Adaptational Early Appearance in in Films and Animated Films.
The following have their own pages:
Films — Animation
- The Bad Guys: The film takes inspiration from the first four installments of the book series, and several principal characters appear in the film earlier than their book counterparts.
- In the books, Mr. Tarantula is introduced in the second book, after the gang had committed to going good. In the film, Ms. Tarantula is part of the gang during their criminal years.
- Agent Fox is not introduced until the third book, after the gang reforms. Diane Foxington, her film counterpart, is introduced in the first act and is a key player in kickstarting Mr. Wolf's Character Development.
- In the books, Doctor Marmalade is briefly revealed at the end of the second book and becomes a major character in the third. In the film, Professor Marmalade is introduced in the film's first act. And unlike the books, where he's introduced as the Big Bad, the film version is a Villain with Good Publicity whose treachery isn't revealed until the end of the second act.
- Batman: The Killing Joke: One of the photographs of the Joker observed by Batman at the Batcave features Harley Quinn, when the source material predated Harley Quinn's work of origin Batman: The Animated Series by four years and she wouldn't be integrated into the continuity of the original comics until 1999 through the one-shot Batman: Harley Quinn.
- Disney Animated Canon:
- In the original fairy-tales of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, the princes only appear at the end to fall in Love at First Sight with the sleeping/dead heroines and revive them. Obviously, from an adult perspective this is more than a little disturbing. Thus the classic Disney adaptations of both stories have the heroine and her prince meet and fall in love earlier, while she's still awake. In the case of Sleeping Beauty, this meant reducing Aurora's sleep from the traditional hundred years to just one night (it only would have been a hundred years if Prince Philip hadn't defeated Maleficent).
- In Aladdin, he meets Princess Jasmine when she attempts to escape from the palace before he ever gets the lamp.
- In The Prince of Egypt's prequel/Spiritual Successor Joseph: King of Dreams, Joseph meets his future wife Asenath while a slave in Potiphar's household. In The Bible she's not introduced until their actual marriage.
- In The Prince of Egypt, Moses first meets his future wife Tzipporah as a prisoner in Egypt and helps her escape; in The Bible they didn't meet until he ended up in Midian.
- In Piglet's Big Movie, the episode from the original Winnie the Pooh dealing with Kanga and Roo's arrival and subsequent integration into the forest is adapted in flashback form; however, Tigger is in on Rabbit's initial plot to get rid of Kanga. This creates an inconsistency, not only with the book canon, but with the original Disney canon; in both versions, Kanga and Roo were well settled long before Tigger showed up. In the first short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree in fact, they were this trope.
- There are multiple elements in The Super Mario Bros. Movie that appear rather early for an origin story for Mario and had already been well-established, with Mario having a long and storied career by the time they appeared.
- Lumalee, a Luma, shows up, whereas Lumas in general didn't appear in the games until Super Mario Galaxy.
- Biddybuds from Super Mario 3D Land are some of the first creatures seen in the Mushroom Kingdom.
- An inverted pyramid similar to the one in Super Mario Odyssey appears in a desert.
Films — Live-Action
- Artemis Fowl is mostly based on the first book, but introduces Opal Koboi as the villain and shows us Artemis' father before he's kidnapped (by Opal, not the Russian Mafiya). Neither appears until the second book.
- Bicentennial Man: Andrew starts wearing clothes when Little Miss gets married, wearing the same tuxedo as Sir, instead of starting after Sir's death and asking permission from Little Sir.
- A Christmas Carol: Most adaptations introduce Tiny Tim and often the rest of the Cratchits near the beginning of the story both to build up the audience's interest in them and to add more Christmas cheer to the story's somber beginning. In the book, they don't appear until the Ghost of Christmas Present sequence.
- Almost every adaptation has Scrooge's former fiancée Belle appear at Fezziwig's party, letting both the older Scrooge and the audience see the young couple happily in love. In the book, she doesn't appear until the scene where she ends their engagement.
- The Dark Knight Trilogy:
- In the comics, Batman first encounters Ra's al Ghul years into his career as Batman. In Batman Begins however, he is Bruce's mentor before he becomes the Batman, and the first Big Bad that Bruce goes up against when he puts on the cowl.
- Likewise, Lucius Fox was introduced decades into the comics, while in this series, he is present during the start of Batman's career and is one of his earliest allies.
- DC Extended Universe:
- The universe includes The Masquerade as part of its story, and as such by the time the Justice League is formed very few of the heroes are actually known public figures, only existing in classified surveillance videos and government files. In almost all comics continuity the Justice League is formed because the heroes already knew each other personally, and ended up finding their Crisis Crossover team up to be successful and want to continue it. Here just trying to determine that this "Flash" or this "Aquaman" exist is a trial.
- Justice League and Zack Snyder's Justice League follow the New 52 retcon mentioned in the Comic Books section, with Cyborg being one of the founding members of the team despite not having been created until two decades after the group was first published in the original comics.
- The comics Suicide Squad was formed as a potential countermeasure against various metahumans, including if the Justice League went rogue. Suicide Squad (2016) has Amanda Waller organizing the squad long before the existence of metahumans started to become an issue.
- Cassandra Cain is the second most recent addition to the main Batman family, having been introduced in 1999 during the Batman: No Man's Land arc. However, she's the first member of the family outside of Batman and Alfred to be seen in this universe in Birds of Prey (2020), beating Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown to being in anything live action despite them both being older characters. Tim was created in 1989 and Steph in 1992.
- David being revealed as the true Big Bad is a major shocking reveal in Allegiant and is kept secret until near the end; with most of the first part of the book focusing on Nita's rebellion. However halfway through The Divergent Series: Allegiant, David's true persona is already unmasked and he spends the rest of the film as the main villain.
- Dune (1984):
- Emperor Shaddam IV was the overarching villain in the book but does not appear in person until the climax. In the film, he debuts at the beginning, during a meeting between him and the Guild.
- The Guild Navigator that Shaddam meets at the movie's beginning is Edric who's counterpart first showed up in Dune Messiah, the sequel to the novel that the film adapts.
- Dune (2021):
- Glossu Rabban shows up at the very beginning of the movie as the dictator of the titular Dune. In the book, he didn't show up until after the Atreides had fallen. Rabban appearing early is consistent across all Dune adaptations, as his character is often expanded on from the book but in this film, he is the first of the major Harkonnens to appear.
- The movies expand on the nameless gladiator that Feyd-Rautha fought in captivity. He shows up much earlier in the story as Lieutenant Lanville, a minor officer seen commanding the Atreides men and hanging around Gurney and Duncan.
- Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) is adapted from a video game that is very light on lore, and doesn't even give a reason why the player character has to apply for a minimum wage job as a night guard (the convoluted story only begins to get expanded in the sequels). By contrast, the film gives a clear reason why the protagonist has to work at Freddy's, and the narrative mishmashes various plot points from the original game and the sequels to expand the plot. For instance, Balloon Boy comes from the second game, "Yellow Rabbit"/Springtrap is from the third game (and his true identity is only revealed in Sister Location), and, most prominently, the character Vanessa doesn't show up until Security Breach, making her a very recent addition to the mythos at the time.
- Fullmetal Alchemist (2017), which largely adapts early arcs of the manga introduces the mannequin soldiers at the climax (the equivalent of volume four of the manga, out of twenty-seven volumes total), while the manga introduced them shortly before the heroes' raid on Central late in the series (volume eighteen). The Stinger also shows Envy's shrunken true form, which was introduced in volume twenty.
- In the film Gor which very loosely adapts the first book of the Gor series, the Big Bad is Sarm, a priest/king. Sarm the Priest-King (which is a different species altogether) only appears in the third book.
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): A certain fisherman gets one in the novelization, one who appears in The Stinger of both versions of the story.
- The Hobbit film trilogy introduces some characters who appeared in The Lord of the Rings but not the book The Hobbit was based on:
- Chronologically speaking, the Witch-king of Angmar (who features prominently in The Return of the King) first shows up in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, where he attempts to backstab Radagast with a Morgul blade only for the wizard to successfully fend him off.
- In An Unexpected Journey, Smaug has an Eye Awaken at the end of the film. In the novel, Smaug only appeared once the Company arrived at the Lonely Mountain.
- Frodo has a chronological one in the Flash Forward beginning of An Unexpected Journey.
- There's Saruman and Galadriel's appearances on the White Council.
- Legolas makes his appearance in the last two films. He's a supporting character who arguably gets the best fights of the entire second film.
- In John Carter, the Therns are the Big Bad, provoking the conflict between the city-states of Helium and Zodanga, and even being accidentally responsible for bringing John Carter to Mars in the first place. In the original novels, the Therns weren't introduced until the second book.
- In the James Bond film series, SPECTRE is introduced in Dr. No, and its leader Blofeld appears in From Russia with Love, the first and second movies respectively; in the books, both first appeared in Thunderball, which would become the fourth movie.note
- The live-action version of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable only covers the first two arcs, but it already features Yukako Yamagishi in a large enough role to be featured in promotional materials alongside the main cast, and the villain who kills Keicho Nijimura at the end is not Akira Otoishi but Yoshikage Kira. Also, whereas in the anime and manga Echoes only appears as an egg during the Nijimura Brothers arc, in the live action version it hatches during this sequence, revealing ACT1.
- Joker depicts the titular character's origin as having occurred years before Batman appears (specifically, Arthur takes up the 'Joker' name on the same night Thomas and Martha Wayne are killed), while almost every other incarnation of the Joker appears only after Batman became active. In fact, this version indirectly leads to Batman's catalyst, as Joker's actions inspire Joe Chill to assassinate the Waynes, a reversal of the normal roles of who creates whom.
- In the novel Maurice, Scudder is subtly mentioned several times before Maurice actually encounters him. In the film, there is a brief scene early on that only serves to introduce him to the audience as a servant in Clive's house, and call him by name.
- In The Maze Runner trilogy, the Right Arm, a resistant movement working against W.I.C.K.E.D, are introduced in the third book The Death Cure. In Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, the film adaptation of the second book The Scorch Trials, the group is revealed to exist about a third of the way through the movie, and the plot then becomes about the protagonists finding and meeting up with them — which they do shortly before the climax.
- Mortal Kombat:
- Mortal Kombat: The Movie: The 1995 film that adapted the events of the first game featured two charactersnote that didn't debut until Mortal Kombat II. While Jax only makes a cameo appearance (which in turn serves as an Early-Bird Cameo in relation to Mortal Kombat: Annihilation), Kitana plays a prominent role as Shang Tsung's personal assassin who does a Heel–Face Turn to aid the heroes in defeating the Evil Sorcerer. Though it is interesting to note that when MK1 was being developed, her prototype character, named "Kitsune", was going to be in the game as the daughter of Shang Tsung, but was scrapped from the final product. Thus, her appearance in the movie doubles as both an adaptational early appearance and a Development Gag.
- Likewise, the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot is loosely based on the first game, but features Jax, Mileena and Kung Lao (all introduced in MK2), Kabal (introduced in MK3), Reiko (introduced in MK4) and Nitara (introduced in Deadly Alliance).
- In Ace Attorney (2012), Manfred von Karma, who is elevated to being the Big Bad, is introduced far earlier than he is in the videogames. It is largely due to all but two of the game's five cases being Adapted Out and also using the case against Miles Edgeworth (the fourth one that occurs late in the game, but the second one in the movie) as the main plot of the film.
- Ramona and Beezus starts with the Quimbys already having three daughters. In the book series, Roberta was born at the seventh installment, and her birth takes place after the wedding of Aunt Bea (an event which serves as the climax of the movie adaptation).
- In Rurouni Kenshin, Hajime Saito was introduced two-three arcs earlier than in the source material. Likewise, Gien and Banjin were part of the final Big Bad's team but were introduced in the same arc as Saito in the film.
- Snow White (1916): In what would become a trend for fairy tale adaptations, Snow White already knows her prince—he's her cousin and they're already betrothed. Snow White also interacts with the huntsman before the queen orders him to kill her.
- Sonic the Hedgehog features the character Commander Walters. He is later revealed to be the live-action version of the G.U.N. Commander in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, who didn't appear in the games until Shadow the Hedgehog.
- In the Spider-Man Trilogy, Mary Jane is introduced as Peter's Girl Next Door and high school crush. She is actually a Composite Character of Gwen Stacy, Peter's college girlfriend in the comics who famously was killed by the Green Goblin in "The Night Gwen Stacy Died". Mary Jane didn't show up until Peter was in college and formed something of a Betty and Veronica rivalry for Peter's affections, and years later ends up marrying Peter. Gwen doesn't show up in those films until Spider-Man 3, and is an obvious Romantic False Lead. However, Peter and Gwen do meet at college in the movie as they do in the comics.
- Peter and Harry Osborn are high school friends in the movie as opposed to meeting in college as in the comics.
- Also somewhat inverted with regards to his superhero career; Peter started his vigilantism during his teen years while he was still in school, but in the films he's graduated shortly after getting his powers and becomes Spider-Man after having moved out of Aunt May's house. Another case of The Amazing Spider-Man being Truer to the Text as they not only keep him a high schooler until he's been Spider-Man for two years, but they also establish him living with Aunt May and using his Daily Bugle paycheck to help her with rent, which was the original reason why he worked at the Bugle in the first place.
- When the first Alex Rider novel was made into a film, Stormbreaker, it featured the character of Sabina Pleasure as Alex's school crush even though she doesn't appear until the third novel ("Skeleton Key"). This was obviously to play on the teen romance arc, because sequels where she could have turned up were originally planned.
- Tekken is very loosely based on Tekken 3, but features characters from later games like Steve, Christie, Raven, and Dragonuv.
- The Amazing Spider-Man Series:
- The first movie introduces Gwen Stacy as Peter's primary love interest. Here, they go to high school together, with Peter and Gwen knowing each other before the former got bitten by the spider. In the comics, Peter met Gwen during his college years.
- Harry Osborn is introduced in the sequel as Peter's childhood friend. Like in the comics, Harry joined the supporting cast of Spider-Man during Peter's college years.
- Additionally, in the comics, Harry Osborn became the second Green Goblin after his father and Gwen Stacy died. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 sees Harry as the original Green Goblin and Gwen's killer.
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2 also let Spider-Man meet Max Dillon before the latter turns into Electro and face Alexei before he got his Powered Armor as Rhino. In the comics, both meet Spider-Man after they became supervillains.
- The Wizard of Oz:
- The Wicked Witch of the West turns up early for an initial confrontation with Glinda and Dorothy moments after the latter's arrival in Oz. This didn't happen in the original book, which only had her make her first appearance much later when the Wizard sent Dorothy to her castle to steal her broomstick.
- Arguably this trope applies to Glinda herself too, due to her being a Composite Character of the witches of the North and the South from the original: the latter, also called Glinda, only appeared at the end of the book with the information Dorothy needed to return home.
