Early-Bird Cameo: Difference between revisions

'''Note:''' This [[Trope]] has been subjected to some misuse. Please read this article before listing it!

 

 

Another definition is when characters who will appear in a soon-to-be-made future work make a cameo appearance in a currently-made one. Thus, you see the character without knowing the character's importance, then years later, the character becomes important in their own work as a sort of cross-series [[Chekhov's Gunman]]. This does not include instances of [[Ensemble Darkhorse]], however, which is when a character becomes so popular that [[Breakout Character|they stand a good chance of getting their own work.]] (In other words, this has to be an intentional early appearance.)

 

{{examples}}

== Type 1: Hey, It's That Character ==

* In the first episode of ''[[Naruto]]'', all the members of the Rookie Nine are seen lined up for the Henge Jutsu evaluation. Sakura and Sasuke are even shown going before Naruto. In the manga, Sakura and Sasuke aren't shown clearly until a few chapters later (you ''can'' see Sasuke in the background of one panel though), after Naruto becomes a Genin, and the rest aren't introduced until the Chunin Exam arc.

** Some of the dialogue is changed, as Shikamaru and Ino replace the generic students who complain about Naruto's mischief causing them to be tested on Transformation, and Shikamaru wondering why Naruto is among the graduates when they are assigned to teams, when both had been done by generic students who presumably went on to fail their Genin exams. In Episode 3, a few of the teachers appear while observing Naruto and Sasuke in the classroom, including Kurenai, who is incredibly [[Off-Model]], has the red and white on her outfit reversed, and has a [[The Other Darrin|different voice actor for that episode]].

* One episode of ''[[Outlaw Star]]'' features two apparent one-shot characters who went on to play significant roles in ''[[Angel Links]]''.

 

* When ''[[Tintin]] In The Congo'' was turned into colour, Thomson and Thompson were added into the scene where he is saying goodbye to everyone on the railway platform (they were not present in the original black and white edition). The pair made their first proper appearance in ''Cigars Of The Pharaoh''.

* Certain random background Legionaires were changed into Brainiac 5 when early ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' stories were reprinted, by simply recolouring them to Brainy's colours (purple clothes, green skin, blonde hair).

* In the ''[[Mega Man (comics)|Mega Man]]'' comic, the ''Short Circuits'' in issue 4 had Proto Man, Rush, Bass, and Treble showing up, demanding their turn in the comic.

 

* In ''[[Project Tatterdemalion]]'', a ''[[Bleach]]'' AU in which Hollows are the result of [[The Virus]] and shinigami those of its vaccine, a pre-Hollow Nel gets a brief cameo as a coworker of Ichigo's parents who was infected—well before the introduction of Arrancar, or indeed any version of the events of ''Bleach'' canon.

 

* This can be seen in several super-hero movies wherein pre-transformed allies, sidekicks, or villains may make an appearance, whereas in the comics, their first appearance included said transformation. Billy Dee Williams as pre-Two-Face Harvey Dent in [[Tim Burton]]'s ''[[Batman (film)|Batman]]'' (though the former was [[The Other Darrin|replaced]] by [[Tommy Lee Jones]] by the time he actually became Two-Face).

** The producers of ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'' originally wanted the DA in the first movie to be Dent, but decided they couldn't give him time to properly develop so they came up with another character instead. This, unfortunately, led the filmmakers to stridently avoid this trope.

* In the film version of ''Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' at the end we hear Aunt Alberta call up "Jill Pole's stopped by for a visit". Jill becomes an important character in the next story ''The Silver Chair''.

 

* The ''[[Warcraft]]'' novels ''Tides of Darkness'' and ''Beyond the Dark Portal'', novelizations of the [[Real Time Strategy]] ''Warcraft II'' and its expansion respectively, have this in spades, not only featuring characters from that time period that were only introduced in ''Warcraft III'' and beyond, but also updating the story itself in the light of retcons and heavy additions to the canon in later games. They're almost "the Second War as seen through the prism of ''[[World of Warcraft]]''". Let's just say that the flashback in ''The Frozen Throne'' in which Gul'dan wanders into the Tomb of Sargeras is recited almost verbatim in the first book, and Auchindoun plays a much more extended role in the second, along with the introduction of the "new" draenei.

* Those [[Doctor Who Novelisations]] that were published some years after the TV story was broadcast sometimes added in references to later stories. For instance, in the novelisation of ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S8/E01 Terror of the Autons|Terror of the Autons]]'', the bomb that the hypnotised Professor Philips uses to try to kill the Doctor and Jo was retconned into a [[Doctor Who/Recap/S11/E01 The Time Warrior|Sontaran]] hand grenade. And there's the notorious line in the novelisation of ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S2/E09 The Time Meddler|The Time Meddler]]'' where the Doctor refers to the Monk as a Gallifreyan, leading fans who relied on the novelisations to believe that the Doctor's home planet had been named eight years earlier than it was on TV.

 

* In ''[[Power Rangers Jungle Fury]]'' The main villain Dai Shi shows up in the fist episode. Much earlier than his ''[[Juken Sentai Gekiranger]]'' counterpart {{spoiler|Long}} who doesn't show up until {{spoiler|halfway through}} and isn't revealed as the villain until near the end.

* ''[[I, Claudius]]'' did this in combining the novels ''I, Claudius'' and ''Claudius the God''—a large part of the latter discusses Claudius' childhood friend and ally Herod Agrippa, despite the fact he is absent for much of the former, even though it is about this period of Claudius' life. For this reason, the television series introduces Herod as a character long before Claudius becomes emperor.

* ''[[True Blood]]'' has done this with a number of characters and concepts, most notably Sophie-Anne, the vampire queen of Louisiana, who has a cameo in season two of the series but isn't introduced until the sixth book. The last episode of season two also raises the question of "what" Sookie is, something that isn't asked, much less answered, until the later books.

 

* The [[Royal Shakespeare Company]] is fond of doing this to Launcelot Gobbo, the [[The Fool|"fool"]] from ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]''. The 1999-1994 run (with Christopher Luscombe in the role) combined the two "Prince of Morocco" scenes, so that Launcelot's first appearance came directly after the scene in which the bond is agreed to. He was depicted doing odd jobs around Shylock's office (preparing coffee and rearranging files) until the others exited, at which point he suddenly stepped out and gave his monologue—probably quite a surprise to audience members who thought he was just an extra! The current run gives him an even earlier cameo—the show's setting has been transposed to Las Vegas, and there's an Elvis impersonator walking around singing appropriate music. Guess who he turns out to be...

* ''[http://angevin2.livejournal.com/148520.html The Things I Will Not Do When I Direct A Shakespeare Production, On Stage Or Film]'', #225: "I will not incorporate an ominous witch-doctor woman into ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', having her stalk the streets of Verona until she's finally revealed as the apothecary."

 

* In the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' case "Rise from the Ashes" (inserted at the end of the first game when it was updated from the Gameboy to the DS), Gumshoe gives Edgeworth a menu from a French restaurant that's just opened. You have to squint a little, since the pictures is tiny, but the man on the menu is Jean Armstrong. Armstrong and his French restaurant don't show up until the third game.

** Then again, in Japan, they've got the first four cases of the first game, and the two other games as the Gyakuten Saiban trilogy for the GBA. The fifth case was added in the DS remake, which came later, hence his apparition.

* In the ''Anniversary'' remake of ''[[Halo]]'', 343 Guilty Spark is introduced in a terminal message where he warns you that your ship is getting too close to the ring. The rest of the terminals delve into his backstory.

 

* In ''[[Sailor Moon CS]]'', Minako can be seen briefly in issue 4.

** A Miss Meioh appears in issue 2.

** {{spoiler|The rainbow crystals and associated youma appear earlier than they did in the anime}}.

 

* In the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (TV series)|Legion of Super Heroes]]'' cartoon, before he joined the Legion and coined his superhero name in The Substitutes, Matter-Eater Lad was a competitor in the Space Olympics episode "Champions." The other, rejected [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|lame-power applicants]] also showed up in Lightning Storm for comic relief. Ultra Boy makes his first appearance as a competitor in Champions, as well.

* ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'' established Harvey Dent as Gotham's DA and a friend of Bruce Wayne in two episodes before he has the accident that melts his face off.

** Also, a girl seen at the school dance in the seventh episode later becomes a recurring character in the second season: Sha Shan, Flash Thompson's would-be-girlfriend.

* Both animated versions of ''[[Horton Hears a Who!]]'' could actually be this to the Grinch, since the book both animations were based on predated the book version of ''[[How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (novel)|How the Grinch Stole Christmas]]''.

 

== Type 2: Sneak Peeks ==

* In the first ever episode of ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'', Ash catches a glimpse of a large golden bird flying through a rainbow. That bird was only revealed with the arrival of the second generation as Ho-oh, a legendary bird Pokémon; his colors changed a lot since then. It is actually a habit within the franchise to show a new Pokémon specimen in the anime or in movies before it's actually available in the current games. Togepi, Marill (and its pre-evolution Azurill), Snubbull, Kecleon, Lucario and Munchlax are only few examples of this phenomenon.

** For non-character examples: the first movie's [[Big Bad]], Mewtwo, uses Shadow Ball, a generation before it's introduced. Likewise, Green from ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' also had Pokémon who know 2nd generation moves and used them in the RGB saga, again before the 2nd generation introduces them.

* ''[[Zone of the Enders]]: IDOLO'' was created as a prequel OAV to the [[PlayStation 2]] game ''Zone of the Enders''. In it, scientist Rachel Links looks at a [[Fatal Family Photo]] of her estranged husband and children, reflecting that she wished she could seem them again. It is a small scene in the OAV, but the full-length series that came after centered on her husband James trying to reconcile with their children and seek her out.

 

* In the ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' graphic novels, Sparrow Redhouse makes a brief cameo in a season one issue, about two years before her proper debut in the "Rebellion" story arc (which also [[retcon]]ned an unnamed, masked extra from the TV series as being her).

* The Protectobots, Aerialbots, Stunticons, and Combaticons in the [[Marvel]] ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' comic first appeared in Buster Witwiky's dream in a UK [[Filler]] story before their proper debut in the US comic.

** [[Batman|Barbara Gordon Batgirl]] had a similar story.

 

* ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'' aided in a fairly important battle in ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'''s first movie before his series premiered.

** What's more, he came out of nowhere, single-handedly defeated the [[Big Bad]] (who was whomping two Riders who could ''singlehandedly destroy a single universe''), and then left. The other riders compacted on that with their own [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], but still, ain't that application of [[The Worf Effect]] taking promotions too far? (As further evidence, when Double joins up for Decade's final battle in the ''Decade'' [[Grand Finale]] movie, he's been brought down to saner power levels.)

* The obscure made-for-TV film ''Cucumber Castle'', based on the Bee Gees' song of the same title and starring Barry and Maurice Gibb, features an appearance by a familiar-faced child - Andy Gibb, then ten years old.

 

* In the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'' the character Soontir Fel appears in the second book of the ''[[The Han Solo Trilogy]]'' after author A. C. Crispin asked fellow EU author [[Michael Stackpole]] if there were any Imperial aces who would fit timeline wise. Stackpole just happened to have one planned for his next work.

 

* Played with in ''[[Witchblade (TV series)|Witchblade]]'': Gabriel Bowman is first introduced in the third episode of season one (not counting the pilot movie); then, in the second season premiere, which is a same-but-different retread of the events of the pilot, he's shown to have been present at the shootout in the museum, and ends up meeting Sara a lot earlier than he did the first time. Which would make him a kind of [[Destined Bystander]] as well.

* The titular character of ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' actually first appeared in a stop-motion skit featured in ''[[Sesame Street]]''.

** Cookie Monster actually made his first appearance in a skit featured in ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]'' (which itself was based on an old instructional film by IBM), where he is shown taking a machine apart piece-by-piece and eating it, only to realize that doing so will cause the machine to self-destruct within his body, causing him to explode. And for some reason, this version of Cookie Monster has fangs, while the one in ''Sesame Street'' does not.

 

* The liner notes for [[Guns N' Roses]]' ''Appetite for Destruction'' include the lyric "With your bitch slap rapping and your cocaine tongue you get nothing done", a lyric for "You Could Be Mine" (which was recorded in their next album). Also, the notes for ''Use Your Illusion I'' have "Ain't It Fun?", the title of a song they covered in ''The Spaghetti Incident?''.

* [[My Chemical Romance]]'s debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, Your Brought Me Your Love, have the french phrase [[Gratuitous French|"Merci pour le venin"]] written on the liner notes. It is the french title of "Thank You For The Venom", a song appearing on their second album, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge.

* Early copies of [[Radiohead]]'s ''Kid A'' included an extra booklet behind the CD tray as an [[Easter Egg]]. Some of the cryptic text included in said booklet turned out to be lyrics to songs that would appear on ''Amnesiac'', which was recorded during the same sessions.

 

* [[CM Punk]] appears as one of the gangsters in John Cena's entrance at ''[[Wrestlemania]] 22''.

* Before he got his "Irish" gimmick in 2006, Dave Finlay was the Divas' trainer and made occasional appearances at WWE events as a nameless official. Watch the part of the 2005 ''Royal Rumble'' in which [[Shawn Michaels]] eliminates [[Kurt Angle]] in less than a minute. Angle retaliates by [[Disproportionate Retribution|reentering the ring, eliminating Michaels in turn, and then violently whaling on him]]. Several referees and other enforcer characters run out to subdue Angle, and one of them is Finlay.

* Before debuting his [[Evil Foreigner]] gimmick in 2003, French-Canadian wrestler Sylvan Grenier was supposedly a WWE referee tasked with mediating the rematch between [[Hulk Hogan]] and [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] at that year's ''No Way Out'' (which, appropriately enough, was being held in Grenier's hometown of Montreal, Canada). This is an unusual example in that Grenier was here referred to by name by the commentary team, and his behavior in the course of the match was actually his [[Start of Darkness]] and even carried over to ''WrestleMania XIX'' the following month!

 

 

* Three examples from [[Disney Theme Parks]]. ''[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]]'s Castle'' was opened in Disneyland several years before the movie. ''It's Tough To Be A Bug'', starring Flik and featuring Hopper, was introduced at the Animal Kingdom several months before ''[[A Bug's Life]]'' opened. Finally, ''Countdown to Extinction'' featured Aladar and a Carnotaurus about two years before ''[[Dinosaur]]'' premiered, at which point the attraction was renamed after the movie.

 

** Sunstorm and Acid Storm originally appeared as unnamed Seeker jets in ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'', and didn't get toys and names until the ''Universe'' toyline two decades later.

 

* ''[[Nippon Ichi]]'': Asagi might be the ultimate example of this. Of course, we don't know if she's ever actually going to GET her own game or if Nippon Ichi [[Running Gag|is just screwing around.]]

* While we're on the topic of [[Nippon Ichi]], it's probably no coincidence that ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'' will be getting a PSP [[Updated Rerelease|remake]] after Overlord Zetta's cameo in ''[[Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten|Disgaea 4]]'', which is the first time since ''Makai Kingdom'' that he has actually appeared in humanoid form. The new character from the remake, Petta, will appear in ''Disgaea 4'' as [[Downloadable Content]].

* Lumi, the [[Virtual Ghost|virtual]] [[Damsel in Distress]] of ''[[Child of Eden]]'', previously appeared in ''[[Lumines]] II'' in late 2006, which also featured "Heavenly Star", the debut song of Genki Rockets, the semi-fictional band that Lumi is the "singer" of.

 

* Occurs from time to time in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]''. Friends and relatives of characters from previous versions occasionally appear in the game, usually having been mentioned in said previous version. One of the most notable examples of this trope, though, would be Yelizaveta "Bounce" Volkova, who first appeared as a character in the In-Universe chatroom, and then made an official appearance in v4.

* In [[Trinton Chronicles]] the villains known as ''Trinity'' make a minor appearance at the end of Fantasia before becoming the villains of the next story. By that same token, a character from another furry-based game called Arcadia makes her pre-Trinton appearance here before plopping into [[Trinton Chronicles]] two years later.

* 'The lame girl with the spirit of the ''squirrel'' ' was a throwaway line in some early [[Whateley Universe]] stories. Then she was a weak character in some of the Phase stories, where she was in Phase's aikido class and gained the name Aquerna. Now she's had a vignette, a novel, a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]], and a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]].

 

* [[Pixar]] started doing this in ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]'', where we see Boo holding [[Toy Story (franchise)||Jessie]], the ball from ''[[Pixar Shorts|Luxo Jr.]]'' and... [[Finding Nemo|Nemo]], who only debuted 2 years later). Every Pixar feature since has featured a Sneak Peek.

** Nemo also appears in ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]'' as a fresco in the sushi restaurant.

** Similarly, in its second season, [[Marsupilami]] frequently appeared in The Disney Afternoon's commercial bumpers a year before Disney released his cartoons.

* Five years before the first episode of ''[[South Park]]'' aired creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone made a short film called ''The Spirit of Christmas'', which was made using construction paper and had prototypical and mostly unnamed versions of the show's main characters. Two years later they made another ''Spirit of Christmas'', this time with the show's main characters properly named, characterised and recogniseable and also added Wendy Testaburger as an unnamed, non-speaking cameo.

* The elephants from Disney's ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]'' actually all made their first appearances in [[Miscellaneous Disney Shorts|the 1960 animated short]] ''Goliath II''. The designs for the short's titular character and his father Goliath I were even recycled for those of Hathi Jr. and his father Colonel Hathi, as well as the scene where the elephants actually all [[Human Traffic Jam|pile up on top of one another.]]

* The circus locomotive from ''[[Dumbo]]'' actually first appeared in the Disney animated short ''[[The Reluctant Dragon]]'', where he is portrayed as pulling a passenger train (as opposed to a circus train) only to end up in a railway accident while attempting to jump a broken bridge during a thunderstorm. His ''Reluctant Dragon'' incarnation looked slightly different than the one in ''Dumbo'': his drive rods are connected to the forward drive wheels, he was longer in appearance, and there was a bell on his roof. However in ''Dumbo'', his drive rods are now connected to his hind drive wheels, he is now shorter and stockier in appearance, and his bell is nowhere to be seen, implying that he was actually overhauled during his repair between the two films.

 

== Both types 1 and 2 ==

** In the first film, Rhodey looks at the MK II armor, and says "Next time, baby!" He wears an upgraded version of that armor in the sequel.

*** [[The Infinity Gauntlet]] is visible in Odin's trophy room/weapon vault. Later ''Avengers'' films show what can be done with it in the [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]].