The Original Darrin

James Bond in his fifth, sixth, and seventh film appearances, as played by Sean Connery, George Lazenby, and Sean Connery.

The Other Darrin is an inevitable part of showbiz: actors are only human, and sometimes their health, schedule, and contracts don't let them hang around and reprise their roles. But that doesn't always mean the actor has been blacklisted and the studio finds their heinous abandonment unforgivable: sometimes they're asked back. Usually this is met with much rejoicing... though probably not from the replacement.

In general, ever since Celebrity Voice Actor became the standard for animated films, it's common to see Poor Man's Substitute used for a film's spin-offs, such as video games and TV series, only for the original actors to return when an actual theatrical sequel is made.

NOTE: Just because this trope is called "The Original Darrin", it doesn't necessarily apply to only the originator of the role. Just as long as they've been around long enough that they are considered the version of the character by the fandom.

Despite being the Trope Namer, Dick York, the original Darrin Stephens, never reprised his role after Dick Sargent replaced him.

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Examples:

Anime

• Dragon Ball:
  • In the original Japanese track of Dragon Ball Z Kai, Yuko Minaguchi did not voice Videl due to her studying abroad, so she was played by Shiho Kakinuma instead. Minaguchi returned as Videl for Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' and Dragon Ball Super.
  • Masaharu Satou was the original voice actor for Master Roshi following Kohei Miyauchi's death, but was replaced shortly afterward by Hiroshi Masuoka. Satou returned as Roshi for Kai and has continued to provide his voice since.
  • Ichirō Nagai was the original voice actor for Master Karin, but did not return for the Buu Saga in Dragon Ball Z, with Naoki Tatsuta filling in. When Kai aired Nagai played Karin again and continue to do so until his death; he was later replaced by Ken Uo for Super.
  • Yūji Mitsuya, the original voice actor for Kaioshin, did not return for Dragon Ball GT, with Shin'ichiro Ota taking over. Mitsuya would return for all the Dragon Ball video games released in the 2000s as well as the Kai cut of the Buu Saga... but then left again when Super began airing, with Ota taking over as Kaioshin once more.
  • When the English dub of Dragon Ball Z Kai was originally recorded, Brad Jackson had temporarily left Funimation during that time period, so Bryan Massey played Oolong for its original run as well as the dub of the first film, Curse of the Blood Rubies. By the time the "Final Chapters" season was dubbed Jackson had returned to Funimation and resumed his role as Oolong, also playing him in the English dubs of both Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and Dragon Ball Super, at least until Super's 89th episode, where Massey took over the role again and has played it since.
  • For several years, Dameon Clarke stepped down from playing the role of Cell in the video games, and turned the reigns over to Travis Willingham. But in the English dub of Dragon Ball Kai, Clarke returned in the role, even though Willingham continued to play Cell in the games. Starting with Dragon Ball Xenoverse Clarke has returned to voicing Cell in the games as well.
  • Beginning with the video game Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z, Christopher Sabat has begun voicing Burter and Jeice of the Ginyu Force again after the two were respectively recast with Vic Mignogna and Jason Liebrecht for Dragon Ball Kai as well as the video games coming out at the time.
  • Meredith McCoy also did not return for the Kai dub, with Colleen Clinkenbeard filling in as Android 18. She returned for the dubs of both films and Super
  • Chris Cason was the original voice of Mr. Popo for Funimation's in-house dub, but left after the Freeza Saga was over, and Christopher Sabat took over when the Android Saga began. Cason resumed his role as Mr. Popo when Dragon Ball Kai was dubbed, 11 years later.
  • The Mexican Spanish dub of the first 98 episode of Kai infamously replaced most of the original voice actors, though Eduardo Garza, Rocío Garcel, Irwin Daayán, Mario Sauret and Humberto Solórzano returned to reprise their roles as Krillin, Bulma, Dende, Ox King and Raditz, respectively. For The Final Chapters, most of the original cast, including Mario Castańeda and René García, returned to reprise their roles; except for Sauret, who was replaced by Enrique Cervantes as Ox King and Marcos Patiño as Majin Buu due to the former living outside of Mexico City at the time.
  • In the Italian dub of Super, Dende's original voice actor Giuseppe Calvetti was replaced by Chiara Francese during the Black Goku arc's first airing. Calvetti later came back and also redubbed all of Dende's lines for the reruns.
  • In Super's Hungarian dub, Péter Beregi returned as King Kai after the character got recast for the last few episodes of DBZ (and throughout GT). This didn't last though, he quickly quit again.
  • In the Italian dub, Pilaf was voiced by Massimiliano Lotti for the first half of the original series, and was then replaced by Sergio Romanò for the remainder of the series and later appearances (like in GT and in the later dubs of the Z movies). Lotti came back on the character in Super.
• The Spanish dubs for the Inuyasha movies were done in Venezuela rather than Mexico. When the Final Act dub was recorded, most of the Mexican cast returned.
• The entire English cast of Ikki Tousen changed for Season 2 after dubbing moved from New Generation in Los Angeles to Headline in New York. When FUNimation licensed Seasons 3-4, they chose to get the better-received Season 1 cast back, although some members of the Season 2 cast did return if their characters debuted in that season.
• For the first season of the Little Busters! anime, Yuiko Tatsumi took over the role of Mio from Shiho Kawaragi, her voice actress for the original visual novel. For the second season, Little Busters! Refrain, Kawaragi voiced Mio again.
• Lupin III:
  • Eiko Masuyama voiced Fujiko Mine in the original 1969 Lupin III <Pilot Film>, but was replaced by Yukiko Nikaido for the ensuing Lupin III: Part 1 TV series. However, Masuyama was brought back as Fujiko for Lupin III: Part II in 1977, and, with the exception of The Fuma Conspiracy, continued as the franchise's default Fujiko voice until 2010.
  • The second Italian dub of Lupin III: Part III, which was done in 2021, sees Vittorio Guerrieri reprise his role as Goemon from the original dub of the season, after Antonio Palumbo replaced him for years.
  • The Italian dub of Lupin III Vs Cat's Eye has Stefano Onofri, Alessandra Korompay and Rodolfo Bianchi returning as the voices of Lupin, Fujiko and Zenigata after being replaced by Luigi Rosa, Emanuela Pacotto and Mario Zucca for Lupin III Part 6.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • In both Latin-American Spanish dubs of the original series, Humberto Solórzano voiced Gendo. In the dub of the first two movies of the Rebuildof Evangelion series, Alan Miró would voice him. For the dub of the third movie, Solórzano returned to the role.
  • Speaking of Rebuild, the Prime Video redub of the films would not only see them repeat Funimation's move of getting Spike Spencer back as Shinji, Allison Keith back as Misato, John Swasey from the director's cut version of the episodes as Gendo and Tiffany Grant back as Asuka, but also getting Amanda Winn-Lee back as Rei, Brett Weaver back as Toji, and Jason C. Lee back as Shigeru, as well as Kimberly Yates, Tom Booker, Michael Ross and Amy Seeley reprising their respective roles as Hikari Horaki, Keel Lorenz, Kozo Fuyutsuki and Maya Ibuki from Death and Rebirth and End.
  • In the Italian dub:
    • The first dub of Death and Rebirth and The End of Evangelion had different voices for Misato and Shigeru, voiced by Francesca Guadagno and Davide Marzi instead of Stella Musy and Vittorio Guerrieri. The movies were redubbed in 2009 with the original voice actors.
    • Misato was then recast again in 3.0 with Rachele Paolelli. 3.0 + 1.0 was initially dubbed with Paolelli as Misato once again, but later had a partial redub with Musy coming back once again.
• In the Italian dub of One Piece, Luffy was originally voiced by Luigi Rosa, but halfway through the Enies Lobby Arc he was dropped of the cast and replaced with Renato Novara. Surprisingly, One Piece Stampede was released on home video featuring as an extra an alternate audio track where Luigi Rosa reprises his role.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • After the change in dubbing studios from Season 9 onward, Ted Lewis (as Ed Paul) and Mike Pollock were both replaced with Craig Blair as Giovanni and Mr. Contesta. However, when Blair quit working for the studio, the two were brought back to reprise their respective roles.
  • Since the change, Nurse Joy has been voiced by multiple actresses. But as a Mythology Gag in one episode, former actress Erica Schroeder was bought back as an older Nurse. Then in Journeys, Megan Hollingshead, the original voice actress, returned to the role, thanks to the dub now primarily being produced in Los Angeles.
  • Rodger Parsons (as Ken Gates) was the voice of the narrator from the 1st season up until halfway through Season 6, where he was replaced by Mike Pollock. After the aforementioned change in dubbing studios, Parsons came back as the narrator.
  • In the Italian dub, Misty was originally voiced by Alessandra Karpoff, who was replaced by Benedetta Ponticelli in a redub of Seasons 1-3 and a pair of flashbacks in late Best Wishes episodes. When Misty came back in the Sun and Moon anime, Alessandra Karpoff took the role back.
    • Also in the Italian dub, Brock was initially voiced by Nicola Bartolini Carrassi, but was replaced with Luca Bottale at the end of the Orange Islands arc. Carrassi briefly came back as Brock for the Pokémon 4Ever and Pokémon Heroes movies.
  • Brock in the Latin American dub was voiced by Gabriel Gama from the beginning up to the first episodes of the Diamond & Pearl saga, with Alan Prieto having to take over the role until the final third. Gama later returned to voice Brock during the final season, and reprised his role for his guest appearances in Sun & Moon.
    • Also in the Latin American dub, Gary Oak went through several different voice actors in his subsequent appearances post-Johto. For the Journeys season, Gerardo Del Valle, who voiced him throughout the original series, came back to reprise the role.
  • The Norwegian dub had Eirik Espolin Johnson voicing Brock until he was replaced by Erik Skøld, who has voiced the character since Advanced Generation. Johnson reprised the role in Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution.
  • In the German dub, Ash was voiced by Caroline Combrinck in the first three seasons before she moved to America. She was replaced by Veronika Neugebauer until her death after Season 11, after which Combrinck reprised her role.
• In the Ranma ˝ dub, Angela Costain quit her role of Nabiki during the fifth season, supposedly because she was too busy attending flight school. Her sister Elaina Wotten-Costain took over the role through the sixth season, until Angela returned for the final season, once her schedule worked out.
• Saber Marionette J:
  • Panther was voiced by Kikuko Inoue. She could not reprise her role in J Again on account of maternity leave, so Emi Shinohara replaced her. Inoue was able to return for J to X.
  • Lorelei's Mexican voice actress Isabel Martińón was replaced in the Spanish dub by Elsa Covián for the duration of J Again, and returned during J to X.
• Sailor Moon:
  • In the original dub from DiC, Emilie-Claire Barlow replaced Katie Griffin as Raye/Sailor Mars midway through the R season, after the show was Un-Canceled following a 2-year hiatus. When the dub was once again revived with the S and SuperS seasons 3 years later, Griffin returned to voice Raye, while Emilie replaced Stephanie Morgenstern as Mina/Sailor Venus.
  • Serena/Sailor Moon herself was recast with Terri Hawkes after Tracey Moore had originated the role for the first 11 episodes, however Tracey returned for Episodes 15 and 21 because the dub was recorded out of order.
  • The German dub of Crystal brought back Sabine Bohlmann, the original voice of Usagi in the 90s anime.
• In the American Spanish dub of Saint Seiya, Jesús Barrero voiced Shion in what doblaje wiki dubs "Hades OVA 00". From the Hades saga dub onwards, he was dubbed by various other actors. In the Soldiers Soul video game, Barrero was reinstated.
• Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō had a zig-zagging case with Saori Sugimoto. Sugimoto had always voiced Nyakkii Momoyama (as well as Nyakkii's predecessor, Ramurin Makiba) in the show, but in 2017 she took a year off and was replaced by Masami Suzuki. Sugimoto returned in 2019; however upon her passing from heart failure in 2021, Suzuki was once again called back to replace her, this time permanently.
• Supernatural: The Animation couldn't get Jensen Ackles to voice Dean Winchester for the first 20 episodes so they cast Andrew Farrar before Ackles returned for the last two episodes.
• Teasing Master Takagi-san, which was originally dubbed in English by Funimation and Crunchyroll, switched cast lists when its second season jumped to Netflix. Then Season 3 came, and the original Season 1 cast was used despite being licensed by Sentai Filmworks.
• The English dub of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon brought back David Kaye as the voice of Sesshomaru, over 13 years after he last played the role, having been replaced by Michael Daingerfield for the dub of Inuyasha: The Final Act.
• After the "Waking the Dragons" season of Yu-Gi-Oh! was dubbed, Tara Sands left New York to move to L.A., which required Mokuba to be recast with Carrie Keranen for the final season and the short-lived uncut DVDs. Sands returned as Mokuba 12 years later for the English dub of the movie Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions.

Film — Animated

• Aladdin:
  • Robin Williams reprised his role as the Genie for the second sequel, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, which came after Dan Castellaneta had played the role in the first sequel and the TV series. Williams was persuaded to return when King of Thieves was already in production, making him Castellaneta's Other Marty.
  • In the European French dub, Paolo Domingo was the voice of Aladdin himself in both the original movie, The Return of Jafar, and a few episodes of the TV series. However, the majority of episodes of the TV series had the character be voiced by Guillaume Lebon instead, who also replaced Domingo for the third movie, the Hercules crossover, the brief cameo in Mickey's House of Villains, the Nasira's Revenge video game, and Kingdom Hearts. Eventually, Domingo came back as the voice of Aladdin for Kingdom Hearts II.
• When the Barbie film series received an Animation Bump and started tackling more modern storylines, they also intended to get a fresh voice actress for Barbie, so Kelly Sheridan was let go after almost ten years in the role, and replaced with Diana Kaarina. She lasted barely more than a year before fan demand brought Kelly back. However, she was then replaced by Erica Lindbeck from 2016 onward.
• Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens sees much of the cast of the original Ben 10 reprise their roles including Tara Strong as Ben, Upgrade, and Ben's mother, Sandra; Dee Bradley Baker as Ben's father, Carl; Meagan Smith as Gwen; Steve Blum as Heatblast; Richard McGonagle as Fourarms; Richard Steven Horvitz as Grey Matter; Jim Ward as Diamondhead; Fred Tatasciore as Way Big; and Robert David Hall as Azmuth.
• Christopher Gorham voiced the Flash in all of his post-Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox appearances in the DC Animated Movie Universe — except for Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, where according to Word of God, the Kid Flash there was actually a young Barry and was voiced by Jason Spisak.
• In the Italian dub of the Ice Age series, Manny was voiced by Leo Gullotta in the first three movies, then it was replaced by Filippo Timi in the fourth one. The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild features Leo Gullotta coming back as Manny.
• The movie LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League vs. Bizarro League, had Wonder Woman voiced by Kari Wahlgren instead of Grey DeLisle-Griffin. Once the sequel, Attack of the Legion of Doom, came out, Grey returned to the role.
• The Lion King:
  • The Lion King II: Simba's Pride brings back Nathan Lane as the voice of Timon after Lane was replaced partway through the first season of Timon & Pumbaa, first by Quinton Flynn, then by Kevin Schon. Matthew Broderick also returns as Simba, who was voiced by Cam Clarke in Timon & Pumbaa, though Clarke provided Simba's singing voice in "We Are One".
  • Shenzi and Banzai are once again voiced by Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin in The Lion King 1 ˝, after Tress Macneille and Rob Paulsen voiced them in Timon & Pumbaa.
  • The Italian dub of 1 ½ has Timon once again voiced by Tonino Accolla, after Roberto Pedicini replaced him in Timon and Pumbaa
• After being replaced by Ron Yuan in Mortal Kombat 11, the Mortal Kombat animated film duology of Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge and Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms sees Patrick Seitz return as the former film's titular Hanzo Hasashi.
• Penguins of Madagascar takes heavy inspiration from the cartoon, but is still set in the universe of the movies, and therefore has Dreamworks staff members Chris Miller and Christopher Knights reprising their roles as Kowalski and Private rather than Jeff Bennett and James Patrick Stuart. Though Danny Jacobs still voices King Julien in the stinger presumably because it would be too expensive to get Sacha Baron Cohen for a cameo.
• In 2011, when Paige O'Hara was declared too old to continue voicing Belle, the role was then recast to Julie Nathanson, who has voiced Belle in many of her appearances since then, such as Kinect: Disneyland Adventures and Sofia the First. Ralph Breaks the Internet, however, brought O'Hara back to voice Belle.
• Return To Never Land, the sequel to Disney's Peter Pan, would have featured Kathryn Beaumont playing an older Wendy in a fifty-year Role Reprise, but she got Other Marty'd by Kath Soucie. Later that same year, Beaumont did get to be Wendy again in Kingdom Hearts.
• The Finale Movie of Teacher's Pet had Spot's original voice actor Nathan Lane reprise his role, when the original television series had him replaced by Kevin Schon partway through the second season.

Film — Live-Action

• Parodied in-universe in 22 Jump Street. For the fictional sequel 29 Jump Street Jonah Hill's character Schmidt is recast with Seth Rogen, with Jenko being the only one to notice the change. When 30 Jump Street comes out Hill is Schmidt again.
• Michael Keaton played Bruce Wayne / Batman in Batman (1989) and Batman Returns but didn't return for Batman Forever after being displeased with Warner Bros.' decision to tone down the film series into a more Lighter and Softer/Denser and Wackier territory along with the fact that director Tim Burton was relegated to producer after Returns didn't gross what WB had hoped for with Joel Schumacher replacing him, thus he was replaced by Val Kilmer for said film and George Clooney for Batman & Robin. In August 2020, it was confirmed that he would reprise his role in Andrés Muschietti's DC Extended Universe film The Flash, where he co-stars with his DCEU successor Ben Affleck. Affleck himself is also a example, reprising the role after leaving The Batman (2022), causing Robert Pattinson to replace him in that (and also coming back for additional photography in Zack Snyder's Justice League).
• In Child's Play 3, Alex Vincent was replaced by Justin Whalin for the role of Andy Barclay because it took place eight years after the second but was released only a year after. Alex Vincent returned in Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky.
• James Bond:
  • When Sean Connery left the series after You Only Live Twice, George Lazenby was cast as Bond to replace him for On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Lazenby left afterwards on the advice of his agent (who he later fired after a string of hippie film flops), so the producers paid Connery a then-record $1.25 million to return for Diamonds Are Forever, his final Eon Productions outing as Bond.
  • Felix Leiter was played by David Hedison in Live and Let Die (1973), then by John Terry in 1987's The Living Daylights. 1989's Licence to Kill brought Hedison back in the role. The decision to bring back Hedison instead of sticking with Terry was because producer Albert R. Broccoli felt that an actor who had previously played Leiter should be in this one, for a better emotional reaction to what happens to him. Hedison thus became the first actor to play Leiter more than once until Jeffrey Wright in the Daniel Craig era.
• In Phantasm II, James LeGros replaced A. Michael Baldwin for the role of Mike but eventually Baldwin returned for the next films.
• In Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Roddy McDowall was replaced as Cornelius by David Watson. He returned for Escape from the Planet of the Apes.
• Return to Sleepaway Camp, along with ignoring the less-than-beloved sequels to Sleepaway Camp, brought back Felissa Rose as Angela Baker.
• Lee Van Cleef played the title character in the first and third films of The Sabata Trilogy, with Yul Brynner taking over for the second film. Ironically, Van Cleef was unavailable because he was committed to The Magnificent Seven Ride, in which he was taking over a part that Brynner had played in The Magnificent Seven (1960).
• Star Wars usually abides by the Poor Man's Substitute rule in the TV shows, video games and other spinoffs, but sometimes the original actors will pitch-in in the side projects:
  • Darth Vader is voiced by James Earl Jones in the movies, but in spinoff media he's voiced by other actors, such as Scott Lawrence or Matt Sloan of Chad Vader fame. Jones reprised the role in Star Wars Rebels, Rogue One, a brief cameo in The Rise of Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi.^note though the voice was synthesized via Respeecher to sound like Jones did in the Original Trilogy
  • Yoda is usually voiced by Tom Kane instead of Frank Oz in the cartoons and video games, but Oz also returned for a few guest appearances in Rebels, as well as The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
  • James Arnold Taylor has portrayed prequel-era Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and most video games, only for The Force Awakens to see the return of Ewan McGregor in a voice-only cameo. He returns to play the character in person for the live-action Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
  • The pilot film for The Clone Wars saw the return of Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu and Christopher Lee as Count Dooku, instead of their respective stand-ins Terrence C. Carson and Corey Burton. Like Robin Williams in Aladdin and the King of Thieves below, Jackson and Lee were actually The Other Marty to Carson and Burton.
  • Most media in the 1990s and 2000s had C-3P0 being voiced by a different actor (usually Tony Pope or Tom Kane). In pretty much all of Threepio's media appearances from Star Wars: The Clone Wars onward, he is voiced by original actor Anthony Daniels.
  • The Clone Wars initially had Ahmed Best reprise his role of Jar Jar Binks from the films, only for Phil LaMarr (under the pseudonym "BJ Hughes") to quickly replace him. LaMarr only lasted three episodes, and Best was brought back for all of Jar Jar's subsequent appearances in that series.
  • In a combination with this and the opposite, Darth Maul's surprise appearance in the Stinger to Solo had him being played by both Ray Park, who provided Maul's body, and Sam Witwer, who voiced Maul in The Clone Wars, also providing the voice here. They did this again in Season 7 of The Clone Wars, with Park providing motion data for Maul's fight scenes. As for why Park doesn't do the voice as well, Maul was mostly a silent warrior in the original film and Park's few lines in said film were dubbed by Peter Serafinowicz. He's much more talkative in games and cartoons, where Witwer voices him. This makes Witwer My Real Daddy as the voice of Maul, especially since the Witwer version is more distinctive, and more menacing.
  • After having been voiced by Matt Lanter since The Clone Wars, Hayden Christensen returns as Anakin Skywalker in a voice-only cameo in The Rise of Skywalker. Like Ewan McGregor above, he returns to the role properly in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
  • Nute Gunray and Ki-Adi-Mundi were both portrayed by Silas Carson in the prequel trilogy, but in The Clone Wars, Tom Kenny voiced Gunray and Brian George voiced Mundi^note though archived audio of Carson as Mundi was used in Season 7 episode "Shattered". Carson reprised both roles in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
  • The Clones were originally portrayed by Temuera Morrison, who also played Jango Fett and dubbed Boba Fett's dialogue in the Original Trilogy. Morrison also voiced the Clones in some video games up until the original 2005 Star Wars: Battlefront II, but starting with The Clone Wars, the Clones were voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. Even though Morrison returned to voice Boba Fett in the two EA Battlefront games, the Clones were still voiced by Baker in 2017's Battlefront II (likely to keep Boba distinct from his "brothers"). And when the Clones made live-action cameos in The Book of Boba Fett, they were portrayed by stand-ins. In Obi-Wan Kenobi, Morrison portrays a homeless 501st clone that Obi-Wan encounters on Daiyu in the second episode.
• Corey Feldman voiced Donatello in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but was unable to reprise his role in the sequel due to being in rehab at the time. He would return to the role in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.
• Terminator: Dark Fate brings back Linda Hamilton to play Sarah Connor after being killed off for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and portrayed by Emilia Clarke in Terminator Genisys.
• In the French comedy film series La Vérité si je mens!, the character of Dov Mimran was played by Vincent Elbaz in the first film. He was replaced by Gad Elmaleh for the second film, then came back for the third.
• Mae Questel was the third, and arguably definitive, voice actress in the Betty Boop cartoons, voicing the title character in over 150 shorts from 1931 to 1938 until being re-cast. She reprised her role for various other projects later on, most notably in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Live-Action TV

• In the first season of Babylon 5, Na'Toth was played by Caitlin Brown; she left the show at the end of the season, and was replaced by Mary Kay Adams. The showrunner thought Adams' performance didn't suit the character as well, and Na'Toth was written out. She returned for a single guest appearance in the final season, once again played by Caitlin Brown.
• In the second season of Batman (1966), John Astin replaced Frank Gorshin as the Riddler. For the third and final season, Gorshin returned to the role.
• Although Bob West retired from the role of Barney the Dinosaur in Barney & Friends in 1999, he reprised the role for the 2005 PBS Kids Sprout launch event due to Dean Wendt (the current voice of Barney) being unavailable.
• The Brady Bunch: Eve Plumb (Jan) and Susan Olsen (Cindy) were both replaced in subsequent spin-offs (Eve Plumb by Geri Reischl in The Brady Bunch Hour and Susan Olsen by Jennifer Runyon in A Very Brady Christmas) before returning to their roles in The Bradys. Maureen McCormick (Marcia) was also replaced by Leah Ayres in The Bradys, but has not played Marcia since.
• Dallas, naturally, featured a suitably melodramatic version. Barbara Bel Geddes played Miss Ellie from 1978 until 1984, when she left after being refused a raise following an absence due to heart bypass surgery. She was replaced by Donna Reed. When Bel Geddes agreed to return to the show for a higher salary, however, Reed was summarily fired. (Reed was suing the producers for breach of contract when she died in early 1986; the case was settled.) Bel Geddes returned to the role of Miss Ellie the following season and remained until the end of the show.
• Doctor Who:
  • K9 was voiced by John Leeson in Season 15 and 16, and then by David Brierly in Season 17. Leeson, however, returned in Season 18 and in all of the character's intermittent returns to the franchise since.
  • Alpha Centauri was voiced by Ysanne Churchman in the Third Doctor stories "The Curse of Peladon" and "The Monster of Peladon". Jane Goddard voiced the character in the Big Finish Doctor Who audio plays; Churchman returned (at the age of 92) for the Twelfth Doctor story "Empress of Mars".
• In Drake & Josh, Helen DuBois was played by Yvette Nicole Brown in her first appearance "Movie Job". By the time Helen was to appear again in "Little Diva", Brown was cast as a regular on a new TV series called The Big House (starring a then-obscure Kevin Hart) and couldn't reprise her role, so Helen was now played by Frances Callier. The Big House was cancelled after just six episodes and Brown returned as Helen in all subsequent appearances.
• Strange example in Girl Meets World. In the show's predecessor Boy Meets World, Cory's younger sister Morgan was initially played by Lily Nicksay and then was replaced by Lindsay Ridgeway from Season 3 onward. In the GMW series finale, both actresses appear in Cory and Topanga's apartment with everyone just accepting it. Additionally, the actor who played Josh Matthews as a baby in BMW has a cameo in GMW, despite his original role having been taken over by Uriah Shelton.
• In Monk, Sharona's son Benjy was played by Kane Ritchotte in the pliot, while in the first season he was played by Max Morrow due to the rest of the season being filmed in the east coast in Toronto, while Ritchotte lived on the west coast where the show's pilot was filmed. In Seasons 2 and 3 Ritchotte returned to play Benjy, due to the show being filmed in Los Angeles from then on.
• Neighbours:
  • Louise "Lolly" Carpenter was played by Jiordan Anna Tolli from 1994 (shortly after the character was born) to 2001. She returned in 2007 for a few months, now played by Adelaide Kane before leaving again. Jiordan later reprised the role for an episode in 2013. (because Adelade Kane had gone onto bigger and better things in America)
  • Pierce Greyson was played by Tim Robards from 2018 until 2020, when he abruptly left to be with his pregnant wife (there was a chance of them being separated due to COVID-19 interstate travel restrictions). Don Hany played him for the last few weeks of his exit storyline, as well as a guest stint the following year. Tim returned to the role in 2022. The show seemed to lampshade this when his ex-wife Chloe confronted Pierce over his manipulative actions the previous year: "I didn't think you were capable of something like that. It's like you were a completely different person".
• Passions: Liza Huber was the original Gwendolyn "Gwen" Hotchkiss (later Winthrop) before her departure in 2000 when she was replaced by Natalie Zea. Huber eventually returned to the role in 2002 after Zea's own departure and remained with the show until its cancellation. Something of note: of all of the many cast changes in the series' nine-year run, she is the only actress that returned.
• Power Rangers Turbo: While Hilary Shepard Turner played Divatox in the original movie, in the TV series she was played by Carol Hoyt due to Turner's pregnancy. After her maternity leave was over, Turner returned to playing Divatox in the second half of the series, and continued on through its direct follow-up Power Rangers in Space.
• Red Dwarf: Holly was played by Norman Lovett in Seasons 1 and 2, changed to Hattie Hayridge in Seasons 3 to 5, was absent in Season 6, then was back to being Lovett in 7 and 8 (and disappeared again in Back to Earth and Season 10).
• Roseanne:
  • Lecy Goranson played the role of Becky for the first five seasons. Sarah Chalke took over the role for the 6th and 7th seasons. Lecy Goranson returned to the role in the 8th season, and Sarah Chalke took over again in the 9th season. Lampshaded at the end of the episode in which Goranson returned with the song "Identical Beckys".
    Meet Lecy, the one you used to see / From '88 to '93 ...
  • Goranson returned to the role of Becky again in the Revival. Chalke is also back, though playing a new character, named Andrea, which they naturally lampshaded:
    Becky: (to Andrea) Look at us, we could be the same person!
• Star Trek: When the Borg Queen was introduced in Star Trek: First Contact she was played by Alice Krige. Suzanne Thompson took over the role when she became a recurring character on Star Trek: Voyager. For Voyager's Series Finale, "Endgame", however, Krige returned. Then, during season 2 of Star Trek: Picard, the Borg Queen returned, this time played by Annie Wersching. The Picard series finale, "The Last Generation", plays with this trope: Krige returned as the voice of the Queen, who was physically played by Jane Edwina Seymour due to the Queen suffering Body Horror after the events of "Endgame".
• On Two and a Half Men, Delores Pasternak was originally played by Missi Pyle. When she returned four years later, she was played by Alicia Witt. In brief appearances in later seasons, Missi Pyle came back.
• The Worst Witch (the 1998 series):
  • Felicity Jones famously was replaced by Katy Allen for Season 2, with the in-universe explanation that Ethel Hallow had used a "witch-over" to hide her resemblance to her younger sister Sybil. In the spin-off Weirdsister College, Felicity Jones returned to play Ethel presumably because she was now at college and didn't have to worry about her sister embarrassing her.
  • The grand wizard Hellibore is played by Terence Hardiman in Season 1. For one Season 2 episode, he's replaced with Richard Durden. Terence Hardiman returns to the role in Season 3.
• On Wheel of Fortune, Charlie O'Donnell was the original announcer when the show debuted in 1975. He left in 1980 when execs announced plans to cancel the show; although said plans were quickly overturned, he ended up finding another job anyway. As a result, Jack Clark took over the role of announcer until dying of bone cancer in 1988. He was replaced briefly by M. G. Kelly until 1989, when O'Donnell's turn on The Newlywed Game ended. This allowed him to return to Wheel, where he continued to serve as announcer until his own death in 2010.

Music

• The band From First To Last reformed in 2013-2014 after a months-long Kickstarter campaign, introducing Spencer Sotelo of another band (Periphery) as the lead singer and Ernie Slenkovich as drummer, recording the Dead Trees albium. However, the two new members were replaced after 2016 by Skrillex (their most famous Face of the Band and lead singer back in 2004-2006) and Derek Bloom (their old drummer from 2002 up to his replacement by Slenkovich).
• Killswitch Engage replaced frontman Jesse Leech in 2002 with Howard Jones, who they enjoyed their most successful period with. Leech replaced the departing Jones in 2012.

Professional Wrestling

• Pro wrestling rarely recasts its characters unless the wrestlers wear masks or facepaint to hide their identities during said gimmicks.
  • Doink the Clown was originally played by Matt Osborne. However, Osborne left the WWF in December of 1993 so the role was played by a few other wrestlers in his absence, such as Steve Keirn, Steve Lombardi, Dusty Wolf, Ray Apollo, Mike Maraldo and Nick Dinsmore across multiple promotions. Osborne would reprise the role in some later guest appearances on WWE TV.
  • TNA wrestler Suicide was a defictionalized character from their 2008 video game, first portrayed on TV by Frankie Kazarian. Kazarian would go down with an injury and Christopher Daniels would fill in for him. After Daniels returned as himself, other wrestlers began accusing him of being Suicide, which is when Kazarian resumed the role.
  • After Scott Hall and Kevin Nash left the WWF for WCW, WWF made the unwise decision to reintroduce the characters of Razor Ramon and Diesel with different wrestlers playing them (as a Take That! to Hall and Nash since the names were trademarked by WWF): Rick Bognar and a pre-Kane Glenn Jacobs, respectively (unlike the previous two examples, the replacements were obvious since their faces and bodies were uncovered). Kevin Nash would wrestle under the "Diesel" name again during the 2011 Royal Rumble and Scott Hall would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as Razor Ramon.
• Sin Cara was originally portrayed by Luis Urive better known as Mistico, but was replaced by Jorge Arias due to a suspension. Urive took back the role when he returned and played the role until his 2013 release, when Arias took it back.

Puppet Shows

• Sesame Street:
  • Frank Oz, original performer of multiple Sesame Street and Muppet Show characters (primarily Grover, Bert and Cookie Monster on the former and Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal and Sam the Eagle on the latter) gradually stepped away from puppeteering in the late 90s and early 00s to focus on directing, being replaced by David Rudman for Cookie Monster and Eric Jacobson for all his other characters. Oz would occasionally reprise his Sesame Street characters throughout the 00s, and performed Grover as late as 2012.
  • On Play With Me Sesame, Steve Whitmire returned to playing Ernie in Season 3 after being replaced by John Tartaglia in Season 2.

Radio

• A snarly example from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978): Trillian was played in the original radio show by Susan Sheridan, and in the TV adaptation by Sandra Dickinson (despite most of the radio cast being kept on). In the relaunched radio series made much later, both Trillians were cast, with Sheridan as the "original" Trillian and Dickinson as her alternate-universe counterpart from Mostly Harmless.
• The Wacky Musical Adventures of Ronald McDonald: Intergalactical Magical Radio was an obscure Audio Adaptation of The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald that only saw distribution through United Airlines' in-flight radio and notably had Russi Taylor, Frank Welker and Carl W. Wolfe reprise their respective roles as Birdie the Early Bird, Grimace and Hamburglar rather than using their Wacky Adventures voice actors Christine Cavanaugh, Kevin Michael Richardson and Charlie Adler. Russi Taylor reprising her role as Birdie is the only one that counts as The Original Darrin, as she was the only voice actor Birdie had in the standard McDonaldland ads and Frank Welker and Carl W. Wolfe weren't the first people to voice Grimace and Hamburglar.

Video Games

• Back to the Future: The Game:
  • Claudia Wells put her acting career on hold following her mother's cancer diagnosis, leading to Elisabeth Shue replacing her as Jennifer Parker for the first movie's sequels. Wells reprised her role for Jennifer's appearance in this game, however.
  • For the 30th anniversary of the first movie, the game's re-release had Thomas F. Wilson reprise the role of Biff Tannen from the movies and animated series, having been replaced by Andrew Chaikin (credited as Kid Beyond) when the game was first recorded.
  • Although Michael J. Fox was mostly unable to voice Marty McFly again and had to be replaced with A.J. Locasio, he does cameo in the last episode to voice three future versions of Marty that show up at the end, as well as William McFly.
• Batman: Arkham Series:
  • In Batman: Arkham Origins, to reflect its status as a prequel (and in the Joker's case, Mark Hamill's own Flip-Flop of God about retiring from the role), Batman was voiced by Roger Craig Smith instead of Kevin Conroy, the Joker was voiced by Troy Baker instead of Hamill, and Killer Croc was voiced by Khary Payton instead of Steve Blum. The interquel film Batman: Assault on Arkham saw the return of Conroy as Batman and Arkham Knight saw the return of not only Conroy, but Blum as Croc and Hamill as the Joker. Knight also saw Tasia Valenza return as Poison Ivy, Wally Wingert return as the Riddler, and a version with Tara Strong (as she was the character's second voice actress in the series) returning as Harley Quinn after the characters were voiced by Jennifer Hale, Matthew Gray Gubler, and Hynden Walch in the aforementioned Assault on Arkham.
  • Batman Arkham Underworld saw Dino Andrade come back as the Scarecrow after the character was absent in City and recast with John Noble in Knight. Likewise, Chris Cox returned as Deadshot after being replaced by Neal McDonough in Assault on Arkham.
• While Lisa Zane replaced Leeza Miller-McGee as the voice of Charlene "Charley" Davidson in the 2006 revival of Biker Mice from Mars, Leeza reprised her role in the 2006 series' video game adaptation.
• The Nintendo 3DS version of the Smash Bros.-esque Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion featured only four characters (five if you count George Lowe as the narrator, who's heavily implied to be Space Ghost) receiving their original voice actors: Grey DeLisle as Mandy, Tara Strong as Bubbles, Keith Ferguson as Bloo, and Yuri Lowenthal as teenage Ben. When the console version came out, several characters got their original actors back.
• Ayane from Dead or Alive was voiced by Janice Kawaye in the Ninja Gaiden series, but Brittney Lee Harvey voiced her for a few Dead or Alive games. Dead or Alive 6 had Kawaye return as her English voice actress.
• In his guest appearance in Viewtiful Joe, Dante from Devil May Cry is voiced by his original voice actor Drew Coombs rather than Matthew Kaminsky, who voiced him in the earlier Devil May Cry 2. Barring another guest appearance in Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble (which reuses audio from Coombs' previous performances), Reuben Langdon would take over as Dante in all his appearances thereafter.
• Betsy Baker played Ash's girlfriend Linda in The Evil Dead (1981), but was replaced by Denise Bixler in Evil Dead 2 and Bridget Fonda in Army of Darkness. Baker would finally return to the role in 2022's Evil Dead: The Game.
• In The Fairly OddParents: Breakin' da Rules, The Crimson Chin is voiced by Daran Norris as opposed to Jay Leno, just as he was in his debut appearance in "Super Humor".
• God of War (PS4) saw the return of Corey Burton as Zeus and Carole Ruggier as Athena after having been replaced by Fred Tatasciore and Erin Torpey in those respective roles.
• The King of Fighters 2002 saw the series' premier SNK Boss, Rugal Bernstein (in his Omega Rugal form), not voiced by his usual voice actor Toshimitsu Arai (who voiced him as far back as his original appearance in '94) but by Norio Wakamoto (who previously voiced Igniz, the Final Boss of KOF 2001). Interestingly, most fans preferred the original VA over Wakamoto, and come 2002: Unlimited Match (released in 2009, just prior to XII ^note as such, 2002UM was the very last game to use the original Neo Geo sprites, with XII and XIII opting for hand-drawn, higher definition ones), Omega Rugal was once again voiced by Arai (who also provided updated voice work for Heidern and Original Zero).
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Kairi's voice actress in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, Hayden Panettiere, was unable to reprise the role due to other commitments, and so was replaced by Alyson Stoner for Re:Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days. Not a huge issue, since Kairi was barely in those games, but Days notably introduced Xion, meant to be a case of Significant Double Casting with Kairi (both are voiced by Risa Uchida in Japanese), who wound up being played by Stoner first. For Kairi and Xion's incredibly brief scenes in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Panettiere returned to both roles, putting Panettiere and Stoner in the remarkable position of being each other's Other Darrins. Stoner came back as Kairi and Xion in the HD 1.5 ReMIX version of Days, Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-, and seems to be permanently in the roles as of Kingdom Hearts III, as Panettiere claims she wasn't even approached. Since, prior to III, most of Stoner's work had been as Xion, and most of Panettiere's had been as Kairi, English-speaking fans associated both actresses with the identities of the two characters, and had hoped that III would dismiss the Significant Double Casting and feature Panettiere as Kairi and Stoner as Xion, but ultimately this was not the case.
  • DiZ was played by Christopher Lee in Kingdom Hearts II, Corey Burton in Re:Chain of Memories, Lee again in Days, and Burton in all appearances since then.
  • In Kingdom Hearts II, Hercules and the Mayor of Halloween Town are played by their original voice actors, Tate Donovan and Glenn Shadix respectively, who had been played by Other Darrins in KHI. In the same game, Christopher Daniel Barnes returned as Prince Eric for the first time, having been replaced by Jeff Bennett in the TV series and Rob Paulsen in the sequel.
• LEGO Dimensions (see below) replaced Clancy Brown with Travis Willingham as the voice of Lex Luthor. For LEGO DC Super-Villains, Brown returned to voice Luthor.
• LEGO Dimensions:
  • The LEGO Movie had several members of its All-Star Cast replaced by impersonators for the video game. In Dimensions, Elizabeth Banks, Chris Pratt, Will Arnett, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, and Nick Offerman returned to their respective roles of Wyldstyle, Emmet, Batman, Unikitty, Benny, and Metalbeard.
  • Big the Cat is once again voiced by Oliver Wyman (who previously voiced him in Sonic X and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing) after being replaced with Kyle Hebert in the DS version of Sonic Colors.
  • In the third LEGO Batman game, JB Blanc replaced Steve Blum as Bane while Scott Porter took over as Aquaman from Brian Bloom. Blum returned as Bane and Bloom returned as Aquaman for Dimensions.
• Life Is Strange: Before the Storm had a completely different cast from the original Life Is Strange due to a voice actor strike. Ashly Burch, Hannah Telle and Joe Ochman were brought back after the strike ended to voice young Chloe, Max and William in the bonus episode "Farewell".
• For the majority of the Metal Gear series, Snake (both Solid Snake and his "father" Naked Snake/Big Boss) is played by David Hayter. That includes spin-offs and non-canon appearances like Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Come Metal Gear Solid V, the role of (Venom/Punished) Snake was handed off to Kiefer Sutherland. ^{Spoiler warning!} And although this Snake turned out to be a Body Double for Big Boss who posed as him after the events of Ground Zeroes, Sutherland also voiced the real deal in both Ground Zeroes and the Twist Ending of The Phantom Pain. However, with Snake's return to Smash Bros. in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Hayter reprised his role via reused audio from Brawl. Earlier that same year (2018), an update for Super Bomberman R also saw Hayter voice both Solid Snake and Naked Snake — or rather, Solid Snake Bomber and Naked Snake Bomber.
• Nicktoons Unite!:
  • Billy West returned to voice Stimpy in Attack of the Toybots, after getting Darrin'd by Eric Bauza for the short-lived Adult Party Cartoon spin-off on Spike TV.
  • After getting Darrin'd by Jeff Bennett in the Tak and the Power of Juju TV series (which is how the series is represented in the Unite! games), Rob Paulsen returned to voice Tlaloc/Traloc in Globs of Doom.
• In Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Yuri Lowenthal was replaced by Robin Atkin Downes for the role of the main character but Lowenthal came back for Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands.
• The Rayman series has Globox, who was initially voiced by Doug Rand for Rayman 2: The Great Escape, only to be replaced with Joe Sheridan for Rayman M and John Leguizamo for Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc. After an 8-year-long hiatus, Rand returned to voice Globox in Rayman Origins, and has continued to voice the character as well as several others in all subsequent appearances.
• RoboCop was already an Unexpected Character in Mortal Kombat 11, but adding to the unexpectedness is that Peter Weller returned as the titular Alex Murphy, considering (outside of some commercials as a part of Kentucky Fried Chicken's "Colonel Sanders" commercials) he last played the role in 1990's RoboCop 2.
• The Saints Row series gives a very odd example within the same game no less. Cyrus Temple, one of the main antagonists of Saints Row: The Third, was voiced by Tim Thomerson in that game. In "Zero Saints Thirty", the prologue mission of Saints Row IV, he is voiced by Richard Epcar. Yet Thomerson provides all the rest of Cyrus' dialogue in Saints Row IV, including "The Girl Who Hates the 50s", Kinzie's loyalty mission, audio logs, and Homie Conversations involving him.
• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order:
  • Darth Vader is voiced by Scott Lawrence, who was the original voice actor to portray the character in video games and who hadn't voiced the character since 2006's Star Wars: Empire at War, having been replaced by Matt Sloan in subsequent games.
  • In the Mexican Spanish dub, Miguel Ángel Ghigliazza voices the Clone Troopers for the first time since being replaced during Season 3 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
• A odd example occurs in Sonic Riders and its sequels. As a playable racer in the first game, Dr. Eggman was voiced by his original voice actor, the late Deem Bristow, using archived audio from Sonic Adventure 2, instead of Mike Pollock, who, along with the rest of the English voice cast from Sonic X, had taken over voice work for the games the previous year. The same applies to the second game as well. ^note Pollock still voiced Eggman in both games' cutscenes and recorded a few lines pertaining to the second game's new gravity mechanics. It wasn't until Sonic Free Riders (which ironically saw the entire Sonic X cast, sans Pollock, subjected to The Other Darrin) that he did all of Eggman's voice work for a Riders game, retroactively replacing Bristow in the process.
• The Soul series provides a plot-justified example of the trope in the Japanese versions. Nobuyuki Hiyama voiced Nightmare in Soulcalibur (1998) and Soulcalibur II (2002), where Siegfried, who Hiyama first voiced in Soul Edge (1995), was the host of Soul Edge. At the end of II's story, Siegfried canonically broke free of Soul Edge's influence and no longer assumed the mantle of the Azure Knight, with Hiyama continuing to voice Siegfried in all subsequent appearances. Because Soul Edge was now without a host in III and IV and then found a different host in V, Hiyama did not voice Nightmare in those games. ^note This also applied to Soulcalibur Legends, an interquel set between Soul Edge and Soulcalibur, though that game was non-canon and would've done a number on the series' continuity if it were canon. Then, 16 years after he last portrayed the character, Hiyama resumed the role of Nightmare in 2018's Soulcalibur VI. But that's because VI is a Continuity Reboot that returns to the Soulcalibur era of the series, and thus Siegfried is also donning the identity of Nightmare once again.
• Spider-Man Trilogy:
  • Unlike the first and third games, where she was replaced by Cat O'Conner and Kari Wahlgren respectively, Kirsten Dunst reprised the role of Mary Jane in Spider-Man 2.
  • Whereas Jay Gordon and Josh Keaton filled in for them in the first two games, Spider-Man 3 would see J. K. Simmons and James Franco reprise the respective roles of J. Jonah Jameson and Harry Osborn.
• Splinter Cell has had this happen twice. Irving Lambert and Anna Grimsdóttir were originally voiced by, respectively, Don Jordan and Claudia Besso in the first game. For the second game, Pandora Tomorrow, they were inexplicably replaced by respectively Dennis Haysbert and Adriana Anderson, and then just as inexplicably, Jordan and Besso returned to voice the characters again for the third game, Chaos Theory, and onward. Later on, for Blacklist, Besso was replaced again with Kate Drummond, alongside protagonist Sam Fisher's voice going from Michael Ironside to Eric Johnson, though for a crossover mission in Ghost Recon Wildlands, Ironside returned to voice Sam.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants video game SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants! sees Charles Nelson Reilly briefly return to voice The Dirty Bubble after having been replaced by Tom Kenny in the main show.
• After Tom Kenny ^note who originally replaced Carlos Alazraqui was replaced with Jess Harnell as the voice of the titular Spyro the Dragon from Spyro: A Hero's Tail onward (not counting the other continuities), the former returned to voice Spyro once again for the Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
• In the original release of Star Trek: Elite Force, the only returning character from Star Trek: Voyager who wasn't played by their original actor was Seven of Nine, voiced by Joan Buddenhagen instead of Jeri Ryan. However, an expansion pack saw Ryan return to the role, including redubbing the dialogue from the original game.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Despite being replaced by Kenny James as the voice of Bowser sometime around the late GameCube/early Wii era, his previous voice actor Scott Burns continued to provide Bowser's voice in various games afterwards such as Mario Super Sluggers, the first two installments of the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series (Beijing 2008 and Vancouver 2010) ^note James does, however, provide the voice of Dry Bowser in Vancouver 2010, Super Mario Galaxy 2 (wherein both Burns and James' voice clips are used), and Mario Tennis Open.
  • Diddy Kong has been voiced by Katsumi Suzuki ever since Mario Power Tennis, but in Mario Golf: World Tour, his voice clips from Donkey Kong 64, provided by Rare employee Chris Sutherland, are used alongside Suzuki's voice clips. ^note This also applies to Mario Sports Superstars, which reuses the post-hole animations from World Tour in its Golf Mode.
  • Princess Peach was voiced by Leslie Swan in Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64, but was replaced by Jen Taylor starting with Mario Golf. Leslie would return for Super Paper Mario. Jen Taylor would retire the role in the mid-00s, with Nicole Mills brought on as a temporary replacement before Samantha Kelly took on the role from 2007 onwards. However, archived recordings of both Jen Taylor and Nicole Mills were used in some later games.
• When Tales of Symphonia was ported to the PlayStation 2, each playable character was given new techniques to use in battle, and as a result, new voice clips. This version of the game remained exclusive to Japan for years until finally being released on the PlayStation 3 and PC as Tales of Symphonia Chronicles. For this release of the game, the original English dub cast, rather than the new cast introduced in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, were brought in to record the new voice clips.
• Star Ocean was remade for the PSP as Star Ocean: First Departure, and with it, replaced the entire voice cast. When the remake was ported to the Switch as Star Ocean: First Departure F, the cast from the original Super Famicom game were brought back to voice the characters, with the game giving the option to switch between the two casts.
• Lechter Arundel was first voiced in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel and its first two sequels by Max Mittelman, who also played the character McBurn starting in the second game. In Cold Steel IV, however, both roles were instead played by Phillip Reich and Greg Chun respectively. Come The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie, and Mittelman would be brought back to play said characters.

Western Animation

• King Goobot and Ooblar from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius were originally voiced respectively by S. Scott Bullock and Paul Greenberg in the pilot short "Runaway Rocketboy", but were replaced by Celebrity Voice Actors Patrick Stewart and Martin Short in the Pilot Movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Their appearances in the actual series had Bullock and Greenberg reprise their roles.
• Arthur: The title character was originally voiced by Michael Yarmush, who was replaced in season six after his voice changed due to puberty. Yarmush returned to voice Arthur as an adult in the Distant Finale "All Grown Up".
• The New Batman Adventures, sequel series to Batman: The Animated Series, had Jeffrey Combs replace Henry Polic II as the Scarecrow for the episode "Never Fear". However, in "Over the Edge", Scarecrow's second and final appearance in said series, Jeff Bennett replaced Combs. Combs, however, came back for the tie-in video game Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold had Two-Face voiced by James Remar in two of his three appearances, "The Fate of Equinox!" and "The Mask of Matches Malone!". However, his second of the three, "Chill of the Night!", the character is voiced by Richard Moll (a case of Role Reprise as Moll voiced Dent in Batman: The Animated Series) briefly in "Chill of the Night!" because Two-Face's appearance was minor and it'd been easier and cheaper to get Moll, who was voicing Lew Moxon, to do the voice.
• Ben 10: Omniverse:
  • Steve Blum returned as Vilgax in after the character (who Blum voiced in the original series) was voiced by James Remar in Ben 10: Alien Force and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. He likewise returned as Zs'kayr and Ghostfreak after the role had been recast with Jeff Bennett.
  • Jennifer Hale returns as Rojo in Omniverse, after being replaced by Kari Wahlgren for her brief cameo in Ultimate Alien.
• Cars: Owen Wilson usually abides by the rule of only playing Lightning McQueen in the movies, with Keith Ferguson replacing him in games and shorts, but he returned to voice the character for the last few shorts.
• ChalkZone:
  • In the original shorts for Oh Yeah! Cartoons, Blocky was voiced by Robert Cait. When the shorts became a series, he was replaced with Candi Milo. During the second season, Cait became Blocky's voice again and played him for the remainder of the series.
  • Spy Fly was voiced by Tress MacNeille in her debut episode, "Disappearing Act". Then Candi Milo played her in "Chip O' Fools" and "Lost In Chalk". From "Beanie Boys to Men" onward, MacNeille returned to play her.
• Dee Dee in Dexter's Laboratory zig-zags this. She was voiced by Allison Moore in the first season, but Allison quit the role to focus on her theater work and was replaced by Kat Cressida for the second season. After the show was revived for a third season, Allison Moore was brought back (as new show runner Chris Savino wanted to focus on changing a few voices around), but Kat Cressida returned for the fourth and final season at the behest of Cartoon Network.
• DuckTales (2017) had Donald Duck once again voiced by Tony Anselmo after Daniel Ross replaced him on Mickey and the Roadster Racers (Only because he was too busy with DuckTales, Kingdom Hearts III and other works to do Roadster Racers as well.)
  • On the subject of Roadster Racers, Bret Iwan, who has been the official voice of Mickey Mouse since the death of Wayne Allwine, returns to the role in animation, after having been replaced by Chris Diamantopoulos for the Paul Rudish shorts.
  • Walt Disney provided Mickey's voice from his creation through the early 1940s, with the role being inherited by sound effects artist Jimmy MacDonald. However, Walt would voice Mickey again for the original Mickey Mouse Club in 1955, and for a Disneyland, USA stage show in 1962.
  • Quinton Flynn filled in for Wayne Allwine as Mickey in a few of the Mickey MouseWorks shorts.
• The Emperor's New School, the spin-off to The Emperor's New Groove, saw Fred Tatasciore replacing John Goodman as the voice of Pacha. He then came back in the second season.
• An uncredited Lacey Chabert voiced Meg for the first 10-12 episodes of Family Guy before being replaced by Mila Kunis, due to Chabert wanting to focus more on her schoolwork. The episodes "Back To The Pilot" and "Yug Ylimaf", both of which involve time travel, brings back Lacey to voice past Meg (though only via archived audio in the former), and unlike the first 10-12 episodes, Chabert actually receives credit. It is lampshaded in both episodes.
• A few episodes of The Flintstones had Daws Butler stand in for Mel Blanc as Barney Rubble after the latter was inactive due to a serious car accident. Daws originally voiced Barney in "The Flagstones" pilot.

• The animated adaptations of Garfield zig-zagged this. Originally, Garfield and Jon were voiced by Scott Beach and Thom Huge respectively. For the first of the Garfield Specials Here Comes Garfield, they were recast as Lorenzo Music and Sandy Kenyon. Huge reclaimed the role of Jon for all subequent Garfield specials, as well as Garfield and Friends (1988-94). Music similarly stayed on to be the defining voice of Garfield for all appearances including Garfield and Friends until his 2001 death (except an early 1990s Alpo ad that used Tom Smothers instead).
• Gargoyles:
  • Maria Chavez was usually played by Rachel Ticotin, but replaced by Elisa Gabrielli for just one episode.
  • In the first (and only canon) episode of the third season, John Castaway was voiced by Alan Cumming. In subsequent appearances, he was voiced by Scott Cleverdon. This didn't seem particularly significant, until the comic book series (canon unlike the rest of the season) revealed that Castaway is actually Jon Canmore, who was voiced by Cleverdon.
• Hercules: The Animated Series reverted Hercules to a high-schooler, but gave him his adult voice actor, Tate Donovan, instead of his adolescent voice actor, Josh Keaton. In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Hercules appears again as a teenager, with Josh voicing him once again.
• Hey Arnold!:
  • Arnold's first voice actor (not counting the theatrical pilot) Toran Caudell, was recast after season 1 due to puberty changing his voice (though he was kept on and given a new role of Jerk Jock bully Wolfgang). He provided Arnold's singing voice in the season 2 episode "What's Opera Arnold?" because his replacement, Phillip Van Dyke, wasn't a good singer and Toran still sounded like his Arnold voice when he sang.
  • Curly's main voice actor was Adam Wylie, who was replaced and reinstated on two occasions: He was replaced by Haley Joel Osment in season 4 episode "Deconstructing Arnold", then by Michael Welch in season 5 episodes "Curly's Girl" and "Ghost Bride". Wylie returned for the season 4 episode "New Bully on the Block", then the second-to-last episode "April Fool's Day" ^note Since Curly does not talk in that episode and only laughs, they likely just used archival recordings of Wylie for that episode.
  • Monkeyman was voiced by series creator Craig Bartlett in his early cameo appearances, but in his A Day in the Limelight episode "Monkeyman!" Andy Dick provided Monkeyman's voice. Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie had Craig Bartlett voice the character yet again.
• Mary on Johnny Test is a zig-zagged example of this trope. She was voiced by Brittney Wilson in Season 1, only to be replaced by Ashleigh Ball from Seasons 2-4. Season 5 saw Wilson return to the role only to once again be replaced by Ball for the show's sixth and final season.
• Justice League:
  • During the episode "Hereafter", Corey Burton replaced Malcolm McDowell, Bud Cort, and Miguel Ferrer in the respective roles of Metallo, Toyman, and Weather Wizard. While Ferrer wouldn't come back, later during the final Unlimited season, McDowell and Cort would reprise their respective roles.
  • "Hereafter" itself had an example of this as Brad Garrett reprised the role of Lobo after the character was recast with both Greg Eagles and Kevin Michael Richardson in Lobo (Webseries).
• Kim Possible villain Señor Senior, Senior was originally voiced by Ricardo Montalbán, who was replaced by Earl Boen when he was unable to record an episode and brought back when he was in better health.
• Looney Tunes: Jeff Bergman initially voiced many of the Looney Tunes characters after Mel Blanc's death, only to be replaced by other voice actors such as Joe Alaskey, Greg Burson or Billy West. Starting with The Looney Tunes Show, Jeff returned to many of his roles.
• Bulk Biceps of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic was voiced by director Jayson Thiessen back when all he ever said was "YEAH!" When he became an Ascended Extra with actual dialogue for the episode "Rainbow Falls", Michael Dobson was used. Thiessen's "YEAH!" returned in "Equestria Games".
  • In the Italian dub, Rarity was voiced by Camila Gallo from seasons 1-6, and Chiara Francese in Season 7. Gallo returned for My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), seasons 8-9 and My Little Pony: Pony Life.
  • Spike's German voice actor (Hannes Maurer) moved out of Germany after Season 4. He was replaced by Jan Makino (another male voice actor). Maurer returned to his role in time for season 7 and the movie.
• Nick Jr.: Chris Phillips, Face's original voice actor from 1994, was replaced by Babi Floyd in 2003. Phillips would return in 2011 and 2016 for a few NickRewind bumpers, before being replaced by Cedric L. Williams in 2022 for Face's Music Party.
• The Proud Family: Bobby Proud was voiced by Cedric the Entertainer throughout the series, but Arsenio Hall voiced him in The Proud Family Movie. Bobby's voiced by Cedric again in The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder.
• Reboot: Guardian Bob, the main character of the first two seasons, was voiced by Michael Benyaer until the second season finale. After an extended absence for much of the third season, he returns in an altered form now voiced by Ian James Corlett. In the feature-length film that comprises half of the fourth season, however, both versions appear voiced by their respective actors. The "original" Bob turns out to be a fake, but the real Bob has his body and voice changed back to said form.
• When John Kricfalusi was fired from Nickelodeon, Ren from The Ren & Stimpy Show was replaced by Billy West, who also voiced Stimpy. John returned to voice Ren in the short-lived Spike TV revival Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon".
• Rugrats: Susie was voiced by Elizabeth Daily in the episodes "The Last Babysitter" and "Angelica's Birthday" due to Susie's normal actress Cree Summer being unavailable.
• A very unique case happened with the series finale of Samurai Jack. Mako, the original voice of Aku, had been dead for roughly 11 years by the time the episode aired and was already replaced by Greg Baldwin for the long-overdue fifth season. However, the opening moments of the final episode feature archival footage of the show's first opening, complete with Mako's original narration, a role he receives credit for as "Past Aku".
• Scooby-Doo:
  • In 1997, Casey Kasem quit the role of Shaggy after his character was used in a Burger King commercial, clashing with his vegetarian lifestyle. Starting with What's New, Scooby-Doo?, he voiced Shaggy again until his retirement from the character in 2009, under the condition that Shaggy be a vegetarian as well. ^note Though Scott Menville voiced him in the 2006 cartoon Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get A Clue!
  • Likewise, the 2003 movies Legend of the Vampire and Monster of Mexico, saw Heather North and Nicole Jaffe return to voicing Daphne and Velma.
  • Afterwards in 2004, Grey DeLisle would return to voice Daphne in The Loch Ness Monster after being replaced by Heather North in the previous two films. However, in SCOOB!, DeLisle would be replaced by Amanda Seyfried, although DeLisle would once again return to the role in the DTV films that followed.
  • After being voiced by Carl Steven in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Frank Welker returned to voicing Fred in the Scooby-Doo/Johnny Bravo crossover "Bravo Dooby Doo", and continues to do so to this day. In fact, Welker is the only VA still on the cast list from the original series' run over 50 years ago, replaced in the role only once, by Carl Steven (if only because Fred was a kid in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo)! However, SCOOB! inexplicably replaced Welker with Zac Efron despite him still voicing Scooby, although Welker would once again return to the role in the DTV movies that followed.
  • The "canon" Hungarian dubs zig-zag this.^note Scooby-Doo-related media have been sporadically dubbed prior to the characters receiving their now-established voices and names sometime in the late '90s. Despite being produced first, these old dubs are mostly dismissed and had no influence on the rest of the franchise's localisation. Fred received a new voice for the live-action movies, who then continued to dub him in subsequent animated movies as well. However his original voice actor still dubs him in the shows. Scooby's original VA died in 2000, but he had a consistent voice up until the late 2000s, when it was decided that he'll have a third voice for the cartoon shows, and his second actor would only dub him in movies.
• The Simpsons:
  • When Roger Meyers Jr. first appeared in "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge", he was voiced by guest-star Alex Rocco. In "The Front" and several brief appearances, he was instead voiced by series regular Hank Azaria. Several seasons later, Rocco would voice Meyers again for his last two appearances in "The Day the Violence Died" and "The Itchy And Scratchy And Poochie Show".
  • Maggie Roswell left the show in season eleven over her contract not covering her commute to voice acting sessions, leading Maude Flanders to be killed when the crew wanted to open up more storylines for Ned Flanders, while the rest of her characters (Ms. Hoover, Luanne Van Houten, and Helen Lovejoy) were recast by Marcia Mitzman Gaven, who also voiced Maude Flanders in "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily", the episode where the character died. Roswell returned to voicing all her previous characters in season fifteen (only in flashbacks in Maude's case).
  • Normally Joe Mantegna voices Fat Tony but in "A Fish Called Selma", Phil Hartman (who already spent most of the episode as Troy McClure) voiced Fat Tony. The producers chose not to bring Mantegna in due to the part being so small they believed he wouldn't want to do it. After the episode aired, Mantegna informed them that he would always make time to voice Fat Tony, and has been voicing him ever since, even when only grunts are required.
  • When the Latin Spanish cast went on strike after Season 15, Marina Huerta (who had voiced Bart in the first nine seasons) reclaimed her role from Claudia Motta. When most of the original Latin Spanish cast members returned for Season 32, Humberto Vélez (the original Homer) reclaimed his role from Víctor Manuel Espinoza, while Patricia Acevedo (the original Lisa) reclaimed her role from Nallely Solís (among other role reclaimings).
  • Similarly, in Brazilian Portuguese, Homer and Marge's voice actors were replaced in season 8. Selma Lopes (Marge) returned at the end of Season 13, while Waldyr Sant'anna (Homer) returned in Season 15.
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series:
  • War Machine's appearance falls into this, with James Avery, War Machine's original voice actor on Iron Man: The Animated Series reprising the role (likely due to Dorian Harewood, his successor, voicing Tombstone).
  • While The Other Darrin within the show, Storm's original voice actress in X-Men: The Animated Series Iona Morris, reprised the role during the Secret Wars (1984) adaptation instead of Alison Sealy-Smith as Morris lived in LA and the original guest appearances of the X-Men proved expensive, as X-Men was recorded in Toronto and the voice cast was flown to LA.
• SpongeBob SquarePants had an example in the Latin-American Spanish dub, where Luis Perez Pons, voice of Mr. Krabs (or Don Cangrejo as he's called there), was replaced after the fifth season by Carlos Vitale, only to come back in the middle of the ninth season after Vitale's retirement.
• Star Wars:
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In the penultimate episode, Ian McDiarmid, Hayden Christensen, and Samuel L. Jackson provided the voices of Palpatine, Anakin, and Mace Windu (albeit via archived audio from Revenge of the Sith).
  • Star Wars Rebels:
    • In Emperor Palpatine's first, voice-only, appearance on the show in "The Siege of Lothal", he was voiced by Sam Witwer, who had also voiced him in The Force Unleashed and its sequel. When Palpatine returned for a few more appearances in the show's fourth and final season, they brought in his original movie actor, Ian McDiarmid, to play him. McDiarmid then retroactively replaced Witwer in the Disney+ version of "The Siege of Lothal", as well.
    • Frank Oz would be brought back as the voice of Yoda after Tom Kane voiced him in Clone Wars and The Clone Wars.
  • Star Wars: The Bad Batch: For the first time in nine years, since Season 5 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Andrew Kishino reprises his role as Saw Gerrera, after the character since then being visually portrayed and voice-acted in his later years by Forest Whitaker.
• In the Latin American dub of Steven Universe, Karrina Para quit the role of Sadie during the show's third season due to personal reasons, according to Doblaje Wiki. Mariangny Álvarez voiced her in all future appearances, except for Episode 89, where Para voiced her once again.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987):
  • The '87 incarnations have appeared in crossovers with the 2003 and 2012 incarnations. For the 2003 crossover the original actors (Cam Clarke, Rob Paulsen, Townsend Coleman, and Barry Gordon) could not reprise their roles because of legal issues (the 2003 show was non-union, and recorded in New York) and had to be replaced by soundalikes. When the 1987 Turtles crossed over with the 2012 series, it did not have the same legal troubles due to being recorded in LA (and union), thus allowing the original '87 Turtles actors to return.
  • Speaking of Rob Paulsen, he left the original series after the ninth season, so Raphael was voiced by Michael Gough instead for the tenth and final season. Paulsen's return for the crossover with the 2012 cartoon allowed him to play Raphael again in almost 20 years (it helps that he also voices the 2012 incarnation of Donatello).
  • In the French dub, Leonardo's second voice actor was Mark Lesser, while April O'Neil was voiced by Laurence Crouzet. When the dub moved from the SOFI studio to H2 Productions (Seasons 5-6), both of them were replaced by Michel Tugot-Doris and Laurence Dourlens, respectively. Lesser and Crouzet reprised their roles beginning in Season 7, when the dub moved to the Prodac studio.
• On the subject of the Ninja Turtles, in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), Hun was recast with David Zen Mansley (who also voiced Agent Bishop) after the fourth season. For the final season Back to the Sewers and the film Turtles Forever, his original actor Greg Carey returned to the role.
• Teen Titans:
  • Gizmo and Jinx of Teen Titans (2003) were voiced by Lauren Tom for the majority of the series, but Tara Strong voiced them in their last appearance because they were apparently at the limit to how many voice actors they could use at once. Lauren Tom came back to both roles in the successor series Teen Titans Go!.
  • Dr. Light was voiced by Rodger Bumpass in Teen Titans, but Scott Menville replaced him in the Teen Titans Go! episode "The Colors of Raven". Bumpass would reprise the role in later episodes of Go!, however.
• On Tiny Toon Adventures, Buster Bunny was voiced by Charlie Adler, until the end of the third season, when Adler quit after being denied a part on Warner Bros.' next big project, Animaniacs. John Kassir voiced Buster for the remainder of the third season, the Spring Break and Night Ghoulery specials, and a few video games and promos on Kids' WB. Adler eventually returned to voice Buster for an unreleased PS2 video game, Defenders of the Universe.
• In 1996, a short series called Toy Story Treats was produced, with Woody and Buzz being voiced by Jim Hanks and Pat Fraley respectively instead of Tom Hanks (whom Jim is the brother of) and Tim Allen respectively. Later TV specials and the Toy Story Toons shorts would have Tom Hanks and Tim Allen return to their respective roles.
• Winnie the Pooh:
  • The 1983-1986 Live Action Puppet Show Welcome to Pooh Corner had Piglet being voiced by Phil Baron instead of John Fiedler. Fiedler returned to the role in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and continued to voice Piglet in all Pooh productions until his death in 2005. The same series also had Tigger being voiced by Will Ryan instead of Paul Winchell, with Winchell also returning for New Adventures. However...
  • Starting with New Adventures, the role of Tigger would alternate between Paul Winchell and Jim Cummings due to Winchell's humanitarian trips to Africa and, later, his declining health. This would last until The Tigger Movie, where Cummings would take over the role permanently from then on as Winchell's voice had become too raspy from old age.
  • The 2011 Winnie the Pooh film saw Bud Luckey replace Peter Cullen as Eeyore. Six years later, the Doc McStuffins/Winnie The Pooh crossover brought Cullen back to the role.
• While the tie-in game, Young Justice: Legacy, would see a number of cast changes, the third season of Young Justice (2010), Outsiders would see the earlier voice actors return, including Alan Tudyk as Psimon, Danny Trejo as Bane, Denise Boutte as Rocket^note Granted, she was the second voice actress, but she did return for the series proper, and Alyson Stoner as Oracle.
• Lisa Vischer was the voice of Junior Asparagus in the VeggieTales video series, but was re-cast with Tress MacNeille in the Netflix follow-up VeggieTales in the House. Vischer would reprise the role in the Un Reboot The VeggieTales Show.
• The X-Men: The Animated Series Sequel Series X-Men '97 will see Gambit voiced by his original voice actor Chris Potter after the last few episodes of the original series saw him voiced by Tony Daniels.

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