History Main / ExpansionPackPast

** ComicBook/LexLuthor also got an expanded past during UsefulNotes/TheSIlverAgeOfComicBooks when [[WordOfGod Jerry Siegel]] himself wrote that he had been a childhood friend of Superboy.

* ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy was essentially created by accident, with a writer taking stories involving a teenage Franchise/WonderWoman to be stories of Wonder Woman's little sister. Neal Adams then gave Dona a backstory, where she was rescued from a fire by Wonder Woman and taken back to Paradise Island where Hippolyta adopted her, to make her a proper character. This backstory was further expanded in ''ComicBook/WhoIsDonnaTroy'' which named her birth mother and explored how the toddler came to be in that fire at all.

->'''Adam:''' Does this remind you of when you used to count money for the mob?\\
'''Jamie:''' I was a hitman. I wasn't the money counter.
-->-- ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}''

* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': Detective Rosa Diaz is revealed to have gone to ballet school, medical school (for three years) and business school. She was a competitive gymnast, and has a pilot's licence. Somehow she fit all this in before attending the police academy at the same time as Jake Peralta, who is implied to be older than her (a sonic weapon which only affects under-35s is felt by her but not by him), and who seems to have no past more complicated than "grew up, became a cop".

* As a film character, for decades JamesBond would be a rather mysterious agent with very little background. The original novels did outline a sketchy Bond bio that the films would never bother acknowledging much for decades. Yet, even the earliest films would have flimsy elements to interconnect the film franchise, mainly the presence of Spectre during the SeanConnery / GeorgeLazenby era; Bond's marriage to Tracy in ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'', which would be referenced very fleetingly in a handful of the subsequent movies, the revelation of Bond's family motto in that same film (OHMSS would remain the most intimate portrayal of Bond for decades). Also, a few villains and allies would return for more than one film (for example Blofeld and Jaws, as well as Moneypenny and Felix Leiter). Still, every film essentially remained a self-contained movie with [[StatusQuoIsGod little to no background development for Bond]] until DanielCraig's tenure in the title role:

* This gets really excessive for the title character in the second season of ''Series/{{Angel}}''. While some of the things are understandable in that he has been a vampire for 200 years, and has had a soul for a hundred years, sometimes you wonder exactly what is consistent with his character. The best example is the fourth season, ''Orpheus'', which had a type of ItsAWonderfulPlot that actually explained some of what was going through his mind.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' was so successful that by the mid [[TheForties 40s]] he got his alternate ''Superboy'' story lines where the reader got to see adventures he had during his teenage years when he lived in Smallville with his foster parents the Kents and introduced Clark Kent's childhood friends Pete Ross and Lana Lang. A lot of the elements presented in the ''Superboy'' storylines became canon.

*** He found his Kryptonian super-pets, especially Krypto, the super-dog.

*** Clark Kent's Kryptonian roots: during the first decade of the Superman comic books, Supes had at best a very nebulous idea of his origins. Only in the late 40s did he learn his extraterrestrial past for sure. From then on, the comics kept elaborating on this theme.

** LexLuthor also got an expanded past during UsefulNotes/TheSIlverAgeOfComicBooks when [[WordOfGod Jerry Siegel]] himself wrote that he had been a childhood friend of Superboy.

*** Other Superman villains also got a dose of this trope during both the classic and the PostCrisis eras such as the Prankster who under John Byrne's revanmp became a disgruntled former TV star driven to crime by Morgan Edge who fired him from his show.
*** {{Brainiac}} became so popular during the Silver Age that got his background expanded quite fast. At first another alien invading Earth, later appearances would explain he had a centuries long lifespan, that he came from dead planet Bryak and he's trying to repopulate it, hence the city-shrinking mania he has. Then Bryak got changed to Colu. Later it was explained that he was actually a robot.

** Following this, ''Film/QuantumOfSolace' would build up on the events of ''Casino Royale'', with Bond looking for closure over [[spoiler: Vesper Lind]]'s death, searching for her employers and killers.

* As a film character, for decades JamesBond would be a rather mysterious agent with very little background. The original novels did outline a sketchy Bond bio that the films would never bother acknowledging much for decades. Yetr, even the earliest films would have flimsy elements to interconnect the film franchise, mainly the presence of Spectre during the Sean Connery / George Lazenby era; Bond's marriage to Tracy in ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'', which would be referenced very fleetingly in a handful of the subsequent movies, the revelation of Bond's family motto in that same film (which would remain the most intimate portrayal of Bond for decades). Also, a few villains and allies would return for more than one film (for example Blofeld and Jaws, as well as Moneypenny and Felix Leiter). Still, every film would remained a self-contained movie with [[StatusQuoIsGod little to no background development for Bond]] until DanielCraig's tenure in the title role:

** Season C newcomer Del Tarrant claimed that he was trained as a Federation captain, then worked as a smuggler and mercenary before taking part in the battle against the AlienInvasion from Andromeda. Unfortunately when this BackStory was written, the character was meant to be played by an actor at least ten years older than Steven Pacey. It's handwaved by a suggestion that Tarrant is lying about some of it, and an AlternateCharacterInterpretation is that he deserted from the Federation military during the battle and is trying to appear more acceptable to the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits gang of rebels and ex-criminals]] he finds himself in with.
** Dayna Mellanby was raised in isolation with only her father and step-sister for company. In "Animals", she's required to have a NewOldFlame, a private tutor called in to educate her. Unfortunately this StudentTeacherRomance has distinctly creepy overtones once you do the math. As with Tarrant, this came about because the script was originally written for an older crewmember (Cally, who left the series).

* This gets really excessive for the title character in the second season of ''Series/{{Angel}}''. While some of the things are understandable in that he has been a vampire for 200 years, and has had a soul for a hundred years, sometimes you wonder exactly what is consistent with his character. The best example is the fourth season, ''Orpheus'', which had a type of ItsAWonderfulPlot that actually explained some of what was going through his mind.

** LexLuthor also got an expanded past during TheSIlverAgeOfComicBooks when [[WordOfGod Jerry Siegel]] himself wrote that he had been a childhood friend of Superboy.

*** After InfiniteCrisis, Lana Lang got two previously unacknowledged brothers who got in the way of the Clark/Lana relationship..

* LexLuthor also got an expanded past when [[WordOfGod Jerry Siegel]] himself wrote that he had been a childhood friend of Superboy.
** Then, after the John Byrne reboot he was a CorruptCorporateExecutive who was Perry White's childhood friend and killed his own parents for the insurance money.

** For example, he was made an honorary member of the ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' as a teenager.
** And becoming pals with a teenager Bruce Wayne!
** He found his Kryptonian super-pets, especially Krypto, the super-dog.
** Then he also got a college girlfriend named Lori Lemaris.
** Clark Kent's Kryptonian roots: during the first decade of the Superman comic books, Supes had at best a very nebulous idea of his origins. Only in the late 40s did he learn his extraterrestrial past for sure. From then on, the comics kept elaborating on this theme.

*** After InfiniteCrisis, Lana Lang got two previously unacknowledged brothers.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' was so successful that by the mid [[TheForties 40s]] he got his alternate ''Superboy'' story lines where the reader got to see adventures he had during his teenage years when he lived in Smallville with his foster parents the Kents and introduced Clark Kent's childhood friends Pete Ross and Lana Lang.
** He was also made an honorary member of the ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' as a teenager.

*** For example, Clark worked as a dishwasher to pay for college, becoming involved with a waitress. Plus he also spent a few months in a monastery in RedChina.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' was so successful that by the mid [[TheForties 40s]] he got his alternate ''Superboy'' story lines where the reader got to see adventures he had during his teenage years when he lived with his foster parents the Kents and introduced Clark Kent's childhood friends Pete Ross and Lana Lang.

* As a film character, for decades JamesBond would be a rather mysterious agent with very little background. The original novels however, would outline a sketchy Bond bio that the films would never bother acknowledging much for decades. However, even the earliest films would have flimsy elements to interconnect the film franchise, mainly the presence of Spectre during the Sean Connery / George Lazenby era, and Bond's marriage to Tracy in ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'', which would be referenced very fleetingly in a handful of the subsequent movies, the revelation of Bond's family motto in that same film (which would remain the most intimate portrayal of Bond for decades). Also, a few villains and allies would return for more than one film (for example Blofeld and Jaws, as well as Moneypenny and Felix Leiter). Still, every film would remained a self-contained movie with [[StatusQuoIsGod little to no background development for Bond]] until DanielCraig's tenure in the title role:
** In 2006 ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'' would be the first film to refer to Bond's childhood and early youth when Vesper Lind performs an armor piercing SherlockScan on Bond.

* As a film character, for decades JamesBond would be a rather mysterious agent with very little background. The original novels however, would outline a sketchy Bond bio that the films would never bother acknowledging much for decades. However, even the earliest films would have flimsy elements to interconnect the film franchise, mainly the presence of Spectre during the Sean Connery / George Lazenby era, and Bond's marriage to Tracy in ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'', which would be referenced very fleetingly in a handful of the subsequent movies, the revelation of Bond's family motto in that same film (which would remain the most intimate portrayal of Bond for decades). Also, a few villains and allies would return for more than one film (for example Blofeld and Jaws, as well as Moneypenny and Felix Leiter). Still, every Bond film would remained a self-contained movie until DanielCraig's tenure in the title role:

* The JamesBond film franchise:
** As a film character, for decades Bond would be a rather mysterious agent with very little background. The original novels however, would outline a sketchy Bond bio that the films would never bother acknowledging for decades. This started to change during DanielCraig's tenure in the title role:

** ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' would up the ante by not only delving deeper into Bond's past but also by relating his childhood with the BigBad himself, for the first time making Bond's youth and past an important plot point.