History Main / StealthSequel

* ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'': William Munny is [[Film/DollarsTrilogy the Man with No Name]], according to WordOfGod. It may be hard to believe that the fastest gunman in the west eventually ran out of baddies to kill, settled down and ended up as an arthritic old pig farmer who can barely shoot straight anymore. [[spoiler:[[BullyingADragon Until a stupid, fat town sheriff named Bill makes the mistake of crossing him]].]]

* WesternAnimation/DCAnimatedMovieUniverse:

* ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternBewareMyPower'' follows up on the end of the ''DC Showcase - ComicBook/AdamStrange'' short that came with ''WesternAnimation/DCShowcaseBatmanDeathInTheFamily''. Aside from Adam having an identical appearance (sporting a BeardOfSorrow and worn spacesuit) and backstory (losing his wife and child in a war between Rann and Thanagar) in both, the ending of the short has Adam entering a Zeta Beam and he makes his first appearance in the movie exiting a Zeta Beam onto a different planet.

* ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'': William Munny is [[Film/DollarsTrilogy the Man with No Name]], according to WordOfGod. It may be hard to believe that the fastest gunman in the west eventually ran out of baddies to kill, settled down and ended up as an arthritic old pig farmer who can barely shoot straight anymore. [[spoiler:[[BullyingADragon Until a stupid, fat town sheriff named Bill makes the mistake of crossing him]].]]
* The 1997 film adaptation of ''Series/McHalesNavy'' is initially framed as a modern take on the original series (which was a [[PeriodPiece period]] sitcom about a PT boat crew in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII), with the protagonist Quinton [=McHale=] reimagined as a (retired) modern-day US Navy officer living in the Caribbean. But it's eventually revealed that he's actually Quinton [=McHale=] '''Jr.''', the son of the protagonist of the original show. Creator/ErnestBorgnine shows up to reprise his old role as Quinton [=McHale=] Sr., who's now an admiral with the callsign "Cobra". Cobra's real name isn't revealed until near the end of the movie, which misled many viewers into believing that Borgnine's role was just a RemakeCameo.

* While not confirmed, ''WesternAnimation/PenguinsOfMadagascar'' ends in a way that seems to connect the events of the trilogy with the non-canonical [[WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar Nickelodeon cartoon]], heavily implyinh it's a Prequel to the show. [[spoiler: The Penguins abandon the Circus Zaragoza at the beginning and their last scene involves the Penguins flying around the Statue of Liberty (the show happens with the Penguins living in the Central Park Zoo), and King Julien uses his original crown in TheStinger, like he uses in the show but not in the sequels.]]

* ''Series/HowIMetYourFather'' was advertised as little more than a [[GenderFlip gender-flipped]] version of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother''. However at the end of the pilot, it is revealed that Sid and Jesse live in Ted, Marshall, and Lily's old apartment. The Captain and Becky later make cameos and in the finale, [[spoiler:Sophie meets Robin at the MacLaren's Pub.]]

* At first, it seemed like Gerard Way's run on ''Doom Patrol'' would be a reboot of the franchise, especially since it was the debut title of the Creator/YoungAnimal imprint and does not acknowledge the team's then-most-recent appearance in Geoff Johns' ''Justice League'' run. However, issue 3 makes it clear that both Grant Morrison and Keith Giffen's runs did indeed happen, by having Robotman reference events within those series.

** In ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'', it's eventually revealed that [[spoiler: [[BadFuture the Dark World Arc]] was a prequel to the main series the entire time. It's the original timeline where Twilight, after defeating an evil future version of herself and ascending into an Alicorn, eventually sacrificed herself to [[TomatoInTheMirror create Shining Armor and the Interviewers]], which [[ForWantOfANail split off the timeline]] and created an alternate universe where Discord was defeated a thousand years before he was in the BadFuture]].

* Creator/JackKirby managed to form an unofficial trilogy by connecting three different comics he made for separate publishers. He threw in some subtle hints that his ''ComicBook/NewGods'' series for Creator/DCComics was actually a DistantSequel to his run on ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'' over at Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}} (mainly establishing that the New Gods rose from the ashes of a previous pantheon, implied to be the ruins of a post-Ragnarok Asgard). In turn, his later, creator-owned series ''ComicBook/CaptainVictoryAndTheGalacticRangers'' was hinted to be a continuation to ''New Gods'' (establishing near the end that Captain Victory in his youth fled his home planet Hellikost to escape the influence of his grandfather Blackmass, which are both clearly Apokolips and Darkseid [[WritingAroundTrademarks renamed to avoid litigation from DC]], and heavily implying Captain Victory to be [[SpinOffspring the son of Orion]]).

* Creator/JackKirby threw in some subtle hints that his ''ComicBook/NewGods'' series for Creator/DCComics was actually a DistantSequel to his run on ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'' over at Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}}. And his later, creator-owned series ''ComicBook/CaptainVictoryAndTheGalacticRangers'' was clearly a [[LawyerFriendlyCameo lawyer-friendly sequel]] to the Fourth World books.

* ''Comicbook/Outsiders2023'' starts off looking like a Bat-book. It starts Kate Kane and Luke Fox, even if they do have a new mission to "catalog the unknown and manage the consequences", and it's named after a team usually led by Batman. But the ''next'' member of the team calls herself Drummer, and is referred to as "the fourth man", and their first mission involves rediscovering the long abandoned Carrier from ''Comicbook/Authority'', reminding us that the Creator/WildStorm universe was intergated into the DCU. The final panel reveals that Drummer does, in fact, have a copy of ''The Comicbook/{{Planetary}} Guide''.

* When Creator/PeterDavid first began work on ''ComicBook/FallenAngel'', there were some ''strong'' hints that it was actually a sequel to his previous ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' series, and that the heroine, "Lee," was actually Supergirl herself. This was changed when the series [[ChannelHop was moved from DC to IDW]], preventing any such revelation from ever occurring. A character named Lin was later introduced, and WordOfGod is that she's essentially a LawyerFriendlyCameo from the Linda Danvers version of Supergirl.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCupheadShow'' appears to be an AlternateUniverse of [[VideoGame/{{Cuphead}} the game]], as the boys meet the Devil in a different manner and certain characters have different backstories. However, the final episode ends with Cuphead (who hasn't learned anything about not being reckless) spotting the newly opened Devil's Casino and rushing towards it while Mugman and Chalice try to stop him, revealing that the show is actually a prequel to the game.