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Retroactive continuity — commonly contracted to the portmanteau retcon — is the adding of new information to "historical" material, or deliberately changing previously established facts in a work of serial fiction. The change itself is referred to as a "retcon", and the act of writing and publishing a retcon is called "retconning".

Retcons are common in comic books, especially those of large publishing houses such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics, because of the lengthy history of many series and the number of independent authors contributing to their development; this is the context in which the term was coined. Retconning also occurs in TV shows, movie sequels, video games, radio series, series of novels, and can be done in any other type of episodic fiction. It is also used in roleplaying, when the game master feels it is needed to maintain consistency in the story or to fix significant mistakes that were missed during play.

Origins

The term "retroactive continuity" was popularized by comic book writer Roy Thomas in his 1980s series All-Star Squadron, which featured the DC Comics superheroes of the 1940s. The earliest known use of the term is from Thomas' letter column in All-Star Squadron #20 (April 1983), where Thomas wrote that he heard it at a convention. The term was shortened to "retcon" by Damian Cugley in 1988 on USENET to describe a development in the comic book Swamp Thing, in which Alan Moore reinterpreted the events of the title character's origin. (See “Notable examples” below.)

Types

Although there is considerable ambiguity and overlap between different kinds of retcons, there are some distinctions that can be made between different types of retcons, depending on whether they add to, alter, or remove material from past continuity. These distinctions often evoke different reactions from fans of the material.

Addition

Some retcons do not directly contradict previously established facts, but "fill in" missing background details, usually to support current plot points. This was the sense in which Thomas used "retroactive continuity", as a purely additive process that did not "undo" any previous work, a common theme in his work on All-Star Squadron. Kurt Busiek took a similar approach with Untold Tales of Spider-Man, a series which told stories that specifically fit between issues of the original Amazing Spider-Man series, sometimes explaining discontinuities between those earlier stories. Yet another retroactive continuity book was The Hidden Years.

Related to this is the concept of shadow history or secret history, in which the events of a story occur within the bounds of already-established events (especially real-world historical events), revealing a different interpretation of (or motivation for) the events. Some of Tim Powers novels are examples of this, such as Last Call, which suggests that Bugsy Siegel's actions were due to his being a modern-day Fisher King.

Alan Moore's additional information about the Swamp Thing's origins didn't contradict or change any of the events depicted in the character's previous appearances, but changed the underlying interpretation of them. This verges on making alterations to past continuity.

Alteration

This kind of retcon often adds information that effectively states "what you saw isn't what really happened" and then introduces a different version. This is usually interpreted by the audience as an overt change rather than a mere addition. The most common form this takes is when a character shown to have died (sometimes explicitly) is later revealed to have survived somehow. This is well known in horror films, which may end with the death of the monster, but when the film becomes successful, the studio plans a sequel, revealing that the monster survived after all. The technique has been used so frequently in superhero comics that the term comic book death has been coined for it. The first famous example in popular culture is the return of Sherlock Holmes: Writer Arthur Conan Doyle killed off the popular character in an encounter with his foe Professor Moriarty, only to bring Holmes back, due in large part to audience response.

It is commonplace for characters to remain the same age, or to age out of synch with real time; this can be considered an ongoing implicit retcon of their birthdate. When historical events are involved in their biography, overt retcons may be used to accommodate this; a character who served in the army during World War II might have his service record retconned to place him in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, etc. This is similar to a problem faced by many works of future history: the events they describe happening in years after the initial publication do not conform to history as it actually happens. To accommodate such discrepancies, retcons may be used in later stories, altering dates or other details. (See Star Trek examples, below.)

While retconning is usually done without comment by the creators, DC Comics has on rare occasions promoted special events dedicated to revising the history of the DC Comics universe. The most important and well known such event was the mini-series Crisis on Infinite Earths; this allowed for wholesale revisions of their entire multiverse of characters. It has been argued that these were not true retcons, however, because the cause of the changes to their universe actually appeared within the story, similar to stories in which a time traveler goes to the past and changes history from how he remembered it.

Subtraction

Sometimes retconned alterations are so drastic as to render prior stories untenable. Many of the retcons introduced in Crisis on Infinite Earths and DC's later Zero Hour were specifically intended to wipe the slate clean, and permit an entirely new history to be written for the characters. This is commonly referred to as a reboot. This is often very unpopular, upsetting fans of the material that has been removed from continuity.

Unpopular or embarrassing stories are sometimes later ignored by publishers, never referred to again, and effectively erased from a series' continuity. They may publish stories that contradict the previous story or explicitly establish that it "never happened". Likewise, an unpopular retcon may even be re-retconned away. A good example of this type is the Voyager episode "Threshold" in which Tom Paris breaks the Warp 10 threshold and undergoes bizarre changes; the episode was deemed non-canon by Brannon Braga and has never been referred to in the series again.

Another famous example is Star Wars. In the movie Return of the Jedi, it appears that the character Boba Fett has suffered a horrible (and humiliating) death in the belly of the Sarlacc. However, Boba Fett is depicted as surviving the whole ordeal by rocketing out of the pit later in books, graphic novels, and even in a Star Wars Unleashed action figure. To date not even the various forms of media can agree on how exactly Fett escaped the pit, or whether he even escaped at all.

Fans may use Krypto-revisionism to ignore a particular retcon, itself a form of meta-retcon stating that "it was never published". Similarly, fans may invent unofficial explanations for inconsistencies, the challenge itself becoming a source of entertainment. (See Fanon, Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome.)

Related

Retroactive continuity is similar to, but not the same as, plot inconsistencies introduced accidentally or through lack of concern for continuity; retconning is done deliberately. For example, the ongoing continuity contradictions on episodic TV series such as The Golden Girls reflects very loose continuity, not genuine retcons. However, in series with generally tight continuity, retcons are sometimes created after the fact to explain continuity errors. Retconning is also generally distinct from replacing the actor who plays a part in an ongoing series, which is more properly an example of loose continuity (i.e. the different appearance of the character is ignored), rather than retroactively changing past continuity (See Darrin Syndrome).

Retconning is also distinct from direct revision; when George Lucas re-edited the original Star Wars trilogy, he made changes directly to the source material, rather than introducing new source material that contradicted the contents of previous material. However, the later series of Star Wars prequels did qualify as "new source material", and many fans have pointed out instances that apparently retcon elements of the original trilogy (See below).

The "clean slate" reinterpretation of characters - as in movie and television adaptations of books, or the reintroduction of many superheroes in the Silver Age of Comics - is similar to a reboot retcon, except that the previous versions are not explicitly or implicitly eliminated in the process. These are merely alternate or parallel reinterpretations.

Notable examples

A comprehensive list of retcons is impossible, but the following are better-known examples. To avoid speculation, they don't attempt to justify alteration-type retcons in the context of their respective continuities (a popular activity among some fans), nor to explain the real-world reasons for them.

Comics

  • Prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC Comics featured characters who lived on a variety of alternative versions of Earth; afterward, these characters were said to have always lived together on the same Earth. Many characters' origins or back-stories were altered, and Superman, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, and other characters were fully rebooted. A second major set of retcons in DC Comics was in a similar event called Zero Hour, which rebooted the Legion of Super-Heroes.

  • In the original Spider-Man story, Peter Parker only wore glasses at the insistence of his Aunt May, to protect his eyes from his constant reading, and he stopped wearing them because they had been broken. In retellings of his origin, Peter's eyesight really was poor, but improved after he gained his superhuman powers. Before the 1980s, Spider-Man writers stated that his love interest Mary Jane Watson did not know he was Spider-Man. It was later retconned that she had known of his dual life since it began. J. Michael Straczynski's run on Amazing Spider-Man has included several controversial retcons, such as revealing that Spider-Man's powers are mystical/totemic instead of science-based, and revealing that Gwen Stacy had given birth to Norman Osborn's children.

  • The symbiote Venom was originally said to have merged with Eddie Brock because he was suicidally despondent and resentful of Spider-Man. However, it was later presented that Eddie had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and the symbiote had chosen him as a host because the cancer caused him to produce more of the adrenaline that it "feeds" on.

  • In the final issue of X-O Manowar, it was revealed that the entire series up to that point (and perhaps the entire Valiant Universe as a whole) was a prophetic vision of a possible future, not events that had actually occurred. The final panel on the last page of X-O Manowar #68 features a slightly modified version of the first panel of X-O Manowar #1.

  • The first issue of Marvel's original Transformers comic begins by explaining the history of sentient mechanical life on Cybertron as a natural evolution process. This was later retconned in issues #60-#61 with the introduction of Primus, a god-like being dating back to the creation of the universe itself, who created the Transformers as a "last line of defense" against Unicron.

  • In 1987, writer Peter David retold Green Lantern Hal Jordan's origin, stating that instead of being born without fear, his power ring had altered his mind to make him so. Later stories ignored this unpopular explanation. In a controversial 1994 story Emerald Twilight, Jordan went insane and either killed or depowered the rest of the Green Lantern Corps. A 2005 story retconned many of these deaths, and revealed that his mind had been controlled by an alien parasite throughout the duration of his time as a villain.

  • The manga and anime Dragon Ball series had several major retcons. The foremost example is the revelation that Son Goku was in fact an alien, rather than his tail and Oozaru transformation being due to Dragon Ball's origins in Journey to the West. The Saiyans were first said to be mercenaries who sold off depopulated planets to the highest bidder, yet it was later revealed that they were in fact in the exclusive employ of Freeza.

  • In a lighthearted jab against retcons, She-Hulk #3, volume 2 depicted the titular heroine on trial for attempting to prevent the death of Hawkeye by manipulating the timeline. If convicted, her punishment was to be erased from history through the use of the "Retroactive Cannon", or "Ret-Can."

  • Silver Surfer was originally conceived as an amoral character created by the world-devouring entity Galactus, but was re-imagined in Silver Surfer #1 as a mortal humanoid being who received his powers as a result of entering into Galactus' service in a heroic act of self-sacrifice.

  • Joseph was originally intended to be an amnesiac Magneto. Even though the character had some of Magneto's memories, such as the layout of Magneto's secret base, the physics of space travel, and a hatred for Moira McTaggart, the character was later revealed to be a clone created by Astra

  • Likewise, Xorn was intended by Grant Morrison to be an undercover Magneto, believed dead at Genosha, who then destroys the X-mansion, attacks New York, kills Jean Grey and ends up decapitated by Wolverine. Yet six isues later, after Morrison left New X-Men, Xorn was revealed to be a Magneto imposter and that the real Magneto was alive, having never left Genosha in the first place. A second Xorn was also revealed, who informed that the deceased one was his brother.

Television

  • In the sitcom Cheers, Frasier Crane said that his father was a deceased research scientist. However, the spin-off Frasier featured Frasier's father Martin as an ex-cop living in Seattle. Frasier later explained that he had lied to his friends in Boston after having a bitter argument with his father.

  • An entire season of the soap opera Dallas was later dismissed as Pam Ewing's dream, including the death of her ex-husband Bobby, who famously emerges from a shower as if nothing had happened (this is not a real retcon, but a reset) The spin-off series, Knots Landing continued as though the events of this season had in fact occurred, and the two series never crossed paths again.

  • A similar plot device was used in the final season of Roseanne, stating that the entire plot was based on the book she was writing. In this book, she changes events in her life she didn't like.

  • An interesting retcon in Doctor Who involves the creation of the Daleks. In the First Doctor The Daleks, the Daleks were said to have mutated from a race known as the Dals. The Fourth Doctor serial Genesis of the Daleks rewrote this with the premise that the Daleks started out as the Kaleds (an anagram of Dalek) and that the machine part of the Daleks was created by the Kaled scientist Davros. Fans generally tend to accept the Genesis of the Daleks version of the story.

  • At the beginning of Happy Days, Howard and Marion Cunningham have an oldest son Chuck who is never seen after the first season, and Richie and Joanie are later referred to as the couple's only children. (See Chuck Cunningham syndrome.)

  • Retcons abound in the British TV series Red Dwarf — such matters as what century the characters originated from, how many people were on the ship and many others have been changed. Series co-creator Doug Naylor has gone on record saying that they have always had a very relaxed attitude to continuity, and if something could be changed for the better, then they would change it.

  • Buffy The Vampire Slayer retcons a number of elements from the film (for example, in the series Buffy had burned down her old school's gym, which didn't happen in the film). The character of Anyanka was also retconned both in powers and personality. In her intial appearance in The Wish, dialog from Giles indicates that destroying her "power center" will reverse all of the wishes she's granted. When she re-appeared in Doppelgangland new, previously unspoken, dialog in the "previously" section substantially narrowed the effect. Personality-wise, when Anyanka first spoke with Cordelia Chase she was fairly worldly and sophisticated, having knowledge of such pop cultural artifacts as Prada bags and W Magazine. In later appearances she is much more naive, knowing little to nothing of human customs, conventions or manners.

  • In the 1996 revival of Carla Lane's sitcom The Liver Birds, Beryl refers to rabbit-loving Lucien as her brother, but in the original 1970s version he was the brother of Carol (who had succeeded Beryl as Sandra's flatmate).

  • In the pilot film for The Six Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin's superior is identified as Oliver Spencer. In the novels upon which the series was based, his boss was Oscar Goldman. When a sequel to the pilot film was produced, Wine, Women and War, Spencer was replaced by the Goldman character and the opening credits - which retold part of the story of the first film - performed retconning by placing Goldman, not Spencer, in charge of Austin's conversion into a bionic man. Also, during the series a two-part episode had Austin's fiance, Jaime Sommers, dying from complications related to her bionic surgery – the television audience protested the death of a new, but popular, character, so the next season the plot was retconned to have Jaime not die, but be placed in suspended animation during surgery.

  • In one episode of the sitcom That '70s Show, Donna Pinciotti is seen babysitting her 14-year-old sister Tina. Tina is never seen again and mentioned in a soap opera parody ending to the episode "Vanstock", in which a narrator asks "What ever happened to Midge's (Donna's mother) other daughter, Tina?"

  • For the beginning of the sixth season of Married with Children, both Peggy Bundy and Marcy D'Arcy announce they're pregnant. This was done to incorporate Katey Sagal's real life pregnancy into the show. When Sagal suffered a miscarriage halfway through taping the season, rather than continue the storyline, it was revealed all those previous episodes had been a dream of Al Bundy's.

  • In the supernatural drama Charmed, eldest Charmed One Prue Halliwell was granted with the power of astral projection during the show's second season. The power was later used in the show's seventh season by the remaining three Charmed Ones and was dismissed as a power and was instead a taught ability that she taught Piper's husband Leo who taught it to her surviving siblings.

  • In the sitcom Family Matters, Judy Winslow (played by Jaimee Foxworth) ceased appearing in the show after the fourth season. No explanation was ever given for Carl and Harriet's youngest child mysteriously disappearing.

  • The fourth season premiere of Alias capitalized on an ambiguity in the third season's finale to explain the presumed departure of actress Lena Olin from the cast. Sydney Bristow had discovered a cache of records that were seen only momentarily onscreen but seemed to indicate her entire life was an ongoing classified experiment. However, in the folowing premiere the documents were explained to have contained orders for Jack Bristow to assassinate Sydney's mother, Irina Derevko (played by Olin).

Film

  • By their very nature, the Star Wars prequels are loaded with retcons in the broader sense of the term, such as a previously unmentioned relationship between Yoda and Chewbacca introduced in Revenge of the Sith. The prequels also contain some overt revisions of history, as in The Phantom Menace where it is revealed that Anakin Skywalker built C-3PO, and in Attack of the Clones where we find that C-3PO and R2-D2 knew Owen Lars and his wife Beru, despite their apparent unfamiliarity with Luke's family and Tatooine itself at the beginning of A New Hope. This apparent discrepancy was "fixed" with another retcon in one of the final scenes of Revenge of the Sith, in which Bail Organa orders the memory of C-3PO to be wiped. The official novelization of Return of the Jedi stated that Luke Skywalker's "Uncle" Owen Lars was the brother of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but Attack of the Clones establishes that Owen is actually the stepbrother of Anakin Skywalker, and no relation to Obi-Wan. There is an argument to be made for the idea that the revelations in the later movies of the original trilogy of Darth Vader as Luke's father and Princess Leia as Luke's sister are retcons, (especially the matter of Luke and Leia, since they have a fledgling romantic relationship in A New Hope and the following novels). In The Empire Strikes Back, Obi-Wan's spirit tells Luke that Yoda was the Jedi master who trained him. In the prequel, The Phantom Menace, we see that Obi-Wan is apprentice to Qui-Gon. It could be argued that because Yoda taught lessons to young children (as seen in Attack of the Clones), this is what Obi-Wan was referring to. It is more likely that this is a retcon.

  • The classic anime series Mobile Suit Gundam received a retcon courtesy of a trio of anthology movies. Through these movies, Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino changed several elements of the show by changing the order of some events, removing others, and eliminating the "goofier" elements of the television series in favor of more realistic ones. The movies are typically accepted as the canon version of these events.

  • Similarly, the series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam received an anthology trilogy. Though some events are changed, Tomino has said that all the characters who died in the series will still die in the movies, though some may (and indeed have) died in different ways. The final movie featured a happier ending to the series, which suggest that the 1986 sequel Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ could not have happened.

  • Another classic anime series, Tenchi Muyo!, received a retcon within just about every single retelling of the series. With the exception of some of the main detail, many aspects about Tenchi and the rest of the main characters is changed around for each of the three main series (the Tenchi Muyo OAV, Tenchi Universe, and Tenchi in Tokyo), and selective usage of each story is included in the movies. One example of this would be that the notorious space pirate Ryoko's origins are revealed as her being created by the goddess Washu and becoming a slave to the space pirate Kagato in the OAV, while in the Universe and Tokyo series, Ryoko's origins are unknown except for her being a space pirate, Washu is not a goddess, and the Universe series' main villain is a completely different Kagato than from the OAV.

  • The introductory recaps at the beginning of Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn and Army of Darkness are significantly simplified from the actual occurrences in previous movies. Similarly, the Book of the Dead which the series was almost named for changes from "Naturom Demonto" in the first film to "Necronomicon ex Mortis" in the sequels. Some changes were intentionally editorial, while others were monetary - director Sam Raimi moved from New Line to Paramount and couldn't afford the rights to his own film.

  • The James Bond franchise often uses Retcon, with each new actor to join the role, the characters background, including contemporary events and the characters age is updated. This has been shown in James Bond's date of birth, which has changed between films, though the character is undoubtedly the same man.

Literature

  • J.R.R. Tolkien rewrote the way Bilbo Baggins acquired his Ring in The Hobbit, to better suit the story he wanted to tell in The Lord of the Rings; originally Tolkien merely used the ring Bilbo found as a plot device for him to escape unnoticed, which he retconned to be 'The One Ring' later on. Narratively this was explained by depicting the original version as a misrepresentation perpetrated by Bilbo – already under the Ring's influence – and only later corrected.

  • In Rubicon, a book in the Roma Sub Rosa, Steven Saylor changes the backstory of Davus, Gordianus' son by marriage, from being a former slave of his older son Eco to that of being a former slave of Pompey The Great. This was presumably done so that Saylor could weave Gordianus into the story of the Siege of Brundisium with Pompey barely escaping Caesar's clutches.

  • In his sequels to the novel version of A Space Odyssey (novel), Arthur C. Clarke made slight alterations to background history in order to keep each novel consistent with progressing developments in the real world. He also changed the location of the third monolith from Iapetus to the Jupiter system, to conform with the movie version of 2001 by Stanley Kubrick. Clarke has stated that each sequel to 2001 exists in its own continuity and follows the film rather than the book.

  • In the book Jurassic Park, Ian Malcolm is said to have died at the end. However, in its sequel, The Lost World, Ian Malcolm's death turns out to be a misreporting of the incident, bringing the books into line with the movies, in which he did not die. Additionally, characters who survived in the book but were killed in the film (such as the lawyer Gennaro and the gamekeeper Muldoon), are mentioned in The Lost World novel as having died shortly after the park incident (e.g. from illness or a plane crash).

  • The early series of Adventure Eddy stories were dramatically altered around 2004 to bring them into continuity with the later, more popular stories. The action was moved from the city of Oxford to Winchester and various smaller details were changed to link one story to the next, since they were not written in chronological order.

  • The original three books of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy depicted a strongly male-dominated world, with women marginalized in or completely excluded from the practice of magic, which in this world is a major source of political and societal power. After being strongly critised by Feminists, in later parts of the series Le Guin made considerable efforts to redress the balance. For example, it is disclosed that the mage Ogion, the hero's beloved tutor and mentor, had himself learned his magic from a woman, and that the Magicians' School at Roke was itself originally founded by women.

Star Trek in various media

  • The 1967 The Original Series episode, "Space Seed" referred to the Eugenics Wars as a conflict taking place in the 1990s. A 1996 episode of Voyager ("Future's End") was set in a year when the wars should have been a current or recent event, yet no mention of them was made. A 1998 episode of Deep Space Nine ("Dr. Bashir I Presume?") contained a statement that suggested the wars took place in the 22nd Century (later said to be an error). Greg Cox's series of The Eugenics Wars novels, published in the early 2000s, retconned the wars into shadow affairs hidden by real-life major conflicts, but the producers of the TV series don't consider the novels to be canon. A 2004 episode of Enterprise stated that the Eugenics Wars were a wide conflict in which 30 million people died, but without identifying the timeframe; the producer of the series, however, stated that the Eugenics Wars as referenced in the episode still occurred in the 1990s.

  • When The Motion Picture was released in 1979, Gene Roddenberry claimed that the radically different appearance of the Klingons in the film was how they were always supposed to have looked, but they didn't have the budget for it in the 1960s (He also joked about how the Klingons of the original series were of a 'Klingon-Human fusion' for the purpose of possible infiltration into Starfleet). In the 1990s, an episode of Deep Space Nine featured three Klingon characters from the original series, made up to fit the new look. However, the later episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", used footage from the original series with old-look Klingons; Commander Worf acknowledged their different appearance, adding that it was "a long story" that Klingons "do not discuss with outsiders." A two episode arc of Star Trek: Enterprise ("Affliction"/"Divergence") in 2005 indicated that Klingons resembling the 1960s portrayal were the product of genetic engineering using augmented human genes, essentially retconning the retcon.

  • The entirety of the prequel series Enterprise was considered a retcon by some, or not even canon, as it contradicted already established canon on numerous occasions.

  • An early episode of The Next Generation, "Q Who", introduced the Borg, apparently for the first time, and suggested Starfleet was unaware of their existence. A later episode of Voyager, "The Raven", established that Starfleet had possibly been aware of the Borg for at least 20 years (other productions, including Generations, First Contact, and Enterprise, would suggest Starfleet would have had some knowledge of the Borg decades or even centuries earlier.)

  • In "The Royale", an episode of The Next Generation, Captain Picard states that Fermat's Last Theorem had gone unsolved for 800 years. Five years after the episode aired, mathematician Andrew Wiles solved the theorem. In the Deep Space Nine episode called "Facets," Jadzia Dax comments that one of her previous hosts, Tobin Dax, had "the most original approach to the proof since Wiles over 300 years ago," thus offering a retcon more in touch with modern history.

Video games

  • In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Snake confronts and kills Big Boss before finding out that he is his father. However, in the sequel Metal Gear Solid, it is revealed that he is a clone of him. Snake Eater, which is set in 1964, follows the exploits of Big Boss and Ocelot, adding many details about their past and motivations, and details about the story in general.

  • Squaresoft re-released the RPG Chrono Trigger for the PlayStation prior to the release of its sequel, Chrono Cross. The updated version featured a brand new ending which tied the two games together, most notably a scene where Lucca finds a young infant wearing a pendant. The infant would later turn out to be Kid from Chrono Cross.

  • In online text-based roleplaying games, such as MUSHes, actions by players which are grossly against in-character facts, or established character personalities, may be retconned by administrators in order to maintain the flow of the game's continuity.

  • Metroid Zero Mission for Game Boy Advance essentially retcons the original Metroid for NES, explaining why Samus has a different Power Suit in the sequels. Likewise in order to make the series less dependent on the titular aliens, the word 'metroid' was retconned to mean 'ultimate warrior' in the Chozo language in the manual of Metroid Fusion for Game Boy Advance, which could thus signify Samus Aran herself instead of the lifeform.

  • In the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series Shadow the Hedgehog often has flashbacks which change from game to game, leaving the truth about what happened on the ARK 50 years ago a mystery. The situation is made worse by Shadow's fragmented memory/amnesia and many elements are changed or added, most notebly his reason of creation and who created him (In Sonic Adventure 2 it is said he was created by Pr.Gerald but in the game Shadow The Hedgehog it is "revealed" that he was created by Black Doom and Pr.Gerald).

  • The Art of Fighting video game series was originally intended to be a prequel to the first Fatal Fury, taking place ten years before. A younger version of Fatal Fury antagonist Geese Howard appears in Art of Fighting 2 as a hidden opponent. This was later changed with the King of Fighters, so that the characters from both series could co-exist in the same time period. The game Buriki One follows the original continuity of the Art of Fighting features an older Ryo Sakazaki (the protagonist of Art of Fighting) as the main character.

  • The WarCraft series experiences several retcons as the universe expands and the lore progresses. Many, such as the Orcs previously being an honorable and noble society as revealed in WarCraft III, are debatable, while other examples are more glaring. The newly announced Alliance race Draenei retconned the history of the Eredar. Originally the Eredar were a demonic race of space-faring warlocks who traveled to other worlds and conquered them under their rule, until they were stopped by the Titan Sargeras. Sargeras strived to try and understand the chaotic nature of the Eredar, and in despair, gave into darkness and freed the Eredar to create the Burning Legion. This original history was reversed, and it was instead Sargeras who corrupted a benevolent and peaceful Eredar society, and the Dranei were outcasts who refused to submit to Sargeras' will. The half orc Garona was also retconned from being half-orc and half-human to half-orc and half-dranei, since contact between orcs and humans was impossible prior to the events of WarCraft I.

  • Lara Croft's backstory biography, as set forth in the manuals of the first games has been deleted and altered in order to fit the story of the movies, which contradicted the original continuity.

  • In the original Mortal Kombat the character Kano was described as being an American who grew up in Japan. After his portrayal by the late Trevor Goddard in the 1995 live action film as Australian, Ed Boon and John Tobias were so impressed they re-wrote the character to be Australian in the games.

Ignored sequels in various media

  • In the second Highlander film it is revealed that the Immortals are aliens from the Planet Zeist, although no mention of this is made in the first film, and exposition as to the nature of "The Game" is inconsistent with the implications of the first film. These developments are largely ignored in the subsequent films, as well as the television series, which also retcon Connor's triumph in the original Highlander as merely a major victory, rather than the final battle of "The Game." A press briefing for the TV series referred to this, stating, "The origin of Immortals is not known and probably never will be (aliens from the planet Zeist? What aliens from the planet Zeist?)." Incidentally, the Renegade version of The Quickening further retcons the original out of existence, by having the Immortals come from Earth's past, not from another planet; reportedly, this is what the director originally wanted for the film, but financer bullying forced the Immortals' origin to be as they are in the normal version.

  • The Game Boy game Castlevania Legends featured the story of Sonia Belmont, and was originally set as the official beginning of the series timeline. However, when Koji Igarashi took over development of the series, he declared Legends (and several other games) non-canonical, essentially removing Sonia Belmont from the "Castlevania Timeline." This is still a topic of controversy within the Castlevania fanbase, especially since Igarashi later produced Lament of Innocence, which became the official start of the timeline.

  • The film Godzilla 1985 was made as a direct sequel to the first film in the series, retconning each of the fourteen films in between and paving the way for the quasi-returns of such characters as Mechagodzilla and King Ghidorah in the films following it. This was repeated with Godzilla 2000, which was also a direct sequel to the first film, and ignored all previous films. Following films, with one exception, were also direct sequels of the first film, and not G2000, or any others.

  • The OVA Macross II was the ostensive sequel to the seminal anime series Super Dimension Fortress Macross. However, it was created by Big West without the input of Studio Nue, the original Macross creators. This led Studio Nue to declare Macross II a "parallel-world story" and most fans consider it non-canon.

  • Head-On replaces Twisted Metal 3 and 4 in the Twisted Metal storyline, as said games were critically panned.

See also

Continuity (fiction) | Portmanteaus | Comic book terminology

Retcon | Retcon | Continuidade retroativa

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Retcon".

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