History Main / BackForTheFinale

** Tony's funeral, in addition to his close friends and family and the other heroes who fought in the climax, also features Happy Hogan, Aunt May, Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, Thaddeus Ross, Maria Hill, Nick Fury, and even Harley from ''Film/IronMan3'' in attendance, most of whom hadn't appeared earlier in the film.

** Tony's funeral, in addition to his close friends and family and the other heroes who fought in the climax, also features Aunt May, Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, Thaddeus Ross, Maria Hill, Nick Fury, and even Harley from ''Film/IronMan3'' in attendance, most of whom hadn't appeared earlier in the film.

* Almost everyone who hasn't died in one of the previous games, [[spoiler:and several who have,]] return for the GrandFinale of the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series: ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4''.
** This aspect of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' deserves a specific mention: [[spoiler: Big Boss]] is back. The credits begin to roll on a decidedly [[DownerEnding somber note]] and then they pause on [[spoiler:"Richard Doyle - Big Boss".]] The player is given about three seconds to think, "Wait, I don't recall seeing him in -" and then bam, [[spoiler: he's standing in the graveyard with Snake.]] He comes back for the finale of the finale and [[spoiler:turns Snake's specific downer ending into more of a [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet one]]]].

* ''Anime/PokémonTheSeries'':

* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'':

** By the GrandFinale of Ash's journey in ''Aim to be a Pokemon Master'', [[spoiler: all of Ash's released Pokemon except Primeape return, with the very last episode featuring the return of Pidgeot]]. Additionally, Misty, Brock, Cilan, and Gary all reunite with Ash, with the former two traveling with him for most of the miniseries, marking the first time since Johto that they have been the main team together.

Not to be confused with LastEpisodeNewCharacter, where character appears for the first time in the finale. When ''everybody'' comes back, it's a ContinuityCavalcade. Can overlap with ChekhovsGunman, if the returning character previously had a very minor role in the plot but ends up playing a large part in the climax of the story, or ClimacticBattleResurrection, if they not only return to the story, but also return to life.

* ''VideoGame/TheReconstruction'' has this, though it's done in a rather depressing manner. [[spoiler:Yacatec]] appears in the final dungeon as [[PoeticJustice a slave]], and helps you get through said dungeon after you free him.

** The climatic final battle [[AvengersAssemble assembles]] almost every hero and ally the Avengers have ever made include the [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 Sorcerers]], [[Film/{{Thor}} Asgardians]], [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 Ravagers]], and [[Film/BlackPanther2018 Wakandan warriors]], on top of individual superheroes.

** During Ash's final major battle in ''Journeys'', [[spoiler:''all'' of the Pokémon who traveled with Ash appear in a vision to cheer for Pikachu, including released Pokémon[[note]]Butterfree, Pidgeot, Lapras, Goodra, Greninja and Naganadel[[/note]]), Pokémon they haven't seen for ages[[note]]Squirtle and Primeape[[/note]], Pokémon Ash traded away[[note]]Ambipom[[/note]], and even Pokémon that weren't caught[[note]]Larvitar and Solgaleo[[/note]] The only major exceptions were the Haunter that stayed with Sabrina, and the Beedrill he caught for Casey]].

* ''Manga/SoulHunter'': In the final battle, Genshitenson does a ritual to open up the Hounshindai and release all of the souls of the characters who were sent there [[GondorCallsForAid to lend their soul energy]] to Taikobou[[spoiler:/Fukki]] and confront [[spoiler:Jyoka.]]

* ''ComicBook/MilestoneForever'', a two-issue miniseries that served as a belated conclusion to the original Creator/MilestoneComics continuity, brings back some characters who hadn't appeared in a while, most notably Rift from the ''ComicBook/{{Worlds Collide|1994}}'' crossover event and Static's enemy Hotstreak, who changes his codename to Firewheel.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'':
** Darkseid's return set up the two part series finale "Alive!/Destroyer", which had Martian Manhunter's return in the final episode. Many more characters had cameos throughout the two-parter.
** The SeriesFauxnale episode "Epilogue" served as the finale to ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', and featured the return of several characters from throughout the timeline of both Batmen: the fictional hero "The Grey Ghost", Andrea Beaumont, the Phantasm, Amanda Waller, the Royal Flush Gang, Inque, Shriek, Stalker, Terry's parents Warren and Mary, and Dana Tan.

* Like it's parent series, in the spin-off ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaPresentsTheRidonculousRace'', everybody comes back for the finale.

* The final episode of [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 the 2003]] ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 series]] had all of the Turtles' friends show up for [[RelationshipUpgrade Casey and April's wedding]]. They came in mighty handy when [[WeddingSmashers Cyber-Shredder decided to crash the party.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters2002'' was the DreamMatchGame serving as the wrap-up for the NESTS Chronicles story arc of [[Franchise/TheKingOfFighters the franchise]]. To coincide with the return back to the Orochi Saga's trademark "3-on-3" format, several characters that had never been playable in any of the NESTS Chronicles trilogy (more specifically, [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Yashiro, Chris and Shermie]], [[LovelyAngels Mature and Vice]], and perhaps the biggest name of all, [[SNKBoss Rugal Bernstein]]) all returned to the roster of ''2002''.

* Several ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' characters invoked the trope in the finale: Shendu, Valmont (TheCameo), Finn, Ratso, Chow, Hak Foo and that's just counting the villains. Fortunately none of them was working for Drago in the episode.

** The climatic final battle [[AvengersAssemble assembles]] almost every hero and ally the avengers have ever made include the [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 Sorcerers]], [[Film/{{Thor}} Asgardians]], [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 Ravagers]], and [[Film/BlackPanther2018 Wakandan warriors]], on top of individual superheroes.

* In the last few chapters of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' [[spoiler:Chao Lingshin returns from the future]].

** In their final major appearance following Ash, Team Rocket are reunited with [[spoiler: all of their Pokemon stationed at Team Rocket HQ. This results in the first time either Jessie or James have a full team of their own six Pokemon, and their most successful scheme to capture Pikachu, only being foiled by [[UsefulNotes/DidntSeeThatComing an unknown unknown Latias]].

!!As this is an [[EndingTropes Ending Trope]], unmarked spoilers abound. Beware!

* ''Series/TheHungerGames'': In a morbid example, the Muttations sent to attack the last of the tributes in the final battle of the Games are made to resemble the tributes who had already fallen.