History Main / HijackedByGanon

* The ''Film/JamesBond'' movie ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' features the return of SPECTRE, the NebulousEvilOrganization from the early Bond films and later novels. The movie reveals that SPECTRE was the true power behind, or was at least strongly connected to, QUANTUM, the organization whose agents served as the villains of the first two Craig-era movies, ''Film/{{Casino Royale 2006}}'' and ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'', as well as Raoul Silva from ''Film/{{Skyfall}}''. However, this trope only applies out-of-universe. The soft ContinuityReboot that occurred in ''Casino Royale'' means that this is the first time James Bond fights SPECTRE in this continuity.

* ''Film/ResidentEvilRetribution'' has [[AIIsACrapshoot the Red Queen]], who was previously deactivated at the end of the first movie and was revived presumably between ''Film/ResidentEvilExtinction'' and ''Film/ResidentEvilAfterlife''.

* In the Creator/YoungAnimal run of ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'', reality-warping villainess Terry None turns out to be the daughter of, and frontwoman for, the team's long-standing enemy [[spoiler:Mr. Nobody]].

** In the first arc of Creator/JamesTynionIV's ''ComicBook/{{Batman|JamesTynionIV}}'' run, "His Dark Designs", the main villain is a new foe, the Designer. Having defeated his own archnemesis before Batman even got started, he came up with a plan to take over Gotham City by using other big-name villains to do his dirty work: Penguin would have every politician in Gotham executed and become Mayor himself, Riddler would take over the city's infrastructure, Catwoman would steal Bruce Wayne's fortune, Joker would kill Batman and Robin, and in the new Gotham, all of them would work for him. Unfortunately for him, the Joker had his own plan in mind, and killed him off-screen before puppeteering his corpse with nanites. As Riddler and Penguin went through with their parts of the scheme, Joker used Catwoman's to become a billionaire, take Bruce Wayne's assets, and kick off the next arc, "ComicBook/TheJokerWar". This also bled into the final storyline of ''ComicBook/NightwingRebirth'', in which the Court of Owls give Dick/Ric Grayson FakeMemories so he'll become a new Talon, but then the Joker suddenly turns up and uses the same method to turn Dick into ''his'' sidekick, Dicky-Boy. This continues over in the first major storyline after the ''ComicBook/DCFutureState'' hiatus. In the aftermath of The Joker War and A-Day, Simon Saint begins pushing his super-armored protectorate, the Magistrate, to make Gotham a safe place free from costumed crime and vigilantes. He does this by working with other groups and one special villain, the Scarecrow. In a case of ForWantOfANail, where in ''Future State'', Scarecrow willingly got himself arrested and was "reformed", as seen in the ''Harley Quinn'' portion of ''Future State'', Scarecrow realizes that Gotham is in such a level of fear that there's no way he can just surrender and hijacks the plan, setting up "ComicBook/FearState".

Maybe that [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Zant]] guy?]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRunDawnOfTheNugget'' at first sets up Dr. Fry as the new BigBad, being responsible for the mind control collars and all the operations at Fun-Land Farms, with Reginald Smith of Sir Eat-A-Lot as the GreaterScopeVillain. Then halfway into the film, Dr. Fry introduces Smith to his wife, Mrs. Melisha Tweedy, the original BigBad of the [[WesternAnimation/ChickenRun first film]] and the real brains behind the new farm.

* Substitute Ganon with Takhisis and you have the entire ''War of Souls'' trilogy in the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' series.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':

* In ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'', Dr. Doom has pulled this '''twice''' to date: in the ''Ultimate Power'' miniseries and in ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'' vol. 3 ''. Which is weird, because he doesn't have nearly as much cred as his [[MarvelUniverse 616]] counterpart, and except for those two instances, no one besides the Fantastic Four has dealt with him...but there you have it. The former kind of worked, the latter...[[AssPull not so much]].

* In ''Film/GhostbustersAfterlife'', Gozer, having been defeated in the [[Film/{{Ghostbusters}} first film]], is the mastermind behind the Summerville crisis. There is a RedHerring with Ivo Shandor being the potential new BigBad, but Gozer splits him apart (literally) to be the main villain alone.

* ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014'': Thought [[CanonForeigner brand-new]] villain [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Eric Sacks]] was the BigBad? Nope! He's just a figurehead for the Turtles' most famous ArchEnemy, the Shredder.

* TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings Gold Edition story arc introduced Daigotsu, the mysterious new lord of the Shadowlands. Daigotsu was able to dispatch the venerable powerhouse characters Toturi and Kyoso no Oni with ease and brought with him never-before-seen monsters such as the Tsuno and Onisu. He even managed to level Rokugan's capital city of Otosan Uchi...at which point he released [[GodOfEvil Fu Leng]], the setting's de facto BigBad from the realm of the dead and who then took on the role of the arc's FinalBoss. Interestingly, Daigotsu played an indirect role in Fu Leng's defeat thanks to [[MagnificentBastard Hantei Naseru]] running a successful BatmanGambit on the latter regarding the former's loyalty.
* TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering had some sets in which [[BigBad Nicol Bolas]] ended up being behind the plane's big plot. This involvement is no secret for the audience, who can see it plainly, but for people on those worlds he is often an OutsideContextVillain. Some examples:

* In ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'', Godzilla is presented as the BigBad, having done a FaceHeelTurn and is attacking random cities unprovoked. This necessitates Kong being sent after him as a means of stopping his rampage. However, the reason ''for'' said rampage ends up not being as random as it may seem. That reason being that [[EvilInc Apex Industries]] is constructing their ''own'' kaiju, [[EvilKnockoff Mecha-Godzilla]], and they're using the remains of '''''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 King Ghidorah]]''''' both for the robot itself and its neural interface; Godzilla's attacks on the company were his way of trying to prevent his ArchEnemy from being reborn. Naturally, Ghidorah takes full control of his new mechanical body and re-assumes his role as the BigBad, requiring an EnemyMine from Kong and Godzilla to take him out once and for all.

* Makuta from ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' got into the habit of this. After the Bohrok arc, it was revealed that he released them in the first place to buy time to recover from his prior defeat. In Metru Nui, he was the mysterious mastermind behind everything. And then when a group of thugs called the Piraka went after a treasure called the Mask of Life, we eventually found that Makuta manipulated them into doing so. Most of the other arcs, though, stated up front that Makuta was at least in charge of the other villains even if he didn't appear personally (with two exceptions - he was unaffiliated with the Barraki, and even quietly supported the heroes against them for his own reasons; and in the first arc on Bara Magna he just plain wasn't involved).

* In 2003 WWE, Sean O'Haire was starting a [[TheCorrupter Corrupter]][=/=]Devil's Advocate gimmick, where he would tell people to do unusual or outrageous things, topping it off with his CatchPhrase, "I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know." On the February 6th ''[=SmackDown!=]'' he convinced [[Wrestling/LondonAndKendrick Brian Kendrick]] to streak after A-Train {{Squash|Match}}ed Shannon Moore. On the March 13th show, he convinced Wrestling/DawnMarie, a {{Heel}} herself, to "flash" the crowd[[note]]This was the same night that Wrestling/TorrieWilson, Wrestling/StacyKeibler, and Wrestling/{{Nidia}} all appeared on the ''Girls Gone Wild'' [=PPV=], though none of them actually got naked. Dawn had tape over her breasts and the rope was in the way.[[/note]] Then [[Wrestling/RoddyPiper "Rowdy" Roddy Piper]] returned to WWE during the Wrestling/HulkHogan vs. Vince [=McMahon=] match at ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}} XIX'' on March 30th as a heel, attacking both guys. O'Haire got turned into Piper's lackey as part of the whole ridiculous feud with Hogan[=/=]Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon[=/=][[Characters/WWERuthlessAggression Zach Gowen]] vs. Vince/Piper/Wrestling/{{Sable}}[=/=]O'Haire[=/=]A-Train[=/=]Wrestling/TheBigShow and maybe some other people. Even after Piper was fired in June, O'Haire never really got any kind of chance to revisit the gimmick and left in 2004.

* This is very common in ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin'' mods. Ever since WordOfGod and Week 6 revealed that Daddy Dearest is much more than just a OverprotectiveDad, and has actually screwed over people in the past ([[GreaterScopeVillain even responsible for some of the weeks in the full game]]), it's become very common to be revealed in mods that the opponent has been in some way screwed over by Daddy Dearest, and it often involves him trying to get revenge. Just some include [[VideoGame/VsWhitty Whitty]], [[VideoGame/SmokeEmOutStruggle Garcello]], [[VideoGame/VsTabiExBoyfriend Tabi]] and [[VideoGame/FridayNightFunkinENTITY A.G.O.T.I.]]. Jack from ''VideoGame/TheImpostorBoyfriendSaga'' is a rather unique example, as he was hired by Daddy Dearest to kill Boyfriend (much like Pico) rather than having his life screwed over by him.

** ''Film/{{Solo}}'' deals with Han Solo, Chewbacca, Lando, and several other smuggler allies having to do a heist job for Dryden Vos, the public leader of the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate. The inner workings of Crimson Dawn are left vague for most of the story (largely because they're too much of TheDreaded for anyone with half a brain to dig into that), but a climactic scene reveals that the syndicate's true leader and the superior to Dryden Vos is none other than Darth Maul, the Sith Lord introduced in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace''. His survival [[ContinuityLockOut having been previously explained in]] ''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars The Clone Wars]]'' series.

'''Prologue:''' Errrrmmm, no reason. [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial Here's a totally unrelated plot]]. [[SpoilerCover Also try not to look at the box art]].

** ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' has Palpatine (who's BackFromTheDead) as BigBad, with him revealing how he's [[MemeticMutation somehow returned]] and been behind Snoke and what happened to Ben Solo (now Kylo Ren) all along.

'''Prologue:''' Errrrmmm, no reason. Here's a totally unrelated plot. Also try not to look at the box art.

** ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' has Palpatine (who's BackFromTheDead) as BigBad, with him revealing how he's [[MemeticMutation somehow retirned]] and been behind Snoke and what happened to Ben Solo (now Kylo Ren) all along.

** ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' has Palpatine (who's BackFromTheDead) as BigBad, with him revealing he's been behind Snoke and what happened to Ben Solo (now Kylo Ren) all along.

** In the first arc of Creator/JamesTynionIV's ''ComicBook/{{Batman|JamesTynionIV}}'' run, "His Dark Designs", the main villain is a new foe, the Designer. Having defeated his own archnemesis before Batman even got started, he came up with a plan to take over Gotham City by using other big-name villains to do his dirty work: Penguin would have every politician in Gotham executed and become Mayor himself, Riddler would take over the city's infrastructure, Catwoman would steal Bruce Wayne's fortune, Joker would kill Batman and Robin, and in the new Gotham, all of them would work for him. Unfortunately for him, the Joker had his own plan in mind, and killed him off-screen before puppeteering his corpse with nanites. As Riddler and Penguin went through with their parts of the scheme, Joker used Catwoman's to become a billionaire, take Bruce Wayne's assets, and kick off the next arc, "Comicbook/TheJokerWar". This also bled into the final storyline of ''Comicbook/NightwingRebirth'', in which the Court of Owls give Dick/Ric Grayson FakeMemories so he'll become a new Talon, but then the Joker suddenly turns up and uses the same method to turn Dick into ''his'' sidekick, Dicky-Boy. This continues over in the first major storyline after the ''ComicBook/DCFutureState'' hiatus. In the aftermath of The Joker War and A-Day, Simon Saint begins pushing his super-armored protectorate, the Magistrate, to make Gotham a safe place free from costumed crime and vigilantes. He does this by working with other groups and one special villain, the Scarecrow. In a case of ForWantOfANail, where in ''Future State'', Scarecrow willingly got himself arrested and was "reformed", as seen in the ''Harley Quinn'' portion of ''Future State'', Scarecrow realizes that Gotham is in such a level of fear that there's no way he can just surrender and hijacks the plan, setting up "ComicBook/FearState".

* In ''Comicbook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse'', the Phantom Blot sometimes does this, since he's a DiabolicalMastermind with a penchant for working from behind the scenes as either a HiddenVillain or a ManBehindTheMan. In one story, Mickey offered his services as a detective to a movie producer who seemed to be bothered by aliens. It turned out the whole thing was really a conspiracy by his various employees against him for being such a JerkAss, but the Phantom Blot was the one running the show. (He wanted to stop the making of a movie based on true events in which he had lost to Mickey.) In another, old story, the Blot was in prison, but the antagonist was an EvilGenius who Mickey suspected right away, and correctly, to be one of the Blot's subordinates. In a third story, the ''old'' villain Black Pete was acting really strangely while going out robbing things even though he was supposedly demonstrably in prison. It turned out the Blot had hypnotised both Pete and the prison warden as a RedHerring as part of a bigger plan.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' fan season ''FanFic/TotalDramaLuxuryTour'' briefly sets up Alejandro, who was the BigBad of the season immediately before it, as the main antagonist for the first few chapters. Then he's voted off pretty early thanks to Noah, and for the majority of the story following that, Duncan is geared towards being the villain. And ''then'' Alejandro simply ''bribes'' his way back on the game, [[TookALevelInJerkass takes a serious level in jerkass]], and takes over as the main villain, especially after Duncan himself is eliminated near the end.
* ''FanFic/TheEquestrianWindMage'' actually [[InvertedTrope inverts]] this in regards to the {{Trope Namer|s}} -- while Ganon is the main apparent threat in Season 2, it's only because [[GreaterScopeVillain Majora's]] followers engineer his awakening in Equestria instead of Hyrule so that A) he'll be out of their way, B) he'll serve as a distraction to Equestria's heroes, and C) they will deal with him and eliminate the competition for them. Also, it's repeatedly mentioned that Ganon is ultimately just a puppet of Demise's reincarnated hatred. During the FinalBattle, Demise is resurrected out of Ganon, acting as the TrueFinalBoss.
* ''FanFic/WarAndPeaceInMind'': With [[{{Technopath}} Royal Pain]] locked up, the hero community turn to the AcademyOfEvil she already had in place as their [[BigBad main crisis target]], along with its secretive Headmaster. When the heroes finally meet him, it turns out Royal Pain had made an ArtificialIntelligence in her own likeness to run the school.
* The ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' fanfic ''FanFic/TheCitadelOfTruth'' sets Astrum up as the BigBad of the fic with The Lich being defeated and turned into one of the Shards Of Evil early in the plot. But once Astrum makes his HeelFaceTurn, all of a sudden The Lich turned out be alive and quite well as he proceeds to hijack the plot and becomes the FinalBoss of the fan fiction.

* ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'': While each volume has its own set of antagonists, the White Queen will always be revealed to be behind it all. Justified: she's the strongest being in the setting, so any scheme worth the name will involve her in some capacity. Meanwhile, the Queen is completely obsessed with [[TheHero Kyousuke]], so she goes along with any plan that will let her encounter him.

* The ''Quintessential Phase'' of ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' gave Vann Harl the first name "Zarniwoop" and made him a Vogon (one of the aliens that destroyed Earth in the beginning). In the books Vann Harl and Zarniwoop were two unrelated villains with no specified race.

* The "Army Of One" storyline in ''[[WebComic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja Dr McNinja]]'', where the antagonist(s) seem to be a bunch of sky pirates who have kidnapped a clone of Doc, but the whole thing is really a plot by Frans "I was pretty sure you were dead" Rayner, the main villain of the D.A.R.E. plotline from years ago.

* In ''Film/GhostbustersAfterlife'', Gozer, having been defeated in the [[Film/{{Ghostbusters}} first film]], is the mastermind behind the Summerville crisis. There is a RedHerring with Ivan Shandor being the potential new BigBad, but Gozer splits him apart (literally) to be the main villain alone.