Patlabor: The Movie: Kanuka Clancy returned to New York City following the end of Mobile Police Patlabor: The Early Days, due to her training assignment with the Tokyo police ending. She's briefly mentioned fairly early on in the film, then arrives in Tokyo in the third act to help out with the final battle. This is her final appearance in the OVA and film continuity.
Toy Story 4 marks the return of Bo Peep, Woody's Love Interest and their subsequent reunion, after being absent from the third movie (In real life? Bo Peep last appeared 20 years earlier).
Live-Action
God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness: Josh reappears in this movie, after having not been seen since the first one. It seems he chose not to pursue a legal career, and went into the ministry with Dave.
Dr. Serizawa, not seen since the first film, is back in Godzilla (2014), being portrayed by Ken Watanabe. However, the character is a descendant instead of the original (to be fair, the original also died), and he's for Godzilla instead of against him.
In Godzilla: Final Wars, they basically rounded up every monster design from Toho's history, including ones who hadn't been seen in twenty or thirty years - Anguirus, Ebirah, King Caesar, Hedorah, Kamacurus, Kumonga and so on make appearances, and Gigan plays a significant role, even getting a new design when he gets scraped up and rebuilt with chainsaw hands.
Ray - Ray Charles' mother was active through much of Ray's life but the film makes it appear as though she didn't have an active role in his young development. She died before he met his first wife. In fact, Ray's life is portrayed as a rotating support circle. Different bandmates and managers guided him along different steps of the way and then he outgrew them and moved onto a new support circle. In reality, Ray kept in touch with a lot of his earlier band mates and Ahmet Ertegun (Curtis Armstrong) knew Ray until the end of his life. Once Ray dropped him as a manager, he didn't appear again in the movie though.
Played for Laughs in Summer School: Jerome is excused to use the restroom on the first day, and isn't seen again until the Final Exam six weeks later.
The Three Stooges has a prime example: A duo of con-men (portrayed by Lew Davis and Nick Copeland) once appeared in "Cash and Carry", then had another appearance in "Playing the Ponies".note Unlike the Stooges' shorts, there were always one-time characters that neverreturn in another short whatsoever.
X-Men: Days of Future Past: Toad finally returns for his first appearance since the original X-Men movie. He was in the military, and after Mystique saves him from Trask Industries, he's working in a kitchen somewhere.
In Jurassic World only one (human) character from the original trilogy appeared: Henry Wu (B.D. Wong), who had one scene in the first film. World also saw the return to the series of "Rexy", the same Tyrannosaurus rex who appeared in the first film.
Jurassic World Dominion, third installment in the second trilogy and sixth in the saga as a whole, united Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm for the first time since the first film. Also returning from the first film is Dodgson, which crosses over into Unexpected Character territory (though played by another actor, Campbell Scott, since the first actor, Cameron Thor, became a convicted sex criminal in the meantime).
Dad's Army (2016): Private Walker, who was written out of the original series following the untimely death of his actor, James Beck, is shown to have returned to Walmington-on-Sea by 1944 and resumed his duties with the platoon, now played by Daniel Mays.
after being absent in Days of Future Past.