History Main / LoadsandLoadsOfCharacters

* ''Fanfic/PokemonCrossingFlyMeToTheMoon'': According to the authoress, ''every'' VideoGame/AnimalCrossing character is going to appear before the fic ends (as in, 480 animal villagers). And the important NPCs. And several canon foreigners. Yeah, it's a huge cast.

* ''Fanfic/ShatteredSkiesTheMorningLights'' is a MagicalGirl CrisisCrossover featuring the casts of ''Franchise/SailorMoon'', ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'', the first ten ''Franchise/PrettyCure'' continuities, ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'', and ''Franchise/MadokaMagica'' uniting against a common threat. Even with much of the casts pared down due to the villains' actions, there are still nearly a dozen ''main'' characters, hailing from each of the five universes.

See also CrowdedCastShot and LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces. May result in/from YouAllShareMyStory. Can contribute to ContinuityLockout in LongRunners. Compare RevolvingDoorCasting and HeroesUnlimited. The inversion of this trope is MinimalistCast. We have an article on [[SoYouWantTo/WriteLoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters how to write this variety of character roster]].

* Any Hunger Games fanfic in the "victors before Katniss and Peeta" subgenre (popularized by Fanfic/TheVictorsProject) will commonly invoke this trope. There's at least 73 Victors (75 if Katniss and Peeta are brought up), then their opponents and possibly their family/friends, then other Capitol and District citizens, then District Thirteen and other outside entities (should the author include them)...

* ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace''. [[KingArthur Arthurian myth]], being made of various legends and ballads bolted together by Malory, has Loads And Loads Of Characters and AKOTAS includes most of them. (And the others are probably due to be introduced later.) Lampshaded [[http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/2120.htm here]]

* The ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'', as of May 2021, currently has 34 main members of the SMP, each with their own unique POV, while discounting the sheer number of side characters played by the main content creators, pets, and [[OneShotCharacter one-off characters]] unique to the spin-off ''Tales From the SMP''.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' has expanded into something of a CastHerd over the years, and keeps getting steadily bigger. While the company grows, we mostly follow the Special Ops squad and the officers, and people die in combat. Sometimes, they also come back. [[spoiler: Tagon, Petey, and especially Kevyn, who did so three or four times in one story arc]]. And sometimes they opt out (Doythaban, TTKevyn, Der Trihs, Shep, Nick, LOTA, and a number just before the "Longshoreman" arc).

* Wiki/TVTropes: Because the Pantheon/TropePantheons contains characters from all of the above (and RealLife), it's naturally this.

-->-- '''WebVideo/HonestTrailers''' on ''Series/{{Game of|Thrones}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVaD8rouJn0 Thrones]]''

* Any rap record that has a lot guest features

* ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'' is set in the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' universe, but draws freely from wider DC canon, bringing in dozens and dozens of major (eg Larfleeze, John Constantine) and minor (Lord Manga Khan, J'onn J'aarkn) canonical characters, plus some original ones (eg Hinon Hee Hannanan). Most only show up briefly or occasionally, but others take on important roles.

* ''ComicBook/DisneyMouseAndDuckComics'' hits this trope pretty hard; just the family trees of {{Mickey|Mouse}}, DonaldDuck, and WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} alone are really big, and the long number of other supporting cast members...

!!Examples Subpages:

!!Examples:

* {{Creator/DC|Comics}} [[Franchise/DCUniverse Comics]] and {{Creator/Marvel|Comics}} [[Franchise/MarvelUniverse Comics]] both possess incredibly large casts of characters, due to both being long-running multi-media franchises involving {{shared|Universe}} [[TheMultiverse multiverses]]. They each have a total amount of characters numbering somewhere in the ''thousands''.
* Comicbook/ScottPilgrim, definitely. The third volume even included a diagram of the 30-odd characters and their relationships to each other.
* ''Comicbook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}'':

* The post-''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' ''[[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA]]'' roster grew to Legion-sizes at the end of Creator/GeoffJohns' reign, as countless LegacyCharacter-types were drawn from the ether. The new writers eventually split them into two teams to properly write them. It got even crazier when the two teams were reunited under Marc Guggenheim, and several other new characters like Comicbook/{{Manhunter}} Ri, and Libery Belle were added to the cast. At that point, Guggenheim {{ReTool}}ed the team into a ''literal'' society of superheroes living in the city of Monument Point.
* The ''Comicbook/XMen'' have so many characters that there's two separate books just for the core team, another one for the Junior Team/Reserves, and when you get into the various spin-off groups...

* ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' have issued "Avengers Assemble" calls to the entire roster several times, resulting in anywhere from 30 to 100+ members showing up. After Heroes Reborn, when the team was assembled to fight Morgana, the issue after showed 30 Avengers attempting to take down one B-list villain, with disastrous results. Typically these assemblies also show one-time Avengers ComicBook/IncredibleHulk, ComicBook/SpiderMan, or the Comicbook/FantasticFour making an excuse not to tag along. (Although Spider-Man later became a full time member)

** Creator/GeoffJohns' run had one of the largest casts. The team included ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, Comicbook/IronMan, ComicBook/TheWasp, Yellowjacket, ComicBook/BlackPanther, ComicBook/TheFalcon, [[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor]], ComicBook/MsMarvel, ComicBook/ScarletWitch, ComicBook/TheVision, ComicBook/AntMan (Scott Lang), Comicbook/{{Hawkeye}}, ComicBook/SheHulk, and Jack of Hearts. Looking at his tenures on the above-mentioned JSA and the ComicBook/{{New 52}} ''Comicbook/JusticeLeague'', it seems that he loves working with huge casts.

* Even excluding one-shots and background cameos, the lack of a single main character/team (along with the {{Cryptic Background Reference}}s and {{Continuity Nod}}s) causes ''Comicbook/AstroCity'' to have several dozen characters with regular appearances scattered throughout the series' run. This is especially true in extended story arcs like "Tarnished Angel" and "The Dark Age", which often star characters who only get a brief appearance in other stories.

* ''Comicbook/AfterlifeWithArchie'' features many and many main and supporting cast member from the Archie universe. Just in the core group, we have Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, Kevin, Cheryl and their family, which would bring up the tally to roughly 8-10 characters. And that doesn't count Jughead, who was PatientZero of the zombie apocalypse and the leader of the zombies. The series even made an effort to pull out obscure characters such as the Lodge's butler Smithers, Jughead and Betty's sister Jellybean and Polly, Nancy and Ginger (who are PromotedToLoveInterest to each other) and even from different titles such as Comicbook/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch and even Comicbook/JosieAndThePussycats.

* ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', on account of being a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, has this in spades. By the author's count, over '''200''' characters are named, and most either had a plot impact in ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', have one in ''Origins'', or are carryovers from canon.
* Though probably not as many characters as some other examples on this page, ''FanFic/KyonBigDamnHero'' probably fits; featuring almost the entire cast of LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya (including minor characters and even background characters only mentioned in the supplemental materials), most of the cast of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', and a bunch of [=OCs=] thrown in for good measure.
* ''FanFic/TheConversionBureauTheOtherSideOfTheSpectrum'', like most ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfics, already deals with a large amount of characters. Except it has a MirrorUniverse in the form of [[EvilCounterpart TCB!Equestria]] as well as Canon!Equestria, and Earth. On top of that, has several original characters, human and pony alike and utilizes an EnsembleCast and YouAllShareMyStory (at least as the fic is nearing its conclusion).
* ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi'' has the main characters of the 90s ''Anime/SailorMoon'' up until the introduction of Sailor Jupiter, as well as a few more obscure ones such as Dr Mizuno, but then it goes on to introduce dozens of characters from Adushul, ''Videogame/DungeonKeeper'''s world. From heroes, to keepers, their minions, their dark gods and Mercury's army as well, for a cast that goes over 80 named characters, plus all the unnamed ones.
* FanFic/Hottie3TheBestFanFicInTheWorld, on the count of it being a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover.
* The ''Fanfic/StillWatersSeries'', based on ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', comes packed with dozens of characters already; the author saw fit to add more. The third story in the series currently has '''one hundred''' characters, canons and original, on its character sheet.

* ''[[FanFic/TheNewTrialsOfCardCaptorSakura The New Trials of Card Captor Sakura and Friends]]'', a ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' FanFiction, has a whole cast of main character [=OCs=] longer than the cast from the show, and more characters are continually being added, including back stories for most of the main characters' parents (both those deceased and living), the Li Clan, and more. Some characters that at first appear minor and insignificant turn out to be [[ChekhovsGun highly important later on]].
* The ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' FanFic ''[[Fanfic/TotalDramaComebackSeries Total Drama Battlegrounds]]'' introduces over fifty characters (22 canon contestants, 22 {{Original Character}}s, Chris, Chef, and several superimposed talking animals) in the first chapter. Even with one person getting eliminated each challenge, chapters average about 10,000 words just to give everyone a MandatoryLine.

* Both ''FanFic/MegsFamilySeries'' and ''FanFic/TheSpellbook'' uses almost every ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' character who ever appeared (especially the former), as well as a wide cast of Original Characters.

* ''FanFic/HookerVerse''. Sooner or later, ''everyone'' from Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses is going to be in this thing.
* ''FanFic/TheDreamLandStory''. Almost every character, no matter how minor, who has ever appeared in the ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}}'' series has most likely appeared in this story, and the [[TheCameo cameos]] and {{Canon Immigrant}}s.
* The Batman fanfiction FanFic/CatTales encompasses not only Batman's cast (rogues, heroes, and civilians alike), but at times the DC universe. Every named Batman character from the animated series or comics at least makes a minor appearance, with almost every rogue or member of the Batfamily getting to star in at least one story. As all of the rogues hang out at [[BadGuyBar the same bar]] (the Penguin's Iceberg Lounge), it's inevitable that they're all going to show up eventually.

* ''FanFic/ImperfectMetamorphosis'' not only has the gargantuan ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' cast to work with and give them prominent roles, even the [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome PC-98 cast]], but keeps adding original characters as well. The author openly admits that keeping track of all of them and their [[GambitPileup constantly shifting allegiances]] is almost as much work as actually writing it.
* After Ren and Pin-Mei, and Horo-Horo and Rong have families in ''FanFic/AGiftOfLove'', there are effectively 9 main characters. Add in extended family, spirits, bodyguards, friends and classmates, teachers, villains, ancestors, and estranged family members. Now you have ''over fifty.''

* There are at least ''90'' named characters to keep track of in FanFic/TheTaintedGrimoire. Clan Gully alone has 9 members as of this writing, 10 if you count Gull the Chocobo. Then, there are all the other clans, the people Clan Gully helps, and their enemies.

* By the end of ''Silent Sorrow'', the ''FanFic/TamersForeverSeries'' has a ''massive'' cast of characters.

* ''FanFic/SonicGenerationsFriendshipIsTimeless'' features a lot of {{Franchise/Sonic|TheHedgehog}} characters (moreso than [[VideoGame/SonicGenerations the original game]]) and plenty of [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic ponies]], including background ones, get some time in the sun.

* ''FanFic/{{Horseshoes and Hand Grenades}}'', and its side stories have 72 named characters from ''all'' the Kamen Rider Shows involved and lots of OC characters, major and minor that each have a small part to play in the whole universe.

* Fanfic/HalkegeniaOnline: While neither ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' nor ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'' would qualify on their own, the combination of the two is pretty significant, and there are enough [[OriginalCharacter Original Characters]] to roughly double that number.
* ''FanFic/DiariesOfAMadman'' already inherited this from the original source material. Then it adds even more characters on top.
* ''FanFic/SonicXDarkChaos'' adds quite a large cast of heroes and villains, from [[LegacyCharacter Legacy Characters]] Fang and Mighty to dozens of new ones.

* ''Fanfic/NecessaryToWin'', a ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'' and ''{{Manga/Saki}}'' crossover, found [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10130193/1/Necessary-To-Win here]], has five to ten Saki characters at each of the major schools, in addition to the canon cast of characters, resulting in a cast of dozens of characters.

* ''FanFic/KingdomCrossovers'': The Destiny Islands arc alone already features as many [[{{Creator/Nickelodeon}} Nicktoon]] characters imaginable, as opposed to the characters you can count with your fingers in the same arc of ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''. Then [[WesternAnimation/InvaderZim Zim]] gets to [[UpToEleven Traverse Town]]...
* In ''FanFic/TheStoryToEndAllStories'', the cast keeps growing as the story goes on. Lampshaded by Poirot towards the end.

* ''The Wormhole Chronicles'' (a ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''/''Franchise/MassEffect'' crossover series) has this trope in spades. Starting with Fanfic/WhenThereWasATomorrow, The Normandy Crew meets the cast of ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' plus several ''Halo'' ExpandedUniverse characters, plus several OC antagonists. It gets taken UpToEleven in its sequel, Fanfic/GuiltySparks where not only do the surviving characters from the first story (plus more [=OCs=]) step into the limelight, but [[TwoLinesNoWaiting an extensive B-plot]] opens up with Liara T'Soni in the Mass Effect universe where she partners up with Wrex, plus four [=OCs=] who team up to form a BadassCrew of their own. They also have to stop an alliance between The Covenant and several other villain factions in the Mass Effect universe, each with their own [=OCs=]. Oh, and there are [=OCs=] back in the Haloverse that get ''their own'' character arcs.

* ''Blog/ThePreDespairKids'' has had nearly every single ''Franchise/DanganRonpa'' character with official sprites be available for asks at some point, (including some without official sprites, such as Mukuro Ikusaba (as herself)[[spoiler: [[LightNovel/DanganRonpaZero Ryouko Otonashi, and Yasuke Matsuda]]]], with [[Manga/KillerKiller Takumi Hijirihara]], [[Anime/DanganRonpa3 Miaya Gekkogahara]], and Santa Shikiba being regulars on the sequel blog) with the only exception among the human characters being Haiji Towa (though nobody's complaining about that), while other characters from the universe who don't have sprites occasionally appear to advance the story. And then there are the [[OriginalCharacter Named Anons]], of which there are at least twenty.
** ''Blog/AskTheNewHopesPeak'' has slightly less characters, due to being a ContinuationFic and only having the survivors of [[Anime/DanganRonpa3 the anime]] to work with, however by also including its own cast of {{Original Character}}s and a few of the more obscure characters, it can still be counted as having plenty of characters.
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10211960/1/Toons Toons]]'', a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover of cartoons, has its first chapter be a huge list of "main characters" from at least a hundred different series confirmed to be in the fic's universe, ranging from the iconic (''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'') to the lesser-known (''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Grossology}}'', ''WesternAnimation/SheZow'') to even {{anime}}.(''Anime/SoulEater'')

* ''[[FanFic/BreakMyHeartBreakYourHeart Break My Heart, Break Your Heart]]'' is an [[VideoGame/{{Overwatch}} Overwatch]] fanfic in which all but three of the game's 25-and-counting playable characters have their own roles to play in the plot.
* ''FanFic/ShatteredSkiesTheMorningLights'' is a MagicalGirl CrisisCrossover featuring the casts of Franchise/SailorMoon, Manga/CardcaptorSakura, the first ten Franchise/PrettyCure continuities, Franchise/LyricalNanoha, and Franchise/MadokaMagica uniting against a common threat. Even with much of the casts pared down due to the villains' actions, there are still nearly a dozen ''main'' characters, hailing from each of the five universes.

* Being a CrisisCrossover of Franchise/MortalKombat, Franchise/StreetFighter, VideoGame/{{Tekken}} and the VideoGame/SoulSeries, ''FanFic/TheKetsuekiQuadrilogy'' is certainly this, which each part adding more and more characters. It starts out with around 72 characters in the first book, 94 in the second and 120+ in the third one (7 of which are {{Original Character}}s, and the rest players from all the different games). And that's not counting, all the minor characters that appear from time to time.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''FanFic/TheApprenticeTheStudentAndTheCharlatan'', there are more than twenty characters who affect the plot in a meaningful way, spread across over 300,000 words. These include our pair of protagonists, their parents, all three Princesses and Shining Armor, Trixie, her dad, Aegis, Sharp Eye, the other five Manes, Professor Hoofman, Clover the Clever, Steelshod, Summer Blossom, Shimmer Silvermane, Princess Chrysalis, Star Swirl, and many more.
* ''FanFic/FracturesATLA'': Aside from the canon cast, lots of worldbuilding effort by the author is put into the story, giving names and personalities to characters such as Zuko's caretakers, Fire Nation palace staff, Fire Nation royal servants, as well as Fire Nation military commanders.

* [[JustifiedTrope Given that]] [[Website/GoAnimate GoAnimate]] allows you to make pretty much any character ever, the grounded videos have starred everyone from LeafyIsHere to [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience color coded]] [[SendInTheClones clones]] of [[{{WesternAnimation/Pingu}} Pingu]]. A search for "gets grounded" on [[Website/YouTube YouTube]] yields 513,000 results as of early 2017, hence the truckload of characters.

* ''Webcomic/{{Buildingverse}}'' works tend to have a massive cast, or to be precise a limited main cast[[note]]''Webcomic/GirlsNextDoor'': Sarah, Christine, Erik, Jareth; ''{{Webcomic/Roommates}}'': Erik, Jareth, Javert, James; ''Webcomic/{{Superintendent}}'': Javert, Valjean; etc.[[/note]] which inflates over 20 with all the regulars and to ridicculous levels with everybody (The character page for ''{{Webcomic/Roommates}}'' lists more than 100 characters).

* ''WebComic/DeepRise'' Over 25 named non-humans identified by color, hard-to-remember names and eye-configuration.

* ''WebComic/GreystoneInn'' started out with just a few core characters, but quickly expanded, with minor characters getting plotlines that would last for weeks. When the original main characters started getting less and less time, the strip gave way to ''Webcomic/EvilInc''.

%%* ''WebComic/{{Precocious}}''. Check out the [[http://www.precociouscomic.com/page/cast cast page.]]

* In ''WebComic/TowerOfGod'', the number of members of the protagonist's extended team alone is in the dozens as of 2020.
* The ''WebComic/{{Walkyverse}}'': At the end of ''It's Walky!'' alone, there were 247 named or otherwise identifiable characters.

See also CrowdedCastShot. May result in/from YouAllShareMyStory. Can contribute to ContinuityLockout in LongRunners. Compare RevolvingDoorCasting and HeroesUnlimited. The inversion of this trope is MinimalistCast. We have an article on [[SoYouWantTo/WriteLoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters how to write this variety of character roster]].

* WebAnimation/YouTubePoop is this with various random characters appearing out of nowhere.

[[caption-width-right:269: More characters than in the \\

* The Japanese stationery company ''Creator/{{Sanrio}}'' has been in business since 1962, though they didn't start creating characters until 1973, but didn't became common place until when they created Franchise/HelloKitty in 1974. After creating Hello Kitty, the company decided to create more and more characters to see how successfully they would sell in stores. [[AmericansHateTingle While some characters are hardly ever heard of outside of Japan]], or are [[ChuckCunningHamSyndrome forgotten]], others become very popular. [[http://www.sanrio.co.jp/characterindex/ The Japanese]] [[http://www.sanrio.com/timeline/ and American]] websites for Sanrio have lists of how many characters they have, mostly the popular and successful ones. In total, they have over 400 characters. Unlike Sanrio's other websites, their [[https://www.sanrio.co.jp/character/?class=age Japanese website has a complete history of their characters sorted by decade.]]

* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' has an enormous cast of superheroes, supervillains, ordinary people and giant monsters. Several hundred [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual capes]] are mentioned at least briefly in the story, and many of those have at least basic information about allegiences or powers given. Side chracters often get ADayInTheLimelight during the numerous interludes, but the vast majority of the story is all through Taylor's point of view.
** The SequelSeries ''Literature/{{Ward}}'' just continues on, packed full of returning and new characters and an ever expanding list of absurd superpowers.