Transplant

Sam Carter is a force to be reckoned with in both galaxies.

When a character leaves one show to join the cast of another (often because the original show has ended). Basically a permanent crossover.

Sometimes a character's Spin-Off gets canned. When this happens, they'll often transplant back to their show of origin, with some flimsy explanation; if this happens, the chances of a Fully Absorbed Finale go way up. Also, a Late Spin-Off Transplant occurs when a character doesn't move to a spinoff until some time later. See also Rogues' Gallery Transplant, a more specific variant of this trope where a villain from a superhero's Rogues Gallery shifts to fighting someone else. Compare Canon Immigrant and Canon Welding. Not to be confused with the wiki operation that is also called a Trope Transplant.

Unrelated to Billy Needs an Organ and Walking Transplant, which are about biological transplants.

Not to be confused with the ska punk Super Group, Transplants.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Katori Matou from Roman Club joins Amanchu! as scuba club advisor and Hikari's homeroom teacher.
• CLAMP:
  • Manga example: Subaru from Tokyo Babylon becoming part of the cast of X1999. His Arch-Enemy, Sakurazuka Seishirou, joins the cast as his opposite while his twin sister makes cameos.
  • Grown-up versions of the heroes from Clamp School Detectives also appear in X1999, as part of the Ancient Tradition supporting the heroes.
• Arama-san originated in Helvetica Standard by Keiichi Arawi, before returning as a recurring character in Arawi's 2016 CITY manga. The famous mangaka "Daisuke Naganohara", aka Mio, also returns as a consistent presence in one character's subplot.
• My Hero Academia:
  • In Chapter 47, Momo and Kendo got internships under Snake Heroine Uwabami. Her name and design is lifted straight from Uwabami from Oumagadoki Doubutsuen, one of the author's previous works. In Academia's universe, she is a human with superpowers rather than a snake with a human form. Other characters make cameos (Shishido and Toytoy to name a few), presumably running on the same principle as Uwabami.
  • Chapter 87 takes it a step further by introducing Gang Orca, who's more or less literally a post Heel–Face Turn Sakamata.
  • The arcade game introduces three Oumagadoki transplants under the team name "Wild Villains": Curator (pre-Heel–Face Turn Isana), Bearhead (Shikuma), and Zookeeper (a brainwashed Hana).
  • As an act of internal transplant, Snipe (one of the U.A. Faculty) was one of the main characters from the My Hero oneshot that spawned the series.
• After Negima! Magister Negi Magi ended, Evangeline, who now goes by Yukihime, moved on to the Stealth Sequel series UQ Holder!. Later on, Fate, one of the primary antagonists of Negima and other characters like Mana also show up. This gets played with a bit as it's later revealed UQ Holder is an Alternate Timeline from the main Negima series where events played out differently.
• The underground boss of the resort planet Haccone in RobiHachi is Wombat from Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, the previous Cute High series Studio Comet did before this.
• Tamate of Slow Start is basically a grown-up version of Bottle Fairy's Tama-chan, from name, looks, hobbies, temperment, to clothing preferences. Yuiko Tokumi, who drew these two series approximately 10 years apart, stated she'd like people seeing the two as "infinitely similar entities".
• In Straighten Up! two of the supporting characters are Michiru Kosei, the supervisor for the Dancesport Club, and her husband Tatsuya. Both previously appeared as high school students and two of the main characters in Koganeiro, a short story that Takuma Yokota had published in Shonen Jump years earlier. After Straighten Up! ended, Tatsuya shows up as the coach of the main soccer team in the author's next series Shudan! having been previously established as a youth soccer coach in Straighten Up!
• Kaneda, one of the teachers in Wandering Son, was a character in Shiki no Juunin. The anime adaptation references this by showing Kaneda meeting a green haired man and a woman (the protagonists of the previous manga) in the final episode.
• Meito "Anime Tenchou" Anisawa, the Hot-Blooded store owner in Lucky Star's anime adaptation, isn't from the manga nor is he original to the anime; he actually predates Lucky Star as a whole, being created as the mascot for the Animate store chain several years before.

Comic Books

• The DCU:
  • The entire roster of Quality, Fawcett, and Charlton Comics superheroes were transplanted into the DC Universe after DC bought them out. At first they were included as their own separate realities in The Multiverse, before being integrated into the single Merged Reality of the DCU after Crisis on Infinite Earths.
    • A few decades later, the heroes of Milestone Comics did the same thing.
    • And then the Archie/Red Circle superheroes and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.
    • With the New 52 reboot, characters from WildStorm were also integrated into the main DCU (where they had previously existed in the separate reality of Earth-50).
  • Charity, the onetime Horror Host of 70s DC "Weird" horror title Forbidden Tales Of Dark Mansion, later shows up in the 1990s Starman series.
  • Maggie Sawyer first appeared in Superman's comics as one of Metropolis' cops. Of course, ask any reader what they know about her, and they'll most likely say she's Batwoman's girlfriend. That's because, at the beginning of the New 52, Batwoman's previous love interest Renee Montoya was Ret-Gone, so they had Maggie transfer from Metropolis to Gotham. And after Batman Eternal, Maggie became Commissioner Sawyer. Maggie was later made somewhat redundant when Renee was finally brought back into continuity, and as of DC Rebirth, she's been Put on a Bus back to the Superman books, where she's once again a Metropolis police officer.
  • Maxwell Lord, originally a supporting character in Justice League International, was turned into a villain for Infinite Crisis. Despite the unpopular decision, especially because it was a blatant retcon, the decision has stuck and he has since been turned into a Justice League villain. However, because he was infamously killed by Wonder Woman, he's also been transplanted into a villain for her specifically, in both Mariko Tamaki's Wonder Woman run and Wonder Woman 1984.
• Many of Garth Ennis' characters and concepts end up in another of his comics, even when they are in officially different universes. The Boys has Billy Butcher mentioning spacker porn (a term coined by Spacker Dave in The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank) and Cassidy from Preacher tending bar, Kathryn O'Brien in The Punisher MAX is strongly implied to be the same person as Kathryn McAllister from Hitman, etc.
• Marvel Universe:
  • A lot of Deadpool's supporting cast and enemies are obscure characters who were carried over with Deadpool when he made the jump to being a standalone character rather than merely a supporting X-Men character. Domino, Taskmaster, ZERO, Dr. Bong, Sandi Brandenberg, Outlaw, and Deuce the Devil-Dog are just a few examples. Cable, while not fully transplanted from the X-Men, is more often remembered for his partnership with Deadpool than any of his other escapades.
  • Mary Jane Watson, one of the most famous supporting character of Spider-Man, became a main character in the 2015 Invincible Iron Man 2015 run replacing Pepper Potts role as new Tony's personal assistant. The same run saw Doctor Doom join the cast, as this was during the period when Fantastic Four was no longer being published due to an embargo over movie rights.
  • Betsy Braddock was first introduced in Captain Britain Weekly, but after a decade as a supporting character she joined the X-Men and took the codename Psylocke.
  • In a reverse of the above, Shadowcat and Nightcrawler were absent during the X-Men's The Fall of the Mutants storyline (in which the main team died on international television, but were resurrected offscreen). Chris Claremont used this as an opportunity to team them up with Captain Britain, creating the team series Excalibur.
  • A few years after the cancellation of Alpha Flight and his mini-series, Northstar joined the main X-Men team in Chuck Austen's run on Uncanny X-Men.
  • Goldballs, a character from Brian Michael Bendis' Uncanny X-Men run, was brought over into Miles Morales's supporting cast after Miles was brought over into the mainstream Marvel universe post Secret Wars.
  • Several times, the X-Men would travel over and join The Avengers.
    • The first and most notable were Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, who after defecting from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants became a part of the Avengers' second major team line-up (also known as "Cap's Kooky Quartet").
    • After gaining his blue-furred form in Amazing Adventures #11, former X-Man Hank McCoy, AKA Beast, was recruited to join the Avengers, before leaving to rejoin the original five X-Men as X-Factor.
    • Wolverine was a core member of the team during the Bendis run. Storm was also an Avenger briefly (as she was married to Black Panther at the time), but left during Avengers vs. X-Men.
    • Former New Mutants Cannonball and Sunspot were recruited to join The Avengers (Jonathan Hickman). Sunspot prospered so well in his new team, he later bought the supervillain team AIM and rebranded it as Avengers Idea Mechanics, leading his own teams in New Avengers (2015) and U.S.Avengers.
    • Havok, Sunfire, Rogue, and Cable were all members of the Uncanny Avengers, an Avengers Spin-Off team dedicated to co-species cooperation.
    • In an inversion, Namor, primarily known for his ties to the Avengers, The Invaders and the Fantastic Four, joined the X-Men during the Utopia era.
    • Not an Avengers team per se, but the 2016 Champions relaunch saw Cyclops as part of the team, fighting alongside other Marvel heroes like Miles Morales, Kamala Khan and Amadeus Cho. Note that this is something of a tradition, as the original 70s Champions run featured Iceman and Angel (who had recently been written out of X-Men by Chris Claremont) as main characters.
  • Relatedly, all four members of the Fantastic Four have been Avengers at one point or another, usually during periods where they were taking a break from their original team (or, in the case of the Human Torch, when the FF disbanded after Secret Wars (2015)).
  • Beast of the X-Men and the Human Torch also both worked alongside the Inhumans in Uncanny Inhumans.
  • While that was happening, The Thing joined the All-New Guardians of the Galaxy alongside Shadowcat and Agent Venom during a time when Star-Lord and Gamora were absent (Kitty even taking the Star-Lord mantle herself, as she was engaged to Peter Quill at the time).
  • Ultimate Marvel:
    • At the end of Ultimate Power, an Intercontinuity Crossover between Ultimate universe and the Supreme Power universe, Zarda and Nick Fury switched places. The latter was a major character in the post-Time Skip new Supreme Power series, while the former had some Destructo-Nookie with the Hulk. After Ultimatum, Nick Fury crossed back over.
    • Ultimate Spider-Man also had its share of transplanting. First Kitty Pryde left the X-Men and became Peter's girlfriend for a while, and then they returned the favor when this universe's Liz Allan was revealed as a mutant and went to train at Xavier's. Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X Men were cancelled after Ultimatum, so Johnny Storm and Iceman were moved into the Parkers' house.
    • Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch started as villains in Ultimate X Men, and then moved to The Ultimates. It was a complex Mythology Gag of the thing that happened in the main universe, but it is an example on its own right nonetheless.
• Peter David's Sachs & Violens, of the mini-series of the same name, were transplanted ten years later to Fallen Angel.
• The Sandman (1989): The series contains a number of horror host transplants: Cain and Abel are the most famous, but also Eve, the Three Witches, Destiny, Lucien and The Mad Mod Witch.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Fugitoid was originally introduced in his own stories from Mirage Comics before the Turtles even made their debut. After their success, he was eventually included in the TMNT comics.
• When Marvel UK was publishing officially licensed Transformers comics and Doctor Who Magazine as well as Marvel Universe comics, the character Death's Head, who originated in the Transformers continuity, was transferred into the Marvel Universe via an encounter with the Seventh Doctor in the DWM comic strip. (The middle installment explains why he shrinks from Transformer Humongous Mecha size to humanoid size — the Doctor shot him with one of the Master's Tissue Compression Eliminators, a lethal Shrink Ray that the Master used as his weapon to turn people into doll-sized corpses in old-school Doctor Who. Death's Head was badass enough that the "eliminating" didn't take, but enough 'tissue compression' took place that he's now the size of the characters he'd now be interacting with.)

Fan Works

• In a Homestar Runner fan series called "The Homestar Runner Show", Weena from The Time Machine is a regular character, even having some cartoons where she is the main character! Being in the Homestar Runner world now, she even lacks visible arms as well!
• Despite appearing only in Dragon Age II, Bethany Hawke ends up becoming a member of the Inquisition in the Twice Upon an Age series.
• Discussed in this X-Men/Marvel Comics fan comic.

Literature

• L. Frank Baum wanted to move away from the Oz books and tried to start a new series with a new little girl protagonist, Trot. This series didn't do as well, and Trot ended up moving to Oz (in The Scarecrow of Oz) and being immediately Demoted to Extra there.
• Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg are the primary main characters of Discworld's 'Witches' sub-series. However, later on Terry Pratchett decided to "retire" them, and they now tend to only make cameos in other books, namely as mentors to Tiffany Aching, who has her own series.
• Jas, the Winged Humanoid from the Spelljammer comics by Jeff Grubb and Kate Novak, later joined Finder's Band in the same authors' Forgotten Realms novels.

Live-Action TV

• Years after the cancellation of Agent Carter, Enver Gjokaj's Daniel Sousa joined Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a Recurring Character for its final season.
• Angel:
  • In the latter half of the first season, all three main characters were Transplants from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Angel, Cordelia Chase, and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. It could have gone even further, as Doyle, the only non-Transplant lead on the show, was originally going to be the Buffy character Whistler before that plan fell through.
  • In the fifth season — after Buffy had ended — Spike and later Harmony (who both originated on Buffy and and guest starred on Angel) were both Transplanted and made regulars as well.
• Arrowverse:
  • The Arrowverse's third series titled Legends of Tomorrow features characters from its first two shows (Arrow and The Flash (2014)) as main characters, specifically: Sara Lance/White Canary, Ray Palmer/The Atom, Martin Stein/One Half of Firestorm, Leonard Snart/Captain Cold and Mick Rory/Heat Wave, followed by Wally West/Kid Flash in its third season.
  • The Legion of Doom in Season 2 of Legends is made up of transplants from Arrow and The Flash: Eobard Thawne, Damien Darhk, Malcolm Merlyn, Leonard Snart. Darhk later comes back to be a villain in Season 3, along with his daughter Nora.
  • Mari's sister Kuasa is resurrected and transplanted from Vixen to Legends.
  • After the cancellation of John Constantine's own series, he showed up the following year for a guest spot on Arrow, and was then eventually added to the cast of Legends of Tomorrow.
  • Earth-2 Laurel Lance was originally The Dragon of The Flash Season 2 Big Bad Hunter Zolomon/Zoom before moving to Arrow to become the Black Canary of her home universe following her eventual Heel–Face Turn.
  • Clark Kent/Superman went from a Recurring Character and Hero of Another Story in Supergirl (2015) to headlining his own show along with his wife. Two characters there, Sam Lane and Morgan Edge, were also recurring characters on the same show but are now played by different actors.
• The short-lived Steven Bochco legal drama Civil Wars introduced two characters, Eli Levinson (Alan Rosenberg) and Denise Ianello (Debi Mazar), who, for whatever reason, found themselves as regular characters on L.A. Law after the cancellation of their series.
• Following the cancellation of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Daniel Henney's character Matt Simmons to the parent show Criminal Minds, filling the role left from the departure of Damon Gupton.
• With the cancellation of the original CSI series, in addition to getting a TV movie to wrap the original show up it was also announced that D.B. Russell would be moved over to spinoff CSI: Cyber.
• Mrs. Edna Garrett, the housekeeper from Diff'rent Strokes, went on to become the house mother for the girls in The Facts of Life, although Diff'rent Strokes continued to run in the meantime.
• Helen DuBois went from Josh's boss on Drake & Josh to the principal of Hollywood Arts in Victorious.
• Deputy Enos Strait returned to The Dukes of Hazzard when his Atlanta-based spinoff ended after one season.
• Senator Edward Sheffield, played by Dean Stockwell, first appeared in the short-lived Donald P. Bellisario produced U.S. Supreme Court series First Monday before he went over to JAG and became the Secretary of the Navy.
• General Hospital:
  • The popular couple of Kevin and Lucy was transplanted to to GH-spinoff Port Charles to attract GH's fanbase and anchor the new show to its parent show. When Port Charles was canceled six years later, Kevin and Lucy were nowhere to be found on the parent show despite maintaining plausible ties to the canvas. Then again, considering by that time GH was becoming a daytime romance novel version of The Sopranos and PC had become a daytime romance novel version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Lucy being revealed as a slayer and half the doctors (including one or two GH-legacy characters) becoming vampires, reintegrating the characters would have been tricky to say the least.
  • On the other hand, it was easier to transplant just about every character in the prime time spinoff Night Shift back to the mothership when it ended.
    • Some of them had never left GH in the first place; they were pulling double duty.
• After The Golden Girls (and subsequently The Golden Palace) ended, Sophia joined Empty Nest.
• Grey's Anatomy:
  • Addison Montgomery left Grey's Anatomy to helm her own spinoff, Private Practice. A few seasons later the show introduced Amelia Shepherd, who was the sister of Grey's lead Derek. Amelia guested in several Grey's episodes during both show's runs, and joined the cast full-time after Private Practice ended.
  • Ben Warren left Grey's to join the Seattle Fire Department in Station 19. Later Carina DeLuca, who had been recurring on Grey's for several years, began dating Maya Bishop from Station 19 and became a regular there - though in an interesting case, she's still a doctor at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital despite not appearing nearly as often on the hospital's show.
• After the cancellation of Sam & Cat, the secondary comic relief character Goomer would make the jump to Henry Danger (and the later Danger Force spin-off), where he became the bumbling minion to recurring villain Frankini (who himself is all but stated to be Cat's unseen brother from Victorious).
• Florence returned to The Jeffersons after her spinoff died a quick death.
• Joanie Loves Chachi's title characters returned to Happy Days.
• Law & Order:
  • Detective Munch joined the cast of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit after Homicide: Life on the Street went off the air. SVU has another character, Captain Cragen, from the early seasons of the parent series. Peter Stone, estranged son of the parent series' Ben Stone, moved from Chicago Justice to SVU in its 19th season after his original show flopped.
  • Det. Lennie Briscoe went from the parent series to Law & Order: Trial by Jury, though only a few episodes were filmed with him prior to actor Jerry Orbach's death.
  • Det. Mike Logan went from the parent series to Law & Order: Criminal Intent (after a telemovie).
  • Original SVU co-lead Det. Elliot Stabler went on to headline Law & Order: Organized Crime.
• In Legacies, we have Alaric Saltzman from The Vampire Diaries and Hope Mikaelson from The Originals.
• The Lone Gunmen was a short-lived spin-off of The X-Files. The eponymous character returned for one episode of the parent show. In which they die heroically. However, Chris Carter has said that nobody really dies for good in that verse...
• John Irvin started on NYPD Blue, was transplanted to Public Morals and when that series ended transplanted back onto NYPD Blue.
• After the cancellation of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, Michael Socha's character Will Scarlet was moved to the show's parent series for its fourth season. However, the writers were never sure what to do with him and any plots he may have brought with him never panned out, leading to him vanishing by the end of the season.
• Power Rangers Lost Galaxy had Alpha 6, Bulk, Professor Phenomenus, and Karone as transplants from the "Zordon Era" of the Power Rangers timeline, as Lost Galaxy onwards would adapt Super Sentai's "standalone seasons" method.
• When the first of the two Saved by the Bell spinoffs, The College Years, ended, Screech was moved over to the other spinoff, The New Class, for the remainder of that show's run.
• Stargate-verse:
  • A relatively unimportant and yet much-beloved recurring character on Stargate SG-1, Dr. Rodney McKay, crossed over to Stargate Atlantis. Oddly enough, this wasn't planned: the same actor auditioned for the part of "Doctor Benjamin Ingram", and he impressed the creators such that they decided to rewrite Ingram as McKay.
  • While less prominent in both shows, Major Lorne also appeared in a few episodes of SG-1 before permanently relocating to Atlantis.
  • Followed by Samantha Carter after SG-1 was cancelled. Amanda Tapping was contracted for the never-produced Season 11 of SG-1, so they brought her character to star in Atlantis for one season instead. After being in turn replaced as the leader of the Atlantis Expedition by IOA agent Richard Woolsey (yet another transplant from SG-1 who had recurring appearances in Atlantis before), Carter had a guest appearance in the Grand Finale, "Enemy at the Gate". She wasn't intended to only be in one season, but Amanda Tapping wanted to leave to pursue Sanctuary so they had to replace her.
  • O'Neill was transplanted to Stargate Universe.
• Star Trek:
  • Chief Miles O'Brien was a main character on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, having originated as a recurring character on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Later, TNG main character Worf was brought onto the main cast in the fourth season of Deep Space Nine following the conclusion of TNG and release of The Movie, Star Trek: Generations. (Worf would show up back on the Enterprise for later TNG films: Star Trek: First Contact had a good Watsonian excuse; Star Trek: Insurrection provided a bit of a Hand Wave; Star Trek: Nemesis didn't even bother.)
  • They attempted to transplant TNG recurring character Ensign Ro Laren to a spinoff series twice, but each time actress Michelle Forbes refused due to reluctance to be tied to a six-year contract. Each time, the role was reworked into an original character: for Deep Space Nine it became Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor), and for Star Trek: Voyager it became Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson).
  • This almost happened in Voyager, with TNG one-shot character Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan Mcneill) from "The First Duty" intended to be brought back as a main character. What happened next is muddled: some staff claimed they changed course due to Locarno being Beyond Redemption (TL;DR Glory Seeker, got a cadet killed; Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit; Revealing Cover-Up; kicked out of the Academy), while others claimed that bringing back the character would mean paying royalties to "The First Duty"'s writer for seven years. Regardless, the result was a Suspiciously Similar Substitute named Tom Paris, played by Robert Duncan McNeill.
    • The same thing probably happened with Taurik, a Vulcan engineer who was the focus of one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The same actor later played a recurring Vulcan engineer named Vorik on Voyager.
  • Enterprise-D crewman Reginald Barclay also popped up on Star Trek: Voyager, actually making exactly the same number of appearances in both series.
  • And, of course, Jim Kirk, who debuted in Star Trek: The Original Series (1963–1966) played by William Shatner, showed up in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022–) played by Paul Wesley.
• Nostalgiaferatoo, a boring vampire was introduced in 2022 as a recurring character on MeTV's Toon In With Me played by host Bill Leff. In 2023, the character has made more appearances on fellow MeTV and Chicago based series Svengoolie as part of the Sven Squad.
• E.L. "Tenspeed" Turner of 1980's Tenspeed and Brown Shoe turned up in 1987 as a supporting character on JJ Starbuck.

Newspaper Comics

• Little Orphan Annie had her strip end with a serious Cliffhanger, which was resolved in a Fully Absorbed Finale in Dick Tracy. She then joined the latter series as a recurring character.
• Patina Welding originated in the comic On the Fastrack as the main character's daughter, but occasionally cameoed in the Shared Universe comic Safe Havens. She eventually made the full transition to Transplant when she decided to go to college at Havens University, where main character of Safe Havens (and former babysitter) Samantha works at.

Toys

• G.I. Joe Extreme featured Sgt. Savage from its very short-lived predecessor Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles as one of the Joes.
• My Scene is a Barbie spin-off that originally featured Barbie. Barbie was later replaced with a Suspiciously Similar Substitute named Kennedy.

Video Games

• After premiering in the arcade title Flicky, Flicky ends up crossing over into Sonic the Hedgehog as one of the many animal friends in need of rescue from Eggman's machinations. Flickies as a species became some of the most iconic of Sonic's animal buddies, which earned them A Day in the Limelight with Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island, which was basically the original Flicky concept adapted to the Sonic world in isometric 3D.
• Seath from King's Field would later appear in FromSoftware's more recent medieval video game, Dark Souls, as Seath the Scaleless, one of the major lore figures in the Dark Souls mythos... as well as one of the bosses.
• After the original NES trilogy concluded, Ninja Gaiden star Ryu Hayabusa became one of the main fighters in the Dead or Alive series. Years later, Canon Immigrants would jump back and forth between the Team Ninja revival of Ninja Gaiden and the later DOA titles (particularly Dead or Alive 5).
• Persona:
  • The female protagonist of Shin Megami Tensei if... made an appearance as a NPC named Tamaki Uchida in the first Persona, where she talks about her experience fighting demons. She also shows up in the Persona 2 duology. Her appearance is often cited as proof that the Persona games take place in the same universe as if....
  • Additionally, the Devil Summoner possessing Daisuke Todoroki in Persona 2 is implied to be Kyouji Kuzunoha from the original Devil Summoner and Soul Hackers.
  • Persona 4: Arena features three of the heroes from Persona 3 as playable characters and important figures in the story: Mitsuru Kirijo, Akihiko Sanada, and Aigis. Persona 4: Arena Ultimax adds three more characters; Yukari Takeba, Junpei Iori, and Ken Amada (alongside Koromaru). Fuuka Yamagishi also appears in the story. Shinjiro Aragaki, unfortunately, is confirmed to have canonically died.
• Sonny Bonds, protagonist of the first three Police Quest games, appears in the spin-off S.W.A.T. series minus the first game. SWAT 2 has him as a playable character, having been transferred from Lytton to Los Angeles, in SWAT 3, he has been promoted to SWAT leader, and by SWAT 4, he's a SWAT veteran who now trains new recruits.
• In Smite, Grover was a treant who used to be the mount of Sylvanus and only spoke in gibberish. Grover would later appear in Paladins as his own playable character and can speak coherently.
• SNK:
  • The main characters of the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting series continued making appearances in The King of Fighters series years after both series' respective last installments: Garou: Mark of the Wolves (1999) and Path of the Warrior: Art of Fighting 3 (1996).
  • In a related example, Ikari Warriors Ralf Jones and Clark Still (also members of the massive KOF roster) returned to their run-and-gun roots in Metal Slug 6 and 7, presumably returning the favor for Fio joining the roster in Maximum Impact 2. Leona would be added as a downloadable character in Metal Slug XX, an Updated Re-release of 7.
  • And before that, Ralf Jones was actually in TNK III before he permanently moved over to Ikari Warriors.
• Street Fighter:
  • This was the fate of several Final Fight characters, thanks to the series sharing a setting with Street Fighter. Guy and Sodom crossed over into Street Fighter Alpha. Rolento followed suit in Alpha 2, and Cody joined the roster in Alpha 3. Hugo (who is Andore) first appeared in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact. Maki (from Final Fight 2) became an Ascended Extra in Capcom vs. SNK 2 before being added to updated releases of Alpha 3 (the GBA port and then Alpha 3 MAX for the PSP). Guy and Cody returned in Super Street Fighter IV, and Poison (after spending years as Hugo's manager) became playable in Street Fighter X Tekken, alongside Hugo, Rolento, Guy, and Cody (with Guy and Cody as DLC). Rolento, Hugo, and Poison are also in Ultra Street Fighter IV, taken directly from their appearances in SFxT. Abigail would then make a surprise appearance in Street Fighter V's Season 2 wave of DLC, followed by a returning Cody in S3 and Final Fight 3's Lucia in S4, with Poison also returning in S4. Other characters from the series (Haggar, Jessica, Carlos, Edi. E, the remainder of the Mad Gear Gang) make cameos around the aforementioned characters.
  • Speaking of Street Fighter, Blair Dame and Allen Snider from Street Fighter EX were bussed to Arika and Namco's fighting game, Fighting Layer. Though absent in EX2 and EX3, they did ultimately return alongside the rest of the Arika originals for both series' spiritual sequel, Fighting EX Layer.
  • And speaking of Street Fighter V specifically, the fifth and final season of DLC saw Akira from Rival Schools join the cast. Long before then, Sakura was a Guest Fighter in the first Rival Schools and noted to be friends with Hinata and Natsu, though the canonicity of the ties between games was somewhat dubious at the time. It wasn't until the UDON comics where Rival Schools characters constantly showed up did it become widely accepted that the two series shared continuity.
• Super Mario Bros.: The Shy Guys, the Bob-Ombs, the Pokeys and Birdo were initially characters from Doki Doki Panic. The game was dolled up to become the Western version of Super Mario Bros. 2, which was then also released in Japan as Super Mario USA, the fourth entry for the NES over there. Other characters from the game have also appeared sporadically over the years, such as Mouser and the Ninji, but these four are the most recurring and famous transplants.
• Tokyo Xanadu: The protagonist's homeroom teacher, Towa Kokonoe, is — technically speaking — a transplant from the Trails Series, where she was known as Towa Herschel and was a second-year student in the Thors Academy. Both versions are nearly identical in personality and appearance, both are voiced by Ai Nonaka in Japanese, and Herschel eventually becomes a teacher in the sequels of her game. (The prevailing theory is that, as opposed to merely being a Reused Character Design of her Trails counterpart, Towa Kokonoe is an Alternate Self of Towa Herschel, furthered by how both Tokyo Xanadu and Trails into Reverie make mention of a Magical Girl Alisa series which, true to its name, features Trails of Cold Steel characters in a Magical Girl setting.)

Web Animation

• Player and Veteran originated from the Fall Guys Logic series before becoming the protagonists of Among Us Logic. The two occasionally lampshade it.
  Player: (after being ejected into space) I knew I should've stuck to Fall Guys.
• The Revengeverse has various examples:
  • Doctor Pandemia debuted on Celio Vs Zombies before being a recurring character on Aitor Molina Vs..
  • Reddy Wizard from Red Leo Media became a relevant character after the cancelation.
  • Deconstructed with Aitor Molina being Transplanted from the original continuity to the Revengeverse.

Webcomics

• In the case of an entire cast turnover, the squid kids of Heroes of Inkopolis and Cafe Cardamari Tales were eventually repurposed into members of the Glass species in Tamarinfrog's following original comic Bottled Up.
• The Midnight Crew in MS Paint Adventures first appeared as comical antagonists against Team Sleuth in non-canon, donation-driven strips. In Homestuck, all four members of the Midnight Crew appear to show up again as agents of Derse. At first it just seems like Jack Noir, Draconian Dignitary, Courtyard Droll and Hegemonic Brute are Suspiciously Similar Substitutes for the Midnight Crew, but then it was subverted when the actual Midnight Crew showed up as their alternate universe counterparts.
• Gavin from Nukees joined Schlock Mercenary. En masse through cloning, as it happens.
• Double Subverted with Kestrel of Queen of Wands moving to Something*Positive. The strips had several crossovers, and QoW ended with Kestrel moving to Boston, where S*P took place. Fans wondered if she would join the S*P cast, so as a joke, right after her comic ended there was a S*P strip where she spots the main characters, tries to get their attention...and suddenly gets hit by a car. It was meant to subvert the idea, but when Queen of Wands's author kept getting questions about whether that ending was "canon", she decided to just sell the rights to Kestrel to S*P. She has appeared occasionally since then (having apparently spent some time in the hospital since her accident), but remains quite Out of Focus, especially since the comic now splits its time between Boston and Texas.

Western Animation

• Following the cancellation of The Casagrandes, characters that originated from that series continue to make occasional appearances in The Loud House.
• Once The Cleveland Show was canceled, the title character and his family moved back to Quahog.
• Professor XXXL from Codename: Kids Next Door was a character transplanted from Tom Warburton's failed pilot Kenny and the Chimp: Diseasy Does It. Kenny and Chimpy, however, did not make the jump.
• The Red Guy from Cow and Chicken eventually became the antagonist of I Am Weasel as well.
• Van Partible created two series for the What A Cartoon! Show: Johnny Bravo and Jungle Boy. The first season of Johnny Bravo (helmed by Partible) incorporated Jungle Boy and his supporting cast into Johnny Bravo's cast, but after Partible was fired, the characters were dropped for the rest of the show.
• Donald Duck began as a one-off character in the Silly Symphonies short "The Wise Little Hen". Like so many other Silly Symphonies characters before him, the duck was expected to remain a one-off character. However, director Burt Gillett liked the duck so much that he brought him back for the Mickey Mouse short "Orphan's Benefit", and the response that Disney got about Donald following the short's debut was overwhelmingly positive. Immediately afterwards, the duck was made a major character in the Mickey Mouse series and the rest is history.
• Launchpad McQuack was transplanted to Darkwing Duck after DuckTales (1987) ended, though he was originally planned to be transplanted into TaleSpin instead. Fenton Crackshell/Gizmoduck also popped up from time to time. Tad Stones, who created Darkwing Duck, later revealed that this was a case of parallel universes rather than one show being a sequel to the other, as fans generally assumed.
• Goat is a character based on a friend of Titmouse founder Chris Prynoski that has been a supporting character in both Downtown and Megas XLR (voiced by the person he's based on and occasionally credited as "Goat" or "Himself"). He also has a brief appearance in Metalocalypse.
• General Reginald Skarr from Evil Con Carne moved into the title characters' neighborhood on The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy after his show was canceled.
• Ever since the Futurama/The Simpsons crossover episode, Bender has made multiple non-speaking cameos in the basement of the Simpsons (or floating in the hall when it gets flooded), once again waiting for a thousand years.
• Craig McCracken:
  • Ace of the Gangreen Gang, a main villain from The Powerpuff Girls, became the replacement for Murdoc Niccals in Phase 4 of Gorillaz after the latter got arrested. It helps that Craig McCracken and Damon Albarn are friends in real life.
  • On the show's receiving end, Major Glory, the protagonist of the "Justice Friends" segments from Dexter's Laboratory, is a major character in the episode "Members Only", where he sports a notably different design from his original show. It shouldn't be surprising since McCracken was the art director of the first two seasons of Dexter's Laboratory, and its creator Genndy Tartakovsky likewise worked with McCracken on The Powerpuff Girls.
• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes:
  • An unusual example: one of the P.O.I.N.T. Prep students introduced in Season 2 is Koala Princess, who was the heroine of a Show Within a Show from another show Ian Jones-Quartey worked on, Steven Universe.
  • The President of the Universe was a one-shot supporting character on Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, another entry in Jones-Quartey's CV.
  • Gertie also came from Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, but in her case the episode she was made for was never completed.
• Phineas and Ferb's resident evil scientist Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz becomes a recurring character in Season 2 of Milo Murphy's Law, having given up evil in the finale of his native show and needing a place to stay after his building was destroyed in the crossover. Perry the Platypus and Major Monogram also play a recurring role, as while Doofenshmirtz is no longer evil, his attempts at being good have collateral damage that needs to be fixed.
  Norm: Who are these people?
  Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Oh, sorry, Norm. This is a whole new series... of events that have transpired.
• Figaro from Pinocchio has appeared in several Classic Disney Shorts, House of Mouse and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes as Minnie Mouse's pet.
• Echo (CT-1409) started out as one of the recurring Clone Troopers in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. After spending some time missing and presumed dead, he returned in the "Bad Batch" arc where he joined the eponymous team, thus becoming a main character in the Sequel Series Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
• Years before Rebecca Sugar created Steven Universe, Sadie and Lars were characters in some unpublished comics she made while attending college.
• Quite a few cross-medium transplants occurred from Vasquez's Squee comics to his animated series Invader Zim. Squee's teacher was named Ms. Bitters and became the teacher of Zim's class, while the horned aliens from issue one of Squee became the Vortian race that made frequent appearances on Zim. Conversely, the wheelchair-bound aliens that regularly appeared in the pages of Squee only appear in one episode of Zim.
• Several of the Sunbow cartoons based on Hasbro properties had characters appear throughout the different series to indicate a Shared Universe.
  • The character Hector Ramirez made his debut in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and made at least one appearance in The Transformers, Jem and Inhumanoids.
  • The Inhumanoids character Sabre Jet is hinted to be the same character as Ace from G.I. Joe due to both characters having the real name of Brad J. Armbruster.
  • The third season of The Transformers, which took place in the future, had an episode titled "Only Human" that featured an antagonist named Old Snake, who is strongly implied to be an aged Cobra Commander.
• Tiny Toon Adventures:
  • Several years before before Ralph the security guard was a supporting character in Animaniacs, he was a unnamed minor character in Tiny Toon Adventures. Likewise, Mr. Skullhead (the character featured in the "Good Idea, Bad Ideas" sketches) got an Early-Bird Cameo as an Imaginary Friend of Elmyra's featured in the first Poorly Disguised Pilot for a series about her family.
  • Speaking of Tiny Toons, Elmyra was infamously transplanted in the Animaniacs spinoff Pinky and the Brain, creating the short-lived Sequel Series Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain.
• Tom and Jerry:
  • Modern revivals of Tom and Jerry, beginning with the 1980 Filmation series, have brought in other MGM cartoon characters, including Droopy, Barney Bear, and Red among others.
  • The 1941 MGM Oneshot Cartoon The Alley Cat introduced the intially one-off characters of Butch and Toodles Galore, who were then integrated into the Tom and Jerry franchise.
• Total Drama:
  • Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race has a few contestants from the original Total Drama as participants in the race, namely Noah, Owen, and Geoff. Oh, and Leonard's there too.
  • Total DramaRama has Jude Lizowski from 6teen as one of the daycare kids.

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