History Main / SpotlightStealingTitle

* The LiveActionAdaptations of ''{{Asterix}} the Gaul'' and ''Asterix and Cleopatra'' were titled ''Asterix & Obelix Take On Caesar'' and ''Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra''. Might have something to do with the big-boned warrior being played by Gerard Depardieu.

* ''[[GameBoy GB]] {{Bomberman}}'' was retitled ''[[DolledUpInstallment Wario Blast: featuring Bomberman]]'' outside Japan.

* During TheEighties, radio DJs would often announce {{Genesis}} songs as "[[FaceOfTheBand Phil Collins and Genesis]]", as though Genesis were merely Collins's backing band.

So you've got a TV series, cartoon, comic book or other publication in the works, and of course you want it to succeed. What do you do to get it to catch the reader/viewers' attention? Make use of the character who has the most PopularityPower or is played by the most [[strike:egotistic]] popular star by promoting them to the series title, kind of like WolverinePublicity but for the team he's already a part of.

This has various scales, somewhat like the [=~Poor Man's Substitute~=]. First, the character's name is appended to the end (CharacterTitle and Friend). Then it takes the lead (Friend and CharacterTitle), and finally it's just their name (Friend Title).

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* The Japanese live-action movie adaptation of ''{{Death Note}}'' covered the anime/manga storyline (sort of) in two movies, {{Death Note}} and "Death Note: The Last Name," then added a sequel following the clear focus shift to killer Light's rival, the detective L, that occurred in movie #2. Movie #3 is "L: Change the [=WorLd=]."

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* ''PitchBlack'' later became ''The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black'' after executives decided they wanted to spin off Vin Diesel's character.

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* E.C. Sieger's Thimble Theatre was a well-regarded strip recounting the adventures of one Castor Oyl, his family, and his best friend Ham Gravy, until one day they needed to hire a sailor to captain a ship for them. The sailor, like most of TT's cast, was intended to be a throw-away character, never to return after the story arc ended, but fan response was so overwhelmingly positive that he joined the main cast, and eventually the strip was re-named after him. You might have read it; it's called Popeye.

* ''HappyDays'' would have been renamed ''[[TheFonzie Fonzie's]] Happy Days'', if not for Henry Winkler's insistence that Ron Howard keep top billing.

* ''JakAndDaxter'' turned into ''Jak II'' with the second game. Of course, since it went DarkerAndEdgier with that game, removing the comic relief sidekick from the title made sense.

[[caption-width:259:Your eyes are not decieving you, the rest of the X-Men ''actually'' got [[AndTheRest The Professor And Mary-Anne]] [[GilligansIsland treatment]]]]

* The classic arcade beat-em up based on TheAvengers was titled CaptainAmericaAndTheAvengers

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* An inversion: in Japan, the ''{{Castlevania}}'' series is known as ''Akumajou Dracula'' ("Demon Castle Dracula") and with a few exceptions (particularly ''Vampire Killer'' for the Mega Drive, the Japanese version of ''Castlevania: Bloodlines''), all of the games in the series have been released under the ''Akumajou Dracula'' name until the second GBA game, in which Konami attempted to adapt the international title of ''Castlevania'' for the Japanese versions due to [[ArtifactTitle Dracula's downplayed role in the newer games]]. It didn't quite work and the series went back to being called ''Akumajou Dracula'' in Japan.
** Amazingly in Japan, Castlevania never actually had a consistent title until RondoOfBlood and SymphonyOfTheNight. Simon's Quest was called "Dracula 2," Dracula's Curse was called "Akumajou Densetsu," (Demon Castle Legend) The Castlevania Adventure and Belmont's Revenge were called "Dracula Densetsu" (Dracula Legend) & "Dracula Densetsu 2" (Dracula Legend 2), and Castlevania Bloodlines was called "Vampire Killer." It was RondoOfBlood & SymphonyOfTheNight that used the series name outside of remakes of the first game.
* ''MegaManZero''. Despite popular belief, the "title" character is '''''not''''' a ''Mega Man'' {{expy}}.

** Possibly justified since all the other titular gargoyles were removed from the show for that season.

* The Japanese live-action movie adaptation of ''{{Death Note}}'' covered the anime/manga storyline (sort of) in two movies, {{Death Note}} and "Death Note: The Last Name," then added a sequel following the clear focus shift to killer Light's rival, the detective L, that occurred in movie #2. Movie #3 is "L: Change the WorLd."

Compare BillingDisplacement.

So you've got a TV series, cartoon, comic book or other publication in the works, and of course you want it to succeed. What do you do to get it to catch the reader/viewers' attention? Make use of the character with the most PopularityPower by promoting them to the series title, kind of like WolverinePublicity but for the team he's already a part of.

* The Data East beat-em-up ''Dragon Ninja'' became ''Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja'' when it was released in North America to simply ''BadDudes'' when it was ported to the NES. A JustifiedTrope, since the titular "Dragon Ninja" was actually the main bad guy.

** MAD #79 had a similar "Rise and Fall" feature, with the starlet reaching the peak of her career with an album cover showing "Patti" and a closeup of her face, then gradually declining into a nameless member of the same vocal group that made her career.

* In Brazil, O Pato Donald (DonaldDuck) #434 introduced Zé Carioca. The stories became popular enough that Issue #479 Was titled "O Pato Donald apresenta Zé Carioca" (Or Donald Duck presents Joe Carioca), and the series continued to take that title every other issue (So even numbers were Donald Duck and odd numbers were Joe Carioca). Donald's face was removed from the Zé Carioca title logo after issue #527, the words "O Pato Donald apresenta" were shrunk down after issue #539, and removed completely from the title after issue #981 until eventually, this trope was reversed when Zé Carioca split off from Donald Duck, becoming it's own individual series after issue #1751. This treatment was quite generous to the character, because even for a while after the split, an issue of Zé Carioca wasn't necessarily entirely Zé Carioca stories.

* The Japanese live-action movie adaptation of ''{{Death Note}}'' covered the anime/manga storyline (sort of) in two movies, {{Death Note}} and "Death Note: The Last Name," then added a sequel following the clear focus shift to killer Light's rival, the detective L, that occurred in movie #2. Movie #3 is "L: Change the World."

* The Stooges became Iggy & the Stooges for quite some time because of Iggy Pop's popularity. Eventually it became just the Stooges again.

* ''MegaManZero''. Despite popular belief, the "title" character is '''''not''''' a ''MegaMan'' {{expy}}.