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Unexpected Character / Western Animation

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Unexpected Character in Western Animation.

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  • Arcane:
    • Not even the maddest of perverts expected a yordle prostitute turned madam to ever exist, not to mention get actual speaking lines.
    • Singed was not at all hinted at in any promotional trailers for the show, so him showing up here is a big surprise for those familiar with League of Legends lore.
  • The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes:
    • The addition of Spider-Man might have caught some viewers by surprise, since he rarely makes guest appearances in other Marvel characters' cartoons. (The previous time he had a speaking role in someone else's show happened over 30 years earlier, in Spider-Woman's animated series.) Additionally, none of the previews or trailers for the second season showed him, at least not before the season began. It seemed even more unexpected for Spidey to become a reserve Avenger.
    • From the same series, Wolverine. The X-Men had been hinted at, with several Superskrulls having characteristics of them, but seeing as the movie 'verses were separate, him appearing alongside Spidey in the same ep was pretty big. Despite Wolverine Publicity.
  • Batman: The Brave and the Bold gave A Day in the Limelight to many C-list DC heroes, some of whom had never had a televised appearance before. Things began getting weird in "Batman's Strangest Cases", when the Scooby-Doo gang show up, but the concept wasn't entirely new. Then Space Ghost got his own cameo. For reference, after DC acquired the rights to Space Ghost, he was only used in a single short-lived series in 2005, and the character is only otherwise known for his Self-Parody talk show.
  • Batwheels is a cartoon aimed at preschoolers where the Batmobile and other related Batvehicles are sentient beings working alongside Batman to fight crime in Gotham (Think something like Cars or Putt-Putt, but with Batman characters). And of course, both Robin and Batgirl are also in the supporting cast. What's surprising in this case however is who the Robin and Batgirl of this series are instead of the usual Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon. Robin in this series is Duke Thomas, who didn't even hold the Robin identity for that long in the comics and eventually went on to become the Signal. Batgirl meanwhile is Cassandra Cain, who's...not a kid-friendly character with kid-friendly lore, even by Batman standards.
  • An episode of Clarence guest-stars an adult version of Brendan Small (played by the voice-actor of the same name) from Home Movies.
  • In the animatic preview for the plans for Galactic Kids Next Door released on April 1, 2015, no one expected Lizzie, Numbuh One's former girlfriend, to appear, and certainly not as Numbuh Vine, the alien who sent out the warning about the G:KND's plans.
  • Amongst the characters seen on Justice League Action are Space Cabbie (an obscure Silver Age character who's Exactly What It Says on the Tin), John Constantine (a traditionally very much unkid-friendly character prone to swearing, chain smoking, and screwing people over), Swamp Thing (whose stories ever since Alan Moore's run are also very unkid-friendly and who Constantine spun off from), Outsiders foes the Nuclear Family, Carmine Falcone (though time travel was involved in that one, but still he's a foe from Batman's in-universe early years and a normal mafia don, which is normally outside of the League's greater purview), House of Mystery host Cain, Dex-Starr (a blue-furred house cat from Earth who's a member of the Red Lantern Corps), Superman Red/Superman Blue (an old Silver Age Elseworlds story, a subsequent part of the infamous Electric Superman phase, and Superman Reborn, where Superman split off into two beings, one red and the other blue), Despotellis (a sentient virus that's a member of the Sinestro Corps), and Aya from Green Lantern: The Animated Series.
  • Kaeloo: In Episode 143, the gang get a surprise visit from Ursula. What makes this so unexpected is that not only was she not mentioned at any other point in the episode, but this is only her second appearance on the show so far.
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • Iroh and Zhao appear in the Spirit World in season two.
    • Book Four's greatest irony is that it is Zaheer who helps Korra to recover from her past traumas. Not to mention the unexpected return of Hiroshi Sato. Apparently, Book Four is full of Heel Face Turns.
  • Probably one of the most enjoyable things about Legend of the Three Caballeros is how remarkably trigger happy it is about using extremely obscure Disney characters. These include Daisy's nieces, Clinton Coot and Donald's Double. Other characters are blatant expies of other even more obscure Disney characters, like the main villain being a perfect clone of Goostave Gander and a goblin identical to Creeper. The ultimate crowner for all of them has to be Don Dugo, one of the original Caballeros, from the minor 1965 comic The Golden Galleon, written by Carl Fallberg and drawn by Tony Strobl.
  • Looney Tunes Cartoons: "Happy Birthday, Bugs Bunny" has background cameos from several forgotten Looney Tunes characters at the very beginning of the episode, among the lot being Sniffles the Mouse (a remnant of Chuck Jones' Disneyesque days who hasn't been seen in a cartoon since 1946), Hippety Hopper (the baby kangaroo that Sylvester always mistook for a giant mouse), Egghead (Elmer Fudd's prototype who hasn't been in a single cartoon since 1939), and Cool Cat (a relic of the late-1960s Audience-Alienating Era who is mostly known for his cameos in The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries).
  • Muppet Babies (2018) is known for reinventing the younger versions of the Muppet characters as well as making younger versions of several Muppets who weren't in the 80's series (i.e. Rizzo & Sam the Eagle). Of course, those are still well-known characters, so they're not too surprising. However, it's doubtful anyone expected a younger version of Jill the frog from The Muppets Take Manhattan to appear in the episodes "A Very Sticker Situation/Boo Boo Bamboozle." And yet...
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Derpy Hooves appearing as Rainbow Dash's replacement in "Rainbow Falls". One of her previous appearances had sparked off a massive controversy that resulted in the character being absent from season three and all the released episodes of season four up to that point, leaving most of the fanbase to assume that she had been removed from the show completely. Compounding the surprise is that aside from one or two extremely vague hints from the staff, none of the show's promotional materials so much as hinted that the character would be returning.
    • The season 4 finale features Tirek, the Big Bad of the G1 TV special "Rescue at Midnight Castle", as the main antagonist. What makes him so unexpected is that Hasbro had lost the trademarks to many of their G1 characters (besides Applejack, Spike and some others), and that the showrunners had explicitly avoided using creatures that looked too human (besides that spin-off about humans). Similarly, season 5 has an episode featuring the Smooze, of all creatures.
    • Due to their Celebrity Voice Actors and being made in a different animation program, the cameos of characters and the entire hippogriff race from My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) were surprising. The show had previously avoided acknowledging continuity outside it, so the film was assumed a Non-Serial Movie due to the sheer number of assets (characters, locations), that would have to be made from scratch to include its characters in the show.
  • New Looney Tunes features Gabby Goat, a character who hasn't been seen in the Looney Tunes franchise since 1937's Get Rich Quick Porky.
  • OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes:
    • One episode featuring guest appearances from characters from Captain Planet and the Planeteers, including Captain Planet himself, Kwame and Dr. Blight, caught many off guard, since OK K.O.! was very young to have a crossover episode, Captain Planet is ridiculed on-line, and predated the channel by a few years.
    • It also had a Fully Absorbed Finale of RPG World, the creator's old webcomic, where K.O. teams up with Hero to fight Galgarion.
    • The series' second Halloween episode features the Grimwood Girls, from Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, characters that hadn't shown up in their home franchise for around thirty years.
    • "Crossover Nexus", however, is the king of this. Aside from the expected cameos, characters from shows that were written off for tax reasons (Kiva, Illiana), from obscure one-shots and early CN originals (Moxy), and even characters from foreign CN shows (Black Hat, Jorel's Brother) make cameos. Not only that, the episode is stuffed with almost innumerable references to CN's history, ranging from their on-air look, to old programming blocks, promos and bumpers and much more.
    • "Let's Meet Sonic" is, as the name implies, about Lakewood Plaza being visited by Sonic. Yes, that Sonic, along with Tails. The setting does facilitate such a meet-up, but the other cameos and crossovers up to now had at least been from other Cartoon Network shows (along with the aforementioned RPG World) and not other real-life video games.
  • Absolutely nobody in The Owl House fandom was expecting Amity to appear in "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door" (let alone that she and Luz would have their long awaited Relationship Upgrade) since all signs pointed to the episode solely focusing on the main cast and everyone was expecting aforementioned spoiler event to take place in the following episode at the earliest.
  • In the Phineas and Ferb episode For Your Ice Only, the boys play a game of Hockey Z-9 with Isabella, Buford, Baljeet...and Django, who hasn't been more then a background filler since Season 1.
  • The Penguins of Madagascar:
    • Everyone assumed Manfredi & Johnson were dead, so imagine the fandom's collective surprise when they appeared alive in "The Penguin Who Loved Me."
    • Nobody expected Alex to appear as Skipper's spirit advisor in "The Return Of The Revenge Of Blowhole".
  • Rugrats (2021): It's safe to assume that no one was expecting Josh, a One-Shot Character from the original 1991 series, to show up in the reboot; let alone for more than one episode.
  • Samurai Jack: When season 5 premiered many people expected references back to previous seasons and the show delivers with the Scotsman, the Woolies, Da Samurai, and others returning, if only for a cameo. The most unexpected would probably be Demongo, who was explicitly killed back in the original series.
  • Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Did anyone expect to see characters from the Hanna-Barbera Moby Dick cartoon, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, Speed Buggy, Jabberjaw, The Funky Phantom and Jonny Quest to show up? Hell, the protagonists of the Moby Dick cartoon are said to be the children of characters from Sealab 2020!
  • In the Grand Finale of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Spidey went to an alternate universe where he met Gwen Stacy, who was unexpected because there was no appearance or even mention of any Gwen Stacy in that series until then, her role basically going to pre-Black Cat Felicia Hardy.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • "Truth or Square" featured many unexpected celebrity cameos, many of whom serve as Parental Bonus. One of the more bizarre ones is Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a character originating from a totally different network whose humor tends to skew towards the crude and obscene.
    • "SpongeBob SquarePants vs. The Big One" has the Flying Dutchman end up in Davy Jones' Locker, where he comes face to face with Davy Jones of The Monkees himself.
    • Season 10's "Out of the Picture" has a scene where Squidward is sent to Rock Bottom, encountering with the Rock Bottomites themselves, marking their first (and being their second) appearence in the show after 17 years!
    • Season 11's "The Night Patty" brings back Nosferatu, a character who hardly anyone expected since his previous appearance had him as a one-off joke at the end. SpongeBob's reaction pretty much sums up the audience's:
      "Nosferatu!?"
      • The same episode also marks the first physical appearance of the Fisherman, a Slasher Movie antagonist who was the main focus of "Don't Look Now", though the surprise fizzled out a bit since a promo showed a scene where he appears, though it was still unexpected to hear who he was since his name wasn't mentioned in it.
    • Fans generally assumed that Mr. Krabs' father was dead, based on a Deleted Scene in "Clams" and the fact that he had never been seen physically on the show. This made it a big surprise when he showed up alive and well in "Senior Discount".
    • "Captain Pipsqueak" has a Continuity Cavalcade of villains from the show. Some of the more surprising ones are Madame Hagfish, given that she is more of a neutral character, and supervillain Prawn, since he debuted in one of the tie-in games and had never appeared in the show before.
    • "FUN-Believable" brings back Perch's great-grandmother, a One-Shot Character from The Patrick Star Show.
    • "Spatula of the Heavens" features the unexpected return of SpongeTom, a one-off gag character from "Broken Alarm" in season 12.
    • Kamp Koral made younger versions of some very obscure SpongeBob characters like Kevin C. Cucumber, Craig Mammalton and the previously mentioned Nosferatu.
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks loves to dig up old characters, alien races, locations and other stuff as part of the show's love of Continuity Porn. Season 4's main antagonist turns out to be Nick Locarno, a one-time character from Star Trek: The Next Generation, out for revenge against Starfleet (he'd been expelled from Starfleet Academy after a stupid stunt of his got a fellow cadet killed). Despite the character basically being a prototype for Tom Paris of Star Trek: Voyager (down to being played by the same actornote ), the character was obscure enough that many fans had no idea who Locarno was.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
  • Star Wars Rebels:
    • Depa Billaba, former Jedi High Councillor, posthumously. Star Wars: The Clone Wars had completely ignored her note ; before that, the Star Wars Expanded Universe had depicted her as getting incapacitated early in the war, with her seat going to Obi-Wan Kenobi, so making her Kanan's mentor right until Order 66 was rather surprising.
    • Obi-Wan Kenobi's holocron cameo in "Spark of Rebellion" wasn't expected.
    • Why hello there, Luminara Unduli.
      • Up until the SDCC 2014 trailer for the show, it had been presumed that she had died along with all the other Jedi with the advent of Order 66, especially considering that she was on Kashyyyk with Yoda, and that there was no indication that she had escaped from the other Clone Troopers. The fact that she was simply taken prisoner instead of simply being executed is also surprising.
      • This is played with, in that Luminara is Dead All Along and her being "alive" was simply a trap set by the Grand Inquisitor.
    • Darth Vader was expected to show up at one point — that his appearance in the series was slated to happen less than a month after the series premiere threw people off-guard. Bonus unexpected points should be added by being voiced by James Earl Jones, when Matt Sloan seems to be the go-to guy for Darth Vader voices in other official Star Wars media.
    • Yoda's appearance (or more accurately, his voice) in "Path of the Jedi" was also unexpected, as Yoda was isolating himself on Dagobah at the time. Similar to Darth Vader above, being voiced by Frank Oz was even more unexpected, as Tom Kane is usually the go-to-guy for a Yoda voice outside the films, including Lucasfilm Animation's previous project, The Clone Wars.
    • Lando makes an appearance in "Idiot's Array", where he ropes the Ghost crew into his schemes after winning Chopper in a game of Sabacc.
    • Tarkin shows up in "Call to Action", and things get serious real quick.
    • While some clone troopers were expected to show up eventually, many were surprised that Gregor — who only appeared once in The Clone Wars and was left in a situation where he was hopelessly outnumbered and believed to have died — was among them.
    • In the second trailer, an "Old Master" offers to help Ezra. His identity? Darth Maul!
    • General Kalani appearing in "The Last Battle", as many assumed he (actually a look-a-like, due to a crediting error in his unnamed appearances in the Crystal Crisis arc of The Clone Wars) died and was a one-shot villain.
    • Gar Saxon from Son of Dathomir apparently survived the Siege of Mandalore and became a major Imperial antagonist to Sabine.
    • Season 4 introduced Thrawn's Noghri bodyguard Rukh, also from Legends, who was assumed to have been Adapted Out due to his name being used as the Override Command for Thrawn's sparring droids from "Through Imperial Eyes".
  • Steven Universe:
    • When Uncle Grandpa showed up to help, that itself was kind of unexpected — even if it wasn't canon. But at the end, he pulls out a checklist of other Cartoon Network protagonists he's visited across the multiverse. Smack-dab in the middle of the list? The SWAT Kats. Who aren't kids (though Chance/T-Bone is a bit of a Manchild), are vigilante fighter pilots who take their crime-fighting work seriously, and were created prior to anything else on the list by Hanna-Barbera for TBS, not Cartoon Network. Their appearance on the list is most likely explained by the fact that Steven's creator, Rebecca Sugar, has admitted to watching the show back in the 90s.
      • Seeing Juniper Lee on the list too was also surprising, since her show isn't very iconic compared to the more successful other shows.
    • The announcement that the non-binary (assigned male at birth) Jerrick Hoffer, a.k.a Drag Queen Jinkx Monsoon, would be voicing Emerald, thus making her the first Gem not voiced by a female, surprised a lot of people.
    • Fans had guessed that Stevonnie would appear in "Together Alone" due to the Cross-Referenced Title with their first appearance, but no one expected the rarely-seen fusion Opal to appear.
    • The Season 5 finale "Change Your Mind" had a ton of surprises, but the biggest were the new fusions Sunstone (Steven and Garnet) and Rainbow Quartz 2.0 (Steven and Pearl). The latter contained the extra surprise of being the first fusion to be voiced by a male actor, and the first to canonically have he/him pronouns.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) has its interpretation of Lord Dregg, who replaced the Shredder as the main antagonist in the last two seasons of the 1987 show. Since not many fans were fond of Dregg, it is surprising that the people behind the Nickelodeon series would even think of bringing him back.
  • Thomas & Friends:
    • Absolutely no one expected Diesel 10 to reappear in Calling All Engines (along with Lady) despite being sent away; this was because of popular toy sales centered around him. And if The Stinger of Misty Island Rescue would beg to differ (which in turn sets up Day of the Diesels), that scene was a last-minute decision made by Nitrogen, without any narration involved whatsoever.
    • The show stopped adapting The Railway Series after season 4 in 1994... until the hithero-Adapted Out Arlesdale Railway engines, Rex, Mike, and Bert, appeared in Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure.
  • Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go:
    • Despite serious doubt that they'd appear due to being Demoted to Extra towards the end of the original series' run, Edward and Henry make a cameo in one of the episodes released currently (With Edward being incorrectly depicted as a 6-4-0 instead of a 4-4-0).
    • Bulstrode (who only appeared in one episode of the original series) has a cameo in "Chasing Rainbows", while he had a bigger role in "Thomas' Day Off" and "Race for the Sodor Cup".
    • Speaking of "Thomas' Day Off", Skiff also made an appearance in the episode, when Bulstrode asks him to get Thomas' beach ball back into the shore.
    • Unexpected actor in this case; when Toby's first episode aired with the Canadian vocals, fans were shocked to find he was voiced by Edward Glen, who last voiced Thomas himself in Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
  • While its common for many modern Tom and Jerry productions to add other classic MGM cartoon characters like Droopy and Barney Bear, The Tom and Jerry Show (2014) brought back nothing more and nothing less than the Southern Wolf (or Jubilo Wolf) from Tex Avery MGM Cartoons, a character who had virtually no appearences in anything since The '50s.
  • When Total DramaRama was announced as a Spin-Off for the Total Drama series, several fan-favourites were confirmed to appear, such as Owen, Duncan, Courtney... and Jude from 6teen. Granted, the shows were made by the same company and share several voice actors, but it was still surprising.
  • Transformers: Cyberverse:
    • It's safe to say that Cheetor was not high up anybody's list of "characters you'd expect to see", especially with so few beast-modes apart from Grimlock.
    • The heightened role of the Seekers has led to a few unexpected ones, including a uniquely prominent role for Slipstream.
    • While Maccadam's Old Oil House pops up occasionally, Maccadam himself rarely makes much of an impact. Not so in Cyberverse! Especially since he's heavily implied to be one of the Thirteen Primes.
    • The final villain of the show? Tarn.

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