History Main / Jossed

* When it was revealed that Mattel's toy line for ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' included an action figure of Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} (complete with a more realistic, "Nolanized" design), comic fans began speculating that this meant the character would appear in the film as a secondary antagonist. It eventually turned out that Deathstroke was not in the movie, and that he had merely been included to pad out the product line.

*** When Claudia Kim was cast, theories abounded about who she was playing, with common guesses being Jocasta, ComicBook/TheWasp, Su Yin and Madame Hydra. She actually played Helen Cho, [[AscendedExtra an extremely minor character]] in the comics.

*** In June 2016, rumors of ''Justice League'' being subtitled either ''United'', ''Angels and Demons'', ''[[VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs Gods among Us]]'', or ''Gods among Men'' swiftly spread on various websites. Just hours later, Creator/GeoffJohns [[https://twitter.com/geoffjohns/status/738924011195793413 declared]] on Twitter that the title is just ''Justice League''.
*** There was some confusion about ''Justice League Part Two'' being cancelled after this dropped the ''Part One'' subtitle, but later reports clarified that it isn't -- both movies are going to be standalone stories instead of [[MovieMultipack one story in two parts]], as was widely assumed and reported. Producer Deborah Snyder (Zack's wife) later said the latter option was never actually planned in the first place, suggesting that the "Part 2" label was only there as a formality.

** Yet another notorious fan theory was that Snoke was actually Darth Plagieus. This theory remained popular for months after the film's release until story group member Pablo Hidalgo finally confirmed [[http://i.imgur.com/DgIx5Jq.png via Twitter]] that they are two separate characters, and that Darth Plagieus is dead. Like ''really'' dead.

** Some fans had a theory that the episode ''Yesterday's Enterprise'' actually took place in the Mirror Universe, where Goatee!Spock had received knowledge of the Federation from Prime universe Kirk, and had reformed the Terran Empire into the Federation, complete with Federation ideals and history, and that the resulting war with the Klingons was due to the softening of the former Empire, which they would eventually lose, leading to the events in the Mirror Universe on Deep Space Nine.

** The portrayal of Vulcans in general was perhaps the single biggest source of outrage: some fans took it extremely poorly that Vulcans were portrayed as arrogant, duplicitous, and generally not all that noble, despite the fact that the Vulcans previously seen in the original series, except for Spock and Sarek, showed these same traits. And even Spock and Sarek demonstrated an irrational years-long grudge. In particular, the fans who objected to the portrayal of Vulcans in this series apparently never watched, or had forgotten about, the TOS episode "Amok Time", in which T'Pau (one of the most eminent Vulcans, though her exact position is never stated; she's said to have been the only person ever to decline a seat on the Federation Council) makes statements about Terrans that could very easily be construed to be racist, and T'Pring hatches a plot with her lover Stonn to get Spock killed by challenging the marriage. Not very nice people by any reasonable standard. Spock himself states on several occasions that one reason Vulcans place so much of a premium on logic and strict emotional control is that their emotions and passions are far stronger and harsher than humans, and it's canon that Vulcan civilization was very nearly destroyed centuries ago in wars that were worse than anything Earth ever experienced, even World War III itself. And the objectors are ignoring the example of the Romulans, who are basically the descendants of Vulcans who refused to accept Sarek's philosophies and struck out to greener pastures offworld instead in order to preserve their original civilization, both the good and the bad.

** The appearance of [[spoiler: Creator/JohnHurt as the Doctor's regeneration during the Time War]] led to many fans thinking that he was [[spoiler: an [[TimeshiftedActor older version]] of [=McGann's=] Eighth Doctor.]] This fan theory was thrown out the window in the short "Night of the Doctor [[spoiler: which brought back [=McGann=] as the Eighth Doctor and showed how he regenerated into the Doctor from the Time-War.]]

** A longstanding opinion held by many fans is that the Doctor is asexual and incapable of romantic inclinations (in part based upon a line of dialogue in the 1979 story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]" in which the Doctor refers to a woman as "probably" being beautiful, and the show itself (due to ExecutiveMeddling) eliminating all but the slightest hint of romance. Thoroughly shot down in the modern era as every Doctor to date has had a romantic connection with somebody (sometimes multiple somebodies), with the Doctor depicted as being in love with Rose Tyler, Clara Oswald and River Song -- and marrying the latter.

** Many fans had believed for years that Machoke and Machamp were wearing some form of tights, which would fit their wrestler motif. Game Freak denounced the theory and said that the "tights" are actually a part of the Pokemon's skin (probably to avoid the implication that Pokemon are sentient enough to cover themselves up or that

** The ending of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' has the kids return home and "wake up" from the gream world. Many fans speculated that [[DreamApocalypse Marche killed everyone when he destroyed the last bind that held the world together]]. WordOfGod stated that no one died since none of the characters in the fantasy world was real (the magic book that sucked in the kids made the people seem real), but people to this day still insist that Marche committed genocide.

*** Prior to this we'd already seen Daleks hovering (albeit otherwise unmoving) in the previous Dalek story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E6RevelationOfTheDaleks Revelation of the Daleks]]", but it's only a brief scene and everyone forgets it.

*** And implicitly Jossed way back in 1965 in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E8TheChase The Chase]]". We don't see Daleks in the act of climbing stairs, but we do see some upstairs from the spot where their time machine landed.

* A lot of English-speaking ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'' fans theorised that Nageki was actually a ''human'', but his ghost had [[{{Animorphism}} taken the form of a mourning dove]] for totemic-type reasons, hence his confusion over what and who he is, and why Hiyoko is surprised to see a [[MisplacedWildlife mourning dove in Japan]]. He also talks a lot about being bullied and tells Hiyoko that if you want to kill yourself, jumping out of the library window is a good way to go, implying he committed suicide because of bullying by jumping out of the window. In the full version, it's confirmed that he really was a bird, and the way in which he died and his reason for killing himself is explored in detail and something no-one could have predicted.

* ''Literature/TheRiseOfKyoshi'' came out in the summer of 2019, and with that, rendered most, if not all, fan-works exploring Kyoshi's past obsolete given that virtually nobody predicted the titular Avatar's mother was an Air Nomad, or that she and Kyoshi's father were actually connected to a group of petty criminals called the Daofei.

For specific cases of fan works being disproven and not simple guesses, see OutdatedByCanon.hom

* Despite heavy hints to the positive, the theory of the Wrecked Ship in ''Super VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'' and the Pirate Mothership in ''Metroid: Zero Mission'' being the same was Jossed by Zero Mission's director not long after people started espousing it.

** The ''very first'' Mario game with an actual plot (''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'') creates an origin story for the Mario Bros. that places their birth in the Mushroom Kingdom -- retconning ''Donkey Kong'', ''Mario Bros.'', and ''Super Mario Bros.'', which collectively state they were born in [[BigApplesauce Brooklyn]] and got to the Mushroom Kingdom [[DownTheDrain through a warp pipe]]. It also makes them twins, even though Mario was usually held as being the older brother by years rather than by minutes.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Boa Hancock being Luffy's mom was a pretty popular theory for a while, even though its only basis was that they sorta looked alike. It got Jossed when she fell in love with him, and it was later revealed that she's only 12 years older than him. This example is probably going to go down in history because of how ''obsessed'' the fandom was with this theory at one point. [[OldShame Pretty embarrassing for a lot of people in retrospect.]] Word of God has also soundly Jossed many theories surrounding [[IdenticalStranger Tashigi]], including her being blood related to Kuina or her being Kuina brought back to life. Their being twins was an especially popular fandom theory for years, which is why it hasn't quite died yet despite said WordOfGod and a side story that explicitly showed that Kuina was an only child.

* In the lead-up to ''VideoGame/StarWarsJediFallenOrder'''s release, one popular theory was that the identity of the [[BigBad Second Sister]] is [[spoiler:Barriss Offee, a Jedi who turned to the Dark Side in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' and was later arrested.]] Their description in pre-release info such as being highly intelligent led to people seeing them as a possible fit, and that nothing has been heard about them afterwards. Despite the developers and Lucasfilm Story Group member Matt Martin debunking the theory pre-release, some people thought that they were [[LyingCreator lying]] to cover the reveal. [[spoiler:Come the release of the game however, it turns out the devs and Martin were telling the truth when the Second Sister's identity was revealed to be a new character named Trilla Suduki.]]

* Some watchers of Film/GetOut2017 believe that [[spoiler: Rose, and to a lesser extent, her brother]] were in fact {{Unwitting Pawn}}s of their parents, perhaps due to [[spoiler: her mom's hypnotic abilities.]] In an interview with Seth Myers on his talk show, Allison Williams said otherwise, saying that [[spoiler: Rose]] was not [[BrainwashedAndCrazy under any type of mind control or hypnosis or anything]] and [[EvilAllAlong was a willing participant]] in [[spoiler: her]] family's schemes.

** Likewise, Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows reveals that Ginny's real full name is Ginevra, rather than Virginia.

For specific cases of fan works being disproven and not simple guesses, see OutdatedByCanon.

* In the lead-up to ''VideoGame/StarWarsJediFallenOrder'''s release, one popular theory was that the identity of the [[BigBad Second Sister]] is [[spoiler:Barriss Offee, a Jedi who turned to the Dark Side in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' and was later arrested.]] The description in pre-release info such as being highly intelligent led to people seeing them as a possible fit, and that nothing has been heard about them afterwards. Despite the developers and Lucasfilm Story Group member Matt Martin debunking the theory pre-release, some people thought that they were [[LyingCreator lying]] to cover the reveal. [[spoiler:Come the release of the game however, it turns out the devs and Martin were telling the truth when the Second Sister's identity was revealed to be a new character named Trilla Suduki.]]

* In the lead-up to ''VideoGame/StarWarsJediFallenOrder'''s release, one popular theory was that the identity of the [[BigBad Second Sister]] is [[spoiler:Barriss Offee, a Jedi who turned to the Dark Side in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' and was later arrested.]] The description in pre-release info such as being highly intelligent led to people seeing them as a possible fit, and that nothing has been heard about them afterwards. Despite the developers and Lucasfilm Story Group member Matt Martin debunking the theory, it still led to people thinking that they were [[LyingCreator lying]] to cover the reveal. [[spoiler:Come the release of the game however, it turns out the devs and Martin were telling the truth when the Second Sister's identity was revealed to be a new character named Trilla Suduki.]]

* In the lead-up to ''VideoGame/StarWarsJediFallenOrder'''s release, one popular theory was that the identity of the [[BigBad Second Sister]] is [[spoiler:Barriss Offee, a Jedi who turned to the Dark Side in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' and was later arrested.]] The description in pre-release info such as being highly intelligent led to people seeing them as a possible fit, and that nothing has been heard about them afterwards. Despite the developers and Lucasfilm Story Group member Matt Martin debunking the theory, it still led to people thinking that they were [[LyingCreator lying]] to cover the reveal. [[spoiler:Come the release of the game however, the theory got tossed out the window when the Second Sister's identity was revealed to be a new character named Trilla Suduki.]]

*** The structure of the Romulan government is given as a series of aristocratic councils referred to as the Tricameron, with among other things twelve praetors ("''fvillham''") serving in a separate chamber from the Senate ("''deihuit''"). The TV series beginning with ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' showed the Senate as a unicameral legislature, with a single praetor apparently equivalent to a prime minister.\\
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TNG showed a completely different vision of the Romulan Star Empire's government (a parliamentary system rather than the HereditaryRepublic of Duane), ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' introduced the Remans as vampire-like humanoids from a desolate world instead of a Romulan ethnic grooup from a farm world, and ENT showed that the Romulans were already warp-capable when they first encountered humans (which also {{retcon}}ned "Balance of Terror", the TOS episode that had introduced the Romulans to begin with). Notably, Manny Coto's writing team had planned to [[CanonImmigrant actually use parts of Duane's worldbuilding]], including the {{conlang}}, in the upcoming Romulan War arc, but the show was cancelled before they got that far.

*** The structure of the Romulan government is given as a series of aristocratic councils referred to as the Tricameron, with among other things twelve praetors ("''fvillham''") serving in a separate chamber from the Senate ("''deihuit''"). The TV series beginning with ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' showed the Senate as a unicameral legislature, with a single praetor apparently equivalent to a prime minister.
TNG showed a completely different vision of the Romulan Star Empire's government (a parliamentary system rather than the HereditaryRepublic of Duane), ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' introduced the Remans as vampire-like humanoids from a desolate world instead of a Romulan ethnic grooup from a farm world, and ENT showed that the Romulans were already warp-capable when they first encountered humans (which also {{retcon}}ned "Balance of Terror", the TOS episode that had introduced the Romulans to begin with). Notably, Manny Coto's writing team had planned to [[CanonImmigrant actually use parts of Duane's worldbuilding]], including the {{conlang}}, in the upcoming Romulan War arc, but the show was cancelled before they got that far.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' was the subject of a fan theory regarding uniform insignias, believing that since crew members of the USS ''Exeter'' got their own insignia in "The Omega Glory" and many Starfleet personnel wore insignia other than the ''Enterprise'' crew's chevron, this meant that each ship had its own badge. ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' even followed this, giving the USS ''Defiant'' crew a "sideways chevron" badge in "In a Mirror Darkly" ([[SeriesContinuityError despite their having worn a chevron in "The Tholian Web"]]). Turns out, [[https://www.startrek.com/article/starfleet-insignia-explained this all comes back to a production mistake]]: the different badges were supposed to represent ''branch'' insignia, but William Theiss erroneously gave the ''Exeter'' its own badge, incorrectly thinking that was what the different shapes meant.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' was the subject of a fan theory regarding uniform insignias, believing that since crew members of the USS ''Exeter'' got their own insignia in "Charlie X" and many Starfleet personnel wore insignia other than the ''Enterprise'' crew's chevron, this meant that each ship had its own badge. ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' even followed this, giving the USS ''Defiant'' crew a "sideways chevron" badge in "In a Mirror Darkly" ([[SeriesContinuityError despite their having worn a chevron in "The Tholian Web"]]). Turns out, [[https://www.startrek.com/article/starfleet-insignia-explained this all comes back to a production mistake]]: the different badges were supposed to represent ''branch'' insignia, but William Theiss erroneously gave the ''Exeter'' its own badge, incorrectly thinking that was what the different shapes meant.

** Creator/DianeDuane's ''Literature/{{Rihannsu}}'' was hit with this repeatedly. TNG showed a completely different vision of the Romulan Star Empire's government (a parliamentary system rather than the HereditaryRepublic of Duane), ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' introduced the Remans as vampire-like humanoids from a desolate world instead of a Romulan ethnic grooup from a farm world, and ENT showed that the Romulans were already warp-capable when they first encountered humans (which also {{retcon}}ned "Balance of Terror", the TOS episode that had introduced the Romulans to begin with). Notably, Manny Coto's writing team had planned to [[CanonImmigrant actually use parts of Duane's worldbuilding]], including the {{conlang}}, in the upcoming Romulan War arc, but the show was cancelled before they got that far.
* Creator/WilliamShatner's own novels dealing with the MirrorUniverse had the origin of the split Jossed by the "In the Mirror, Darkly" episode. This one actually followed the ''First Contact'' movie with Cochrane flipping a coin to decide on whether to tell the Vulcans about the Borg. In the Trek 'verse, he doesn't. In the Mirror Universe, he does. They believe him and form a more militaristic union to prepare. It goes downhill from there.

* Creator/DianeDuane began writing the ''Literature/{{Rihannsu}}'' novels during the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' movie period, and a not inconsiderable amount of what she came up with for the Romulans was Jossed by the '90s and 2000s TV series.
** The ''Rihannsu'' version of the Earth-Romulan War has the Federation discovering the Romulans when the latter had only sublight vessels, albeit an extensive capability to that end. Based on prior bad experience with the AbusivePrecursors of the Orions that sparked the Sundering, the Romulans misinterpreted things and built a warfleet to attack the next Federation ship to visit the Romulan system. They captured it, gained warp drive and sundry other tech from it, and things went downhill from there until the Romulans were destroying entire fleets, at which point the Federation decided to cut its losses and negotiated a peace treaty by subspace radio, designating a swathe of space surrounding the Romulan sun Eisn as the "Romulan Star Empire".\\
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The ''Enterprise'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS02E03Minefield Minefield]]" shows the Romulans as already possessing warp drive and cloaking devices at FirstContact with United Earth in the 2150s, and also confirms that "Romulan" is indeed their own name for themselves, not just what humans call them. While some of the ''Literature/StarTrekEnterpriseRelaunch'' novels (effectively ENT seasons 5 through 7, written partially using the notes of Manny Coto et al.) borrowed parts of Creator/DianeDuane's worldbuilding, the Earth-Romulan War instead took place before the Federation, and in fact was [[FireForgedFriends a catalyst for its creation]] out of an alliance of Alpha and Beta Quadrant races (chiefly humanity, the Andorians, the Vulcans, and the Tellarites) that joined forces to beat the Romulans.
** The Vulcans are stated in ''The Romulan Way'' to have joined the Federation during the Earth-Romulan War, and identified the Romulans as their long-lost brethren, whereas in ''Enterprise'' the Vulcans are a founding member of the Federation.
** The Remans, referred to as Havrannssu ("the Travelers") in ''The Romulan Way'', are said to be a frequently dissident faction or ethnicity of Romulans who were forced onto the Sundering's colony ships involuntarily, and Remus is a Class M garden world. In ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'', Remus is a barren planet {{tidally locked|Planet}} to Eisn, and the Remans are a different species entirely.
** The structure of the Romulan government is given as a series of aristocratic councils referred to as the Tricameron, with among other things twelve praetors ("''fvillham''") serving in a separate chamber from the Senate ("''deihuit''"). The TV series beginning with ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' showed the Senate as a unicameral legislature, with a single praetor apparently equivalent to a prime minister.

* Many EU ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novels were Jossed by new movies and the ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' series. One memorable example is ''Literature/StarTrekFederation'' by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, which was written mostly from the viewpoint of Zefram Cochrane, as well as Kirk and Picard. For one thing, he's much less of a jerk in this book than in ''[[Film/StarTrekFirstContact First Contact]]''. The book even included the origin of the Starfleet symbol (a sketch of a warp field by Cochrane). In the book, Cochrane's flight happens ''before'' WorldWarIII, which he waits out on Alpha Centauri, while Colonel Greene and his Nazi-like troops attempt to exterminate all non-Optimals. A well-written, emotional novel, casually brushed off in favor of something with the Borg. That origin for the Starfleet symbol was Jossed in the original series. At that time, each ship had its own symbol. That symbol of the Enterprise became applied to all of Starfleet because the Enterprise became by far the most eminent ship in the fleet.