Unexpected Character / Animated Films

• Batman Ninja has, among the cast of characters, Gorilla Grodd. He's primarily known as the Arch-Enemy of The Flash, and even though he's often treated as a general DCU villain, he's not exactly a Batman nemesis. Also, while having Tim Drake isn't too surprising, this is one of the few adaptations to feature him in his current identity Red Robin, as opposed to just Robin (the latter being used by Damian Wayne).
• A Bug's Life: Sheriff Woody from Toy Story appears during the outtakes.
• DC League of Super-Pets already has Dwayne Johnson as Krypto the Superdog. And then in The Stinger, he voices Black Adam, who he played later that year, and his dog Anubis.
• One of the main characters in Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! is the Batman villain Scarecrow, Batman himself was only mentioned in the movie.
• Justice League vs. The Fatal Five, based on Justice League, has plenty of this:
  • Jessica Cruz making her debut as the movie's only appearing Green Lantern, and has been described as the lead character of the film.
  • Miss Martian, especially since this movie is a DCAU entry, as her existence contradicts J'onn being the Last of His Kind if she were a Green Martian or would suddenly introduce the White Martians into the DCAU since their place is taken by the similar Imperium in this continuity.
  • Mister Terrific as a main cast member, since he was barely seen performing any heroics due to being the League's Mission Control back in Justice League Unlimited.
  • The choice of characters in the movie is interesting, given that Jessica, Miss Martian, and Mister Terrific have no connection to each other or Star Boy or the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Fatal Five anywhere else, although Star Boy and Mister Terrific have interacted in one of the Justice Society of America: Kingdom Come special issues.
  • The appearance of Two-Face, Harley, and Ivy as Arkham Asylum inmates in addition to Miss Martian transforming into the second Robin, since the Bat-Embargo restricted any limit or ban the use of Batman-related characters (outside of Batman himself along with his obscure allies and Rogues Gallery) from appearing in the Justice League Unlimited and it was assumed that this would've carried over into the movie in spirit to keep the Batman mythos and Justice League mythos separate.
  • Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner appearing via cameo and being confirmed to become Green Lanterns and members of the Justice League in the near future, as there had otherwise been no solid indication that either of them existed as heroes in the DCAU. Hal was a One-Scene Wonder who seemed to only be a hero if John hadn't, and Guy was pseudo-canon by the Unlimited tie-in comics.
• Monsters, Inc.: Rex from Toy Story appears during the outtakes.
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
  • Peni Parker definitely wasn't on anyone's radar. While she debuted the same year as Spider-Gwen, in Edge of Spider-Verse #5, she failed to garner anywhere near the same amount of love. Peni's total number of appearances barely cracked the double digits by the time of the movie's release, and you could count the appearances in which she speaks even a single sentence on one hand. Her being a main character in the movie was a major surprise, and helped raise a lot of interest in her character.
  • While several fans presumed that Miguel O'Hara would at least have a cameo in the movie, even if he wasn't part of the central cast, nobody was counting on him running into the 1967 animated version of Peter Parker.
• Among the characters featured in 2022's King Tweety, there's Aoogah, a character who was introduced in the 2000 movie Tweety's High Flying Adventure and hadn't appeared in anything else since then.
• The LEGO Batman Movie:
  • Batman fights several members of his Rogues Gallery that aren't well used outside of their original work, such as King Tut, the Kabuki Twins, the Mutant Leader, and a few Rogues Gallery Transplants like Captain Boomerang. The sheer amount and absurdity of some even leads the Joker to give a "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer while ticking them off in the opening scene.
  • Although Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Cyborg, and Green Lantern were seen in the Comic-Con trailer, most of the rest at Superman's Justice League/Super Friends Party were not, including Martian Manhunter, Wonderdog, El Dorado, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, Samurai, the Wonder Twins Jayna and Zan, and Gleek.
  • The Joker's plan involves getting the help of Voldemort, King Kong, Sauron, the Gremlins, the Wicked Witch of the West, Agent Smith, Bruce the shark, cloned dinosaurs, the Kraken, and the Daleks, all well known villains that Batman hadn't fought before.^note Well, a few of them, at least
• The LEGO Movie features a variety of characters from LEGO properties and licenses, such as Batman and Dumbledore. Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, and C3PO's appearance was not advertised, and was assumed improbable thanks to legal issues. The film was produced by Warner Bros., while the Star Wars franchise and its associated characters are owned by Disney, making this a rare "crossover" between the two rival companies. In the background of some crowd shots, you can also spot Milhouse Van Houten, of all people.
• Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Dunk for Future at one point features Bernard as a cameo. Bernard is not a character you'd associate with Pleasant Goat, especially since his series hasn't been relevant since 2012 (China-made 2017 and 2021 movies notwithstanding), so it might surprise some who can recognize the bear. Alpha Group, who owns the company that produces Pleasant Goat, also owns the rights to Bernard in China, but there's not much to tie them together apart from this context.
• Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold saw many DC characters appear—including one of the characters announced being Harvey Bullock, who, even with his increased presence on Gotham, never appeared in Batman: The Brave and the Bold proper. Likewise, Professor Milo only appeared in the cold opening for the episode "Gorilla in Our Midst!", where the Spectre turned him into cheese and fed him to mice. While only appearing in a flashback, an earlier encounter with Milo is the crux of the plot.
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie has quite a few additions nobody was expecting for a Super Mario Bros. adaptation.
  • Perhaps the most left-field of them was Foreman Spike from Wrecking Crew, as his last appearance was in 2001 and he isn't the first character people think of when they think of Mario. He was actually the first character announced for the film, rather than Mario himself, and quickly became a meme due to his unexpected inclusion.
  • Donkey Kong surprised some people, since he usually isn't known to be a main Mario character, but has appeared in Mario spin-offs. Cranky Kong surprised the Mario community even more, since he only appears in the Donkey Kong Country games and has never once crossed over with Mario Bros. in a main game, setting aside the possibly canon factoid of him being the original Donkey Kong and an appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a collectable Spirit.
  • The penguins from Super Mario 64 have a monarch in this film, being the inhabitants of an Ice Palace that Bowser destroys at the beginning of the movie. The penguins are NPCs in their home game and in all other appearances, so few expected to see them put up a fight (or attempt to, anyway) with Bowser.
  • A flashback at an earlier point in the film shows Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, as they appear in Yoshi's Island. These two series rarely ever get tied together apart from Yoshi being in the main Mario games, so their appearance was unexpected to viewers. Another one shows Baby Peach, who only appeared in two spin-offs.
  • In a later scene in the film, specifically a certain wedding, King Bob-omb and King Boo appear. While Bob-ombs had cameoed beforehand, King Bob-omb didn't have any appearances in advertising material. King Boo is even more of an unexpected character, since no other Boos had cameoed in the film beforehand.
• Stan Lee was well known for having a cameo appearance in most Marvel media. However, a lot of people were shocked that he made an appearance in, of all things, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies since he's considered the face of DC Comics' known rival.
• Toy Story:
  • Toy Story 2 had Flik and Heimlich from A Bug's Life appearing in the outtakes.
  • Toy Story 3 has the title character from My Neighbor Totoro as one of Bonnie's toys. He's visible in a lot of shots but he's also completely voiceless.^note It probably helps that John Lasseter and Hayao Miyazaki are rather close friends.
  • Toy Story 4 features a brief appearance by Tinny at the antique shop.
• In-universe example in Wreck-It Ralph: During the party held for Fix-It Felix Jr. near the beginning of the movie, Ralph looks in and is astonished they invited Pac-Man to it. That said, some of the game character cameos are this for being from lesser known or older franchises, such as Neff (Altered Beast (1988)'s final boss) or a random zombie mook from House of the Dead.
• While Cheetah, Black Mask, Solomon Grundy, Cheshire, and Talia are fairly well-known, Catwoman: Hunted also sees the presence of Nosferata, Dr. Tzin, Boss Moxie and La Dama, pretty C-list characters who have no ties to the Leviathan organization (in fact, even including the other five, Team Member in the Adaptation is in play for all of them but Talia, as she's the only one who is involved with Leviathan in the comics), each other, or Catwoman or Batwoman. The most obscure is Oyabun Noguri, the yakuza who kickstarted Tatsu Yamashiro's path to becoming Katana.
• The world of Shrek is populated by fairy tales and myths come to life, but no one expects The Grim Reaper himself to appear in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. His presence alone cranks up the Darker and Edgier scale, where the hero is bled, relentlessly stalked, and is in real danger of dying for real.

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