History Main / SpoiledByTheCastList

** Only the "on set readers" of the mysterious Time Keepers were listed in the end credits. After the season concluded director Creator/KateHerron revealed that their final voices were provided by Creator/JonathanMajors. This was to avoid revealing that Majors would also be appearing in the season finale [[spoiler:as the ManBehindTheCurtain and eventual BigBad of the series]].

* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'': [[spoiler:Unsuccessfully attempted in the first season. The Klingon character Voq infiltrates the ''Discovery'' crew as a human named Ash Tyler, with both "characters" played by the same actor, Shazad Latif. In the early episodes of the series, Voq was credited on-screen and in media cast lists as being played by a fictitious actor, "Javid Iqbal". Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Internet-savvy fans to notice that "Iqbal" had no other film or TV credits and no other internet or social media footprint, leading almost all of them to guess the twist. After the on-screen twist reveal, Latif confirmed that "Javid Iqbal" had been his father's name.]]

* ''Series/StrangerThings'' listed Jamie Campbell Bower as the "Friendly Orderly" in the credits but did not list him as Vecna until the episode where his identity was revealed.

* ''{{Series/CSI NY}}'' suffered this during the crossover with original ''{{Series/CSI}}''. Fans felt there was little suspense about Mac’s kidnapped girlfriend since she was in the cast list for the following week’s episode.

* The finale of the second season of ''Series/TheFlightAttendant'' brings back [[spoiler:Colin Woodell as Feliks, who was the main villain of Season 1.]] As this character's appearance was a total surprise and twist, the guest star credit was shown in the closing credits before the co-stars, rather than in the opening credits with the rest of the guest stars.

* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' had a famous instance where the credit for Torri Higginson, who made a surprise return in the final moments of an episode, was removed to the end. However, instead of saying "Special Guest Star" or anything it was just a caption with her name, positioned after the episode and before the usual end credits, to emphasize the fact that her credit really belonged up at the front of the story.

*** In episode three of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks Remembrance of the Daleks]]", the Dalek Emperor is credited as played by "Roy Tromelly"; episode four revealed that he was none other than Davros, played by Terry Molloy.

** Only the "on set readers" of the mysterious Time Keepers were listed in the end credits. After the season concluded director Kate Herron revealed that their final voices were provided by Creator/JonathanMajors. This was to avoid revealing that Majors would also be appearing in the season finale [[spoiler:as the ManBehindTheCurtain and eventual BigBad of the series]].

* Parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' that depicts an episode of ''Franchise/LawAndOrder''. As he characters ask themselves who the murderer could be, the credits on the bottom of the screen read "Special Guest Star: Jimmy Smits", and the characters [[BreakingTheFourthWall turn toward the viewer and point down at the credit]].

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' has one the other way around in "Sand Franscisco Dreamin'". Phoebe is having nightmares about being chased by a masked attacker with a chainsaw. She suspects it's [[spoiler: Cole]] but the fact that [[spoiler: Julian [=McMahon=]]] isn't in the credits spoils that it's not.
* ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': Creator/BebeNeuwirth returned to the cast in Season 11 episode "[[Recap/CheersS11E16 Is There a Doctor in the Howe?]], nine episodes after Lilith was seemingly written out of the show in "[[Recap/CheersS11E7 Teaching with the Enemy]]". This was spoiled by the opening credits, where Neuwirth's name appeared again for the first time since she left the show.

* ''Film/KamenRiderSaberPlusKikaiSentaiZenkaigerSuperHeroSenki'': The two leads of ''Series/KamenRiderRevice'', which had yet to be formally revealed before the film's release, are credited as "?" in the ending credits for their appearance during the final battle. This served as a FiveSecondForeshadowing to the big surprise of the film's theatrical run: the attachment of a sneak-peek special episode of ''Revice'' to the print after the credits, which serves as the show's official announcement and is where the two actors are properly credited.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' averted the ItWasHisSled spoiler of who Darth Sidious is by not putting that name in the closing credits. The actor still received credit because he played both roles of the TwoAliasesOneCharacter.

*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E1E2Spyfall "Spyfall"]]: [[spoiler:Creator/SachaDhawan]] was given the SirNotAppearingInThisTrailer treatment to the degree of not being mentioned in the cast lists for either half of the two-part story, making his appearance as [[spoiler:a new incarnation of the Master]] a total surprise.
*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E5FugitiveOfTheJudoon "Fugitive of the Judoon"]] left [[spoiler:Creator/JohnBarrowman]] off the cast list to conceal a surprise reappearance.
*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E8TheHauntingOfVillaDiodati "The Haunting of Villa Diodati"]] left Patrick O'Kane as Ashad off the advance cast list, even though the spoiler could have been avoided by only using his first name in the credits like in this sentence instead of his full name as the character had never previously appeared and the spoiler is his SpeciesSurname.

* Before all of the DLC characters were added in, ''[[VideoGame/PuyoPuyo Puyo Puyo Tetris 2]]'''s closing credits listed all of the voice actors, albeit only the Japanese voice cast, which were more than the launch roster required. [[NowWhichOneWasThatVoice While the characters themselves aren't listed]], fans who are familiar with the series' vocal cast could easily match up the extra voice actors with characters who were not included in the base game.

* The teaser poster for ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGoToTheMovies'' lists Will Arnett and Kristen Bell's names next to each other, spoiling the fact that ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} (Arnett) is disguised as Jade Wilson (Bell).

* In ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' season 2, Leonard Snart had already [[CharacterDeath met his demise]] in the penultimate episode of the previous season. So his actor's name, Creator/WentworthMiller appearing at the start of the episode ruined the twist of his surprise return.

* Season 4 of ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' begins with Dr. Weir critically injured in a hospital bed. While her story takes a few twists and turns over the first few episodes of the season, the fact that Torri Higginson disappears from the credits and is replaced with Amanda Tapping as Samantha Carter makes for a few foregone conclusions.

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

!!Aversions:

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

* The show program for ''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'' pretty much gives away the appearances of Severus Snape, Voldemort, Dolores Umbridge, Cedric Diggory, and other characters that are supposed to have surprise appearances. Because of this, the cast page in the Broadway production's showbill has a Spoiler Alert notice telling the reader not to read the cast list until after seeing both parts.[[note]]It helps that each entry lists the actor's name first, in bold, followed by the characters they play, in normal text.[[/note]]

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' put [[spoiler: Joe Dempsie]] in the opening credits in one Season 7 episode, spoiling that character's surprise return.

* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'': [[spoiler:Unsuccessfully attempted. The Klingon character Voq infiltrates the ''Discovery'' crew as a human named Ash Tyler, with both "characters" played by the same actor, Shazad Latif. In the early episodes of the series, Voq was credited on-screen and in media cast lists as being played by a fictitious actor, "Javid Iqbal". Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Internet-savvy fans to notice that "Iqbal" had no other film or TV credits and no other internet or social media footprint, leading almost all of them to guess the twist. After the on-screen twist reveal, Latif confirmed that "Javid Iqbal" had been his father's name.]]