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 She's the poster girl.
The Expanded Universe is a wonderful place, where new ideas can frolic without having to worry about fitting into the canon. However, sometimes an idea is so interesting that the people who create the canon decide it deserves to become "real".
Thus, we have the Canon Immigrant, who is a character created and nurtured in another medium and, eventually, imported back into the original. Note that, often, surface details are brought in to play off a new movie or TV series; this isn't that. Rather, it's usually a completely new character, who over time becomes more and more popular with the fandom, often filling some niche that was never quite complete before. As a recurring trend, these tend to be female characters (likely to be "spunky") who serve to break up an otherwise male Rogues Gallery or ally contingent.
If they're successful enough, they'll be included in new entries in the Expanded Universe, cross-pollinating concepts. Canon Immigrants are often part of an Adaptation Distillation, and new, canonical version usually has extra details to tie them into the more complex backstory of the original.
One should always be aware of the Canon Rule of Cherrypicking: the fact that one or two elements from an Alternate Continuity or Expanded Universe have made their way into canon does not make the rest of the Alternate Continuity or Expanded Universe canon, as a whole.
A character is more likely to become a Canon Immigrant, and be embraced as such, if s/he is Born Of Clay.
A type of Ret Canon. Contrast The Artifact. This is what every Canon Foreigner strives to be.
Examples
DC Comics
- Batman
- Harley Quinn (pictured), from Batman The Animated Series, may be the quinntessential example. This cute female sidekick of the Joker was nearly as insane as him, and the dynamic they created was unique among supervillains. After being imported to The DCU, she got her own ongoing series that lasted 38 issues and a major role in the short-lived live-action TV series, Birds Of Prey.
- In addition, the show completely remodeled cliched villain Mr. Freeze into a tragic figure lashing out at a cruel world. The version was so good that the comics brought the character back from the dead and completely remodeled him to fit this. It is now hard to think of the character any other way without going mad.
- Renee Montoya, a police officer and detective of the Gotham City PD and now the second Question, was also created for Batman The Animated Series but appeared in the comics first, as the lead time was quicker.
- Lock-Up also made the leap to The DCU, surpisingly before Harley.
- As has Roxy Rocket (for one brief appearance).
- Batgirl is an interesting case. The character was created by DC Comics in 1966, at the behest of Batman TV-show producer William Dozier. Technically, she appeared in the comics (just barely) before her first broadcast appearance — but she exists only because the television show wanted an "official" young female character fighting alongside Batman and Robin.
- This is only true of the Barbara Gordon Batgirl. The often forgotten first Bat-Girl was Betty Kane, who appeared as early as 1961.
- Some comics also had glimpses of a Terry McGinnis-like Batman defending future Gotham. It was recently announced a new comic series was being produced.
- Batman's butler Alfred was originally short, overweight and clean-shaven, but after his portrayal by William Austin in the 1943 Batman film serial, was changed to the tall, slender, and mustached appearance that has remained the standard for the comics into the present day.
- A comparatively minor case, but Barbara Gordon's role in Batman Beyond led to the now DC-comics-canon-for-the-time-being future depiction that she will eventually take on the role of Police Commissioner of Gotham after her father retires.
- A recent announcement from DC Comics indicates that King Tut from the Batman TV Series will be appearing in a future story arc of Batman Confidential, giving him Canon Immigrant status some 40-something years after he first appeared.
- King Tut will also be making an appearance in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which makes him an immigrant from one TV canon to another (or one TV canon to the DCU to a different TV canon. You decide!).
- The Riddler. Well his suit anyway. You see, Frank Goshin of the ''Batman TV Series was insecure about how the Riddler's skintight leotard would make him look on camera, so costuming devised a green suit jacket and a bowler hat for him to wear alternatively. That suit made it's way into the comics and has been a staple of the character ever since.
- A number of characters from Kingdom Come have found their way into the main DCU continuity.
- Superman
- Jimmy Olsen is perhaps the earliest well-known example; he originated on the Superman radio show (though an unnamed copy boy briefly appeared earlier in the comics). Kryptonite also debuted on the radio show, though it was used earlier (as "K-Metal") in an unpublished comic book story. Perry White, editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet, also first appeared in a radio serial and transitioned to the comics — in 1940, making this Older Than Television.
- Since Television has been commercially available since the late 1930's, you may be a bit off on that.
- Mercy Graves, Luthor's Tykebomb/Battle Butler from Superman The Animated Series, follows from Harley's lead. Hilarity ensued — in the literal sense, not sarcastic — when both began catfighting during the BTAS/STAS crossover movie "World's Finest." It was a draw, with a great deal of Clothing Damage.
- Shock And Awe-powered Livewire — again, a spunky young female villain — is Superman The Animated Series' major immigrant.
- Smallville: Following the latest reboot of The DCU, Clark Kent spent his teenaged years dealing with various mutant villains created by the Green Rocks that accompanied his spaceship. Also, Luthor grew up in Smallville (though this had already been established in a previous storyline, it has been repeatedly retconned back and forth).
- DC Comics has made several in-continuity winks to the character of Lionel Luthor, Lex's father. In one instance, Lex hired an actor to play the part of his foster father in order to enroll him at Smallville High School. The actor in question bore a physical resemblance to Lionel Luthor. It has since been established that Lionel Luthor is Lex's legitimate father in canon DC Comics continuity.
- The Modern Age marriage of Clark Kent and Lois Lane may seem like this, since it was timed to coincide with the characters' marriage in Lois And Clark. However, the writers had actually been planning to marry them beforehand, and were made to postpone it until the show was ready. (What did they do in the meantime? Killed him off and brought him back, of course. Some things a guy's just got to do before he gets married.)
- Professor Pepperwinkle from the 1950's Adventures of Superman TV series is a similar case. He made his first appearance in the comics in 1974. This was probably helped by the fact that the TV series was commonly rerun in syndication, so readers who weren't alive in the 1950's were still likely to recognize him.
- Superman's ability to fly originated in the animated Superman cartoons run in theatres in the early 1940s; previously, he had "only" been able to, one might say, leap over tall buildings in a single bound — this was deemed to look (to use a technical term) "dumb", so the animators gave him the ability to fly instead.
- Ursa and Non from the movie didn't come to the comics until 26 years later.
- Inspector Henderson first appeared the Superman radio series in the 1940s and later in the Adventures Of Superman television series in the 1950s. He eventually appeared in the Superman comics in the 1970s. Since then he has turned up in Lois And Clark and Superman The Animated Series.
- Mas y Menos from the Teen Titans animated series were original characters for the TV show who have since made appearances in comics.
- Isis from Secret Of Isis, although it took nearly 30 years to do it. The series 52 features a DCU version of the character as a probationary member of the Marvel Family, though she meets her end in Week Forty-Four. She gets resurrected by Felix Faust in a later miniseries.
- Wendy and Marvin, from the Super Friends, were introduced in The DCU in 2006 as caretakers of the Titans Tower. However, they were super-genius, black-haired twins, so they had really little to share with the originals (not necessarily a bad thing). Recently, in an ironical twist, they were viciously mauled by Wonderdog, resulting in a dead Marvin and comatose Wendy. Although, to be precise, the dog they adopted turned out to be a shape-shifting monster controlled by some villain.
- Steven Mandragora was created for Justice League Unlimited as a Captain Ersatz for Black Lightning's archenemy, Tobias Whale, and in the DC Animated Universe was the murderer of Huntress's parents. Huntress Year One has Helena trace her parents murder to the Boss of Bosses, Stefano Mandragora.
- A number of TeenTitans characters got Canon Immigrant costumes, finding themselves redesigned to resemble their animated counterparts.
- Subverted thankfully in one-time Batman videogame foe Sin Tzu, a should-have-been Ra's Al Ghul character rife with Unfortunate Implications and created with the author *stating* that he could end up like Harley Quinn and make the jump. In short, neither Stan nor Jim Lee can sit down and say, Today I Will Create Fonzie.
Marvel Comics
- X-23, from X-Men Evolution, who was a cute, female (note the trend!) clone of Wolverine, similarly crossed the animated series/comic book barrier. She wasn't the only original character on the team, but was much more popular than Spyke, Storm's nephew who was essentially a male Marrow who even joined the Morlocks at one point.
- Spyke himself bypassed the comics to immigrate to the movies (specifically the third).
- Debatable. It is this troper's belief that the film portrayed an adaptation of Spike from X-Statix.
- Come to think of it, Spike from X-Statix was probably based on Spyke.
- This troper took that to be Quill.
- The mutant superhero Firestar was created for Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and, like Spidey's other amazing friend Iceman, was supposed to be a former member of the X-Men. She was imported into the Marvel Universe in X-Men #193, and later served as a member of the New Warriors and The Avengers.
- Also it should be noted that the Ultimate version of Firestar has joined the X-Men so the circle is complete.
- In the 1970s The Fantastic Four cartoon series, the Human Torch was replaced by a Robot Buddy named "H.E.R.B.I.E.", not (as one rumour stated) because the producers were afraid children would immolate themselves trying to imitate the Torch, but because there was a solo Human Torch movie deal in the works at the time. Assorted versions of HERBIE have since appeared in the comics as an example of the sort of random stuff Reed Richards invents between adventures. (In the current cartoon, "Herbie" is the name of Reed's computer. This may be adopted by the comic at some point.)
- Herbie is currently Franklin Richards' robot guardian, at least in the Franklin Richards one-shots and Power Pack minis.
- Toad from X-Men is an unusual case of a character being his own Canon Immigrant. Previously an overweight, ugly, continually-trodden-upon minion, Ray Park's wry, badass portrayal in The Movie proved so popular, it was imported over to the comics.
- Here's one that's actually in canon. In X-Statix, Latin Lover El Guapo was a character added to the X-Statix movie to help it appeal to a broader audience (there aren't many traditionally attractive men on the team), and to hold the Conflict Ball by, in being so handsome, disrupting the other characters' relationships. However, the actor playing him is an actual mutant who eventually is asked to join the team for real as El Guapo. He proceeds to do the exact things movie El Guapo was created for, completely on accident.
- The 90s X-Men animated series gave another interesting example in Morph. He was based on a comics character, Changeling, who had been killed in the 1960s, and was Killed Off For Real in the pilot to shock everybody. He proved so popular in his brief screentime that not only was he brought back to life in the cartoon, but an AU version of Changeling who went by the codename Morph was introduced in the comics.
Anime
- El Hazard featured a goofy and silly version of the "ultimate weapon android" Ifurita, as opposed to the far more serious and angsty Ifurita from the original OAV continuity. However, her popularity led to her being written into the latter continuity via the Radio Dramas, where her name was changed to "Ifurina."
- Ryo Akiyama from Digimon Tamers and his Digimon don't seem to follow the same rules as the others. This is because he is literally from the Alternate Universe where the Digimon Adventure series took place. This is explained in the series of video games of which he is the star. To drive the point home, he is not in the manga that was later adapted from the series.
- Tokyo Mew Mew imported everything but characters from the anime after it Overtook The Manga. The girls didn't used to use transformation phrases, for one...
- Mai-Otome 0 Sifr, the anime prequel to Mai-Otome, features Mayo and Shion, characters originally from the Mai-HiME Destiny light novels taking place in an Alternate Continuity to Mai-HiME. A rare example of trans-continuity, trans-setting promotion to canon.
- The Super Robot Wars series is loaded with these. Mazinkaiser was later introduced to the canon of the Mazinger Z series' after its initial appearance in the games (this is a bit of a halfway case, as it was designed by Mazinger creator Go Nagai). The villains from the Shadow Mirror Universe in SRW Original Generation are literal canon immigrants, having escaped the Crapsack World of the SRW 64 continuity to menace our heroes in the OG-verse. The occasionally playable Gilliam Yeager has a similar story, and it's often hinted that he's the exact same guy in all the games & anime he appears in, regardless of continuity. Perennial SRW mainstay Masaki Ando is also a frequent canon immigrant. There's also the whole stitch about Elzam von Branstein and Ratsel Feinschmeker. Elzam is introduced in the first OG, then in Alpha 2, he reappears as Ratsel, and subsequently he's back as Ratsel in OG 2, where he gets the Aussenseiter, which then appears in Alpha 3.
- Code Geass has Rai, the protagonist of the adventure/dating game Lost Colors, who makes a cameo in an episode of the second season.
- Goku's father Bardock first appeared on a TV special, but Toriyama liked him so much he gave Bardock a small (two panels) appearance in the manga.
- Similarly, Mei Sakura, a character created for the Love Hina anime — she was not only inducted into the manga at its very end, but Akamatsu then transplanted her into Mahou Sensei Negima, causing many fans to wonder if they're one and the same person.
- In Detective Conan, Sergeant Shiratori was originally movie-only and Inspector Takagi was originally used only in fillers. Not to mention the large number of minor police inspectors named after their voice actors.
- In ARIA, Ai was originally anime-only character, but starts to appear in special chapter in various guidebooks, cumulating in becoming Akari's apprentice in the last manga chapter (and anime episode).
- The VB-6 König Monster first appeared in the Playstation game Macross Digital Mision VF-X. Macross Frontier is the first animated Macross series in which it has appeared. Fan theory holds that it got in due to its awesome, gigantic toy.
Film
- Aayla Secura, a blue Twi'lek female Jedi established as a character in the Expanded Universe, got a few appearances in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and a minor speaking role in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, reputedly after George Lucas saw some comic book art of her he liked. This was fairly notable, as Lucas usually almost completely ignores Expanded Universe.
- Boba Fett first appeared in an animated segment of the much maligned The Star Wars Holiday Special; however, his general appearance was taken from the then-in-production The Empire Strikes Back.
- The Outrider in the Special Edition!
- General Grievous is the modern version of Boba Fett. At the time the first Star Wars Clone Wars series was produced it was known he'd be a major villain in the third film, but his physical appearance wasn't known (or possibly finalized), so he looks different. The most obvious is that they knew he would have multiple lightsabers, but not 4 arms so he holds a third light saber with his foot. However, Clone Wars is the only place to find out why he has such a bad cough (it was always there, due to his cybernetics, but Mace Windu made it worse) and walks like a chicken in Revenge of the Sith.
- Arguably, the entire planet Coruscant in the prequels and in the special edition version of Return of the Jedi is one huge Canon Immigrant, first seen in Timothy Zahn's The Thrawn Trilogy novels as the galactic capital.
- Not entirely accurate, as the concept of a city-world as capital of the Empire was present in early drafts of the Star Wars films. The name, however, is pure canon immigrant.
- If we're counting immigration between different levels of Star Wars canon as "immigration", you see some interesting stuff - some EU elements have gotten way more traction than others. Kyle Katarn, for instance, is the only video game character to be mentioned with regularity in Star Wars novels not directly related to the series he stars in — indeed, Kyle is as major a character in the EU as important secondary characters from the films. By the same token, Kyle co-starred with Mara Jade, who along with Thrawn is the only character from the novels who shows up in video games with any regularity (and Mara Jade is the only one to move up from cameo status to actually being the main character of a video game).
- Star Wars even has levels from video games as Canon Immigrants: The Expanded Universe novel X-Wing: Rogue Squadron features the "
Requiem Redemption scenario", a notoriously difficult mission where Rebel pilot trainees have to defend a medical frigate from bomber attacks from multiple directions at once. This was based in-universe on a mission flown by Keyan Farlander — the protagonist of the Space Sim X-Wing. The scenario, and mission, itself is the fourth mission in the first campaign of the game, which was so notoriously hard that re-releases included a simplified version. Keyan Farlander himself became a minor supporting character in the Expanded Universe.
- Like Kyle, Keyan is able to use The Force. Never comes up in the game, though.
- Another immigrant to the EU canon from the X-wing games would be the TIE Defender fighter from the TIE Fighter flight sim.
- Likewise Maarek Stele, protagonist of the TIE Fighter game and expansions.
- It is difficult to figure out whether or not to classify Darth Vader's secret apprentice Starkiller as this, as his first appearance, The Force Unleashed, was designed simultaneously as a video game, novel, comic book series, and a supplement to the official RPG. In addition, mostly as a form of advertising, Starkiller was included as a character in the unrelated fighting game Soul Calibur IV.
- Dark Troopers could also count, starting off from the original Dark Forces before moving into a couple of other SW computer games and then making an appearance in a comic book short story.
- The Moorish character in Robin Hood, who in the last decade or so has cropped up in Film and TV, at least. His earliest incarnation seems to be have been Nazir in Robin Of Sherwood.
- The American Godzilla officially became part of the Japanese Godzilla franchise with the release of the film Godzilla: Final Wars and was even given the official name of "Zilla". Poking fun at the American rendition, unlike all the other monsters, which are depicted as men in crappy costumes, Zilla is rendered in intentionally mediocre CGI.
- And it doesn't stop there. Mothra, Rodan, Varan, Baragon, Kamoebas (a giant turtle from the obscure film Space Amoeba), Moguera (from another obscure film called The Mysterians), Meganulon, Manda (from yet another obscure film called Atragon) and even King Kong were all stars in their own respective films before becoming part of the Godzilla franchise.
- Frankenstein Conquers The World
Literature
- William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes play introduced the character of Billy the page-boy. When Conan Doyle later wrote a couple of Holmes plays himself (The Crown Diamond and and an adaptation of The Speckled Band) he included this character, possibly for the sake of consistency with Gillette. Conan Doyle later adapted The Crown Diamond into a short story (The Mazarin Stone), and thus Billy entered into the canon. He also received a very brief mention in a couple of the later canonical tales.
- Happened with Raymond Feist's Riftwar Cycle. The characters of Gorath, Owyn, Jazhara and Jimmy's twin brother Lysle Rigger all make their first appearances in the computer games Betrayal at Krondor and Return to Krondor, set in Feist's world. They were then incorporated into canon when Feist wrote a novelization for both games and made references to them in later books.
- A possible case of this in the Harry Potter series: the name "Malfoy Manor" was not mentioned in the Canon prior to Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, but it was Fanon for many years before that, most likely having originated from The Draco Trilogy. Of course, this may just be a coincidence. After all, "Malfoy Manor" isn't exactly the most creative name for the home of a rich family called the Malfoys.
- Margo Lane appeared first on The Shadow radio show before Walter Gibson incorporated her into the prose series. Earlier novels of the Shadow often only barely featured women, but the radio show wanted vocal contrast.
- Inspector Morse had a Canon Immigrant car. The original novels by Colin Dexter had Morse driving a nondescript modern vehicle, but the TV show gave him a Cool Car, a red 1960s Jaguar Mark II. The car became so iconic of the character that the novels written after the TV show started included it with no explanation of the change, even to the point of putting it on covers (art images, not photos from the show).
Live Action TV
- The Holodeck of the Star Trek The Next Generation series, which started its life in Star Trek The Animated Series. Kirk's middle name was first declared as "Tiberius" in the animated series as well.
- Add to that Lady Amanda's surname of Grayson, taken from Yesteryear, the first and perhaps best known of ST:TAS.
- Minor example: the most prominent new species of the animated series, the Caitians (M'ress) and Edosians (Arex), are also canon immigrants: Caitian admirals appear in The Voyage Home and Edosians have been mentioned several times (for instance, Garak dealt with Edosian orchids while a gardener.
- Doctor Who has occasionally dipped in its Expanded Universe, largely because of the former fanboys currently in charge.
- The television episodes "Human Nature" and "Family of Blood" had their basis in the Doctor Who Expanded Universe novel Human Nature by Paul Cornell, who also wrote the adaptation. (The novel had starred the Seventh Doctor.) "Blink" was adapted from a story by Steven Moffat from his story in Doctor Who Annual, which starred a considerably younger Sally Sparrow. The episode "Dalek" was very loosely adapted from a Big Finish audio story entitled "Jubilee", again by the original author, Robert Shearman.
- As far as actual characters go, the Dalek Emperor first appeared in Dalek comics and annuals, though he looked considerably different. When he re-appeared in "Remembrance of the Daleks" he looked more similar to the comics version, as a Shout Out.
- In a comic about the character Spike from Angel, Spike is sent to an asylum for demons and meets an incredibly strange character... a human-sized, floating, telepathic Betta fish named Betta George. Apparently, when Joss Whedon approached the writer of these comics to collaborate on the canon continuation comic After The Fall, he noted "I like George. Let's find a place for him." The fans are reportedly somewhat squeamish about the inclusion of such a blatantly strange character in canon, despite the show's other eccentricities.
- Howard, Marina, and Pearl from Last Of The Summer Wine. They started out in a stage play version of the show, and got a good enough reaction to become part of the TV cast.
Newspaper Comics
- Similar to Clark and Lois' marriage, Jon and Liz of the comic strip Garfield are now the strip's Official Couple after nearly 30 years of non-interest and pity dates on her part. This is mainly due to the fact that the live action movies had paired the two off in the first and married them in the second.
- Also, Binky the Clown who debuted in the Garfield Halloween Special before appearing in the strip a year later.
Professional Wrestling
- In a borderline case, the main character of the '70's manga and anime Tiger Mask, a masked pro wrestler by the same name, was brought into New Japan Pro Wrestling in the '80's. He's since become something of a Legacy Character — at least four different wrestlers have donned the mask — as has his Evil Counterpart, Black Tiger.
- A more direct example is Suicide, a character who first appeared in TNA Impact!: The Video Game, and later showed up in the ring to exact unspecified revenge on the Motor City Machine Guns. Due to wrestling's self-aware nature, this led the Guns to complain to anybody who'd listen about having been beaten up by a video game character.
- Tommy Lister, AKA "Zeus", became a pro WWF wrestler after doing No Holds Barred with Hulk Hogan. That venture fared mediocrely.
- WCW tried it too, when they made David Arquette champion after Ready to Rumble. This isn't quite an example, as Arquette's WCW run was explicitly as himself and not his character from the movie, but it's close enough to merit a mention.
Real Life
Tabletop Games
- In Battletech, Adam Steiner was created for the spin-off cartoon; however, he has since been "adopted" into the canon of the main line, becoming one of the heroes of the Lyran Alliance due to his millitary exploits and eventually becoming known as one of the greatest Archons in the history of the Lyran state. Other characters from the Cartoon have appeared, but none as prominently.
Video Games
- Karin Kanzuki, Sakura Kasugano's Rich Bitch Ojou rival from Street Fighter Alpha 3, was originally created for a Sakura-centric tie-in manga, Sakura Ganbaru! by Masahiko Nakahira.
- Gouken, Ryu and Ken's sensei, was originally a character in a Street Fighter II tie-in manga by Masaomi Kanzaki. The character was later adapted in the video games' canon in the first Street Fighter Alpha before making a full-fledge appearance as a fighter in Street Fighter IV.
- There's also Evil Ryu (from Masahiko Nakahira's Street Fighter Alpha manga) and Shadaloo Cammy (who first appeared in the inter-company crossover game X-Men vs. Street Fighter). Aspects of Cammy's back-story from the Alpha series, such as her codename Killer Bee, were also based on elements that originally appeared in Masaomi Kanzaki's Cammy Gaiden manga.
- Maki is a triple canon immigrant, being one of the many new characters introduced in Final Fight 2 (where she was a distaff counterpart/suspiciously similar substitute of Guy from the previous game), only to be immediately forgotten. And then Masahiko Nakahira brought back her back to the limelight in Sakura Ganbaru!, causing Capcom to suddenly remember her and putting her in Capcom vs. SNK 2 before she was eventually featured in the portable versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3 along with Eagle and Yun.
- Several monsters from Super Mario Bros 2, which was just a Dolled Up Installment based on the game Doki Doki Panic, have gone on to be included in later Mario games. These include Shy Guys, Bob-Ombs, and Birdo, as well as a race of mice creatures similar to the boss Mouser.
- The Koopa Bros. of Paper Mario fame originally appeared in the Japan-exclusive manga Super Mario-Kun.
- Kano from Mortal Kombat, in the back-story of the first MK game, was described as half-Japanese-half-American, and deported from Japan. Then came the first Mortal Kombat movie. Trevor Goddard's portrayal of Kano — primarily, giving him a heavy Australian accent — was so well received that his origin was revised as an Australian crime lord in Mortal Kombat: Special Forces and onward. Additionally, the character Quan Chi apeared first in the Animated Adaptation to later make his game debut in Mortal Kombat 4.
- Puyo Puyo Fever was supposedly going to take place in an entirely different universe from the previous games...but lo and behold, Arle, the protagonist of the old Puyo games somehow found her way here, as did other classic Puyo characters in the sequel, putting them in the same continuity.
- Homecoming, the latest installment in the Silent Hill series, does this with the art style, architecture and specific locations from the non-canonical Silent Hill movie.
- In Sonic The Hedgehog, Amy Rose and Charmy Bee are both canon immigrants. Both first appeared in a comic series in Shogaku Yonensei, published in Japan in 1992. While elements such as Nikki transforming into Sonic and being bullied by a lizard called Anton were left firmly in the comic, Amy (Nikki's girlfriend in the comics, ironically) was picked up and debuted officially in Sonic CD (also ironic in the fact that she was labeled Princess Sally in the American manual anyway), while Charmy (one of Nikki's friends) was used as one of the characters in Knuckles Chaotix (even more irony in the fact that Sonic didn't have any appearance in that game aside from appearing in the good ending credits, thus didn't interact with him). Their backgrounds were, naturally, radically altered as a result.
- In the Sonic The Hedgehog television series, there were robot characters called SWATbots. These robots were added into the recent Sonic RPG, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, as a reference.
- Likewise in Sonic Chronicles, Procurator Shade and the Nocturnus Tribe Echidnas share everything except their names with Julie-Su and the Dark Legion from the American Archie Sonic comics continuity - making them canon immigrants under false passports.
- Sonic Spinball has characters from Archie's Sonic comic, Sat AM, and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
- Originally, Nasu Verse Word Of God stated that it was extremely improbable for two people with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception; hence Shiki Ryogi and Shiki Tohno had to exist in a separate Alternate Continuity. However, Shiki Ryogi has just been announced as being in Melty Blood.
- The Soul Series has Arthur, a British knight who wields a katana. He started off as a Palette Swap of Mitsurugi, replacing him in the South Korean version of Soul Calibur II to circumvent South Korean laws against portrayals of samurai. He has since appeared in all versions of III and IV.
- The Resident Evil series features a machine known as The Red Queen, an Umbrella supercomputer dedicated to managing the company's assets. The Red Queen however is a canon immigrant from the non-canonical movies based off of the games, although in the movie, it is a hologram rather than super computer and has a distinctly more adult voice in The Umbrella Chronicles.
- It was supercomputer in the movie, too; the hologram was just its visual representation in a bit of ill-advised Rule Of Cool.
Web Original
- Yelizaveta 'Bounce' from Survival Of The Fittest version four started off as a character in the 'In-Universe Chat' (a chatroom where SOTF members could RP being members of the show's audience). After some time, she was brought into the version four pregame as a fully-fledged character.
Webcomics
- In Something Positive, Fluffmodius, the"little blue freak" that yells "HELLO NEW FRIEND"! at Kharisma, was originally a one-off joke for his non-continuity strips for Rhymes With Witch. Let that be a lesson to you: Do not taunt the Word Of God.
- ...and going the other way, Rippy the Razor was a one-off gag in Something Positive, but now is Randy's tormentor in some RWW material.
- Barnacle Jones and Teddy-Weddy in 1/0.
Western Animation
- Disney's Max Goof was imported into the Disney canon from Goof Troop. This is unique in that Max has no "iconic" depiction to revert to and, unlike other characters, has aged appreciably over time. However, Max's appearance and role is arguably based on Goofy Jr., a character used in Goofy's original cartoon shorts (he once introduced himself as "Goofy Jr., ma'am").
- This trope dates back to 1933, as Popeye's most notable nemesis, Bluto, was created specifically for the Popeye cartoons, and only appeared once in Popeye's initial comic strip, Thimble Theater.
- Was the one-time appearance before or after the cartoons? Because if it was before, then this is NOT an example of the trope.
- In the Tom And Jerry cartoons, the grey mouse who could speak came from the licensed comics. There, he was called Tuffy, and was Jerry's friend; when he was adapted, he became Nibbles, and Jerry's nephew.
- Lola Bunny. Created for Space Jam, now one of the "guys" (She is the Token Girl).
- The character Oil Slick was originally a toy-only character in the Transformers Animated series. However, the writers found the idea of a chemical warfare expert who turned into a motorbike with a ram's head on the front rather appealing, and he was later written into both the supplementary comic series and given a cameo on the show itself as part of Team Chaar.
- Though The Goliath Chronicles has been excised from Gargoyles canon, with the exception of season premiere "The Journey", another part of the series has managed to find its way into fanon and eventually canon: The scene where Hudson's blind Human friend Robbins reveals that he already figured out Hudson was a Gargoyle, particularly the part where he mentions a scent "like old leather and concrete".
- Arguably Disney's best example; while Donald, Daisy, Huey, Dewey and Louis premiered in Disney animated shorts, one of Duckberg's most illustrious citizens, Scrooge Mc Duck, started as a supporting character in the Carl Barks' Donald Duck comics in 1947, where he grew in popularity unti he wound up getting his own title in the fifties. His first animated appearance was in an educational short called "Scrooge Mc Duck and Money" in 1967, and then he starred in the 1983 theatrical featurette "Mickey's Christmas Carol", as Scrooge, of course. He then starred in Duck Tales, cementing his place as one of the most famous cartoon ducks of all time.
- Matilda and Sergeant Slipper were created for the animated adaptation of Dennis The Menace UK. They both made appearances later in The Beano.
- A few elements of the 2003-2009 TV series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have made their way into the Mirage Comics series, including the Battle Nexus (and its proctor Gyoji), and more recently, Hun. The 2003 series also has many in-jokes to the original '80s/'90s series.
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