History Main / UnexpectedCharacter

** Not to be outdone, the MLP cast gets a case of this in "A Real Mother" through Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty, Scootaloo's aunts, who were [[OneShotCharacter One-Shot Characters]] in the cartoon but get ADayInTheLimelight fighting Killmaster (who himself is a case of this, as this is his first appearance outside of the IDW 2005 continuity, where he was first introduced) with Arcee and Greenlight. Near the end of the story, Scootaloo arrives with a few new friends. One of them is Sureshock from ''Anime/TransformersArmada''.

** Not to be outdone, the MLP cast gets a case of this in "A Real Mother" through Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty, Scootaloo's aunts, who were [[OneShotCharacter One-Shot Characters]] in the cartoon but get ADayInTheLimelight fighting Killmaster (who himself is a case of this, as this is his first appearance outside of the IDW 2005 continuity, where he was first introduced) with Arcee and Greenlight.
*** Near the end of the same story, Scootaloo arrives with a few new friends. One of them is Sureshock from ''Anime/TransformersArmada''.

** [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda Po]] showing up to take on ComicBook/IronFist caught many fans off guard as, while as the match up was popular, an animated film character had never been used on the show prior to that point and many assumed that if one did appear, then it would be a Creator/{{Disney}} character first.

** ''Pandora - The World of Avatar'' getting in over Beastly Kingdom as the replacement to Camp-Minnie-Mickey was a bit odd, and Disney would buy 21st Century Fox 5 years later.
** The early days of ''Disney's Hollywood Studios'' featured characters like ComicStrip/DickTracy, the Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles, and the Franchise/PowerRangers[[note]]Disney did own the rights to the Power Rangers franchise in the 2000s following their purchase of Saban. However, they sold off the property in 2010. The rights are currently owned by Creator/{{Hasbro}}.[[/note]]. There were also attractions based around ''Who Wants to be a Millionaire'' and ''American Idol''[[note]]Keep in mind that Disney didn't own the rights to the series at that time. American Idol was rebooted for Creator/{{ABC}} not long before the aforementioned 21st Century Fox purchase.[[/note]].

** Who would have thought that '''any''' characters from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' would ever step into ''Death Battle''? Yet, there have been four so far: [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRainbowDash Rainbow Dash]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPinkiePie Pinkie Pie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Princess Twilight Sparkle]], and [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDiscord Discord]] who respectively fought [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Starscream]], ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'', ComicBook/{{Raven}}, and Bill Cipher.