Wine and was previously unknown to the stalwart characters, Compo and Clegg.
• The revived series of British science fiction television program Doctor Who and its television spin-offs use retroactive continuity as a plot device.
  • Show runner Steven Moffat's fifth series finale depicted the Doctor rebooting the universe. In answer to a fan's question, Moffat tweeted: "The whole universe came exactly as it was. Except for any continuity errors I need to explain away".
  • In the sixth series, Moffat introduces new aliens the Silence, who erase the memory of someone in the moment when someone looks away. Commenting on this device, writer MaryAnn Johanson writes: "That could be happening throughout this story... indeed, through the entire history of Doctor Who. Moffat has just created a pretty much unassailable narratively sound reason for inserting retcons anywhere throughout the half-century history of the show".
  • In the seventh series finale, a previously unknown antihero incarnation of the Doctor known as the War Doctor appears in the show's 50th anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor". He is shown in the mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor" retroactively inserted into the show's fictional chronology between the Eighth and Ninth Doctors, although his introduction was written so as not to disturb the established numerical naming of the Doctors.
  • In the 50th anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor", Moffat revealed, that at the last instant of the Time War, the Doctor hid his war-torn home planet in time, rather than destroying it.
  • In the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, created by Russell T Davies, a drug used to erase the memory of characters is called "retcon"; the use of the drug is often referred to by characters as "retconning".
• In The Transformers Movie, most of the original Autobots were killed (including Optimus Prime) to make way for the new generation of Autobots (as well as new toys). But in season three of the show, Optimus was brought back to life.
  • In the show Autobots and Decepticons get shot in the series but survive by only getting injured, however they instantly get destroyed at the start of the movie.
• In G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Cobra Commander is identified as a human trying to take over the world with the help of his organization Cobra. However in it's film he is reveled to be part of the civilization of Cobra-La, sent by his master Golobulus to take over Earth so their empire will reinstate as the dominant race. Golobulus is also responsible for the creation of Serpentor, Cobra Commander's replacement. The events of the movie were later established within the second series.
  • At the same events of the movie, Duke appeared to have been killed by Serpentor, however due to the release of the Transformers movie, it was reconned that Duke was in a coma and woke up at the end of the film.
• In the animated series Code Lyoko, the Lyoko Warriors finally put a end of the evil virus X.A.N.A. However, in its live-action sequel Code Lyoko: Evolution, X.A.N.A. survived its destruction by hiding in a Replika created by Franz Hopper's former colleague who kidnapped Aelita's mother to steal his research from her. X.A.N.A. had also passed his code into the four Warriors so his Specters can retrieve them to regain power. Because the Supercomputer was reactivated for so long, the Forest and Ice Sector had been removed.
• In the Rick and Morty episode "Full Meta Jackrick", Rick sets free a character named Brett Caan (now later "Rhett Caan"), a villain from the Meta Reality that can rewrite reality such as making someone killed with coffee, making them born without bones and turning a fortress into a giant orange.

• Disney Junior and Ford Riley's The Lion Guard is a a sequel to The Lion King and a prequel to The Lion King 2:Simba's Pride. However, the show is a retconned spin-off and prequel by adding an incidental and unknown magical roar of the elders by a cub named Kion who is the son of Simba and Nala and younger brother of Kiara and prince of the Pride Lands and leader of the lion guard that was led by Scar (The Lion King). Despite Mufasa and Scar made a return i this series, The Lion Guard ignored the events the original film.

Video games

• The chronology of The Legend of Zelda series was subject to much debate among fans until an official timeline was printed in the collector's book Hyrule Historia, released in Japan on December 21, 2011. Hyrule Historia contains a universal timeline explaining the chronology of each game. This includes introducing a three-way split in the timeline after Ocarina of Time. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword helps explain the appearance of multiple versions of the characters Zelda, Link and Ganondorf across hundreds of years.
• The original Ninja Gaiden trilogy for the NES was followed years later by a new series of sequels produced by Team Ninja beginning with Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox in 2004. However, the second generation of Ninja Gaiden video games, being prequels to original series, has many differences from the NES trilogy. The character design of Ryu Hayabusa in the new games is now based on the Dead or Alive incarnation of the character with long hair and green eyes. The character design of Ryu's father, Ken Hayabusa, has been updated as well, with the character now being addressed in the English versions by his original name from the Japanese versions (Jo Hayabusa). Producer Tomonobu Itagaki has hinted at the possibility that Sonia, a character from the new games, might be Irene Lew from the original series. With the release of Dead or Alive: Dimensions in 2011, it has been revealed that Sonia is indeed Irene Lew.
• In Metal Gear, the character Big Boss serves as Solid Snake's commanding officer and is ostensibly revealed near the end of the game to also be the main antagonist. However, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain establishes that the version of Big Boss featured and eventually killed in Metal Gear is actually Venom Snake, a body double of the real Big Boss. The original Big Boss later becomes the antagonist of the series' second entry, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
• In the ending of 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic and Elise blow out the flame of Solaris, undoing all changes made by Iblis and causing the entire story to never happen, thus undoing all the inconsistencies the game's plot caused.
• In Jurassic Park: The Game, Dr. Laura Sorkin added Lysine to Jurassic Park's water supply so the dinosaurs will live longer and prevent them from dying from the Lysine contingency inside there genetic code.
• American McGee's Alice reconstructs Lewis Carroll's book into a grim adventure where Alice Liddell went insane after her family tragically died in a house fire, which leaves her the only survivor. Because of her damaged mind, she imagines twisted versions of the places and characters from the original book, with Wonderland under the tyrannical rule of the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter turning the populace into automatons, and the Duchess becoming a cannibal.
  • Alice: Madness Returns reveals that her family's death was not an accident but was caused by Alice's father's old colleague Dr. Angus Bumby, a renowned psychiatrist and secret child trafficker who started the fire to destroy evidence that he raped and killed Alice's oldest sister Lizzie. Taking advantage of Alice's insanity, he uses hypnosis to both erase her memories and turn her into one of his prostitutes. His influence manifests in Alice's mind as the Dollmaker, who conducts the Infernal Train to corrupt Wonderland in Ruin.
• In Sonic Frontiers, there are references to both Sticks the Badger and Tangle the Lemur, two characters who are outside of the games continuity, there are also callbacks to spinoff games like the Riders series, Storybook series and Team Sonic Racing.
• In Transformers: Devastation where it is set within the original G1 cartoon, rather than turning into a Walther P38 pistol, Megatron can now transform into a M1 Abrams battle tank.
• Within the adapted films in the Lego games, most scenes become comical and child friendly. These examples include Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, Jurassic Park, and the Marvel films.

Ignored sequels in various media

• The film Superman Returns continues the storylines of Superman and Superman II, while ignoring the events of Superman III, Supergirl and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Likewise, a comic based on the original series, Superman '78, acts as a direct sequel to the first two films, while disregarding all other films.
• Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) is the only entry in the series that does not feature the series antagonist Michael Myers, nor does it include story elements from either Halloween (1978) or Halloween II (1981). In fact, it treats the first film and, apparently, its sequel as fictional films, as one of the characters watches a trailer for the original during the film; additionally, the film's tagline is a reference to the tagline from the original as well. The film Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) is a direct sequel to Halloween and Halloween II, dismissing the events that take place in the sequels Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995). The subsequent film Halloween: Resurrection (2002) follows the new continuity of Halloween H20, but it retcons that film's ending in order to do so. The 2018 film Halloween is a direct sequel to the original film while disregarding other sequels and remake, and retcons the ending of the first film.
• In the Heisei and Millennium eras of the Godzilla film series, the events of the Showa era after the original film never happened. In particular, each film in the Millennium series – except for Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., which serves as the direct sequel to Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla – serves as a direct sequel to the original 1954 film.
• The Exorcist III is a sequel to The Exorcist and ignores the events of Exorcist II: The Heretic. In addition, two prequels, Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (which are not related to each other) are acting as a prequel to the original film on its own way and have no explicit relation to other films, establishing own narrative branches. A TV series based on the films, The Exorcist, acts as a direct sequel to the original film while ignoring all other films.
• Highlander II: The Quickening is a sequel to the first film, but its events are ignored by later films in the series. Similarly, Highlander: Endgame ignores the events of both Highlander II and Highlander III: The Sorcerer and only follows the events of the TV series, its spin-off Highlander: The Raven and the first film. Also, an animated series based on the films from 1994 acts as a sequel to the original film.
• Doom 3, the first reboot of the Doom series, disregards the events of the previous games.
• Return to Sleepaway Camp is a direct sequel to Sleepaway Camp, and ignores the events of Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland.
• Texas Chainsaw 3D and its prequel Leatherface follow the continuity of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, dismissing the events of the other sequels.
• A TV show in the Terminator franchise, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, acts as a direct sequel to the first two films, while ignoring other films. A fifth film, Terminator: Genisys, acts as a reboot and disregards all other films and TV show. A sixth film, Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), disregards the third, fourth, and fifth films, with only the original 1984 film and the first sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) considered canon. However, all the sequels after Judgment Day contradict a deleted scene epilogue of that film.
• Several films have own narrative following the events of the original film Universal Soldier while contradicting other films, like the two TV films Brothers in Arms and Unfinished Business; those films were later contradicted by the fourth film, The Return. Likewise, Universal Soldier: Regeneration is an alternative sequel to the original film, and ignores the events of The Return.
• Jaws: The Revenge, the fourth film in the Jaws franchise, is a direct sequel to Jaws 2 and ignores the events of Jaws 3-D. Likewise, a video game based on the films, Jaws Unleashed, acts as a direct sequel to the original film while ignoring other films.
• Blair Witch is a direct sequel to The Blair Witch Project and ignores the events of Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2.
• A Christmas Story 2 is a direct sequel to A Christmas Story and ignores the events of My Summer Story. In turn, A Christmas Story Christmas abandons this film and only follows the original film.
• Herbie: Fully Loaded is a direct sequel to the previous films and ignores the events of The Love Bug.
• Zeta Gundam: A New Translation, a film compilation retelling of the TV series, while having a similar ending, includes elements that intentionally leave no plausible room for the events of ZZ Gundam.
• Twisted Metal: Head-On is a direct sequel to Twisted Metal 2, and ignores the events of Twisted Metal III and Twisted Metal 4 and other installments.
• Batman '89 is an alternate continuation of Batman and Batman Returns, and ignores the events of Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.
• Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, the eighth main installment in the Crash Bandicoot series, is a direct sequel to Crash Bandicoot: Warped and ignores the events of every post-Naughty Dog game. Likewise, two Crash games and crossover game with Spyro from Spyro franchise for Game Boy Advance (The Huge Adventure, N-Tranced and Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage) act as a direct sequels to the first four mainline games while ignoring other sequels. Other spin-off games in other genres, racing or party games, are not strictly set in the same continuity of the main series.
• In Spyro franchise, three Spyro games and a crossover game with Crash Bandicoot for Game Boy Advance (Spyro: Season of Ice, Season of Flame, Attack of the Rhynocs and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy) act as a direct sequels to the first three Spyro games and ignore other sequels. The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning acts as a reboot and abandons all storylines from the previous games.
• Masters of the Universe: Revelation is a sequel to Filmation's He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and ignores the events of The New Adventures of He-Man.
• Lightyear is a spin-off of the Toy Story film series, and ignores the events of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
• The first two live-action Spider-Man film franchises have separate continuities which diverge from the original continuity. The original trilogy had a companion animated series, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, whose story was contradicted by the second and third films. Similarly, The Amazing Spider-Man duology has two video games based on the films, but their continuities are separate from the second film.
• The Ghostbusters franchise includes two animated television series, The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters, and a video game, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, whose continuities are all separate from the original films' direct sequel, Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
• In The Ring franchise, the original sequel to the first film, Rasen, was released in 1998 at the same time as the original film. Due to its poor reception, the film's story was later contradicted by two sequels directed by Hideo Nakata, Ring 2 and Sadako. Rasen was in turn followed by two sequels, Sadako 3D and Sadako 3D 2, which are set in alternate timeline. In addition, a prequel film Ring 0: Birthday follows Ring and Rasen timelines.
• Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie is set in a different continuity in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers due to the introduction of both Ivan Ooze and Mordant, the film also first introduced the Tengu Warriors, humanoid birds created by Ooze. However in the show they were actually a wedding present from Rita's younger brother Rito Revolto and are renamed "Tenga".

References

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