Unexpected Character / MCU Disney+ TV Series

Series that debuted on Phase 4,5 and 6 belong here.

Series debuting in Phase 4

WandaVision

• A few people that played smaller roles in various MCU films appear in WandaVision, a series revolving around two heroes that said characters have little to no connection to normally:
  • Practically nobody was expecting Darcy Lewis to reappear in the MCU, given that she only appearred in Thor and Thor: The Dark World, where she was a Canon Foreigner, and was thought to have been completely forgotten after the events of the latter movie.^note Unlike Jane, whose absence was at least handwaved, Darcy didn't even warrant a single mention in Thor: Ragnarok. Her appearance here is quite the shock, as Darcy has absolutely no relation to anything MCU-related outside of the Thor movies, much less Wanda and Vision.
  • Given that he only appeared relatively recently as a side character in Ant-Man and the Wasp, and has no connection whatsoever to Vision or Scarlet Witch in the comics, it's unlikely anyone ever expected Jimmy Woo to appear in this series as well.
  • Monica Rambeau of all people plays a big role in this series. Like Woo, she was only introduced as early as Captain Marvel (2019) as a young, but as a bright kid during the events of that film. As such, this series shows her having grown up significantly since her debut, now played by Time Shifted Actress Teyonah Parris.
  • Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver appearing was a shock since he died in Avengers: Age of Ultron but hadn't been seen since...but that's not the unexpected part. What's most unexpected is that he's not played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson; he's played by Evan Peters aka Peter Maximoff from the FOX X-Men Film Series. This ends up being subverted when it turns out Peters' character is actually a magically controlled victim of Agatha Harkness who isn't actually either version of Quicksilver, so it was ultimately just a Casting Gag.

The Falcon And The Winter Soldier

• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has been revealed to include the Captain America foe Flag-Smasher, or at least a group who bears the same name as him. This is a minor surprise if only because of Flag-Smasher's relative obscurity and the fact that the series will already have Zemo take up the main villain role.
• Rhodey's brief appearance in the first episode was a pleasant surprise to many, though Don Cheadle was listed in the cast before this, as well as him admitting he'd play a role in the show several days before the first episode released.
• Most people weren't expecting to see the return of Georges Batroc in the opening minutes of the first episode.
• Comic fans definitely didn't expect Joaquin Torres, AKA the second Falcon, to be in the show, given how relatively recent his character is and greatly underutilized he's been since then.
• Episode 2 also introduces Lemar Hoskins, AKA Battlestar, John Walker's Token Black Friend and sidekick. Given how rarely he's shown up in the comics for years, it would have been very easy to have him Adapted Out.
• Most people were hoping for but not expecting Isaiah Bradley to make an appearance, especially since he had been absent from the comics for a long time due to copyright issues, but his adaptation is surprisingly faithful to his comic counterpart, complete with the racially-charged Tuskegee allusions.
• In a strange case of an Unexpected Setting, the usually X-Men-associated Madripoor being adapted to a general crime haven for a series about characters not usually associated with the locale could count.
• The ending of Episode 3 gives us a character that absolutely was not spoiled by the trailers, previews, or cast lists: Ayo, the second in command of the Dora Milaje, who was sent to extract Zemo. Her appearance implies that Wakanda is now tied up in this plot as well, which is equally surprising.
• Though the character doesn't actually appear, the criminal Sam briefly poses at Selby's club is a gangster named Conrad Mack who is better known as Smiling Tiger. While Smiling Tiger actually is an existing Marvel Comics villain, he is extremely obscure and was part of an equally obscure team of villains whose only role of note was fighting the New Warriors, a hero team whose members have yet to even appear in the MCU. Talk about a deep cut.
• Another deep cut in Episode 5 is Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) who is a relatively minor character in the comics, notable mostly for being a former SHIELD agent, paramour of Nick Fury, and most recently Madame Hydra.

Loki

• Loki as the star of his own Disney+-series would count as unexpected, as the series was first announced in November 2018 - shortly after the theatrical release of Avengers: Infinity War where Loki was Killed Off for Real by Thanos. Than, Avengers: Endgame came out and revealed that Loki won't be Back from the Dead but the series would center around an Alternate Self from a branched timeline.
• Lady Sif appearing in Episode 4, after being missing from the MCU since a guest role in "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S2 E12 "Who You Really Are"" episode back in 2015 and her last film appearance back in Thor: The Dark World. While she is confirmed to return in Thor: Love and Thunder, one can't help but to be surprised at seeing Lady Sif make a return here in Episode 4.
• Remember how Richard E. Grant was mentioned to be in the cast list prior to release? He just so happens to play an older version of Loki, as per The Stinger of Episode 4. In addition, he's even shown wearing Loki's 60s costume!
• Frog Thor aka "Throg" manages to make an appearance trapped in a jar in episode 5.
• Meanwhile the infamous memetic Thanos Copter can also be spotted among the rubbish.
• Alioth is actually from the comics, but is very, very obscure with only a small handful of appearances.
• How do you top all of the above? Episode 6 has the answer — Kang the Conqueror, the first character from the Fox-Marvel library to be integrated into the MCU.

What If...?

• While the character is associated heavily with the What If? comics, and his species was introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Uatu the Watcher being confirmed as the narrator of the Disney+ series What If…? (2021) is something that came as a surprise to a number of fans due to his association with the Fantastic Four IP, and by extension, those film rights. Most fans expected the characters to start being integrated at a much later point than 2021, in cameo capacities, but Uatu is the lead protagonist. He will become the third character from the Fox-Marvel library to be integrated into the MCU.^note Although Ego the Living Planet was the first overall due to an agreement between Disney and Fox, Uatu is specifically tied to the Disney-Fox merger.
• Nobody expected to see Captain Flynn from Agent Carter One-Shot again, him both being a Canon Foreigner and pushed out of association with Peggy by not being included in the Agent Carter TV series.
• Thanos being one of the Ravagers in Episode 2's timeline certainly caught a few people by surprise. There's also Howard the Duck who helps T'Challa for a bit before stopping for a drink.
• After having not been seen since The Incredible Hulk (2008), Betty Ross finally makes her return to the MCU in Episode 3.
• Of all the characters that could have been killing the Avengers in Episode 3, almost nobody would have expected it to be an evil Hank Pym who went insane and became vengeful after the death of his daughter.

Hawkeye

• Kate Bishop is set to debut in the Hawkeye series where she takes up Clint's mantle. Because she's rather recent, the rest of the Young Avengers haven't debuted yet, and many assumed that Clint's daughter Lila Barton would be the MCU's equivalent to Kate Bishop, it was a surprise.
• The show hinted at an unseen character behind the plot, eventually revealing it to be Wilson Fisk — with Vincent D'Onofrio reprising his role.

Moon Knight

• Moon Knight getting his own series on Disney+ might just take the prize for least expected announcement in 2019. Not only is he a pretty damn small-time character in the comics with only a few short runs to his name, but the width of difference between those takes has left many people wondering what exactly they plan to do with him and what niche he's meant to fill going forward. Even those who were expecting him probably raised an eyebrow at him being added to Disney's proprietary streaming service given the Moon Knight mythos is packed to capacity with family-unfriendly content, to the point many expected that if he did show up it would be on Netflix with other shows based on similarly adult franchises. Indeed, Disney+ got a parental lock and site-wide update notifying that it would be hosting hard PG-13/R-rated content just in time to keep the enhanced violence of Moon Knight not that widely available for minors.
  • While Marc's other personalities have always had their days in the limelight, Marc has always been the main personality in the comics, and the one that the audience spends the most time with. The first trailer implies that the Steven Grant personality will be the protagonist of the show (while implying that Marc is still the main personality and that something has happened to cause Steven to unknowingly take over).
  • Seeing Mr. Knight in costume is also unexpected as well, as he wasn't one of the original identities and was made much later in Marc's vigilantism in the comics.
• With guesses ranging from the Sun King to Dracula (It Makes Sense in Context), the last character anyone expected Ethan Hawke to be playing was Arthur Harrow, a character with exactly one appearance, and not even an entry in the Marvel Wiki prior to the show's trailer. This became downplayed once the series made it clear that Hawke's version of the character would be a Composite Character with the higher-profile characters of both the Sun King and Dr. Emmett from the comics.
• Tawaret, the Egyptian goddess of childbirth and motherhood, has barely had any significant role in the original Moon Knight comics (if at all). Suffice to say, many fans were just as startled as Steven and Marc were to learn that she would be an important character in the series when she unexpectedly arrives at the end of Episode 4.
• When the casting of May Calamawy as the female lead was announced, many fans were speculating she would play Marlene Alraune, Moon Knight's main love interest in the comics. When the series started it was revealed she actually played Marc Spector's wife Layla El-Faoul, seemingly a Canon Foreigner. But then in the finale she accepts Tawaret's offer to become her avatar. She takes on the role of the Scarlet Scarab, making her a Gender Flipped version of a very obscure Egyptian superhero from the comics with no connection to Moon Knight - a role probably nobody would have expected.

Ms. Marvel

• Nobody expected Ms. Marvel's villains to be based on the book ClanDestine. The characters are extremely obscure thanks to very limited appearances (maybe a grand total of 20-odd issues altogether); and they have zero connection to Kamala — in fact, the last time they appeared (in a handful of Annual issues in 2012) was before Kamala had even existed (her series launched in 2014).
• More like Unexpected Term, but it's safe to say no-one predicted Bruno to namedrop the term Mutation, revealing Kamala to be a Mutant instead of an Inhuman
• Damage Control makes a return after being only featured in the Spider-Man-franchise so far - but even more surprising, Arian Moayed returns as Agent Cleary after having a small role in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

• She-Hulk getting her own Disney+ show wasn't on anyone's radar, due to the rights issues with Universal that have kept Bruce from having his own movie since Phase 1. To clarify, Universal holds the distribution rights to stand-alone Hulk movies while Disney / Marvel Studios can use the Hulk and his characters in ensemble projects such as the Avengers movies and Thor: Ragnarok. How was this show able to get greenlit then? Simple: Marvel realized that there was no rule against the Hulk and his characters appearing in a TV series.
• One of the characters appearing in the official trailer is the Fabulous Frog-Man, a character punching way above his weight. In the series itself, the character goes by the name Leap-Frog, a name usually used by Frog-Man's father, a supervillain, in the comics.
• The second trailer reveals that super hero lawyer will meet super hero lawyer Daredevil appears at the very end. The actual meeting takes place in episode eight.
• The second trailer also revealed the Wrecking Crew, usually rogues of Thor, would be appearing in the show.
• The fifth episode introduces Luke Jacobsen, an extremely obscure character who has never appeared in any Marvel comic outside of a few of the character Dakota North's solo series.
• Episode six features Craig Hollis a.k.a. Mr. Immortal, in the comics the leader of the Great Lakes Avengers, a more humorous and lesser known Avengers sub-team, who has no direct connection towards She-Hulk, as client of Jennifer's law firm. This version isn't a superhero at all but uses his power to never die to get himself out of marriage on a regular basis.
• Episode seven has Abomination leading a support group that along with the leader of the Wrecking Crew, digs up obscure villains Man-Bull and Porcupine, the Zorro-like mutant El Águila, and Saracen, a vampire from a 1999 Blade miniseries.