List of retroactive continuities

The following are examples of retroactive continuities (or retcons).

Film
  • Star Wars (1977), features Obi Wan Kenobi telling Luke Skywalker that Anakin Skywalker (Luke's father), was betrayed and killed by Darth Vader. The sequel film The Empire Strikes Back (1980), plot has Vader reveal himself as Anakin Skywalker (Luke's father). George Lucas decided to merge both characters while writing The Empire Strikes Back. The following film Return of the Jedi (1983) has Obi-Wan, justifying his original description of Vader having 'murdered' Anakin, as being truth from "a certain point of view" because from his point of view when Anakin became Vader he destroyed everything that was good about his former friend and apprentice. Similarly Princess Leia had been previously set as an upper-class romantic interest for the farm boy Luke; but in Empire Strikes Back Leia falls in love with Han Solo, so in order to avoid a possible love triangle, Return of the Jedi reveals Leia as Luke Skywalker's twin sister (and therefore, daughter of Darth Vader), Lucas had originally planned Luke's sister to be a separate character, before deciding to accommodate it into the already established Leia.[1] Rogue One (2016) explains the improbable vulnerability of the Death Star in A New Hope to small rebel ships as a consequence of deliberate sabotage on the part of the key Death Star architect.[2]
  • Creed (2015) the seventh entry of the Rocky film series which serves as a sequel and spin-off to 2006's Rocky Balboa (the sixth film), contains a major change into the continuity of the previous films. Creed establishes that during the events of Rocky IV, Rocky's friend and rival Apollo Creed had an affair that resulted in a woman's pregnancy shortly before his boxing match against Ivan Drago during which Apollo dies on the ring. Months after the fight, the woman gives birth to Adonis "Donnie" Creed, the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed. Donnie never meets his father and is the protagonist of the film Creed; furthermore the film reveals Apollo won the fight at the end of Rocky III implying that that is the reason why Apollo agreed to fight Ivan Drago.[3]
  • In the Heisei and Millennium eras of the Godzilla film series, the events of the Showa era after the original film never happened. In particular, each film in the Millennium series – except for Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., which serves as the direct sequel to Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla – serves as a direct sequel to the original 1954 film.[4]
  • In Iron Man 2, Jon Favreau's son Max appears as a child wearing an Iron Man mask whom Stark saves from a drone. This was retroactively made the introduction of a young Peter Parker to the MCU, as confirmed in June 2017 by eventual Spider-Man actor Tom Holland, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts.[5][6]
  • In a flashback scene of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales it is revealed that Jack Sparrow's compass was given to him by the former captain of Wicked Wench. However in the second installment of the franchise Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Tia Dalma said that the compass was bartered by Jack from her. Moreover, the majority of the plotlines of the previous movie Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides were totally dismissed, leaving only the Black Pearl in the bottle. The fleet in the bottles of Blackbeard stolen by Mr. Gibbs never appears nor be mentioned in the movie. Will Turner's being as a captain of the Flying Dutchman is never previously referred as a curse, but a kind of a work. Originally, it has been planned that Will Turner will serve on a Dutchman only 10 years, after which he returns to Elizabeth, as it is seen the post-credit scene of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. This has been changed due to the introduction of the son of Will Turner, Henry, who wants to break the curse. The daughter of Hector Barbossa Carina Smyth could not exist in the continuity of the franchise. Carina's age is approximately that of Henry's, who is 21. Despite this, during the events of the third installment, there was no mention of the lover of Barbossa named Margaret. It is shown in the movie that Jack Sparrow knows her name, which could not happen, because Jack doesn't see Barbossa until the events of the fourth movie, which is set in 1750, while the following movie is set only five years after this.

Literature
  • When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off his character Sherlock Holmes by plunging him to his death over the Reichenbach Falls with his nemesis Professor Moriarty, the public's demand for Holmes was so great that Doyle was compelled to bring him back to life in a subsequent story, where he details that Holmes had merely faked his death.
  • Though the term "retcon" did not yet exist when George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, the totalitarian regime depicted in that book is involved in a constant, large-scale retconning of past records. For example, when it is suddenly announced that "Oceania was not after all in war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia and Eurasia was an ally" (Part Two, Ch. 9), there is an immediate intensive effort to change "all reports and records, newspapers, books, pamphlets, films, sound-tracks and photographs" and make them all record a war with Eastasia rather than one with Eurasia. "Often it was enough to merely substitute one name for another, but any detailed report of events demanded care and imagination. Even the geographical knowledge needed in transferring the war from one part of the world to another was considerable." See historical revisionism (negationism).

Television
  • In 2004, Coronation Street retconned the Baldwin family after Mike Baldwin's nephew Danny and wife Frankie moved to the area from Essex, with their two sons Jamie and Warren. Mike had been portrayed as an only child prior to this moment, with his father appearing in the program between 1980 and 1982 to confirm the notion.
  • First of the Summer Wine, the prequel to the long-running British sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, retconned the character Seymour Utterthwaite as a pre-World War II friend of the other central characters. Seymour had been introduced into later series of Last of the Summer Wine and was previously unknown to the stalwart characters, Compo and Clegg.[7]
  • The revived series of British science fiction television program Doctor Who and its television spin-offs use retroactive continuity as a plot device.
    • Show runner Steven Moffat's fifth series finale depicted the Doctor rebooting the universe. In answer to a fan's question, Moffat tweeted: "The whole universe came exactly as it was. Except for any continuity errors I need to explain away."[8]
    • In the sixth series, Moffat introduces new aliens the Silence, who erase your memory of them the moment you look away. Commenting on this device, writer MaryAnn Johanson writes, "That could be happening throughout this story... indeed, through the entire history of Doctor Who. Moffat has just created a pretty much unassailable narratively sound reason for inserting retcons anywhere throughout the half-century history of the show."
    • In the seventh series finale, Moffat creates a hitherto unknown incarnation of the Doctor known as the War Doctor in the run-up to the show's 50th anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor".[9] He is shown in the mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor" retroactively inserted into the show's fictional chronology between the Eighth and Ninth Doctors, although his introduction was written so as not to disturb the established numerical naming of the Doctors.[10]
    • In the 50th anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor", Moffat revealed, that at the last instant of the Time War, the Doctor hid his war-torn home planet in time, rather than destroy it.
    • In the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, created by Russell T Davies, a drug used to erase the memory of characters is called "retcon"; the use of the drug is often referred to by characters as "retconning".

Video games
  • The chronology of The Legend of Zelda series was subject to much debate among fans until an official timeline was printed in the collector's book Hyrule Historia, released in Japan on December 21, 2011.[11][12] Hyrule Historia contains a timeline that explains how each game fits within the storyline. This includes introducing a three-way split after Ocarina of Time. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword helps explain the appearance of multiple Zelda, Link and Ganondorf characters across hundreds of years.
  • The original Ninja Gaiden trilogy for the NES was followed years later by a new series of sequels produced by Team Ninja beginning with Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox in 2004. However, the second generation of Ninja Gaiden video games, being prequels to original series[13][14][15] has many differences from the NES trilogy. The character design of Ryu Hayabusa in the new games is now based on the Dead or Alive incarnation of the character with long hair and green eyes, the character design of Ryu's father, Ken Hayabusa, has been updated as well, the character now being addressed in the English versions by his original name in the Japanese versions (Jo Hayabusa), and producer Tomonobu Itagaki hints at the possibility that Sonia, a character from the new games, might be Irene Lew from the original series.[15] With the release of Dead or Alive: Dimensions in 2011, it has been revealed that Sonia is indeed Irene Lew.[16][17]
  • In Metal Gear, the character Big Boss serves as Solid Snake's commanding officer and is apparently revealed near the end of the game to also be the main antagonist. However, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain establishes the antagonist character to actually be a body double of the real Big Boss, called Venom Snake, who is killed by Solid Snake during this encounter. The original Big Boss later becomes the antagonist in the series' second entry, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.[18]
  • In the ending of 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic and Elise blow out the flame of Solaris, undoing all changes made by Iblis and causing the entire story to never happen; thus undoing all the inconsistencies the game's plot caused.

Ignored sequels in various media

References
  1. "東京の婚活パーティーってどんなの？". Secrethistoryofstarwars.com. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  2. "Rogue One Has the First Good Star Wars Retcon". Vulture.
  3. "Rocky and the Greatest Retcon of All Time". ScreenRant. December 3, 2016.
  4. "Godzilla Millennium Series Continuity". Tohokingdom.com. 2005-07-19. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  5. Bradley, Bill (June 26, 2017). "Tom Holland Confirms Popular Fan Theory: Spider-Man Was In 'Iron Man 2'". HuffPost. Archived from the original on June 26, 2017. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
  6. Ryan, Mark (June 27, 2017). "'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Director Jon Watts Explains Real Story Behind Peter Parker's 'Iron Man 2' Cameo". Uproxx. Archived from the original on June 27, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2017.
  7. "First of the Summer Wine, Uncovered". Archived from the original on February 13, 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  8. "Steven Moffat: ...The whole universe..." Steven Moffat on Twitter. Twitter.com. 13 June 2011. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  9. Hogan, Michael (18 May 2013). "Doctor Who: The Name of the Doctor, BBC One, review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  10. Rigby, Sam (24 November 2013). "'Doctor Who': Steven Moffat on regeneration limit". Digital Spy. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  11. "Official Legend of Zelda Timeline Revealed". Web.archive.org. 2011-12-22. Archived from the original on April 26, 2012. Retrieved 2016-01-14.
  12. "Nintendo of Europe | Nintendo". Officialnintendomagazine.co.uk. 2015-08-15. Archived from the original on 2014-10-31. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  13. Mielke, James (2007-11-16). "Ninja Gaiden 2 Preview for 360 from". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  14. Yin, Wesley (2008-05-22). "Ninja Gaiden 2 Interview for Xbox 360". VideoGamer.com. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  16. Team Ninja (2011-05-24). Dead or Alive: Dimensions (Nintendo 3DS) (1.0 ed.). Tecmo. Level/area: Chapter 2. Ryu Hayabusa: Hayate, meet Irene /...
  17. "Dead or Alive Dimensions Nintendo 3DS Chronicle Mode Chapter 2 Part 3". YouTube. 2011-06-01. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  18. Kojima Productions (2015-09-01). Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC). Konami. Level/area: Truth: The Man Who Sold The World.
  19. "Movies". Superman Homepage. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  20. Karina Wilson. "Horror Film History — Horror Films in the 1970s". Horrorfilmhistory.com. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  21. Bierly, Mandi (2017-11-13). "Danny McBride on 'Halloween': 'I just hope that we don't f*** it up and piss people off'". Yahoo!. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
  22. "The Exorcist III (2015), directed by William Peter Blatty | Film review". Timeout.com. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  23. "Highlander: The Final Dimension review (1994) Highlander 3 - Qwipster's Movie Reviews". Qwipster.net. 2007-08-21. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  24. "8 Movies That Were Wiped Out Of Continuity By Their Sequels – Page 5". Whatculture.com. Retrieved 2019-08-18.
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