History Main / RememberTheNewGuy

* ''WesternAnimation/MegamindVsTheDoomSyndicate'' introduces the eponymous Doom Syndicate (consisting of [[WeatherManipulation Lady Doppler]], [[CastingAShadow Lord Nighty-Knight]], [[MasterOfIllusion Pierre Pressure]], and [[LivingLava Behemoth]]) and a new BigBad named Machiavillain, who were Megamind's old friends that he caused trouble with back when he was a supervillain and the mentor who trained him in being a supervillain respectively. The movie treats the characters as though they had always existed in the setting, even establishing that Roxanne was acquainted with Lady Doppler prior to Doppler becoming a supervillain, even though [[WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}} the original movie]] gave no indication that any of these characters existed (with their existence directly contradicting what had been established about Megamind's character in the first movie) or that there were even other superpowered beings in the setting at all besides Megamind himself or Metro Man.

A previously unmentioned character who was apparently an important figure to the cast and up to date with all facets of the story, as though they were just... off screen or something. It comes about because the writers want to introduce a new character, but don't want to come up with a complex introduction where everyone meets them and learns what they're like--it's just easier to pretend that everyone automatically knows them, and the relationship is ready-made. "Oh hey, that's my old rival!" "Oh, this is my brother/sister whom I've never told you about," etc. Characters who are [[TheGhost frequently mentioned but not seen]], then make [[UnseenNoMore their first appearance]] is not this trope, as what matters is their existence was not previously established.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
%%This folder has been alphabetized, please put your example where it needs to go.
* ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'': Parodied in chapter 168, which has the then-27 girlfriends of the Rentarou family having a photo swap party in which they trade pictures of Rentarou they've taken. Throughout the chapter the girls are momentarily flustered by a new girl in the group speaking to them with familiarity. This familiarity, and the obviously affectionate way she spoke of her photo of Rentarou makes them assume she is indeed part of the group, and it's just gotten so big they forgot. It's not until Rentarou appears and asks who the girl is that the other girls realize this is, indeed, someone brand new. The next chapter would see her properly join the Rentarou Family as girlfriend 28, Shiina Usami.
--> '''Rentarou:''' Who are you?\\
'''Shiina:''' Who's Who?\\
'''Everyone Else:''' I knew it!
* Not exactly a character, but the ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' movie ''Anime/ACertainMagicalIndexMiracleOfEndymion'' does this with the SpaceElevator Endymion. Lampshaded when Index sees the structure for the first time and asks what it is and where it came from. Touma pokes fun at her, comments that her PhotographicMemory must not be as perfect as she thought, and claims the structure has always been there. He has a flashback montage that shows the structure [[RetCon edited into]] the background of several important past scenes. Index gets really confused, as she is sure she's seeing it for the first time.
* Orin the [[HighlyVisibleNinja Pink Ninja]] in ''Manga/AkazukinChacha'' is revealed later to have been in class the whole time, but ''clinging to the ceiling.''
** The TV adaptation turned Barabaraman (one of the Urara School faculty) into an example of this, by delaying introducing him until about halfway through the series but having Chacha and co. recognize him on sight.
* ''Anime/AngelBeats'': Every acquaintance of an NPC seems to have this trope, considering [[spoiler: how Yuri had a supposed friend when she was almost {{Brainwashed}} into becoming one]].
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' has a minor example with Floch. He's introduced as a member of the 104th Training Corps and fellow Survey Corps soldier before the [[spoiler:battle to retake Shiganshina]], and is revealed to have been alongside Eren & co. from the beginning. While missing from scenes up until this point, later flashbacks do show him interacting with some of the main characters during their training years. While he initially seems like yet more CannonFodder, Floch [[spoiler:ends up being the one to take a dying Erwin back to the main cast in Shiganshina and thus is responsible for setting off the debate about whether Erwin or Armin should be saved using the titan serum they have. After the four-year TimeSkip, he's shown to be a devout supporter of Eren's ideology and seems to be in charge of carrying out tasks on behalf of an imprisoned Eren]].
* Aoi Kuineda's primary circle of Red Tails from ''Manga/{{Beelzebub}}'' consisted of Nene, Yuka, Ryouko, and Chikai. Then, a random, never before mentioned purple haired member was inserted into the group, and treated as if she's been there from the very start.
* A particularly frustrating example occurs in ''Manga/BlackClover'', where in one arc Asta and Noelle meet up with a group of three mages, Fanzell, Dominante, and Mariella, in the Witches Forest Arc. Though they have never appeared in the manga before, Asta and Noelle are not only familiar with them, but have apparently already helped them escape from the Diamond kingdom, and even received trained with them. The characters were originally introduced in a light novel that serves as a side story to the manga, but it can be infuriating when the manga has flashbacks to events that never occurred in the manga. Not only that, but it's nearly impossible to tell when exactly the events of the light novel took place relative to the manga.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Uryuu Ishida is first introduced in Chapter 34 as Ichigo's classmate and the highest-scoring student in the entire grade, yet Orihime has to explain to Ichigo who he is while Tatsuki lampshades the RunningGag of Ichigo's careless forgetfulness. However, careful reading of earlier chapters reveals [[ChekhovsGunman Ishida in the background of several panels]], including Chapter 1's cover, and his father is mentioned in a throw-away line in Chapter 7, so Kubo [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools deliberately invoked]] this trope.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'', when Jelly Jiggler holds a never-seen-before character named Spikey hostage and both Bobobo and Don Patch seem to know him, much to [[OnlySaneMan Beauty's]] confusion.
-->'''Spikey:''' Please forgive me! I messed up!
-->'''Bobobo & Don Patch:''' Spikey!
-->'''Beauty:''' WHO'S THAT?!!
* Shingo Aoi from ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa'' was introduced in the World Youth arc as a Tsubasa fanboy who went to say goodbye to him in the airport as he left to Brazil.
* One reason Ryo of ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' is seen as a CanonSue is this. Even if one takes into account his [[AllThereInTheManual huge backstory]] (that [[NoExportForYou most of the viewers outside of Japan never even got to see until later]]) that explains his presence, his sudden appearance still comes a bit out of left field even with the proper context.
* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
** Dr. Gero is a perfect example: he was a scientist that worked for the Red Ribbon Army and created the androids for them, including the previously seen Android 8, but he was never mentioned in the Red Ribbon Army Saga. It's only when he shows up in the Android Saga years later in real life and many years later in-universe, we know all this time he was making more androids until he made ones that could defeat Goku and the others, and is also revealed that the whole time he was spying on the main characters with hidden cameras and collecting cells from them to create the bio-android Cell. It even [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole creates a plot hole in the anime]], where Dr. Flappe was said to be the creator of Android 8 in the RR Saga, which was only addressed in a [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental book]] that states they both worked on him together.
*** History repeats itself with Dr. Hedo, Gero's never before seen grandson introduced in ''Anime/DragonBallSuperSuperHero'' as well as Magenta who's the son and successor of Commander Red who's been working behind the scenes for decades to rebuild the Red Ribbon Army. The same movie also briefly cameos of Gero's eldest son and wife: Gevo and Vomi, although they aren't really [[RobotMe new]] characters if you've read the supplementary materials or played ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ'' which reveal Gero respectively [[ReplacementGoldfish based]] Android 16 and Android 21 (a GodCreatedCanonForeigner herself) on them, albeit they hadn't been named before the movie.
** The [[DestroyerDeity God of Destruction]] Beerus from the movie ''[[Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods Battle of Gods]]'' is a semi-example. One of the strongest beings in the entire universe (in fact, the only one stronger is his attendant Whis), no one ever mentioned him until the movie, even though King Kai, the Supreme Kais, Frieza, and Vegeta all knew about him, yet in the series they named many weaker people as "the strongest in the universe". Although this could also be explained by the fact that they were referring to the strongest "people". Beerus is a God and, just like all the Kais, is not factored into mortal power rankings. Beerus is retroactively inserted into backstory with the revelation that he's the previously unknown being that sealed Old Kai in the Z Sword.
*** Beerus ''does'' in fact take naps that last decades, so it would make sense he wouldn't be around in important points in history. He still qualifies in some way because when Frieza is resurrected, he mentions him (as well as Majin Buu), even though he was completely unaware of what happened to them. There'd be no reason he'd suddenly mention them other than this trope.
** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' introduces Bulma's older sister Tights; both Goku (who's known Bulma since they were kids) and Vegeta (her husband) react to this news with "You have a sister?!" Of course, the meta reason is that Tights is from Toriyama's manga ''Manga/JacoTheGalacticPatrolman'', which was written almost 20 years after the ''Dragon Ball'' manga ended. Jaco himself could also count, since Bulma has known him since she was little but it apparently never came up in the intervening decades. Tights late mentioning can be justified by Bulma's tendency of not talking much about her family to her friends, just as she never mentioned her parents in the first two arcs. Tights has also distanced herself from her family for most of her life, so it's easy for them to forget her.
** Speaking of ''Jaco the Galactic Patrolman'', the ''Dragon Ball Minus'' chapter also introduces Gine, Goku and Raditz's mother and Bardock's wife who like Tights hadn't been shown or hinted at all in the manga or anime. It's common for characters to have a MissingMom so many assumed she wouldn't show up in the story (besides some WildMassGuessing that Fasha, Bardock's teammate was the mom as she's the one who reminds Bardock that he has a son). Gine's presence like Dr. Flappe creates a AdaptationInducedPlotHole as she doesn't appear in the ''Anime/DragonBallZBardockTheFatherOfGoku'' special despite being a former member of Bardock's squad and obviously being an important character -- all due to being created decades after the fact. ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly'' however makes ''Dragon Ball Minus'' {{Retcanon}} firmly putting Gine within Goku's origins. Now it's more peculiar when Gine ''[[ShooOutTheNewGuy isn't]]'' featured in Bardock's story e.g ''VideoGame/DragonBallZKakarot'''s "Bardock Alone Against Fate" DLC, even if said DLC is based on the TV special where Gine wasn't created yet.
* ''Manga/FairyTail'': Gildarts gets this treatment in the anime. It was supposed to end before he was introduced, so the five or so mentions of his name before the Edolas arc are cut out.
* Yoki and May in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistBrotherhood'' are this to viewers who haven't read the manga or watched the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003 2003 anime version]]. They cut the Youswell episode which serves as a proper introduction to Yoki, and May was also supposed to be introduced later in Youswell. To ''Brotherhood''-only viewers, Yoki and May are just two random people who join Scar because they somehow know of the Elric brothers, and Yoki wants revenge for some reason. Yoki's back story and desire for revenge are explained later in the show in a series of quick flashbacks. These flashbacks occur several episodes after Yoki is introduced however, still leaving people who had never read the manga or seen the 2003 anime thoroughly confused for a while. Hilariously, when Yoki actually meets them, Ed himself doesn't remember him at first, [[ButForMeItWasTuesday despite ruining his life.]]
* In ''Anime/GundamBuildDiversReRise'', we're shown that Hiroto, the main character, was present in the final battle of the original ''Anime/GundamBuildDivers'' and that he could have altered the ending in an instant but couldn't bring himself to do so. As the Gunpla he was using, the Uraven Gundam, was a long-range sniper machine, this gives him plausibility as to why he never appeared on-screen.
* In ''Manga/{{Haikyuu}}'', Nekoma has a new starting player, Lev, in their second appearance of the manga. The explanation given is that he wasn't with them in their first appearance because he was still a newbie and they only took their main squad to training camp. In the two months between their two appearances, he developed enough to become a starter. The first OVA (which takes place between the first two seasons) properly introduces him to the anime viewers and shows how much he trained to become a starter, averting this trope.
* ''Anime/HunterXHunter'': The 2011 anime has a very frustrating example in the form of Kite, Gon's inspiration for becoming a Hunter. Unlike the manga and 1999 anime, Kite does not appear in the first episode of the [[{{Creator/Madhouse}} Madhouse]] adaptation, so his return in the Chimera Ant arc is his very first appearance and we're treated to a never-seen-before flashback to his first meeting with Gon. To make matters worse, other than his [[FreezeFrameBonus blink-and-you'll-miss-it silhouette in the first episode's narration]], there are absolutely '''zero hints''' of his existence and his importance to the story. No prior mentions, no allusions, '''nothing'''. So to any newcomers who've never read the manga or seen the 1999 adaptation, [[AdaptationExplanationExtrication Kite really feels like he comes out of nowhere.]]
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'': [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Part 6]] introduced us to Enrico Pucci, close friend, confidant, and possibly-gay-lover of ''Manga/StardustCrusaders'' BigBad DIO... ''years'' after DIO's defeat (more than a decade [[LongRunners out-of-universe]], and ''two'' decades [[Manga/StoneOcean in-universe]]). Of course, neither his existence, any of the flashback scenes he shows us, or the PlotDevice given to him by DIO (or his motivation for doing so, for that matter) were ever hinted at in ''Stardust Crusaders''. Admittedly, the series almost never showed us DIO's point of view until the heroes caught up to him, so Pucci at least had a hole he could fit in, but still...
* Parodied in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' at the start of the new school year when Shindo is first introduced [[CharacterShilling with all his classmates talking about how awesome he is]]... and Kaguya is just as clueless about who he is as the reader.
* ''Manga/KurokosBasketball'': Teppei Kiyoshi first shows up after Seirin loses the Inter High. Prior to this, he's never mentioned by his teammates or the coach. When he's introduced, he's mentioned to be the one who brought Seirin's basketball club to life, and after that, several opponents would remember him as the "Iron Heart" of the Five Uncrowned Kings.
* Padparadscha of ''Manga/LandOfTheLustrous'' is suddenly introduced in episode 11--Rutile, the doctor, had been working to resolve their chronic coma for much longer than the time-span of the series. The protagonist knew about this character the whole time (saying "I'm glad I [[LaserGuidedAmnesia didn't forget]] about Padparadscha"), but never mentioned them before this point.
* ''Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime1999'': It's revealed that Volvagia is a baby dragon that Link brought seven years ago. During the Young Link part of the manga, there's no place where that scene could have taken place.
* In ''Manga/LuckyStar'', when the cast starts their senior year, Kagami is approached by Misao and Ayano, noting that they are glad to be in Kagami's class again. Kagami then walks off, [[LampshadeHanging Misao notes their position as background characters]], and the two then become members of the regular cast. Misao did make a brief appearance prior to this, and she even had a line... [[TheOtherDarrin with a different voice actress]] than the one she had when she started showing up regularly. Ayano also made a brief, unnamed appearance as a participant in the sports festival before becoming official. In the manga, though, the two were at first ''unnamed'' and were only intended to be random classmates of Kagami's class. It was later when they were actually given names and personalities.
* Due to being a LongRunner with a fairly dubious sense of continuity, the ''Franchise/{{Lupin III}}'' franchise has multiple instances of this:
** ''[[Anime/LupinIIIPart5 Part 5]]'' saw the debut of Albert [=d'Andrésy=], a French thief turned DirtyCop who supposedly has an extensive history with Lupin as both a rival and an occasional ally. The later prequel series ''Anime/LupinZero'' expands on this by showing how the two first met, with a young Albert depicted as the new criminal apprentice of Lupin's grandfather.
** The ''[[Anime/LupinIIIPart6 Part 6]]'' episode "Two Terrible Ladies" introduces Amelia, Fujiko's old partner in crime whom she had a falling out with after a botched heist several years ago. The other members of Lupin's gang have seemingly never heard of her, and Jigen is surprised to learn Fujiko has ''any'' female friends.
* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'':
** Most good characters from ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' have met the characters from previous seasons before.[[note]]Griffith is the only real exception, as his mother mentioned him during the final ''A's'' Sound Stage (though not by name).[[/note]] It's justified by the fact that there was a ten-year TimeSkip. At that point, it would have been surprising if they ''didn't'' know new characters.
** Inverted with Corona Timil from ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'', who has been Vivio's friend since shortly after the ''[=StrikerS=]'' epilogue. It is also played straight when Corona remembers characters from previous seasons, even in cases when she doesn't meet them again.
** Done with Thoma, the main character of ''Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce''. Something of an odd case, since he seems to have met everyone in the TimeSkip between ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' and ''Force''.
*** Thoma's backstory, presented in part via flashback chapters, shows that he first met Subaru (and through her, the rest of the Nakajima extended family) in the apparent aftermath of ''AudioPlay/StrikersSoundStageX''. It's also worth noting that outside of the Nakajima family (and [[HeterosexualLifePartners Teana]] and Alto), the other, more established main characters ''don't'' know Thoma (at best, for instance, Nanoha knows ''of'' him), and they all introduce themselves properly once the circumstances allow for it.
* In ''Manga/MyMonsterSecret'', the two main characters first met Karen at chapter 60, yet it's revealed later that she's the StudentCouncilPresident of their school. In the next chapters it's shown that Nagisa (the ClassRepresentative) and Mikan (president of the news club) have known her since the start. Apparently, normal students are unaware of her existence, or that they even have a student council at all.
* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Although a flashback shows that Todoroki has three siblings, only one of them is shown living with him, his sister Fuyumi. Almost 200 chapters in it's shown that another of his siblings is also living with him, Natsuo, and apparently has been living with them all along. His lack of appearance is handwaved by Fuyumi saying that since he started college he has spent very little time at home and maybe also due to a secret girlfriend.
* Queen Diamond in ''Manga/MysteriousJoker''. She's Silver Heart's granddaughter and grew up alongside the main protagonist and his rival, but doesn't show up or even get ''mentioned'' until chapter 41.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** Naruto already knows the members of Team 8 and 10 and is later shown interacting with some of them in flashbacks during his time at the academy even though they do not appear to be anywhere in the classroom in Chapter 1 or 3 of the manga, even in wider shots showing the entire classroom. Likewise, Sakura first appear as Naruto's classmate in Chapter 3, but is nowhere to be found in the classroom scenes in Chapter 1. Averted in the anime, where all of aforementioned classmates make brief {{Early Bird Cameo}}s in the respective episodes. Possibly a case of FridgeBrilliance; Naruto had failed the Graduation Exam twice already, so he might simply have been moved to another class that had not taken the exam yet. There are at least 10 teams of three Genin so there should be at least 30 new Genin but we barely see half that number in any scene.
** Karin who first appears later in the series is shown as a participant of the Chunin Exams from earlier in the series having first met Sasuke during the Forest of Death portion of the exams, yet she did not actually appear in chapters that originally depicted the Chunin Exams.
** Another example: the presence of Danzo Shimura and his organization "Root", only introduced as of Part II/''Shippuuden'', having largely affected the behind-the-scenes politics and histories of major characters. [[EnforcedTrope Which is, in-universe, what they precisely intended to be.]]
** [[spoiler:Hamura Ōtsutsuki, the brother of the [[PhysicalGod Sage of the Six Paths, Hagoromo]] and inheritor of [[BigBad Kaguya's]] Byakugan. Not once has he ever been hinted at existing (in-universe reasoning is the Uchiha Tablet being modified), but since his introduction, he's been noted as helping Hagoromo defeat the Juubi, a feat originally seen as a solo act by Hagoromo.]]
** ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'' introduces a bunch of kids (Sumire, Denki, etc) that weren't seen in ''Anime/BorutoNarutoTheMovie'', ''Manga/NarutoGaiden'', or the original DistantEpilogue. They however are good friends with Boruto during his Academy days. The episode showing Naruto's inauguration short had new scenes added with some of them in it.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** Sabo. We are made aware of the shared history of sworn brothers Luffy and Ace throughout the show. Even seeing some quick flashes of them sharing a ritual to become brothers. But when they finally show the full flashbacks of the two meeting and developing their relationship, we are suddenly introduced to a new character, their third sworn brother, Sabo. Even the previously mentioned flashback of their ritual suddenly had Sabo involved in it too. There was the '''very''' subtle hint in Ace's misspelled tattoo (ASCE, with the S crossed over), that was downright impossible to know what meant, and what we saw of the brother-making-ritual contained three cups - only with Sabo, the drinker of the third, never being shown.
** Ace himself is a lesser example. His introduction comes with the surprise that Luffy even ''has'' a brother, since the first chapter of the manga shows Luffy as a lone child with no older brother in sight. This is explained by TheReveal that Luffy and Ace aren't biologically related and further flashbacks expanding on Luffy's childhood, as he hadn't even ''met'' Ace until after the events of his initial backstory.
** Sanji's whole family the Vinsmokes, are an even bigger example of this. The Baratie arc {{Flashback}} to Sanji's past depicts him as a cabin boy and apprentice chef on the cruise ship Orbit, with absolutely no hint that he's actually a runaway prince from a tyrannical kingdom of techno conquerors. Before said revelation in the Zou arc, it was easy to assume Sanji was an orphan like Nami or just had absent parents like Zoro. The only few hints we got that Sanji had a family were a small moment in the Jaya arc where Sanji reveals he's actually from North Blue (something Nami realises later shouldn't be possible given the Red Line separates the seas) and slightly earlier on Sanji [[https://tenseikizokunoisekaiboukenroku.com/images/WykUTvPiFuisjJoSc6Bp1611715010.jpg staring sadly at a ruined photo of smiling woman he finds in a shipwreck]] which becomes apparent after Totto Land he was thinking of his mother Sora.
** The ''One Piece'' [[NonSerialMovie movies]] have a bad habit of introducing characters who were instrumental to the wide world and the Straw Hat's pasts whom were never hinted at before in the manga and for the most part don't exist in the canon e.g [[Anime/OnePieceTheCursedHolySword Saga]] (Zoro's childhood friend), [[Anime/OnePieceFilmStrongWorld Shiki]] (Gold D. Roger's old rival), [[Anime/OnePieceFilmZ Zephyr]] (the legendary marine who trained the Admirals), [[Anime/OnePieceFilmGold Carina]] (Nami's childhood rival/friend), [[Anime/OnePieceStampede Douglas Bullet]] (a member of Roger's crew) and [[Anime/OnePieceFilmRed Uta]] (Luffy's childhood friend and adopted daughter of Shanks). The two exceptions are Shiki, who did become a CanonImmigrant to the manga and is revealed to have once been part of TheDreaded Rocks's crew, and Uta, who is shown to exist in the manga via a one-panel [[TheCameo cameo]].
* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'':
** Since Episode 35 ("[[Recap/PokemonS1E35TheLegendOfDratini The Legend of Dratini]]") of ''Indigo League'' [[BannedEpisode was not aired outside of Japan and a couple other Asian countries]], the 30 Tauros Ash accidentally caught in that episode appear to come out of nowhere in "Showdown at the Po-ké Corral".
** During the ''Battle Frontier'' arc, which took place in Kanto (the setting of the first season), second- and third-generation Pokémon were portrayed as being indigenous to Kanto... even though no one seemed to know about them the first time around (barring an EarlyBirdCameo or two like Misty's Togepi, and even then the cameos were presented as one-of-a-kind in the region).
** Pokeathlons weren't in the original ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'', instead introduced in the remakes, which were released nearly ten years later. Despite this, Ash and Brock act like they had experience in the sport when Lyra mentions them in ''Diamond and Pearl''.
** Serena is supposedly one of Ash's ChildhoodFriends. Naturally, since her design is based on the default female player character from ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', she first appeared in the anime arc based on these games and was never seen or mentioned prior. Justified because of ForgottenFirstMeeting courtesy of Ash.
** James' Victreebel evolved from Weepinbell when he left it at the breeding center in "The Breeding Center Secret" who was never mentioned before. There were [[GodNeverSaidThat rumors that in the Japanese version he stole it, but this isn't true.]] The later episode "Here's Lookin' at You, Elekid" shows a flashback of James catching Weepinbell to rectify this.
** Averted with Goh, as Ash slept through the summer camp where they would have met as young kids. Therefore, when they both hop on the same wild Lugia four years later they are complete strangers to each other.
* The ''Anime/PrettyCureAllStars'' movies inflict this whenever extra Cures show up between the last movie and the current ones. ''New Stage 3'' had this as a minor gag when Grell and Enyen go to confront the ''Anime/DokiDokiPrettyCure'' team and are bewildered at the sight of Aguri and she does the same. It's only when Mana walks up that they make the connection.
* Unazuki Furuhata from ''Franchise/SailorMoon''. She's Motoki's younger sister and a waitress at the Sailor Senshi's hangout, which the Furuhata family owns, and her brother has been a good friend of Usagi's from the start, but there's nothing to even hint at Unazuki's existence until she appears suddenly in the second season.
* Ai Kaga of ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'' first appears in the ''last'' episode of the first series. She explains that she hid away from the camera, believing that if she appeared it would drive down the ratings.
* ''Manga/{{Shaman King}}'' features an example similar to Black Clover. In chapter 277 (episode 48 of the 2021 anime), Yoh gets a vision of a never-seen-before rabbit-looking demon with a supposed letter Z in it's cloth. Later in chapter 290 (episode 50), we get a flashback of Hao explaining to Yoh about said character named Ohachiyo, Hao's first ever friend. Ohachiyo was a character who appeared in the prequel manga "Mappa Douji", detailing Hao's childhood and how he met the demon, but in the main series we get very few details about the events, so his presence [[spoiler:and return in the finale]] would be confusing to anyone who hasn't read Mappa Douji. Fortunately, unlike the Black Clover example, it's easy to place that story in the series' canon, being a prequel.
* Just as their western brethren, ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' anime can be guilty of this as well. ''Anime/TransformersArmada'' offers a baffling example, where the humongous Autobot Overload makes his grand intro by randomly rolling up in the middle of an episode to act as Optimus Prime's trailer. It's never explained where this guy came from, which is made even weirder by the fact that he's supposedly a small Mini-Con robot called Rollout who wears "Overload" as PoweredArmor. Despite that gathering these Mini-Cons was the main ''point'' of the series' first half, with ''many'' episodes being dedicated to [[GottaCatchThemAll finding one or two "regular" Mini-Cons]], here we have one that comes with his own set of gigantic armor and can look the regular robot cast in the eye, yet he's the one not to get an intro episode.
* Because of its episodic nature, this tends to happen in ''Manga/{{Uzumaki}}''. One notable example is when a chapter near the middle of the manga introduces Kirie's pregnant cousin, Keiko. Even though Kirie's clearly close with Keiko, this is the first time we ever hear of her.
* In the fourth season ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', Yusuke Fujiwara uses the "false memory" variant on almost everyone, but it's played straight when Fubuki remembers him. Fujiwara was his classmate and he was connected with the old Obelisk Dorm and Fubuki's disappearance prior to season 1.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' featured Kyosuke Kiryu and Crow Hogan, who were apparently always [[TrueCompanions best friends with the main characters]] despite not appearing in any of the flashbacks with Yusei and Jack in the past. Crow is particularly bizarre, since in prior episodes, Yusei was established as hopelessly scrounging for parts [[AfterTheEnd in Satellite]] to build a D-Wheel that even works, but Crow, also a Satellite resident in even worse economic straits, is introduced with a high-spec D-Wheel in perfect condition that can ''fly.''
** Crow's high-quality D-Wheel is later justified, since he inherited it from his late friend Robert Pearson, who was a luminary in building D-Wheels and he was even offered a job in Neo-Domino City.
* Parodied with Rise in ''Manga/YuruYuri''. She's supposedly been the head of the student council from day one, even though none of the four lead girls have ever seen her. To drive this home, a FlashBack shows that she was present at the group's [[BeachEpisode trip to the beach]], but stood just out of view of the camera.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/BatmanReturns'' (1992), Max Shreck has apparently been one of Gotham City's most famous residents for quite some time ("Here's a man who needs no introduction, he's given so much"), having been around long enough to have established the town's most successful department store, become more wealthy than anyone except Bruce Wayne himself, gotten a mayoral candidate elected, ''and'' gained enough influence to propose the construction of a new electrical power plant. So it's strange in retrospect that he apparently didn't exist at the time of [[Film/Batman1989 the 1989 film]], particularly since Gotham's 200th anniversary festival budget was seriously short on funds and he would probably have been the most philanthropic contributor. Shreck's Department Store is arguably an even more blatant New Guy: if we are to assume that the cathedral entrance on the opposite side of the city square, which we see behind the Penguin as he escapes on his helicopter umbrella, is to the same cathedral in which the Joker hid out at the climax of the previous film (and, at least according to {{Fanon}}, it is), the store is so big and so gaudy that it wouldn't previously have been missed. This cannot be explained as ''Batman Returns'' taking place many years after the original film, either, as all the returning cast members look to be about the same age as before.[[note]] This is because Max Shreck's role in the film was originally filled by Harvey Dent, returning from the 1989 film, who was supposed to be given the disfigurement that turns him into Two-Face by Catwoman at the end of the film. Of course, all this was changed.[[/note]]
* ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' ends with the hero, Mark, getting shot a dozen times, but because of Creator/ChowYunFat's popularity, when the sequel comes by it's revealed that Mark actually has a twin brother, Kent, who's living in America during the events of the first film. Which every returning character said they knew him all the time and have been anticipating his return, despite never mentioning Kent at any point of the first film.
* A few characters who were in ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'' but got left out of [[Film/{{Divergent}} the film adaptation]] - such as Uriah and Marlene, appear in ''The Divergent Series: Insurgent'' along with the rest of the Dauntless. As the first film mainly focused on Tris and her three friends, we can assume they were there but we just didn't see them.
* ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse'': ''Film/BlackAdam2022'' introduces the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica, a team of superheroes who predate Superman and the ComicBook/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}} and have a preexisting relationship with Amanda Waller. While the JSA's lack of appearances in prior films could be explained as the result of them having disbanded in the past, they were never mentioned or even alluded to before this. In fact, previous movies made it seem like the Justice League were the first publicly known superheroes in the DCEU.
* For the ''Film/DowntonAbbey'' film there's Lady Maud, Lord Robert's cousin who is a lady-in-waiting to the Queen and never mentioned at any point in the show. The in-universe justification is twofold: she's kept her distance from the Crawleys and being a woman, she has no claim on Downton anyways (the main story revolved around the SuccessionCrisis surrounding Downton) and thus little relevance to the plot.
* Played for laughs in ''Film/DungeonsAndDragonsWrathOfTheDragonGod''. The mage Ormaline claims her familiar Ona has been at her side through many adventures when it suddenly becomes relevant, but none of her long-term adventuring companions have ever seen the dove before. It is immidiately killed off in the same scene.
* ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'':
** ''Film/HobbsAndShaw'' introduces Deckard's younger sister Hattie, who neither appeared nor was mentioned in ''Film/FastAndFurious6'', ''Film/Furious7'' or ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious''.
** ''Film/{{F9}}'':
*** It's revealed that Dom and Mia have a brother named Jakob, who was never mentioned nor was it stated they even had a brother until this film. This is even more egregious since Mia said in ''Film/FastAndFurious'' that Brian is Dom's '''only''' brother, contradicting Jakob's existence. Possibly justified since Dom [[CainAndAbel had long disowned Jakob]] for (accidentally, but he didn't know that yet) [[{{Patricide}} killing their father]] and never felt like mentioning him before.
*** This also applies to Elle, as Han saved her as a little girl sometime before ''Film/TheFastAndTheFuriousTokyoDrift''. Although Elle was working with Han before his [[spoiler: supposed]] death, she didn't appear nor was mentioned in ''Tokyo Drift''.
** ''Film/FastX'':
*** The VillainOpeningScene reveals that Hernan Reyes' son Dante played a role in the vault-stealing scene from ''Film/FastFive'', despite not actually appearing in that film.
*** Dom meets the late Elena's sister Isabel, who was never mentioned in previous films.
*** Aimes, who is Mr. Nobody's successor [[spoiler:and TheMole for Dante who also played a role in ''Fast Five'']], was never mentioned either.
*** Oddly, when Dom meets Mr. Nobody's daughter Tess, he reveals that Mr. Nobody already mentioned having a daughter, which happened offscreen.
* ''Film/TheGodfather'':
** Frank Pentangelli in Part II is supposed to be a high level member of the Corleone family since the beginning even though he doesn't appear at all in the first movie. The reason he was created was because Clemenza who was in the Part I and was supposed to be in Part II couldn't be used because the actor playing him did not return.
** The third film has the previously unmentioned Don Altobello who is not simply an important mafiosa but a ''very'' long term, trusted ally of the Corleones - he is Connie's godfather.
* ''Film/GoldenEye'' sets up Alec Trevelyan as "006" and one of Film/JamesBond's oldest friends, in spite of never being mentioned by name, and once by number, in the entire series. Then again, ''[=GoldenEye=]'' was supposed to be a soft reboot of a franchise which was never big on continuity in the first place (Trevelyan is only slightly more conspicuous in his sudden appearance as [[Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService Countess "Tracy" Bond]] is in [[ForgottenFallenFriend her lack of direct mention]]), and [[HeroOfAnotherStory Bond's fellow 00-agents never were in focus throughout the films]].
* ''Film/Halloween2018'' features Deputy Frank Hawkins. He was one of the cops patrolling for Michael in the [[Film/Halloween1978 original movie]], though he's only properly introduced here. Granted, we didn't see any other cops in the original other than Brackett -- and ''Film/HalloweenKills'' begins with a flashback explaining that he only encountered Michael a while after Laurie Strode was rescued.
* ''Film/HaloNightfall'' introduced a never-before-seen Covenant species, the Yonhet, despite taking place ''after'' the original ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' trilogy. In this case, Creator/ThreeFourThreeIndustries somewhat covered their tracks by introducing them as part of an entire "Covenant Fringe", a collection of Covenant-allied species too weak to have seen military action against the humans during the Human-Covenant war, and too small in population to be of much notice to the core Covenant races.
* The ''Film/HarryPotter'' movies had a habit of keeping minor characters who were introduced in [[Literature/HarryPotter earlier books]] out and having to shoe-horn them in [[AdaptationalLateAppearance later on]] down the road when they became necessary to the plot.
** Arabella Figg is suddenly introduced in [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix the fifth film]] as the Dursleys' neighbour who is secretly a Squib member of the Order. In the books, she has been seen since [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone the first]], and her connection to the Order doesn't come out of nowhere; [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire the fourth book]] namedrops her when Dumbledore calls for the reactivation of the Order following Voldemort's resurrection.
** Lavender Brown isn't in the first five films ([[GhostExtras well,]] [[TheOtherDarrin sort]] [[RaceLift of]]), but she suddenly materializes in [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince the sixth film]] as a major supporting character. In the books, she is a Gryffindor girl in Harry's generation, and has been a recurring character since the first book.
** Bill Weasley, the eldest Weasley sibling, doesn't appear until [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows the seventh film]], where he and Harry act like they've never met before. He actually makes a cameo in [[Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban the third film]] as part of the Weasley family photo taken in Egypt, but isn't identified (and certainly not played by Creator/DomhnallGleeson). In the books, he has been mentioned since the first but doesn't meet Harry until the fourth.
** Mundungus Fletcher, an Order member, also doesn't show up until the seventh film. Interestingly, he is mentioned in passing in [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix the fifth film]], while he is properly introduced in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix the book it's based on]] (in the books, he's been mentioned since [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets the second]]).
** Aberforth Dumbledore is a complicated example. In the books, he is first mentioned in the fourth, actually shows up in the fifth and [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince sixth]] but is not identified by name, before being properly introduced in the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows seventh]]. In the films, he has a brief cameo in the fifth film, is mentioned in the seventh film and then shows up to be properly introduced in the eighth. While this technically corresponds with the books, his unidentified appearance in the sixth book sets up the plot point about him possessing the other half of the shattered two-way mirror Sirius gave Harry, enabling him to send Dobby to help Harry in the final book. As a result, this creates a glaring PlotHole about the mirror thing, especially since the scene where Harry received the mirror was ''also'' cut in the fifth film (therefore making his possession of the broken mirror in the films inexplicable).
* ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}'':
** ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening'' just sort of... drops a new BigBad, General Katana, into [=MacLeod=]'s backstory and expects the viewer to roll with it. Hell, it drops an [[VoodooShark entire new backstory into MacLeod's backstory]] (that [=MacLeod=] is actually a space alien who has been politically exiled by Katana from planet Zeist) and acts like it all fits together despite the new backstory being almost completely incompatible with any of the details from the original film.
** ''Film/HighlanderEndgame'' had two major examples: Jacob Kell, Connor's former childhood friend who betrayed him and murdered his mother, and Kate/Faith, Duncan's Immortal ex-wife. Made even worse by the fact that ''Series/HighlanderTheSeries'' had previously stated in no uncertain terms that Duncan ''never'' had a wife and never would marry.
* ''Film/TheHillsHaveEyesPartII:'' The Reaper is Papa Jupiter's brother, but in the first movie, Fred says that he and his wife only had one daughter before Jupiter's mother died giving birth to him, leaving him alone with his son and daughter. This adds to the FanonDiscontinuity and CanonDiscontinuity feelings about the movie.
* ''Film/JasonGoesToHellTheFinalFriday'' introduces Jason's half-sister Diana. No mention had been made about living Voorhees family members in preceding ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' films. ''However'', ''Film/FridayThe13thPartVIJasonLives'' was originally planned to include an appearance by Jason's father Elias (who would have bribed someone to have Jason properly buried rather than cremated after the ''Film/FridayThe13thTheFinalChapter''), and the scene was included in the novelization. It was cut from the final film though.
* ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'' introduces Sir Benjamin Lockwood, an elderly businessman who is said to have helped develop the dinosaur cloning technology with John Hammond decades ago. Despite this, he was neither seen nor mentioned in the original ''Film/JurassicPark'' movie. The character is essentially a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute for Hammond (right down to the cane with an insect in amber as pommel), who couldn't appear in the film due to Creator/RichardAttenborough having passed away in 2014. That being said, Lockwood has a DarkSecret that would justify Hammond never mentioning him or downplaying his role in developing the dinosaur cloning technology.
* Lampshaded and parodied in ''Film/LastActionHero'', in which the ShowWithinAShow Danny is magically transported into is the fourth installment of the popular ''Jack Slater'' action film franchise.
** It turns out that Slater's young adult daughter from his failed marriage is in town, and at one point in the story she is taken hostage and needs to be rescued. Danny points out that Slater has never mentioned his daughter before and is annoyed that the filmmakers are introducing a new character into the franchise in this manner.
** Lampshaded in a different way when we meet John Practice, who in the Slater-verse is introduced as one of Slater's old cop buddies. Danny correctly pegs him as a traitorous bad guy because he's played by Creator/FMurrayAbraham ([[Film/{{Amadeus}} "He killed Mozart!"]]), though presumably also because he'd never been mentioned before.
* ''Film/MenInBlack3''
** O never appeared in the first two films but apparently had been working at MIB for at least as long as K had.
** In-Universe, one of J's first signs that something is wrong is when instead of K, he's greeted on the way to work by AA, who addresses J as his partner even though he's not someone J or the audience have ever seen before.
* ''[[Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie]]'' features a new Evil Space Alien as part of Zedd and Rita's crew, the pig-like Mordant, who essentially replaced Squatt and Baboo (and to a lesser degree Finster) while serving the former duo's role of being the dimwitted comic relief. Early versions of the script were going to explain that he was in fact Goldar's cousin visiting for the summer, but the final movie leaves this out, and so there's just a brand new pig alien accompanying Zedd, Rita, and Goldar as they release Ivan Ooze that they're all already familiar with.
* Done deliberately and repeatedly in ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'', with King Arthur's entourage growing and shrinking exactly as needed for the current scene being played. Special mentions go to Patsy, to Brother Maynard and his disciples, and of course to Arthur's entire army that appears in the very last scene and is implied to have been there off-screen throughout the entire movie.
* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales'', we get Salazar, the legendary pirate-hunter. He was never mentioned in any of the previous instalments, all of which involve pirate-hunting. We also learn that he single-handedly almost extinguished piracy in Jack's youth. Even though we've so far met several pirates older than Jack (including Jack's own father). In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'', we also learned that the council of the Pirate Lords had never before convened in Jack's lifetime. Which they really ought to have done in order to try and deal with a gigantic threat like Salazar.
* While the addition of Flo to the Barden Bellas in ''Film/PitchPerfect2'' is feasible in-universe, the movie doesn't really bother to explain to the viewers who she is or when she joined the group, instead more or less acting like she's been there as long as the others have, despite being totally absent from the first movie.
* ''Film/TheRoom2003'' has a really lazy example. With about 20 minutes left in the movie, a new character, Steven (whose name is mentioned only in the credits) suddenly appears and becomes deeply involved in the plot. Presumably, we're not supposed to notice that he suddenly appeared from nowhere without an introduction. WordOfGod is that Steven is supposed to be a replacement for the psychologist character Peter (whose actor left the production), but the audience is given no hint of this; indeed, Steven looks nothing like Peter, he doesn't even dress like him.
* ''Film/{{Scream}}'':
** ''Film/Scream3'' reveals that Randy Meeks has a sister, Martha, one whom Sidney and Dewey are quite familiar with, it seems, despite her existence not being hinted at in the previous films. Gale, on the other hand, is surprised when Martha is revealed to be Randy's sister.
** ''Film/Scream4'':
*** Sidney stays with Kate and Jill Roberts, her aunt and cousin from her mother's side, while she visits Woodsboro. The fact that Maureen Prescott has a sister was never brought up before, which is strange since ''Scream 3'' explored her past. It also makes you wonder where they were when Woodsboro was terrorized by Ghostface 14 years ago, which itself came on the heels of Maureen's murder. Jill's absence is at least understandable since she would have to be a toddler back then.
*** Judy Hicks tells Sidney that they were classmates back in high school, and were in the drama club together, indicating that they were friends, if not buddies. Obviously, Judy was nowhere to be seen in [[Film/Scream1996 the first film]]. [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Sidney herself admits that she doesn't remember her]], since she dealt with a lot of issues in the interim.
** ''Film/Scream2022'':
*** Wes Hicks, the son of the aforementioned Judy Hicks, is introduced as a major character in the film. He wasn't so much as hinted at in the previous film despite his mother's status as a supporting character. However, since Judy's life is not really touched upon in the fourth film (perhaps due to LawOfConservationOfDetail), this might be more justified.
*** Cristina Carpenter, Sam and Tara's mother, was another classmate of Sidney's from the first film who wasn't mentioned before the fifth film.
* ''Film/TheSmurfs''. Gutsy, because Hefty wasn't Scottish enough.
* ''Film/TheSmurfs2'' introduces Hackus and Vexy, two artificial Smurfs created by Gargamel. The fact that they weren't in the previous film(s) is justifiable, as they hadn't been created yet. What ''isn't'' justifiable is that ''the movie never actually introduces them'' -- we just meet them being up to some hijinx as though who they were had already been established.
* ''Franchise/StarWars Episode IX: Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'': In this final episode of the ''Star Wars'' Sequel Trilogy, Allegiant General Enric Pryde is shown as a First Order officer who's served [[BigBad Emperor Palpatine]] since the "old wars" -- that is, the events of the Original Trilogy films (''Film/ANewHope'', ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', and ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'') -- and it's because of this [[UndyingLoyalty longstanding loyalty]] that Palpatine deems him fit for commanding the First Order's forces on Exegol as a replacement for General Hux (who was executed after being exposed as TheMole to the Resistance) and later Supreme Leader Kylo Ren (who undergoes a HeelFaceTurn mid-battle). Yet this is the first time he's shown, having not even appeared in the prior Sequel Trilogy films. Some media of the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' {{retcon}} him into events of those earlier films, explaining that he was doing things for the Galactic Empire and the First Order behind the scenes.
* ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'' introduced Kate Brewster, a childhood friend of John Connor, whom he last saw prior to the events of ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', and who becomes one of the leaders of the Resistance following Judgment Day, as well as Connor's wife. The previous two films in the series never mentioned her.
** Her absence is completely justified in the case of the first movie (set in the early 80s), as she probably wasn't even born back then. Her "retroactive" importance is also justified, as the ''Rise of The Machines'' is set in an AlternateTimeline in which the Judgement Day and the following war are significantly different from their versions in the first 2 movies (due to the destruction of the first Terminator's remains in the end of the 2nd movie). It is very likely that John Connor and Kate Brewster never met again after their childhood in the original timeline, and that her relation with Connor and leadership of the resistance only happen in the new altered timeline. After all, both T-850 (older and heavier version of T-800 with different components) and TX, as well as the "early Terminators", are established to be "novelties" of the new timeline, so they are deliberately different from the Terminators and other machines in the first 2 movies.
* ''Film/WarForThePlanetOfTheApes'' features a love interest for Blue Eyes named Lake. She's treated as though she has always been a member of the colony, even though she wasn't seen in the [[Film/DawnOfThePlanetOfTheApes previous movie]]. Red is also said to have been one of Koba's coconspirators in the previous film, but like Lake, he didn't actually appear in it.
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'':
** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'':
*** When debating how to break out ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, Wolverine casually announces he "knows a guy." The guy turns out to be ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}}, who has not appeared or been mentioned in any of the six previous ''X-Men'' movies. This line of dialogue is TheArtifact of the original script, in which the teen who helped Wolverine was a young version of Cain Marko, AKA The Juggernaut, who he did actually encounter in ''Film/XMenTheLastStand''.
*** The future portion of the film fully incorporates the idea from ''First Class'' which established that [[ComicBook/ProfessorX Charles]] and ComicBook/{{Mystique}} grew up together. It can seem a bit jarring to see Creator/PatrickStewart's Xavier sadly recounting how he once loved Mystique and considered her his sister, when there is absolutely no indication at any point in the original trilogy that the two were ever close or even ''knew'' one another.
** Even earlier than that, ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' introduced Dr. Hank "ComicBook/{{Beast|Marvel Comics}}" [=McCoy=], a mutant politician who ''everyone'' at the Xavier Institute (other than the latecomer Logan) knows intimately, even though he was never shown or mentioned in the first two movies. ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' and ''Days of Future Past'' rectified the issue somewhat, clarifying that Hank was a student from the Institute's early days who stayed behind when Xavier shut the school down during the Vietnam War.
** ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' is set in the 1980s and has a teenage Nightcrawler join the X-Men even though ''Film/X2XMenUnited'' which was set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture had them meet him for the first time as an adult. Though WordOfGod has said the time travel in ''Days of Future Past'' has made the third and [[Film/XMenOriginsWolverine fourth]] movies [[CanonDiscontinuity non-canon]], which could mean the same for ''X2''.
* John Chisum, the villain of ''Film/YoungGunsII'', was the unheard of partner of John Tunstall. The Regulators treat him like he had always been there.

[[folder:Literature]]
* In Patrick Graham's ''Literature/TheApocalypseAccordingToMarie'', it turns out Marie had another friend of sorts in her city aside from Bannerman. The new guy in this case is a crazy old neighbour named Cayley who had never even mentioned in the previous book... and who turns out to be connected to the novel's plot, of course.
* One of the prequels to ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' introduces Belmakor and Belsamber, two previously-unmentioned disciples of Aldur who both committed suicide shortly after the War of the Gods. Their deaths help explain how Mallorea ended up being such a huge blind spot for Aldur's disciples, as Belmakor and Belsambar would have been sent to gather reconnaissance in that region if they'd lived.
** The disciples were mentioned in the series proper as having died in the distant past, though the details were not given until the prequels were published. Each map of the area where the disciples lived shows broken-down towers labeled with their names alongside the other disciples' towers.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' spinoff book "Literature/TheSillyCanineCaper", Darkwing speaks as though he knows the villainess Anna Matronic and she also seems to be familiar with him but how they met never comes up.
* Played with in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book ''Literature/InterestingTimes'', which reintroduced Twoflower and introduced Twoflower's daughters, Pretty Butterfly and Lotus Blossom. Rincewind insists that Twoflower hasn't mentioned having children and that the whole thing just came out of left field, but Twoflower keeps trying to play the whole thing off, insisting that he "must have mentioned it." Rincewind accepts this on the pretext that they were probably running away from something at the time - a situation where he's not going to be listening to what anyone's saying.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Book 3, ''Literature/GravePeril'', introduces Michael Carpenter, Knight of the Cross and Harry's long-time friend from at least two years before the books started. He has never been mentioned in any of the short stories, books, or flashbacks set before ''Grave Peril''.
* The first time Skye is mentioned in the ''Literature/{{Evernight}}'' series is ''Afterlife'', the fourth book, and yet Bianca recognises her, mentions that Raquel shared a class with her a few years back and was pally with her. In fairness, there are a lot of students at Evernight Academy that Bianca and Raquel are probably familiar with, without mentioning every single one, though it does stand out a bit due to it clearly indicating Skye is going to be an important character in this book.
* In ''Literature/GreatExpectations'', it isn't until Chapter 15 that we learn that Joe Gargery has had another apprentice all along; apparently Pip just never thought to mention Orlick before. (In reality, this was because the novel was originally published serially, meaning Creator/CharlesDickens couldn't go back to add the new character to earlier chapters.)
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** Professor Silvanus Kettleburn is this trope by technicality. Care of Magical Creatures, his subject, is mentioned in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'', but its teacher is not specified until ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban Prisoner of Azkaban]]'' (when the class becomes relevant to the plot), at which point he has already retired.
** In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'', Luna Lovegood is introduced; she was in the year below the main characters in books 2-4 without being mentioned but now becomes a major character. Slightly justified as she is a Ravenclaw and thus would not be in the same dorms as the main characters.
** In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half Blood Prince]]'', Cormac [=McLaggen=] is introduced and tries out for Keeper against Ron. [=McLaggen=] provides an explanation for his absence from the Quidditch trials in the previous book: He was sick in the hospital wing at the time after eating doxy eggs on a bet, also providing his EstablishingCharacterMoment. Romilda Vane is introduced in the same book; both characters are in the year below the main characters and have supposedly been in Ginny Weasley's class for four years without being mentioned in any of the books.
* ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'':
** The Roman Aspects were not mentioned at all in the original Quintet... however, ''The Lost Hero'' justifies this in that the Greek and Roman Aspects do ''not'' get along at all, hence the need for them to remain hidden from each other. In fact, a clever reader can point out that the only ones explaining the Roman aspects are, of course, Romans, and that the Romans felt this way about the Greeks. (Since Lupa's not one to tell!)
** Related, Jason Grace. Thalia didn't mention having a little brother for several reasons, among them being that the events surrounding his disappearance were ''quite'' traumatic for her and that she thought him dead until this series began. Jason ''also'' happens to be a BackstoryInvader to the class of Wilderness School students that Piper and Leo were part of, thanks to [[spoiler:Hera]] transporting him onto that bus with amnesia and messing with the students' memories.
* ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'': ''Brisingr'' introduces Nasuada and Ajihad's culture. Not only had they never been previously mentioned (and none of Nasuada's point-of-view segments from the previous book so much as alluded to her culture), but the book tries to act as though they are well known throughout Algaesia and have been part of the Varden. [[RetCon Despite this contradicting what the first book said about nobody knowing where Ajihad came from.]]
* ''Literature/JamesBond'' novel ''Literature/HighTimeToKill'' introduces one Roland Marquis, a distinguished RAF member and Bond's rival since his studies in Eton. This is actually the first time that anyone from Bond's days of studying had been introduced.
* ''Franchise/TheLionKing'' [[ComicBook/TheLionKing comics]] and books are bad at this. Many characters, such as Tama, Tojo, and Malka, appear but are never referenced in other material ever again. Very often they're not given any reason for popping up and are just always presumed to be there. A particularly noticeable example is Mtoto, who is Simba's cousin according to a magazine. Sarabi had sisters once, but they were scrapped very early in development. In the final product Nala and Simba are the only two cubs in the Pride. Other examples include the cubs introduced in ''[[Literature/TheLionKingSixNewAdventures Nala's Dare]]'', which apparently were Nala's friends during Scar's reign but are never even implied to exist in the film. In ''The Lion King'' Nala was the only cub in the pride after Simba left.
* The ''Literature/NancyDrew'' series (all versions) frequently introduced characters (usually just for the duration of the current book) as relatives/old friends of Bess, George, Nancy's father, or Nancy herself, essentially explaining their absence by having them live far away.
* {{Invoked}} by Literature/OctoberDaye when she has to introduce her fetch[[note]]a magical doppelganger[[/note]] May to humans. The audience and fey characters know what she is (or at least understand what a fetch is), but Toby has to pretend that she's always had an identical twin sister who she just never mentioned.
* [[spoiler:Halt]]'s twin brother, introduced in book 8 of ''Literature/RangersApprentice''. {{Justified|Trope}} in that the brother lived in another country and [[spoiler:Halt]] actively avoided telling people about his childhood, as shown in book 11.
** ''Literature/{{Brotherband}}'' introduces two important concepts to Skandian society: the Andomal and the Maktig. Neither is mentioned in ''Literature/RangersApprentice'', despite Skandians being prominently featured.
* The opening chapter of ''Literature/{{Redshirts}}'' by Creator/JohnScalzi plays with this from the New Guy's perspective. This week's RedShirt thinks about the time his father saved the captain's life, and then realises that up until the captain mentioning it just now, there has been no reference to this happening the whole time he was on the ship.
* ''Literature/ReignOfTheSevenSpellblades'': Stacy Cornwallis and Fay Willock were apparently present for the garuda incident in volume 1 but weren't seen. We are humorously informed at their introduction in volume 2 that they spent the whole time hiding while Oliver, Nanao, and Richard were fighting it.
-->'''Fay:''' Seriously? You want in [on the TournamentArc]? You were quaking in your boots like the rest of us when that garuda attacked.\\
'''Stacy:''' F-Fay! You're mistaken! [[BlatantLies I was just watching really intently!]]
* ''Literature/{{Sandokan}}'': Sambigliong, a Tiger of Mompracem that debuted in ''The Pirates of Malaysia'' and Sandokan's third in command since that novel, is mentioned as one of the then-unnamed pirates that ambushed lord Guillonk in ''The Tigers of Mompracem''. This is particularly notable because there already was a named character, Juioko, known to have taken part to that ambush and survive the fall of Mompracem, but him and the other named pirates would not be mentioned anymore.
* In the ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' story "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", Holmes casually mentions that he has a brother, living in London, and has simply never mentioned him before. Adaptations generally play up Watson's surprise at this, and make it part of Holmes's eccentricity.
* Peter David's ''Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier'' series had Commander Kat Mueller appear suddenly several novels in. She's introduced as the Executive Officer of the ''Excalibur'' and a former lover of Calhoun's, with her earlier on-scene absence described as being due to her taking the night shift.
** One could say this was justified, as she was ''actually'' introduced as the Executive Officer of the ''Grissom'' in Calhoun's Captain's Table story, along with Romeo Takahashi, Mick Gold, and Doc Villers, the former two of which worked night shift on the ''Excalibur'' before it blew up, and all four work under Shelby (and eventually under Mueller) on the ''Trident'' after.
* From ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
** It plays with this in ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce'' with Brisha Syo. We know she's Lumiya. We really do. Despite this, Mara assumes she's Luke and Lumiya's daughter. Since Mara and Luke have each other's memories from their Force bond, Lumiya barely kissed Luke, and that TIE crash that warranted extensive cybernetic replacement would most likely have led to a miscarriage, why Mara would even think that only raises even more questions. That said, WordOfGod says that even if they use a character from the comics, they are free to accept or reject anything that took place in them.
** By contrast, it's played straight and lampshaded in ''Invincible''. Tenel Ka has cousins? Okay, so Ta'a Chume secretly had more than one son, we'll give her the benefit of the doubt and accept that she managed to hide her pregnancy. And... Tenel Ka has cousins? But the fact that nobody knows about them is what makes them so useful. And, wait, [[RuleOfThree Tenel Ka has cousins?]]
** It's likely that Kevin J. Anderson left a number of Luke's original twelve students nameless and description-less in the ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'' for this very reason. At the time of the Legends continuity reboot in 2014, at least one was never positively identified.
** Winter, Princess Leia's best friend/quasi adopted sister and hero of the Rebellion, is introduced this way in ''Heir to the Empire''. Having a character who so easily could have had a place in the original trilogy, but didn't, lead many readers to mistrust her and think that she was Delta Source (back when it was assumed that Delta Source was a spy in the imperial palace, and not just a left-over surveillance network that the New Republic never found.)
* An in-universe example, in ''Literature/ThereIsNoAntimemeticsDivision'', O5-8's assistant, Clay, is apparently some kind of antimemetic agent, or an agent working on behalf of an antimeme. O5-8 does not have an assistant, but this entity was inserted into his office, apparently first to get him to forget his class W mnestic medicine. It appears his further mission was to destroy the Antimemetics Division, but we will never know for sure, as he was killed soon after being discovered.
* In the ''Literature/TortallUniverse'', the lead character of ''Literature/SongOfTheLioness'' [[CharacterOverlap appears]] only three chapters in to ''Literature/TheImmortals'', and refers to Numair Salmalin as one of her best friends. He wasn't in ''Song of the Lioness'' at all. There's actually a gap of ''ten years'' between the two quartets (which is expected to be filled in ''Literature/TheNumairChronicles'') but this isn't immediately clear without consulting a timeline.
* In the ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'' series, we hear briefly about the Volturi, mainly that they and Carlisle are on friendly terms, but that he left because he did not agree with their diet of humans. Edward speaks pretty well of them, when he tells Bella about them. In the next book and all books after, it's revealed that the Volturi are a highly corrupt organization, and the Cullens are all highly suspicious of them. This also leads to a case of Remember Those New Rules, since it's not until then that it's mentioned that there are any sort of laws or governing of vampires.
** In ''New Moon'', we find out that the teenagers of La Push had been turning into werewolves ever since the Cullens first settled down in Forks. This is not present in ''Twilight'' (when nothing is done to stop James, Victoria, and Laurent from killing people in Forks) or ''Midnight Sun'' (when nothing is done to stop Peter and Charlotte from killing people in Forks).
*** The James, Victoria, and Laurent example is only in the film version. In the book, they never kill any of the residents of Forks.
* ''Literature/{{Under Suspicion|Series}}'': It's established in ''Literature/TheSleepingBeautyKiller'' that Angela is head of marketing at the women's clothing company Ladyform and is vice president Charlotte Pierce's best friend, though she neither appeared or was mentioned in ''Literature/AllDressedInWhite'' (where Charlotte and her company were first introduced). This one is more justified than usual given that the previous novel was focused around people who could've potentially been involved in the disappearance of Charlotte's younger sister (namely, the wedding guests staying with her at a resort in Florida), so there would be little reason for Angela to be mentioned as she had no significant connection to the case.
* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book ''Moonrise'', six cats were sent to deal with the mountain lion, Sharptooth. The Clan cats meet three of them: Talon, Bird, and Rock, who explain that the other three had been killed by Sharptooth. In the next book, the Clans return to the Tribe, and there's a fourth cat, Jag, listed as being one of the ones originally sent to fight Sharptooth, with no explanation as to why we didn't see him in the last book (though the characters do recognize him and say they'd met him before).
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': Cadsuane is never mentioned until she appears in the sixth book, even though she is FamedInStory. To be fair, the Aes Sedai are known for being extremely secretive even among their own members, and Cadsuane has a history of embarrassing many sisters who would as soon not talk about her unless needed.
* In the ''Literature/WolfHall'' series, Meg Douglas, and to a lesser extent her flame Tom Truth. Meg is an odd example; as a Princess of Scotland, Henry VII's niece, and being very high up in the English line of succession at a time when Henry had few potential heirs, she probably should have been at least mentioned much earlier, but wasn't. She only appears in the final book, which makes her out to be an important lady at court and to have been thoroughly involved in Anne Boleyn's circle while participating in an illicit affair of her own, entirely offscreen. The book she appears in goes out of its way to explain why the series' resident gossips Jane Rochford and Mary Shelton never mentioned Meg earlier by having them answer that everyone was more concerned about Anne's affairs at the time than Meg's.

[[folder:Multiple Media]]
* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'':
** Nuparu and Hahli appeared in the second story arc in a web animation, alongside Kotu who was ''meant'' to be introduced the previous year but didn't show up in the story proper, only in the character sections of the website and an off-hand mention in the ''Mata Nui Online Game''. Both Nuparu and Hahli then became major players, pushing aside former characters and were even sold as toys. Nuparu is especially conspicuous, being an important miner engineer, yet he wasn't alluded to in any of the mine-related side quests of the ''MNOG''. Later years would be more conscious about introducing new characters.
** An intentional version of this was attempted in the {{prequel}} film ''Legends of Mata Nui'', which you'd expect would deal with how [[BigBad the Makuta]] became known. Instead, after manipulating things from behind the scenes as a mysterious force and never being mentioned by other characters, Makuta reveals himself at the end and everyone acts as if they had always known him. What they're surprised about is that he's become evil, while the audience was meant to be shocked that he was at one point good. In fact, he has been a high ranking governing figure all this time, a fact no one had mentioned before, masquerading as ''another'' authority figure to gain more power. This "twist" was intended as a [[SequelHook prequel hook]] to another movie that would properly explain Makuta's background and how others had known him, which never got made. Years later, his origin was detailed in books and online stories.
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:''
** ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' introduces Dr. Helen Cho, a renowned Korean scientist who serves as a medical and scientific ally to the team. She's close friends with both Bruce and Tony, but like Alexander Pierce below, she is neither seen nor mentioned in any of the previous movies.
** ''Film/BlackPantherWakandaForever'':
*** The film adds Aneka, a member of the Dora Milaje, to the supporting cast. Unlike the audience, every main Wakandan character is already familiar with her - she seems to be on friendly terms with Shuri and it is even [[ImpliedLoveInterest implied]] she's in a relationship with the already established character Ayo.
*** There's also an example pertaining to a species rather than a character. The movie, alongside ''Series/MsMarvel2022'' from earlier that same year, officially introduces the concept of mutants into the franchise's lore, with [[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor]] explicitly using the term to describe himself. There had been no mention of mutants in the MCU prior to these instances, even though Namor being hundreds of years old would logically suggest that the possibility of people being born with superpowers has existed for ''at least'' centuries.[[note]]This case at least has some real world justification, as the MCU was previously unable to use mutants due to the ''[[Film/XMenFilmSeries X-Men]]'''s film rights having belonged to Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox until Creator/{{Disney}} purchased the company in 2019.[[/note]]
** Alexander Pierce is introduced in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' as a high-ranking member of ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} and ComicBook/NickFury's close personal friend. Prior to his debut, he'd never been mentioned in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' or any of the other [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] films. WordOfGod from the creators was that this is one of the major reasons Jasper Sitwell [[spoiler:was chosen to be a HYDRA mole. Most of the double agents in the movie were new characters that hadn't appeared in any other films, and the filmmakers felt it'd be a cop-out to introduce such a massive conspiracy and not have it involve any established characters]].
*** Pierce's situation seems especially odd that in that it appears he's Fury's ''superior'' (or at least the politically-appointed head of SHIELD while Fury is the operational leader), whereas ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' implies that Fury reported directly to the Council. ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' further confuses the issue because a flashback established Pierce had been in a high-ranking position years earlier. ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' retconned him into having a role in the events of ''The Avengers'', showing that he was involved in the retrieval of ComicBook/{{Loki}}'s cosmic scepter (which contained the Mind Stone) following the Battle of New York.
** ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
*** Benjamin Donovan, the crooked lawyer overseeing Wilson Fisk's affairs while Fisk is in prison during season 2, was not mentioned at all during the first season.
*** Lampshaded in season 2. When helping Matt with his tie prior to Grotto's funeral, Karen mentions having a brother, who has never been so much as discussed up until this point. Matt is surprised as Karen has never mentioned having any siblings before, to which Karen simply replies, "[[YouDidntAsk You never asked]]."
** ''Series/TheDefenders2017'': Only two of the Hand's five leaders were introduced in prior series: Madame Gao through ''Series/Daredevil2015'' and ''Series/IronFist2017'', and Bakuto in ''Iron Fist''. The other three - Alexandra, Sowande, and Murakami - are this trope. While Bakuto and Madame Gao made cryptic references to Alexandra's existence during ''Iron Fist'', Murakami is an egregious case as Stick mentions that Murakami pulled the strings behind Nobu's operation in ''Daredevil'', yet Nobu at no point gave any indication he was a subordinate to a Finger. Especially since Nobu was the one assisting Madame Gao in doing business with Wilson Fisk.
** ''Series/IronFist2017'': The ''Bulletin'' reporter that interviews Ward Meachum is Jennifer Many, who appears to be a veteran reporter, but was never seen nor mentioned in any of the ''Bulletin'' scenes in ''Series/Daredevil2015''.
** The titular heroine of ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'' is stated to have been around since 1995. However, she never appeared nor was mentioned in any of the [=MCU=] films until her solo movie, which was justified by S.H.I.E.L.D. having covered up the events of her movie and her having been in space since then. Nick Fury was the only one who was aware of her existence, yet he never bothered to use the pager she gave him to contact her [[spoiler: [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar until he was snapped out of existence along with half the universe]]]], making her introduction to the Avengers very late.
*** Likewise in the same movie, the Skrulls were established as [[spoiler: having been hiding in refuge from the Kree]] way before the events of the films. Not only were they never mentioned either, but their war with the Kree is a retcon from the Kree-Xandar war in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014''. TheStinger of ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' revealed that [[spoiler: Talos, the leader of the Skrulls, and his wife were impersonating Nick Fury and Maria Hill respectively]], apparently implying that the Skrulls were hiding on Earth during the entire franchise.
** TheStinger of ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' introduces S.W.O.R.D., a seemingly new government organization that acts as a counterpart to S.H.I.E.L.D. from the earlier movies. ''Series/WandaVision'' subsequently establishes that S.W.O.R.D. has been around for quite a while and has funding and resources on par with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s, despite never having been seen or mentioned in any of the prior movies or even the ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' TV show.
** ''Film/ThorRagnarok'':
*** Due to having become a fugitive after the events of the [[Film/ThorTheDarkWorld previous movie]], Heimdall has been replaced as the guardian of the Bifrost by a new character named Skurge. Despite never having appeared in the previous films, Skurge has apparently been around for a while, and claims to have fought alongside Thor in the past. It's {{handwave}}d by having Thor not recall the battle in question, which makes sense given [[ButForMeItWasTuesday all the crazy adventures he's gone on by this point]].
*** Justified case with ComicBook/{{Hela}}. [[spoiler: She's Odin's eldest child and Thor and Loki's older sister, but all evidence of her existence was covered up by Odin after she went rogue and had to be imprisoned.]] Throughout the movie, she's shown to be bitter about the fact that nobody remembers her.
** ''Film/ThorLoveAndThunder'' introduces Axl, the son of the deceased Heimdall, and his mother Grace. Both characters were implicitly among the Asgardian refugees who escaped at the end of ''Ragnarok'', but at no point in that movie did Heimdall ever mention having a wife or child.%%

* Franchise/MonsterVerse: The ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' novelization and the ''Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure'' guidebook both state that the [[Characters/MonsterVerseApexCybernetics Apex Cybernetics corporation]] have had a history with Monarch for years, the latter work in particular making Apex and Monarch out to be sister organizations since the [[TheUnmasquedWorld masquerade-ending]] events of ''Film/Godzilla2014'': Apex have handled Titan-related infrastructure and technology whereas Monarch have handled defence, Apex have done contract work for Monarch (which is implied to have contributed to Monarch's radical advancement and new resources in-between 2014 and ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019''), and Apex have shadowed Monarch everywhere the latter organization built an outpost or ventured inbetween 2014 and 2024. Despite all the above, there is absolutely no reference to Apex existing in ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' nor its associated spin-offs (not even during the global Titan crisis with King Ghidorah), nor are Apex referenced in either of the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' prequel graphic novels. The closest we got to a direct Apex reference in the pre-''Godzilla vs. Kong'' [=MonsterVerse=] was early mentions of Apex's technology chief [[UnseenNoMore Ren Serizawa]], by name and familial relation only, in the ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' supplementary materials.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** ''Film/RogueOne'' is a prequel to ''Film/ANewHope'' about how the plans for the original Death Star were stolen, and introduces Director Orson Krennic of the Imperial Security Bureau as a primary player in the Death Star's development, [[TeethClenchedTeamwork butting heads with both Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader himself]] during the film. [[spoiler: Justified since he's killed near the end of the movie and has his position in charge of the Death Star taken by Tarkin, explaining why he didn't appear in ''A New Hope''.]]
** In the final season of ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', we see events from ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', but this time from different perspectives, with Ahsoka appearing and often ''just'' missing particular moments from the movie.

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/BraveSaintSaturn's first album was a RockOpera about fictionalized versions of the band's three members as astronauts. Their second album was a sequel, but a new member (Andy Verdecchio) had joined the band by then, so the liner notes wrote about him as a crew member as if he had been on the mission from the beginning. For the third album in the series, Andy was just as abruptly written out of the crew--this time, he was a cosmonaut on a completely different spacecraft.
* Music/{{Queen}}: Freddie Mercury (1946-1991) didn't give interviews too frequently, but he did grant at least ten per year since he became famous in '74. Very often, he was asked about his favorite singer(s) and answers used to include [[Music/LedZeppelin Robert Plant]] and, depending on the era and occasion, people like Music/MichaelJackson, Music/ArethaFranklin, Montserrat Caballe, etc. His band mates, his former girlfriends and boyfriends, biographers (official and unofficial), people who worked with him (producers, engineers, guest musicians) were also asked about Freddie's favorite singers and more and more names came including Music/{{Prince}}, Music/DavidBowie, etc. [[Music/FreeBand Paul]] [[Music/BadCompany Rodgers]] had never been mentioned as one of his influences until late 2004 when Brian May and Roger Taylor decided to go on tour with him as "Queen + Paul Rodgers." Then, he'd suddenly become "Freddie's favorite singer" and had apparently been all along. When the partnership ended, Freddie's alleged admiration for Mr. Rodgers was never mentioned again.
* "[[Literature/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer But do you recall/The most famous reindeer of all?]]" Back when the song was written, this trope was in full effect, as Rudolph was brand new after debuting in a 1939 story by Robert L. May which became a song in 1949 by Music/GeneAutry with the help of May's business partner. Several Creator/{{Rankin Bass|Productions}} specials and light-up lawn decorations later, it could be argued that Rudolph ''is'', in fact, the most famous reindeer of all - or at least the most distinctive, since all the other reindeer have no real character traits. The line in the song itself is pretty funny--the singer takes for granted that "You know Dasher and Dancer...." So why would there be any question of the listener recalling the most famous one?
* Tag Team's first single "Whoomp! (There It Is)" (which was also the first track from their first album) has the line "Tag Team back again".
* Music/VanillaIce's first hit "Ice Ice Baby" has the line "Ice is back with my brand new invention". Somewhat justified in that the song was originally the B-side to "Play That Funky Music", so he was "back" from the A-side.
* The Music/BackstreetBoys' "We've Got It Goin' On" derives its title from a line in the chorus, "We've got it goin' on for years". While this line would definitely ring true over 20 years later, when it was released that wasn't quite the case, as it was their debut single.

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* Edith invokes this in ''Podcast/InterstitialActualPlay'' episode 2, where the party has to pretend to be students in ''Film/HighSchoolMusical''. When Ms. Darbis asks her to introduce herself to the class, she just claims that she's been going to the school for the past four years. Everyone buys it.
* On episodes of ''Podcast/ShuffleQuest'' featuring a guest game master, regular GM Tom Harrison plays as Tasha. She has always been part of the team and is in no way a stand-in for Terok (who does not exist.)

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* A characteristic of [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]], [[SignatureStyle particularly whenever Russo has the book]], especially in 2007. The most obvious cases being Wrestling/SamoaJoe's girlfriend, [[{{mooks}} the entire Latino Nation]], [=SoCal=] Val, Matt Morgan, Wrestling/{{PAC}} and Peyton Banks. A sufficiently hardcore pro wrestling fan might have known a few of these people already, indeed many of the live audience members seemed to, but to those who only watched TNA they just showed up with no fanfare yet were put into positions of focus.
* When Wrestling/{{CMLL}}'s deal with Wrestling/RingOfHonor became official, three luchadors were sent by the former to compete in the latter's World Six Man Tag Tournament, the legendary Último Guerrero, the up and coming Hechicero and, as Kevin Kelly called him, "our old pal Okumura". Again, a hardcore pro wrestling fan probably did know Shigeo Okumura, but there wasn't any reason for anyone just watching ROH to know who he was.
* Wrestling/{{Kane}} was introduced as Wrestling/TheUndertaker's heretofore unknown brother along with the backstory that one of them was responsible for the fire that killed their parents.

[[folder:Radio]]
* ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'' introduced the eccentric mailman Wooton Bassett this way in "Welcoming Wooton", and to a certain extent, the entire Washington family (most notably Ed) in "The Toy Man." The latter was a little jarring, given that Ed Washington went from not being a character to the conveniently dilemma-solving manager of the new Whit's End in a single episode.
* In ''Radio/TheMenFromTheMinistry'''s first series the General Assistance Department had a second secretary called April Adams, who was [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome quickly forgotten]] in series 2 and in the Finnish version had her role [[AdaptedOut replaced by other characters such as Mr. Wilkins]]. However, when the Finnish run adapted the episode "The War with the Isle of Wight" in 1998, the creators apparently couldn't find a way to replace her role adequately with another character, leading to Ms. Adams popping into the office for one episode, and then never to be heard from again.
* Parodied in one episode of ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresSouvenirProgramme'', in a YetAnotherChristmasCarol parody. Christopher Muscheer has been established as having a wife and son, but in the future scene, when his son is berating him for neglecting his family, he asks "And what of your sister?" and gets the reply "My sister? You cared so little for my sister you didn't even bother setting her up earlier in the story!"

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has a rather extreme example with the Necrons and their C'Tan masters, who when introduced were not only [[GreaterScopeVillain major parts of the galaxy's backstory]] and indirectly responsible for some pretty significant things (namely the transformation of the Warp and its denizens from pure ChaoticNeutral to malicious ChaoticEvil, and the creation of the Orks and the Eldar), but had managed to hide on numerous planets undetected and undiscovered for approximately ''[[TimeAbyss sixty million years]]''. They are also apparently ancient enemies of the Eldar, despite no Eldar ever mentioning them before.
** Also standard procedure whenever new characters and units get added to the game. Some of them manage to avert it, particularly in the case of new Tau units (as they, unlike most other factions, are still regularly producing new technology), but it's more common for the trope to be played straight instead. When this happens, expect older pieces of lore to receive a {{Rewrite}} in order to include them. Probably the most dramatic is the Swarmlord, who when introduced was suddenly present and in command for ''every'' decisive battle in the Tyranid wars.

[[folder:Theatre]]
* In ''Theatre/HenryIVPart2'', Pistol is introduced as a long-established member of Falstaff's criminal/military crew, despite not having even been mentioned in Part 1.
* In ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', Macbeth hires two murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance, but three show up to do the deed. Since the Third Murderer is of no real consequence, this may be a case of textual corruption. Alternately, [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] just needed a reason for the murderers to [[AsYouKnow talk about what they're doing rather than just doing it]], and a [[TheWatson new guy who doesn't know what's happening]] is a [[MrExposition convenient device]]. Another reading of it is that the third murderer is Macbeth himself in disguise, as he is so paranoid he has to see the act being done before his own eyes. Finally, there is at least one performing group whose interpretation of the above is to have the third murderer kill off the first two. Dead men tell no tales.
* ''Theatre/WesterosAnAmericanMusical'': The Night's Watch arc from the original story is covered by two songs, the first taking place before Jon Snow's FakeDefector stint with the wildlings and making no mention of it, the second long after he's done the stint and returned to the Night's Watch. Because of this, Jon is never seen properly meeting Mance Rayder as he was in the original story, with the two instead turning out to already know each other in "Sword in the Darkness".

[[folder:Theme Parks]]
* Ride/DisneyThemeParks:
** Walt Disney World's 2010-2014 expansion of Fantasyland (aptly dubbed New Fantasyland) is treated this way in the official tie-in material, explained as always having been there, though unbeknownst to us due to a recently-broken curse placed upon it.
** A similar mythology was used for the opening of Mickey's Toontown in Disneyland: the "neighborhood" had been there since before the opening of the park, but humans weren't allowed in until 1993.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland'': Profily is introduced late in Season 4 and claims that they have "been part of the gang" forever. Flashbacks are shown where they are in previous episodes.
* ''WebAnimation/DingoDoodles'': Dingo heavily lampshades this when introducing the character Sneeze, who is one of the most important NPC characters in the campaign but didn't show up in the first episode of ''Fool's Gold'' and so the audience would have no idea why he is so important due to the story being in AnachronicOrder and the first episode being the middle of the campaign.
[[/folder]]

** It plays with this in ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce'' with Brisha Syo. We know she's Lumiya. We really do. Despite this, Mara assumes she's Luke and Lumiya's daughter. Since Mara and Luke have each other's memories from their Force bond, Lumiya barely kissed Luke, and that TIE crash would most likely have led to a miscarriage, why Mara would even think that only raises even more questions. That said, WordOfGod says that even if they use a character from the comics, they are free to accept or reject anything that took place in them.

** Winter, Princess Leia's best friend and hero of the Rebellion, is introduced this way in ''Heir to the Empire''. Having a character who we should have seen during the original trilogy, but didn't, lead many readers to mistrust her and think that she was Delta Source (back when it was assumed that Delta Source was a spy in the imperial palace, and not just a left-over surveillance network that the New Republic never found.)

* Franchise/MonsterVerse: The ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' novelization and the ''Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure'' guidebook both state that the [[Characters/MonsterVerseHumans Apex Cybernetics corporation]] have had a history with Monarch for years, the latter work in particular making Apex and Monarch out to be sister organizations since the [[TheUnmasquedWorld masquerade-ending]] events of ''Film/Godzilla2014'': Apex have handled Titan-related infrastructure and technology whereas Monarch have handled defence, Apex have done contract work for Monarch (which is implied to have contributed to Monarch's radical advancement and new resources in-between 2014 and ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019''), and Apex have shadowed Monarch everywhere the latter organization built an outpost or ventured inbetween 2014 and 2024. Despite all the above, there is absolutely no reference to Apex existing in ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' nor its associated spin-offs (not even during the global Titan crisis with King Ghidorah), nor are Apex referenced in either of the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' prequel graphic novels. The closest we got to a direct Apex reference in the pre-''Godzilla vs. Kong'' [=MonsterVerse=] was early mentions of Apex's technology chief [[UnseenNoMore Ren Serizawa]], by name and familial relation only, in the ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' supplementary materials.

If the character is [[WeHardlyKnewYe going to be killed off straight away]], this trope can be used to turn them into a MauveShirt beforehand.

*** Aimes, who is Mr. Nobody's assistant [[spoiler:and TheMole for Dante who also played a role in ''Fast Five'']], was never mentioned either.

** In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half Blood Prince]]'', Cormac [=McLaggen=] is introduced and tries out for Keeper against Ron. [=McLaggen=] provides an explanation for his absence from the Quidditch trials in the previous book: He was sick in the hospital wing at the time after eating doxy eggs on a bet, also providing his EstablishingCharacterMoment.

** Wes Hicks, the son of the aforementioned Judy Hicks, is introduced as a major character in the film. He wasn't so much as hinted at in the previous film despite his mother's status as a supporting character. However, since Judy's life is not really touched upon in the fourth film (perhaps due to LawOfConservationOfDetail), this might be more justified.
** Cristina Carpenter, Sam and Tara's mother, was another classmate of Sidney's from the first film who wasn't mentioned before the fifth film.

* ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious''

* The ''Franchise/DisneyPrincess'' franchise, which originally included [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteandtheSevenDwarfs Snow White]], {{WesternAnimation/Cinderella}}, [[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Aurora]], [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ariel]], [[WesternAnimation/BeautyandtheBeast Belle]], [[{{WesternAnimation/Aladdin}} Jasmine]], {{WesternAnimation/Pocahontas}}, and {{WesternAnimation/Mulan}} already in the lineup when it first launched, had public coronation ceremonies that officially welcomed new members into the lineup, with [[WesternAnimation/ThePrincessandtheFrog Tiana]], [[{{WesternAnimation/Tangled}} Rapunzel]], and [[{{WesternAnimation/Brave}} Merida]] all properly being added into the lineup this way, however, despite {{WesternAnimation/Moana}} and [[WesternAnimation/RayaandtheLastDragon Raya]] also eventually being added into the lineup as well, they did not receive a public coronation ceremony and simply just appeared right out of nowhere.

* The ''Manga/KimagureOrangeRoad'' fanfic ''Ordinary World'' nonchalantly introduces us to Kyosuke's cousin, and Akane and Kazyua's older brother, Musoka. However, things are not as they seem. [[spoiler: Musoka really IS Akane and Kazuya's older brother. He's also an extremely powerful telepath that can implant and remove memories. The reason we've never seen him before is because he removed his existence from the character's memories, and what we've seen is what they remember (since Kyosuke is, as always, narrating the story from the future). It gets ever stranger, since Musoka creates the character of the Master of ABCB from whole-cloth and pretends to be him; meaning he's actually been there all along!]]