Tommy Merlyn and John Diggle in Arrow, though both have since become Canon Immigrants in the New 52. Diggle eventually turns out to be the Arrowverse's equivalent of John Stewart.
General Astra, who is Kara's biological aunt and the show's Big Bad for the first half of Season 1.
Recurring Extra Agent Susan Vasquez doesn't exist in the comics.
Legends of Tomorrow has Time Bureau agents Ava Sharpe and Gary Green, who don't exist in any DC Comics continuity and are entirely original to the Arrowverse.
Season 6 adds new Legend Esperanza "Spooner" Cruz, also original to the show.
In the comics Lois and Clark only have one child, Jonathan. In the series, he has a twin brother, Jordan.note This originated in the Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019) Series/Arrowverse crossover event, where Lois and Clark start the special with just Jonathan on Earth 3 and end up with twins in the newly-rebooted Earth Prime, Overlaps with Decomposite Character, since Jordan has the powers and dark hair of Jonathan's comic book counterpart.
Kyle Cushing, Lana Lang's husband. In the comics she married (and was later seperated from) Pete Ross.
A fair number of villains in Batman (1966), such as Egghead, Siren, Archer, Black Widow (not that one), Chandel, and Nora Clavicle. A few of them like Bookworm and King Tut became Canon Immigrants.
Battlestar Galactica (2003): President Laura Roslin is a wholly original character for this series. President Adar, her closest counterpart in Battlestar Galactica (1978), is killed offscreen early in the opening miniseries (and only appears later in a flashback) to make way for Roslin as the civilian leader.
The Boys (2019): There are many characters added to the show who were not present in the comics, including Translucent (who replaces Jack from Jupiter in The Seven), Ezekiel (who replaces Oh Father), Mesmer, Doppelganger, Frenchie's girlfriend, and Starlight's mother (who was only briefly mentioned in the comics).
In Dickensian, where nearly all the characters were created by Charles Dickens, exceptions are Henry Barbary, the father of Miss Barbary from Bleak House and Fanny Biggetywitch who, barring a shock reveal trailer, appears to be entirely original.
Cliff Steele and Larry Trainor are given wives and children that they never had in the comics. Also exclusive to the continuity of the live-action show are Cliff's daughter-in-law Mel and grandson Rory as well as Larry's grandson, great-grandson and his male lover John Bowers.
One of the more significant examples is Slava, an immortal cavewoman and lover of Niles Caudler who is established as Dorothy Spinner's mother. In the comics, Dorothy Spinner was not related to The Chief and the only information given about her parentage was that John Arcudi's run retconned Mr. and Mrs. Spinner as being her adoptive parents and stated that her biological mother was still alive, but for unexplained reasons could not reunite with her daughter.
Dorothy Spinner's imaginary friends in the show include a giant talking spider named Herschel and a wolf/bear hybrid with antlers named Manny, neither of whom existed in the source material.
Dracula (2013): Lady Jayne never appears in any original material. However, she's possibly the first of Dracula's "brides", given some of her traits.
Reed Strucker and his wife and kids in The Gifted (2017). In a unique example, while they don't exist in the comics, they are related to actual comic characters. It is eventually revealed in the first season that Reed is the grandson of Andreas von Strucker, one half of the mutant duo Fenris.
Fish Mooney on Gotham is a created-for-TV character. A number of the show's criminals are new, in fact, so that Batman's entire Rogues Gallery won't get a 15 year head start on him.
Fish's dragon Butch Gilzean started as this, until it is revealed that he is this universe's version of Cyrus Gold aka Solomon Grundy.
The Hexer: The series provides a set of unique characters that never got mentioned in the books, including, among others, Old Witcher, female witcher Adela, renegade witcher Dermot Marranga, Thornwald, witcher trainees Gascaden and Clovis, Klef, Osbert and Sorel – teachers from Kaer Morhen and priest Jarrow.
Interview with the Vampire (2022): Season 1 characters that are unique to the TV adaptation include Finn O'Shea, Doris, Alderman Fenwick, Bricktop Williams, Father Matthias, Miss Carol, Tom Anderson, Jelly Roll Morton, Lily, Levi Freniere, Mr. Carlo, Damek, Jonah Macon, Charlie, Chief Bardeen, and Deputy Habersham.
Kamen Rider Decade is mostly a Crisis Crossover focused on alternate universe versions of each of the nine previous Heisei Riders, all of whom have the same costumes and powers as the originals but possess wildly different civilian identities. It also introduces Kivala, a Distaff Counterpart of Kivat from Kamen Rider Kiva, and the AU version of Kamen Rider Ryuki features a new Rider in that show's style, Kamen Rider Abyss.
Kamen Rider Zi-O is another crossover like Decade, but this time with the original Riders reprising their roles. That doesn't stop this trope from coming into play, though: a section in the middle of the show features a group of Riders who come from shows that will allegedly be made in the future.
A lot of the films introduce new characters (and sometimes even new Riders) who never appear in the TV shows proper. A few of them like Kamen Rider Skull and Kamen Rider Nadeshiko have at least managed to appear in more than one movie.
On Lockwood & Co. (2023), Sergeant Wade is a new character for the TV series and seems to be the direct subordinate of Inspector Montagu Barnes. The Golden Blade is apparently a new character, but serves much the same role as Rupert Gale from the novels.
All Elves who aren't named Galadriel, Elrond, Gil-galad, and Celebrimbor, with a few others like Finrod in the backstory.
Halbrand, a shipwrecked man who follows Galadriel. Averted when it's revealed he's Sauron.
Elendil has a daughter, Eärien, in addition to his two sons Isildur and Anárion.
Pharazôn is given a son named Kemen.
Everyone in Arondir and Bronwyn's subplot, including the place names. Which makes sense since all the villages in the Southlands will be wiped out when the land becomes Mordor.
All of the Harfoots.
All Dwarves who aren't named Durin.
All evil creatures or beings who aren't Sauron or his master Morgoth or the Balrog.
The meteor man seems to be one but has been repeatedly hinted by the show people to be a Canon Character All Along, most likely Gandalf.
Pretty much everyone in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. except for Coulson (who is a Canon Immigrant) and Victoria Hand. Even the Freak Of The Week villains tend to be mostly new characters. In fact, one of the most frequent criticisms of the show is that it's marketed as a Marvel Comics show, despite mostly using original characters.
Melinda May and the others are now officially Canon Immigrants thanks to the S.H.I.E.L.D. series Marvel is putting out.
The show has also moved away from the heavy use of Canon Foreigners in response to the criticism from fans. Characters like Deathlok and Blizzard debuted in the latter half of Season 1, while other comic characters like Mockingbird and Absorbing Man began appearing in Season 2, with more comic characters following in the subsequent episodes.
Subverted with Skye, who—after a season's worth of being this—turned out to be the cinematic universe's version of Daisy Johnson, aka Quake.
Agent Carter has several, such as SSR agents Daniel Sousa, Jack Thompson and Ray Krzeminski, along with waitress and friend of Peggy's, Angie Martinelli. The most prominent addition is Dottie Underwood, a villainous assassin who was trained by the Black Widow program. While she shares similarities to comic-based Black Widows such as Natalia Romanova and Yelena Belova, Dottie herself was created specifically for the show.
Foggy Nelson's girlfriend Marci Stahl is an all-new character created just for the show. Although she has a similar role to Deborah Harris, Foggy's girlfriend and later wife in the comics, she's a much different person from Debbie.
Mitchell Ellison, editor-in-chief of the New York Bulletin, is the equivalent of J. Jonah Jameson.
District Attorney Samantha Reyes in season 2, has no comics counterpart, unlike her subordinate and successor Blake Tower, who is.
Ray Nadeem in season 3 has no comics counterpart.
This applies to a large number of the supporting and minor characters in Jessica Jones, such as Hope, Jessica's annoying neighbors Robyn and Ruben, and Jeri Hogarth's girlfriend Pam. Many of Jessica's clients also tend to be original characters. Subverted with Will Simpson, as he initially seems like this, only to turn out to be the supervillain Nuke all alongnote He's named Frank Simpson in the comics. The change of first name ostensibly hides the plot twist, and also was done ostensibly to avoid confusion with Frank Castle, who was about to make his debut in season 2 of Daredevil.
In season 2, Pryce Cheng, Inez Green, and Oscar Arocho are entirely new characters invented for the show.
Except for Cottonmouth himself, Hernan "Shades" Alvarez, and Mariah Dillard, all of Cottonmouth's gang is comprised of original characters, such as Zip, Tone, Chico, Shameek, and Dante.
Neither Bobby Fish nor Pop had comics equivalents either.
Outside of Misty Knight and Rafael Scarfe, all of the NYPD characters are also original ones, too, from Misty's forensics friend Bailey to her boss Inspector Priscilla Ridley.
The Punisher: Dinah Madani, Sam Stein, and the rest of the Homeland Security cast are all original characters. Elsewhere, Lewis Wilson, a member of Curtis Hoyle's support group, has no comics counterpart, although his bombing rampage bears markings of the comics Nuke.
Karli Morgenthau is loosely based on the original Flag-Smasher from the comics (albeit as a woman), but the rest of the Flag Smashers were created for the show.
Dr. Raynor, Bucky's therapist, also has no comic counterpart. The same goes for Yori, the man whose son Bucky murdered.
The show gives John Walker a wife named Olivia. In the comics, Walker has never been married.
Jen's best friend and paralegal Nikki Ramos was invented for the show.
Donny Blaze is the only Villain of the Week with no comic equivalent. All of the others are extreme deep-cut characters. His name does sound suspiciously similar to Johnny Blaze, but that's where the similarities end.
The Big BadHulkKing as well as his civilian identity Todd Phelps are not existing characters. The organization Intelligencia is from the comics, but it's a collection of Marvel's smartest supervillains rather than a misogynistic anti-super internet forum.
Gaius plays the mentor role now that Merlin himself is a teenager. In some accounts Merlin did have a mentor named Blaise, but for whatever reason they decided not to use him, probably due to a lack of recognition. It would've been easier to just make up a character than use a pre-existing one most of the audience would've assumed was a canon foreigner anyway.
Sir Leon, who became an Ascended Extra following the actor Rupert Young's popularity with the main cast, is the only one of the five main knights who has no basis in Arthurian legend.
Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation introduced a lot of characters that weren't featured in any previous incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and, given co-creator Peter Laird's hatred of the show and the show's overall infamous reception, aren't likely to appear in any of Nickelodeon's adaptations any time soon. The most notorious example of all, however, would be the fifth female turtle Venus de Milo.
The Framing Device segments of The Noddy Shop introduced many new characters that didn't exist in the Noddy stories by Enid Blyton. Every character in the show who wasn't from the Noddy's Toyland Adventures segments could be considered this, from the humans to the toys and antiques that lived in the titular shop.
Odd Squad: While OddTube is mostly comprised of characters from the show, one character, Amanda, was created solely for the web series.
It's a similar story for the eighteen agents featured in the Odd Squadcast, a podcast based on the TV show. Like Amanda, none of them make any physical appearances in the show, nor in any other Odd Squad-related media. The only characters who are featured in both the podcast and the show are the Big O, Oona, Coach O, Delivery Doug, and Red Fred.
The Plot Against America: In this adaptation of the original novel, the character of Bess and Evelyn's mother was added to represent the generation who actually came to America and raised families in their new home. Her funeral makes note of this.
Pennyworth gives Thomas Wayne a sister named Patricia who doesn’t exist in any other Batman media. He had a sister named Agatha prior to the universe-wide reboot of the DC Universe in 1986 but Patricia bears no resemblance to her character. There's also the baby girl of Thomas and Martha in Season 2. Bruce is canonically an only child.
How much you consider Power Rangers an adaptation of Super Sentai is variable (depending on the season, some just borrow some fight footage, and some are shot-for-shot remakes) but in addition to non-sentai supporting casts, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue has the Titanium Ranger, a Sixth Ranger that doesn't exist in any form in the original series, which it is otherwise quite similar to. The Spirit Rangers of Power Rangers Jungle Fury may or may not count (the characters existed; that storyline and their getting shiny suits didn't.)
The Shogun Ultrazord from Season 3 of MMPR is an interesting case. The two Zords that combined to create it did originate in the Super Sentai source material, but were from two separate shows. The Shogun Megafalconzord was originally Super Muteki Shogun from Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, while Titanus was Beast Knight God King Brachion from the aforementioned Zyuranger. As no footage of the Shogun Ultrazord existed in any of the Japanese originals, the producers were forced to use the toy itself in the show!
Power Rangers RPM has an attack with the wheels of the suits that didn't appear in Go-onger.
Back when Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger was going to be adapted as Power Rangers Hexagon instead of Power Rangers Ninja Storm, there were plans for a third Gouraiger ("Thunder Rangers" in the U.S. version), who would have been a teenage girl with a Dark Yellow color scheme. This never happened, but oddly enough, a Canon Foreigner Gouraiger was later introduced in Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger and she was both yellow and a girl to boot!
Mio Kuroki was Beryl's "shadow" who could more directly interact with the cast and seemed to have a degree of free will. She was specifically created by Beryl and Jadeite to cause trouble for Usagi at school.
Hina Kusaka and her unnamed father. Said father is Mamoru's benefactor (since his parents are dead) and Hina is his fiancee, which of course causes drama between him and Usagi.
Sugao Saito, Minako's flamboyant manager and IIRC an old friend of Ikuko's.
If alter egos count, there's Dark Sailor Mercury whose name is pretty self-explanatory. She's an evil version of Sailor Mercury who works for the Dark Kingdom after being corrupted by Kunzite (though she's not very obedient).
Kunzite gained a human alias in the form of Shin, who was also an amnesiac. This is notable because Kunzite had no alias in either the manga or anime. Nephrite had the alias(es) Nefukichi/Nefurin when he was a normal human. He briefly would've used an alias in his translator disguise in the manga/Crystal but we never found out what it was and the alias he used in the anime was Masato Sanjouin. In Act Zero we're introduced to four cops played by the Shitennou's actors whose names (exceptHanako's) correspond to the hair colors of those characters.
Motoki gains a pet turtle named Kamekichi. This would be insignificant if not for the fact that in this version Motoki is obsessed with turtles, so Kamekichi is a symbol of that.
Resident Evil (2022) manages to outdo the Anderson films in this regard as with the exceptions of Albert Wesker and the B.O.Ws every other character is original to the series and not from the games, most prominetly being Wesker's daughters Billie and Jade. The only other canon character is Ada Wong who's mentioned but not seen.
The 1980s series Robin of Sherwood introduced the idea of including a Saracen in Robin Hood's band of merry men, a figure that was popular enough to be included in Kevin Costner's Prince of Thieves and again in the BBC's 2006 Robin Hood. The latter also introduced original characters Isabella (Guy of Gisborne's sister) and Kate (Locksley village girl) as Affirmative Action Girls after Marian and Djaq (who, ironically, was the Saracen) were written out.
Several in Shadowhunters, the TV adaptation of The Mortal Instruments, notably Captain Vargas, a police captain and Luke's boss; new minions for Valentine, and Lydia Branwell, with whom the Lightwoods attempt to broker an Arranged Marriage for Alec.
Sherlock: Molly Hooper. In the books, Sherlock did a lot of the crazy experiments and whatnot. Also, aside from John, no one really appreciated him.
She's Gotta Have It: A number of new characters are introduced, including Nola's parents, who weren't in the film. Jamie also is now married with a son.
Shetland: Jimmy Perez' sidekick DS "Tosh" Macintosh was invented for the series. The author of the books, Ann Cleeves, adores the character and and has often said she wishes she'd invented her.
Lex Luthor's sister Tess Mercer, who was a Composite Character of Eve Teschmacher and Mercy Graves, Luthor's female accomplices from Superman: The Movie and Superman: The Animated Series respectively. The final episode also revealed that she had a bit of Lena Luthor thrown in as well.
Clark's friend and sidekick Chloe Sullivan. Lampshaded when the Legion of Super-Heroes visit and have knowledge of all of Clark's canon friends but none of her.
A recurring villain throughout the first season is Dr. Adamson, a high-ranking member of Trigon's cult.
Robin eventually comes face to face with a new villain called the Melting Man, a.k.a Nick Zucco, the son of Tony Zucco, the man who murdered his parents.
Everyone in Tom Swift not named Tom or Barton Swift.
True Blood almost exclusively uses characters based in some way off characters from the books with the prominent exception of Jessica Hamby, Bill's vampire progeny.
Teenya, the female Martian to whom Sam Conrad is attracted in "People Are Alike All Over", does not appear in the short story "Brothers Beyond the Void" by Paul W. Fairman.
Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Lucas and FBI Agent Hall, the three supporting characters in "Four O'Clock", do not appear in the short story by Price Day.
In "Death Ship", Lt. Ted Mason sees his wife Ruth and daughter Jeannie in the afterlife while Lt. Mike Carter sees Kramer and Mrs. Nolan. None of these characters appear in the short story by Richard Matheson.
"Number 12 Looks Just Like You" features three supporting characters who did not appear in the short story "The Beautiful People" by Charles Beaumont: Val, Uncle Rick and Professor Sigmund Friend.
In "A Message from Charity", Peter Wood has a younger brother named Bobby. In the short story by William M. Lee, he is an only child.
In "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty", Gus Rosenthal sleeps with a fan of his whom he met after he delivered a lecture on writing. She does not appear in the short story by Harlan Ellison.
In "Night of the Meek", the Dundee's security guard Henderson is Henry Corwin's Only Friend and helps him to distribute the presents from his magic Santa sack. He does not appear in the original episode.
In "The Star", the commanding officer of the survey ship Magellan is Captain Durant. She does not appear in the short story by Arthur C. Clarke.
"The Misfortune Cookie" features the supporting characters of Harry Folger's editor Max, the eponymous owner of Mr. Lee's Chinese Cuisine and April Hamilton, whom Harry briefly dates. None of them appear in the short story by Charles E. Fritch.
In "A Matter of Minutes", both Michael Wright and his wife Maureen become trapped in a minute that is still under construction. In the short story "Yesterday Was Monday" by Theodore Sturgeon, it is only Harry Wright.
In "Dead Run", Johnny Davis learns of the job transporting condemned souls to Hell from his fellow trucker Pete, who shows him the ropes. Pete does not appear in the short story by Greg Bear as Johnny has already been doing the job for two years.
In "The Last Defender of Camelot", Tom is one of three punks hired by Morgan le Fay to bring Lancelot to her. Lancelot later takes Tom as his squire and brings him to the cave in Cornwall to meet the newly awakened Merlin. Tom does not appear in the short story by Roger Zelazny. He was added at the insistence of CBS executives who thought that Twilight Zone stories should always feature ordinary people in extraordinary situations.
The Untamed: Xue Chonghai, the creator of the Yin Iron and possibly Xue Yang's ancestor, didn't exist in the novel or in the other adaptations.
The Vampire Diaries has a few, mostly family members of canon characters. Jeremy qualifies as well—he's too far different and fills such a completely different role in the story from Elena's younger sister in the books that he can't be considered the TV version of her.
A lot of characters in The Walking Dead (2010) never appeared in the comics, including Daryl Dixon, Merle Dixon, Beth Greene, Leon Basset, Gary Taylor, Patty Taylor, Jacqui, the Morales family, Dr. Jenner, Guillermo, Jimmy, Dave, Tony, Randall Culver, Nate, Sean, Oscar, Big Tiny, Rowan, Haley, Tim, Shumpert, Crowley, Gargulio, Karen, Noah, the Grady Memorial Hospital police officers, Aiden Monroe, and Enid. Daryl is the most popular with the comic's creators, going so far as to say they would never make him a Canon Immigrant as the character is so well established in his own continuity that their version couldn't do justice to him.
The Way of the Househusband: Himawari Kuroda, Tatsu's stepdaughter and Miku's daughter from a previous relationship, was created exclusively for the live-action drama adaptation in order to add a parent-child/family dynamic to the story.
The Wheel of Time (2021): Book fans will be quite surprised that Perrin has a wife. He then accidentally kills her in the heat of battle, providing quite a shocking way to free him up for the rest of his story.
Xena functions as something of a Canon Foreigner to Classical Mythology. Her story takes place as the same time as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and featured the same Greek gods, placing her squarely in the same area as the actual mythical Hercules.
that Brother Day replaces the unnamed Emperor from "The Psychohistorians".