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alt title(s): Uncle Jack; Replacement Character I don't really know Ronnie. But I have a feeling I will get to know her in the next few years, and eventually declare my love for her.
A character who joins the cast as a replacement for a character who has left the show due to real-life distractions (contract negotiations, death, etc.) despite being integral to the plot or concept of the series. Invariably, this character fills the Stock Character slot left vacant by the departed, whether that be comic relief, intellectual, or musclebound bruiser.
Often, the character has some twist or gimmick to make it seem as if the Jonas Quinn is unique, and the writers aren't actually grasping at straws to salvage the year's worth of scripts already written.
The best shows will take risks in such replacements, making the replacements truly different characters, rather than a similar character with a twist. (Example: Major Winchester on M*A*S*H, who was practically a polar opposite to Frank Burns, while still providing a foil for Hawkeye and BJ.) That is much harder on the writers, since they can't simply tweak the scripts they had already written for the old character.
Justified in military and some business settings where there are specific roles.
This character is sometimes referred to as Uncle Jack, after Uncle Jack Marshall on Land Of The Lost.
See also: Substitute Teacher, The Other Darrin, The Nth Doctor, Put On A Bus, Dropped A Bridge On Him, Replacement Scrappy.
Examples
Anime
- In Pokémon, the female soon-to-be-gym-leader Misty was replaced by the female co-ordinator character of May, although the latter was indeed a distinctly different character. She was then replaced by the female co-ordinator character of Dawn in a straighter use of this trope.
- Lest we forget Brock's one-season Jonas Quinn with the artist Tracey. This one was supposedly due to the belief that Western audiences wouldn't accept a guy with Eyes Always Shut.
- Pokémon's probably the only series where there's a portion of the fanbase that demands the entire human cast gets replaced.
- Heh, hardly. Lest we forget, Digimon also changes its entire cast for no particular reason on a regular basis.
- They don't really demand it. Pokemon wants Ash's story concluded and done with, and new and fresh characters introduced who will feel more believable when they fail to pwn through the gym leader with Level 3 Pokemon. Digimon never demanded changes, and the changes happen at the conclusions to storylines, much like Star Trek.
- The character Priss from Bubblegum Crisis was originally going to be killed off and replaced by Vision, who was suspiciously similar (brown hair, kind of feisty, was a singer) but ultimately fans liked the character too much so she wasn't killed off after all, thus avoiding the trope entirely.
- Tenchi Muyo is unique in that the third OVA did something of an alternate continuity Jonas Quinning. Mihoshi's partner in the Galaxy Police had long been Kiyone Makibi in the Universe TV continuity, but supplemental materials Kiyone was the name of Tenchi's Mother (The first movie, based off the first TV series, named her Achika). OVA 3 introduces us to Noike, who happens to be Mihoshi's previously not known to exist GXP partner, while Tenchi's mother is finally officially named as Kiyone(and (re)introduced, in a way, by Tenchi's older sister who is strangely identical to her). Ironically, the OVA and TV series continuities had different development teams, leading some to believe this isn't so much Jonas Quinning as the OVA development team blatantly stealing ideas from the TV series.
- Actually, the name of Tenchi's mother was decided on before the TV series began, but when the production of the 3rd OAV series was put on hold for 10 years, one of the people who had been on the OAV production team decided to write an unofficial sequel to the series and decided to recycle the name Kiyone since it seemed the final episodes would never be made. The TV series lifted this character from that book. Also, the first movie was not based on the TV series, but the book from which Kiyone had been lifted, which is why in the sequel there is a reference to Tsunami.
- Sai, from post-timeskip Naruto. Replacing Sasuke on the team and filling a similar role in character dynamics.
- They are nearly exactly the same in personality, but in terms of story role Sasuke couldn't ever have fitted into Sai's position. More of a Replacement Scrappy.
- They aren't the exact same. Sai doesn't fully understand emotions and would fake smiling and tell inappropriate jokes to try and compensate. Sasuke understood/felt emotions, he just repressed them or was angry/emo most of the time.
- Sai's inability to understand emotion also makes him the butt of a lot of jokes that would not work at all for Sasuke. This is more prevalent in the anime.
Comic Books
- X-Men's Jean Grey, during periods when she has been rendered temporarily dead or otherwise unusable, has been Jonas Quinned numerous times, most notably by her Alterniverse daughter, Rachel.
- Emma Frost seems to be the latest, even though she was already an established character. The fact that's even in terms of relationships turns this into a Wall Banger.
- Gorilla Grodd is interchangable with Monsieur Mallah and Ultra-Humanite
- The Trickster is interchangable with the Prankster
- The Runner is interchangable with Quicksilver and Triathlon
- Max Mercury is interchangable with any of the Flashes
Film
- Similar thing happened in the The Godfather: Part II, where Frank Pentangeli was a replacement character for Peter Clemenza.
- The appearance of the Oracle in the Matrix changes between Reloaded and Revolutions, as the first actress died. In this case, however, it's supposed to be the same character. She vaguely mentions the change in appearance being the result of a choice or something.
- A better example would be Link, designed as a replacement for Tank after the actor had a falling out with the Wachowskis.
- Roman in 2 Fast 2 Furious replaced Dominic from The Fast and the Furious.
- Beerfest plays this one for gags, when Landfill dies and the character is promptly replaced by his twin brother, portrayed by the same actor, who asks the rest of the characters to refer to him by his dead brother's name and never speak of the death again.
- The Bill Murray Bosley and the Bernie Mac Bosley in the two Charlie's Angels movies.
- Keanu Reeves and Jason Patric's characters in Speed and its sequel.
- A rather bizarre set of examples occured within the Godzilla franchise regarding the monster Baragon. First, the film ''Destroy All Monsters'' was going to have Baragon be the monster seen destroying France. Unfortunately, the suit was too badly damaged and instead Gorosaurus was used (Ironically, the dub version still calls Gorosaurus "Baragon")...And Baragon himself was reduced to a mere 10 second cameo. Later, Baragon was going to appear in Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla but the suit was still too damaged to function and Anguirus was used instead. In both cases, Anguirus and Gorosaurus were given traits that were originally attributed to Baragon (IE: Jumping and burrowing).
- Los Superagentes: Nueva Generación. Unlike the recent sequels to Bańeros and Brigada Explosiva, the new characters were clearly meant to replace the originals, as per the original Tiburon and Delfín show up in insultingly short cameos as opposing to joining in the action. Worse, the original Mojarrita and Chief of Acuario don't even show up.
- Jason replacing his own mother as the slasher in the Friday the 13th sequels.
- Jamie Kennedy as the new Mask in Son of the Mask.
- Every Cenobite that follows Pinhead that is NOT Butterball, Chatterer or the Female Cenobite in the Hellraiser sequels.
Literature
- The 1996 Star Wars spin-off, Shadows of the Empire (novel, comic book, video game, and breakfast cereal), being set between the second and third movies, found a replacement character for Han Solo in the loveable scamp Dash Rendar. Dash not only sported Han's in-your-face attitude, he flew a nearly identical ship to the Millennium Falcon and had a wacky robot sidekick. Though hastily offed when he no-longer served a purpose, Dash apparently still exists in the hazier reaches of the "Expanded Universe."
- In the interest of fairness, both are apparently examples of the standard Corellian stereotype in the SWU
- In A Series Of Unfortunate Events, three of the Baudelaire guardians (Charles, Jerome, and Hector) good-hearted and well-meaning men whose cowardice causes them to fail the Baudelaires.
- Merry and Pippin in The Lord of the Rings are completely interchangable.
- This troper thinks the above troper is mistaking the movie for the book. She noticed distinct personality differences in Tolkien's original (one of many being that Merry is noticeably more mature than Pippin), whereas in the movie the two are aged evenly, played for comedy, and completely interchangeable.
Live Action TV
- The Trope Namer is Stargate SG-1. The character Jonas Quinn himself was sort of like Daniel Jackson... but from another planet! However, after Michael Shanks decided to return as a regular, Jonas Quinn was abruptly and permanently written out of the series at the beginning of the seventh season.
- The Re Tool of seasons 9-10 brought new Jonas Quinnings — Carolyn Lam for Janet Fraiser and General Hank Landry for George Hammond. Finally, Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell, who replaced General O'Neill, was even more of a Jonas Quinn than Jonas Quinn, even picking up his predecessor's Unresolved Sexual Tension.
- In "200", an actor backs out from playing the lead in a movie based on a TV show based on the SG team's adventures. Lt. Col. Mitchell suggests they just replace the character with a new one... which is met by disdainful looks and head-shaking. (This episode was essentially an hour of Shout Out and Lampshade Hanging.) And at the end, we find out the "Colonel Danning" character from Wormhole X-Treme! was Jonas Quinned. "Dr. Levant" is not indicated to have had a Jonas Quinn, but much like the real Stargate SG-1, they may have resolved to never speak of it.
- Actually, they don't indicate the specific Jonas Quinn, but they do mention a website to bring him back based on one for Daniel Jackson.
- The Ori are basically Jonas Quinns for the Gou'ald.
- Not really - they represent an escalation of threat since the Gou'ald were no longer particularly menacing.
- David Spade's and James Garner's characters on Eight Simple Rules.
- Jon Lovitz' character on News Radio.
- Woody Boyd and Rebecca Howe on Cheers.
- Ironically, this never happened on Frasier.
- Phil Capra (for Joel Fleischman) on Northern Exposure.
- In season 3 of Lost, the Others' chief tough guy, Danny Pickett, was replaced by Ryan Pryce a few episodes after the former's death.
- Paige Matthews on Charmed.
- Agents Doggett and Reyes on The X Files.
- B.J. Hunnicut (for Trapper John), Major Winchester (for Major Burns) and Col. Potter (for Col. Blake) on M*A*S*H.
- Capt. Oliver Hudson on SeaQuest DSV.
- Ida Mae Brindle on Small Wonder.
- Jeffrey Sinclair and John Sheridan (both J.S.'s, like creator J Michael Straczynski), and, later, Susan Ivanova and Elizabeth Lochley, on Babylon 5. The difference between the two changes and their effect on the show is marked, as was general reaction.
- Ivanova was herself a Jonas Quinn for Laurel Takashima from the Pilot Movie Babylon 5: The Gathering.
- Likewise, Talia Winters replaced Lyta Alexander when the series began; in a recursive twist, though, when Andrea Thompson decided to leave the show, they brought back Lyta in a double-un-Jonas Quinn maneuver.
- Straczynski has stated that every major character on the show had an "escape hatch" for each season, to allow the actor to be replaced if necessary without affecting the overall story arc.
- Flo, then Roz, on Night Court (Also on this show, Lana was replaced by Mac, and Liz was replaced by Billie, then Christine.)
- Cindy, then Terri, on Threes Company. Also, the Ropers were replaced by Mr. Furley.
- Beverly Ann on The Facts Of Life
- Oliver (for Jeff) on Coupling
- Captain Adam Fuller on 21 Jump Street
- Mike Nelson, replacing Joel Robinson on Mystery Science Theater 3000, as well as TV's Frank replacing Dr. Erhart. The show also had its share of The Other Darrins and The Nth Doctors.
- Somewhere between a Jonas Quinn and a Sister Becky was the replacement of Quinn Mallory by, well, Quinn Mallory when Jerry O'Connell left Sliders. The replacement was his non-identical counterpart from a parallel universe.
- Sikozu replacing Jool, who initially replaced Zhaan on Farscape.
- Noranti somehow replaces Zhaan, as "cleric/spiritual leader/healer" on the ship too.
- This was more of Zhaan being replaced by two characters: her science side by Jool and her spiritual side by Stark. Then Jool is replaced by Sikozu and Stark by Noranti.
- An interesting exception can be found on A Different World. Originally it was a star vehicle created for Lisa Bonet by Bill Cosby's production house, but after Bonet's 1988 pregnancy forced her from the program after the first season, no substitute for her was cast. Instead, it became an ensemble show, and eventually two minor characters — Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert — evolved into its real stars and carried the show for five more years.
- Step By Step replaced Cody (upon actor Sasha Mitchell's run-in with the law) with Bronson Pinchot's character, who, despite being French, was essentially the wacky roommate Cody was in every way.
- For one season of Star Trek The Next Generation, Dr. Kate Pulaski (played by Diana Muldaur, who'd appeared twice as different characters in the Original Series) replaced Dr. Beverly Crusher as ship's doctor.
- A somewhat reverse Jonas happened on Star Trek Voyager when Seven of Nine replaced Kes. Kes was a nearly forgotten member of the original cast who was replaced by Seven, who became almost a Mary Sue.
- For the last season, Star Trek Deep Space Nine replaced Dax with... Dax.
- Technically, the characters are named Jadzia Dax and Ezri Dax, respectively. The first name is that of the host and the shared name "Dax" that of the symbiont. The symbiont did allow the two characters to share memories though...
- The characters were also different, and didn't fill the same position on the ship, so not really an example.
- Speaking of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Kira Nerys was actually a replacement character for Ro Laren, because the actress that played Ro in the Star Trek The Next Generation declined the offer to appear in the Deep Space Nine
- One of the world's few Jonas Quinn anticipations happened in the kids' series Space Cases. With Jewel Staite having another series hanging in the balance, her character, Catalina, was given an "imaginary friend" named Suzee, who was really a person living in Another Dimension that Catalina could communicate with. When the other series required Ms. Staite's services, a little Applied Phlebotinum switched Suzee to the real world (as played by Rebecca Herbst) and Catalina to the "imaginary" world.
- Beakmans World Jonas Quinned its lovely young female assistant not once, but twice. Both were a result of the show's fate: The first switch happened as the show moved to CBS from syndication, and the second happened after an Un-cancellation.
- Many older kids shows, like You Cant Do That On Television and Kids Incorporated, Quinned the entire cast, and Kids Incorporated did so repeatedly. Their reasoning is likely similar to why the Vienna Boys' Choir and Menudo boot their kids out at 13.
- Similarly, the late 80s-early 90s incarnation of the Mickey Mouse Club turned over its cast a few times. Notables in the mix include Keri Russell (as part of the first rotation of new blood) and Britney Spears (as part of one of the last rotations).
- Before Power Rangers adopted its Japanese counterpart's format of each season essentially being its own show, some cast changes did happen, always preserving the number of Token Minority characters. The second Pink Ranger is an especially egregious example, not being much like her predecessor before becoming a Ranger, but then rapidly becoming her clone. (Dark Action Girls take heed: Good Is Dumb.)
- Will Bailey on The West Wing appears to have begun as a Jonas Quinn for Sam Seabourne (right down to several "passing the torch" incidents in which Sam encouraged Toby to accept Will's help with the State of the Union, Will was semi-formally inducted into Sam's old position, etc.), but the writing of the show shifted after Aaron Sorkin's departure, and within a year Will's character had shifted jobs into the Vice-President's office and was portrayed more as a cynical political operative than as an idealist.
- The TV show Maverick introduced a Jonas Quinn before the star left, in the form of Bret Maverick's brother, Bart. This was principally done in order to accelerate the show's shooting schedule, since they could shoot a Bret episode and a Bart episode at the same time. Reportedly, the show's writers had no idea whether a given episode would be a Bret episode or a Bart episode when they wrote it.
- By the shows end there were two other Mavericks in rotation, one of them played by Roger Moore.
- After the only female agent on the NUMB3RS team left the show, a different female agent joined up. And she has now left the show and is going to be replaced by yet another female agent.
- To an extent, Hugh Laurie in Blackadder the Third seems to have filled this role (aristocratic fop) in replacement of Tim McInnerny from the first two Blackadder series. In the subsequent season, when McInnerny rejoined the regular cast, his character resembled that played by Stephen Fry (brown-nosing rival) in Blackadder II, with Fry in turn playing a character now more akin to that of BRIAN BLESSED and Miranda Richardson respectively (insane tyrant) in the first two seasons. This slightly convoluted game of "musical chairs" in regards to actors and characters appears however to have been of little detriment to the series.
- McInnerny didn't want to be typecast.
- Nancy Oleson on Little House On The Prairie
- Robin Of Sherwood replaced Michael Praed's Robin of Locksley with Jason Connery's Robert of Huntingdon, tying two contradictory legends together by making Robin Hood a Legacy Character.
- Due to the death of Stanley Kamel (Dr. Kroger), Héctor Elizondo has taken on the role of a new psychiatrist for Adrian Monk.
- Law And Order has always had six main characters: two detectives, their chief, the DA, the executive assistant DA, and a regular assistant DA. Given that the series has been going for 18 seasons and counting as of 2007, all six roles have been Quinned as actors move on, some of them several times over.
- Law And Order: Special Victims Unit has seen this a few times; while actress Mariska Hargitay was away due to pregnancy, her character Olivia Benson was briefly replaced by arguable Canon Sue Dani Beck, who spoke fluent French, physically assaulted perps without consequence, was famous for her effectiveness in fighting crime, had a cool personal PDA/GPS system that she flashed around a few times, and had the romantic affair with Elliot that fans wanted him to have with Olivia. In general, the fandom doesn't miss her.
- Similarly, the ADA's in SVU get replaced. Most people didn't mind the Alex Cabot replacement by Casey Novak (they have very different personalities), but the ADA who has replaced Novak for Season 10 is a mediocre blend of both of them, with a dash of Informed Ability to boot. "They used to call me the Crusader."
- How could we forget when Coy and Vance replaced Bo and Luke Duke in The Dukes Of Hazzard? They were such Jonas Quinns, they even had the same hair color.
- In the Australian teen series Wicked Science, the girl in Toby's group, Dina, was replaced by Toby's cousin Sasha in Season 2.
- Mr. Harmon, Old Mr. Grace, and Mr. Spooner replacing Mr. Mash, Young Mr. Grace and Mr. Lucas on Are You Being Served?.
- Charlie Crawford replaced Mike Flaherty as the Deputy Mayor on Spin City.
- When Gomer Pyle left The Andy Griffith Show in 1964 for his own spin-off, Gomer Pyle USMC (of "'PYYYYLE!'...'Shazam!'" fame), he was replaced by equally retarded cousin Goober Pyle. Up to that point, Goober was only referred to by Gomer as a running gag; his materializing as Gomer's replacement would be something like Seinfeld's Kramer being replaced by the infamous "Bob Sacamano." Weird.
- In Only Fools And Horses, when the actor playing Granddad died he was almost immediately replaced by his never-before-mentioned brother Uncle Albert.
- The long-running Australian sitcom Hey Dad..! continued for a 13th and 14th season after the titular character left, with a family friend serving as an unofficial father figure. Over its long lifespan, the show had a nearly complete changeover of cast, with replacements alternating between thinly-disguised Jonas Quinns and unexplained Other Darrins.
- My Three Sons did this a lot. They replaced grandpa Bub with Uncle Charlie. Later the oldest son left so the dad adopted the youngest son's friend.
- Doctor Who did this recently, when Howard Attfield, who played Donna Noble's father in "The Runaway Bride", died. They filled his role with her maternal grandfather Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins).
- This is not the first time Cribbins has been a Doctor Who Jonas Quinn; in the second of the 1960's non-canon movies - Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD he plays Special Constable Tom Campbell, who replaces the character of Ian Chesterton who appeared in the corresponding episode from the TV show and who appeared in the earlier movie Dr. Who And The Daleks. A Joanie Quinn - Louise, also replaces Barbara.
- Come to think of it, the various replacement companions in the TV series could qualify. Most notable early on, with Vicki a clear Jonas Quinn for Susan.
- Due South did this surprisingly well, mixing in a bit of Sister Becky. One character is sent away "under cover" while the main character is out of town. The replacement is introduced as someone pretending to be that character, in order to maintain his cover.
- Channel Four's Mockumentary series This is David Lander changed its title to This is David Harper when Stephen Fry was replaced by Tony Slattery.
- The latest season of NCIS ended with the implied Quinning of Ziva, Tony, and McGee by a whole new team.
- Sliders was rife with Quinning toward the end.
- Quinn got Quinned by way of The Nth Doctor, by being "fused" with Mallory, at the same time Colin was Put On A Bus.
- Maggie entered the team at the same time Arturo left.
- A certain segment of the fanbase believes that Arturo was Quinned by his own alternate.
- To be fair the episode that this happens in allows for that interpretation as Arturo's duplicate tries to replace him so he can escape his own world and just before they slide they are having a classic "which is the real one?" battle and after the slide the Arturo left behind essentially says "My God what have they done?"
- Diana Davis essentially Quinns both Wade and Arturo, since Mallory couldn't fulfill that role anymore.
- Who knew that Rembrandt, the one who started off as a Dirty Coward, would survive until the end of the series?
- Done by necessity quite a lot on gentle old dears' British comedy Last of the Summer Wine, as elderly cast members die off with inconvenient regularity. (Currently only one member of the original central trio is still alive.)
- Done on Allo Allo when Monsieur Leclerc was replaced by his twin brother after the original actor died. Later, Mimi and Captain Bertorelli appeared as Quinns for Maria and the German Captain respectively.
- The german police drama Siska did this when they replaced the eponymous lead character with his never-before-mentioned brother after he was killed off.
- ER 's Luka Kovacs is basically Doug Ross with a Slavic accent.
- Married With Children: Straight-laced banker Steve Rhoades (David Garrison) was Marcy's husband for four seasons, and then was replaced by pretty-boy Jefferson D'Arcy (Ted McGinley) when Garrison wanted to leave the show to avoid being typecast.
- Teachers initially both justified and averted it. It justified it because, in a school, teachers genuinely do come and go and get replaced, so it never seemed odd to have cast changes between series. They averted it by not replacing characters with direct clones, particularly after main character Simon left and the show became an ensemble piece. Unfortunately, after the third series, ensemble darkhorses Kurt and Brian left, along with Simon's arbitrary replacement Matt, to be replaced by Damien and Ben, Jonas Quinns for Kurt and Brian, and Ewan, a Jonas Quinn for Simon. Cue Seasonal Rot and no fifth series.
- Dr. Peele of American Gothic was this, replacing Dr. Crower—only to then be sent veering off in a different direction by being paired up with the Femme Fatale, then relegated to backburner status for the rest of the series.
- Sandy Duncan's character on The Hogan Family, which was Valerie before Valerie Harper quit.
- Neil Morrissey as Tony Smart from series 2 of Men Behaving Badly, replacing Harry Enfield as Dermot Povey. Since this happened on ITV, and the show only became popular after the third series was taken up by The BBC, most viewers have only the vaguest idea there ever was a Dermot Povey. (In one Clip Show, a single scene from series 1 is shown, prompting Tony to ask "Who was that?")
- That 70s Show swapped Eric for Randy.
- In Blakes Seven, Jonas Quinns are always the same gender as the outgoing character, for no particular reason but to make up the numbers. Jenna is replaced by Dayna, Blake is replaced by Tarrant, and Cally is replaced by Soolin.
- In Frontline, each season features a new Executive Producer, all of whom are equally amoral but manipulate people in slightly different ways.
- In Gilmore Girls, when Chad Michael Murray (Tristan Du Grey) left for Dawson's Creek. This left a void in the Rory/Dean/Other love/hate triangle. The void was soon filled by Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia).
- Natalie in Monk replacing Sharona as Monk's assistant. The next few episodes were very obviously written for Sharona, with the only real difference in the characters being Natalie calling her boss "Mr. Monk" instead of "Adrian." This gets especially weird when she states that she's never seen Monk's feet like that's a big deal, despite having only taken the job in the previous episode. The point at which the writers ran out of their previous scripts and were able to start creating material specifically for Natalie (mostly involving her dead husband at first) is very, very clear.
- Dads Army introduced Private Cheeseman as a Quinn after the sudden death of James Beck, who played Walker. The character fast became a Scrappy and was written out after only one season.
- As mentioned in the intro, Charles Emmerson Winchester replacing Frank Burns on ''M*A*S*H.
- Also, Potter for Blake. Again, both are very different character-wise, Potter being a regular army doctor and Blake being more comic and sometimes only slightly less of a Butt Monkey than Burns, but both fill the C.O. role at the 4077th (incompetantly in Blake's case).
- The straightest use of the trope is Hunnicutt replacing Trapper, both have a good sense of humor and were generally easy-going Lancers for Hawkeye. though B.J. is a devoted California family man while Trapper can often be found chasing nurses with Hawkeye.
- Although not as obvious as some other examples, the producers of Buffy wrestled with who they could get to replace Cordelia's snarky truth-telling character (who had left for Angel, where she'd undergo a whack of Character Development and change personalities anyway). At first, when getting wind of the popularity of Spike and deciding to keep him on, they'd thought to have him do it, but they later decided to use Anya, a previously one-episode appearance, to become a regular and take over Cordelia's role in the group.
Video Games
- At the end of the GBA version of the first Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, Phoenix's assistant Maya leaves to undergo spiritual medium training; she returns in the next game. When a DS remake of the first game was released, they added an extra case to it - but they couldn't bring Maya back, as one of the cases in the second game revolved around her reunion with Phoenix. So a new character, Ema Skye, became Phoenix's assistant for that one case. When the fourth game Jonas Quinned the entire cast (including Phoenix) Ema replaced another character as the police detective that is routinely run into.
- Sonic Adventure introduced us to Gamma, a well-armed red and white humanoid "E-Series" Greek-letter-named robot created by Eggman, who over the course of the game decided to turn against Eggman. At the end of the game, Gamma died (exploded, actually). A few years later, Sonic Heroes brought back a whole bunch of characters, adding no new ones... except Omega, a well-armed red and white humanoid E-Series Greek-letter-named robot created by Eggman who had decided to turn against Eggman. Hmm...
- However, they partially avoided this trope by making him the exact opposite of Gamma. Gamma was a conflicted and ultimately tragic character, while Omega... is a borderline mechanical psychopath that wants to obliterate his former master (and everything he built) and then ultimately take over. And talks like a Dalek.
- Played more straight in Sonic Battle, with 'Chaos Gamma'- apparently another Gamma model but remaining loyal to Eggman as his Dragon
- Punch-Out!! on the NES, an acclaimed arcade port, starred Mike Tyson as its final opponent. Eventually Nintendo's license to use Tyson's likeness in a game expired, so Nintendo re-released the game in 1990 with Mr. Dream, a Jonas Quinn for Tyson, as the last opponent.
- In Tales Of Symphonia while Kratos and Zelos are nearly opposite in personality, combat wise they are almost exactly the same (Zelos lacks a single spell), and Zelos joins a short time after Kratos leaves, the two are only in the party same time for a single dungeon.
- When Pey'j gets in trouble in Beyond Good And Evil, his place in the party is taken by Double H, the soldier. Again, they have completely different characters, but effectively the same function, and only show up together for a brief time in the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
- In the original Snatcher, the engineer Harry Benson dies. When it was reinvented as an RPG in SD Snatcher, Harry sells you weapons and bullets. To make sure the player could still buy weapons and bullets after Harry's death, a new character, Geoff, was added as Harry's apprentice. After Harry dies, Geoff takes over the weapons store.
- Super Smash Bros Melee gave us Roy, a Mighty Glacier swordsman from the newest Fire Emblem game. Super Smash Bros Brawl replaced him with Ike, a Mighty Glacier swordsman from the newest Fire Emblem game. Let's not even get started on Mewtwo to Lucario...
- In Pikmin 2, when your main Sidekick Louie goes missing after you complete the game's main mission, he gets replaced with the President of the Hocotate Shipping Company until you defeat the Final Boss and recover him.
- Sakura Taisen 2 replaced Ayame Fujieda, the Sexy Mentor from the first game, with her younger sister Kaede (played by the same voice actress), since Ayame had Ascended To A Higher Plane Of Existence at the end of the first game.
- Elite Beat Agents, a remake of Osu!Tatakae!Ouendan! Jonas Quinn'd the entire cast, replacing the cheer squads with a MIB organization. However, Tropes Are Not Bad, as some people might tell you that EBA is better than Ouendan.
- The jump from Game Cube to Wii caused a few problems with the Naruto games, so some characters were left out of Clash of Ninja Revolution. Zabuza's replacement was the shark-swordsman Kisame Hoshigaki. This was probably for the better. In Japan, meanwhile, Sasuke was replaced by his brother Itachi.
- In the Soul Calibur games, Maxi replaces Li Long (from the prequel, Soul Edge) as the game's nunchaku user, after Li's defeat at the hands of Cervantes. Li has only returned once since then, as a bonus character in Soul Calibur III: Arcade Edition.
- Final Fantasy V: At some point in the game Galuf will be replaced by this spunky granddaughter... who will inherit all is abilities.
- VICE: Project Doom on the NES. Your character's informant that they talk to at the end of each stage will leave partially through the game. A stand-in will fill in for her. You find out where your original informant went as the game progresses.
Web Animation
Web Comics
Western Animation
- Capt. Murphy on Sealab 2021, replaced by Capt. Shanks after the death of Murphy's voice actor Harry Goz. Lampshade Hanging occurs when Shanks (who is actually voiced by Goz's son Michael) tells the crew (and, indirectly, the audience) that he's a replacement, and if they don't like it, they can "go watch 'annie-may'."
- Lilo from the Lilo and Stitch franchise is being replaced by a similar Japanese character named Hanako in a new television series currently in development at Japanese animation studio Madhouse Productions.
- The Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", having united almost all the Star Trek original cast, gave us a Jonas Quinn named "Welshy" who apparently replaced Doohan for a musical reunion in the 22nd century. This was almost certainly a pointed comment on Doohan's refusal to participate, since the late DeForrest Kelley was just The Voiceless.
- Darby replacing Christopher Robin in My Friends Tigger and Pooh.
- Lady Jaye and Scarlett are interchangable in G.I. Joe.
- The octopus replacing the crocodile in Return to Neverland.
- King Larry replacing King Louie in The Jungle Book 2 and House of Mouse.
- Though the character existed before, Gil from The Simpsons took Lionel Huntz's job as the family's lawyer after Huntz's voice actor died.
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