Adaptational Backstory Change

A staple of Setting Updates and Lighter and Softer adaptations, the Adaptational Backstory Change occurs when a character's origin or background is edited or expanded upon in adaptations. This can be anything from minor details to a completely different origin. This is most prominent with superhero characters but happens to others as well.

Sub-trope to Adaptation Deviation. Can overlap with Adaptation Expansion if the change involves additions that don't conflict with the canon backstory, and External Retcon if the changes actively conflict with the canon backstory; it may involve only one of the two or both at the same time. Can be related to or cause an Adaptation Origin Connection, Adaptational Angst Upgrade, or Adaptational Nationality change. Adaptational Upbringing Change is a subtrope where a character is raised differently in an adaptation.

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Examples:

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books
• Fan Works
• Live-Action TV
• Western Animation

Comic Strips

• In the normal Garfield comic strips, Jon Arbuckle's other pet Odie was actually that of his friend Lyman, who appeared for a certain number of strips as Jon's live-in partner and then vanished altogether without explanation. In one of the stories from Garfield: His 9 Lives (the story that retells Garfield's origin), Jon saw that Garfield was lonely and so he bought Odie from the pet store — the same pet store that Garfield was in — and brought him home to keep Garfield company.

Films — Animated

• Batman vs. Two-Face: Rather than use Two-Face's traditional origin of Harvey Dent being disfigured from Sal Maroni throwing acid in his face like the Batman '66 comic book tie-in did in the "Lost Episode" one-shot (itself adapted from an unproduced episode treatment Harlan Ellison wrote for the original show), this animated film has Harvey Dent become Two-Face after being caught in the explosion of Professor Hugo Strange and Dr. Harleen Quinzel's evil-extracting machine overloading from trying to suck the evil out of the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, Mr. Freeze and Egghead, exposure to the evil extract produced by the machine causing him to mutate into a partially deformed supervillain.
• The DC Animated Movie Universe version of the Flash has a very different backstory from the comics thanks to a combination of Henry Allen being Adapted Out in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox completely and Word of God stating that this version of Barry started off as the Kid Flash seen in the opening flashback in Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (something he never was in the comics, or at least implying he became the Flash at a younger age since he never mentions a mentor) and a member of the Teen Titans before forming the Justice League.
• Green Lantern: First Flight: Sinestro is still a renegade Green Lantern who obtains a yellow power ring, but has his betrayal of the Corps and the acquiring of his yellow ring happen under different circumstances from the comics. In the comics, Sinestro was caught abusing his power ring by using it to conquer his own planet to maintain order and was punished when the Guardians stripped him of his ring and banished him to Qward, where he subsequently had the Weaponers make him a yellow power ring. In this movie, Sinestro planned a coup while still affiliated with the Green Lanterns and the yellow ring was an ancient weapon he heard of from conspiring with Kanjar Ro and obtained it by traveling to Qward and convincing the Weaponers to give him the ring.
• NIMONA (2023): In the original comic, Nimona was given up to the Institute by her own family due to them fearing her shapeshifting powers. Here, she was a shapeshifting being who befriended Glorath, only to be rejected after Glorath's village discovered her powers and the resulting riot ended up burning the village down. From there, Nimona and Glorath's relationship shattered, with Glorath going on to found the monster hunting Institute.
• Superman Unbound: In the comic story, Zor-El used Brainiac's shield generators to protect his home city during the destruction of Krypton, and Brainiac found it floating in space. Here, Brainiac went back to Krypton and abducted Argo City and its people before the planet's destruction because Zor-El was studying ways to fight him.
• While their concrete origin in the Super Mario Bros. franchise is left vague, it's established in games like Yoshi's Island and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time that the Mario Bros. definitively grew up in the world of the Mushroom Kingdom. In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, however, they grew up in Brooklyn, being just average humans from the USA who only enter the world of the Mushroom Kingdom purely by accident when they're already adults.

Films — Live-Action

• Child's Play (2019): In the original Child's Play, Chucky was a doll possessed by a serial killer, Charles Ray. But in the 2019 remake, he's an AI-based doll who had his safety protocol shut off by a disgruntled factory worker. He is still given to a child named "Andy", but unlike the 1988 version, the Chucky in the 2019 movie genuinely wants to be his friend but becomes violently attached to him. And Charles Ray doesn't exist either.
• Cinderella (2015): In the original animated film, the prologue explains that Cinderella's father married Lady Tremaine when Cinderella was still a child, because he felt she needed a mother's care. He died soon afterward, still in Cinderella and her stepsisters' childhood, and he died at home – little Cinderella is shown crying at his bedside while the stepfamily looks on. In the live-action remake, however, Ella's father doesn't remarry until Ella is a young woman, he does it in hope of finding marital happiness again rather than for Ella's sake (although he doesn't find it, since Lady Tremaine only marries him for his wealth), and he dies while abroad on a business trip.
• This happened in general with Marvel Cinematic Universe, which changed not just the time of the origins of superheroes and villains set in the present, but also made various heavy modifications compared to the original source. A good example is Hydra organization, which was founded by Red Skull as the scientist arm of the Nazi Party in the 40s instead of being just an evil organization founded by Baron Zemo that allied the Nazi as in the comic books.
• DC Extended Universe:
  • Wonder Woman (2017): The film mixes Wonder Woman's pre-New 52 and New 52 origins together. It's implied that she was created from clay however Zeus gave her life instead of the other gods. This makes Diana non-blood related half-siblings with the Big Bad Ares. It also changes her first appearance in Man's World from World War II (the Golden Age version's original story) to World War I.
  • The Suicide Squad: In part due to the Setting Update, Bloodsport isn't a Phony Veteran who suffers from delusions that he served in The Vietnam War caused by the guilt of his draft dodging and his brother taking his place (and becoming a quadruple amputee), but a genuine vet who's ironically the Only Sane Man among the new Squad.
  • The Flash: Nora Allen, and therefore Barry himself, is of Spanish descent (if not born in Spain), which is not the case in the comics. Her actress, Maribel Verdú, is Spanish.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks: In the 1983 animated series, the episode, "The Chipmunk Story" reveals that infant versions of Alvin, Simon, and Theodore were left at the door of Dave Seville's house by their mother, due to it being a particularly brutal winter, and she hadn't had the resources to feed them. In the 2007 live-action movie, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore lived in a tree from the forest that was being cut down and used as a Christmas tree for the company Dave worked for, and stowed away in a muffin basket that Dave stole from a co-worker.
• X-Men: Apocalypse eliminated major chunks of Scott's backstory. Instead of growing up in an orphanage after a plane crash supposedly killed his parents, he lives with his family and knows his brother, who in this universe is older than him.
• Kim Possible:
  • In the cartoon, Ron bought a baby Rufus from Smarty Mart as a middle schooler. A naked mole rat was the only pet he could find that his father wasn't allergic to. In the live-action adaptation, Ron meets an adult Rufus as a high school freshman. He rescues him from a lab while on a mission with Kim. Rufus' unusual intelligence is stated to be because he was experimented on. Kim's reaction to meeting Rufus is also different: in the cartoon she was disgusted by him and took a while to get used to him, but she instantly likes him in the film.
  • Implied with Shego due to an Adaptational Superpower Change. She no longer has green skin and her Hand Blast power is provided by bracelets. In the cartoon, her green coloring and powers were due to her being a meta-human. Shego's family all gained powers after being hit by a rainbow comet.
• Ophelia makes some changes to the backstories of Ophelia and Gertrude, overlapping with Adaptation Expansion as most of it either doesn't contradict the original too much and/or because the characters don't have much backstory to begin with.
  • In Hamlet, Ophelia is just one of Gertrude's ladies-in-waiting and presumably nobility. Here, it's specified that Ophelia isn't noble by birth and that Gertrude made her one of her ladies after taking a liking to her (and learning she had no mother), which results in the other ladies regarding her as an outsider. The fact she's technically a commoner is also significant in that it makes her even more 'unsuitable' as Hamlet's potential bride. Furthermore, it's never mentioned in Hamlet what happened to Ophelia's mother; here, it's stated that she died many years ago.
  • Gertrude isn't given much backstory in Hamlet. It's revealed here that Gertrude was raised in a convent in France and has a twin sister named Mechtild. Gertrude was a target of bullying growing up, with Mechtild defending her. After Mechtild got pregnant out of wedlock and was persecuted as a witch, Gertrude apparently helped her go into hiding and kept her survival a secret.
• Painkiller Jane: In the original comic (and TV series), Jane was a police officer when she's changed. Here, she's a Special Forces soldier.
• The first two The Punisher movies change it so Frank Castle's family is killed by a mob based retaliation for him being a cop/FBI Agent, instead of the result of them accidentally witnessing a mob hit, as happened in the comics, maybe because that makes more sense than the mob executing people in a public park which people could then stumble across.
• The Wizard of Oz: In The Tin Woodman of Oz, the Tin Woodman was a human, until the Wicked Witch of the West cursed his axe to chop him into bits. It was too dark for the 1939 version so he was simply made by a tin smith.
• In the original novel of The Time Machine, the surface-dwelling Eloi are the descendants of the Idle Rich, and the subterranean Morlocks are the descendants of the working class. The 1960 film version changes this to a backstory that was more topical during the Cold War: after a nuclear holocaust, some people decided to return to the surface, becoming the Eloi, while others remained in the underground bunkers, becoming the Morlocks. The 2002 film replaces the nuclear holocaust with the moon blowing up, but otherwise copies the backstory of the 1960 version.
• The Kick-Ass movie sees Big Daddy's backstory as a framed cop with a dead wife be genuine. In the comic, the whole thing was a lie he made up, instead being a low-life who kidnapped his daughter from his very-much alive wife and became a vigilante for kicks.

Literature

• In The Twilight Zone (1985) episode "Healer", Harry Faulk is Jackie Thompson's neighbor and they seemingly did not have much of a relationship until they began using the healing stone to make money. In the short story adaptation by Alan Brennert, Harry is the closest thing that Jackie has to a father. They met when they were both serving sentences in Vacaville Prison ten years earlier. Since their release, they had worked together on numerous scams and swindles and the occasional burglary but only made enough money to pay their bills until Jackie stole the stone.

Radio

• X Minus One: In episode eighty-three, Jason Bernaides is a journalist who investigates Janet Boyce's encounter with the Flying Saucer in 1957 and later prevents her from drowning herself on June 25, 1962. It was adapted from Theodore Sturgeon's "A Saucer Of Loneliness", where the unnamed equivalent character has no connection with the woman until he finds the copy of the saucer's message that she placed in a bottle and does not meet her until the night that he saves her.

Theatre

• In the original Newsies, Jack Kelly claims his parents are out west looking for a ranch to live, but towards the end it's revealed that his mother is dead, his father is a prison inmate, and he has even lied to the other newsies about his real name. In the stage version, Jack implies in the first scene that his father was worked to death and there's no indication that he's lied to anyone about his name or anything else about his life.

Video Games

• Baldur's Gate III: Anders, a minor character you meet at the start of Karlach's questline, was an Oathbreaker paladin during Early Access. In the full version, he's just posing as a Paladin of Tyr — and rather poorly at that. He doesn't even know the Creed of the Left Hand, something all Tyrran paladins (Tyr is also known as the One-Handed, as he is missing his right hand) should know.
• CP3D: In this game, the Golden Puffles are from an alternate dimension resembling Ancient Egypt - in the original Club Penguin, they simply live underground.
• Final Fantasy XIV changes the backstories for a lot of the characters it borrows from other games in the franchise.
  • The Weapons from Final Fantasy VII were Kaiju spawned by the Planet to protect it from existential threats like Jenova. XIV reimagines them as manmade biomechanical Humongous Mecha built to slay Primals.
  • Ba'Gamnan from Final Fantasy XII was a ruthless Bounty Hunter with no redeeming qualities. XIV reimagines him as a former Dalmascan knight who failed to protect his princess during the Garlean invasion and wants to avenge her death by destroying Garlemald with the power of the auracite.
• The Resident Evil 2 (Remake) makes a few changes from the original game.
  • In the original, Leon was late for his first day at work because he had broken up with his girlfriend and drank so much he overslept. In the remake, this has been changed to him receiving a phone call to stay away from Raccoon City and await further orders. After one week of radio silence, Leon decides to go to the city to investigate.
  • Robert Kendo, who was a Nice Guy and handed guns to civilians to protect themselves, reacted with hostility and held Leon at gunpoint and tried to kick him out of the gun shop. Only because his daughter has been infected and he was afraid Leon or Ada would kill her.
  • Despite their shady line of work, William and Annette Birkin were Happily Married. In the remake, though they were still close, Annette confesses to Claire that they were more married to their work instead of each other and became distant.
• Killer Instinct (2013):
  • Sabrewulf originally fought to win a cure for his lycanthropy from Ultratech. In the reboot he's already gone to Ultratech for help and they failed him, so he's turning to arcane medicines and hexes for aid instead.
  • Glacius was originally a random space traveler captured by Ultratech and forced to fight for his freedom. In the reboot he's an intergalactic law enforcer whose technology is stolen by Ultratech, forcing him to mount a counterattack to retrieve it before they can misuse it.
  • In the original series, Orchid was a dangerous and mysterious special agent. In the reboot, she's a former agent who was discharged for her insistence on investigating Ultratech and now leads her own underground network.
  • Spinal originally had basically no backstory at all, being a nondescript skeleton warrior resurrected by Ultratech. In the reboot he's an ancient bandit-lord who was cursed by Kan-Ra's king; now he seeks the Mask of the Ancients that binds him to this world.
  • Fulgore was originally assumed to be one of Ultratech's machines and nothing more. In the 1996 comics, he's secretly Thunder's brother Eagle in a cyborg body. The reboot splits the difference between these two interpretations, depicting Fulgore as a full robot whose AI is based on Eagle's brain.
  • Downplayed with TJ Combo. His backstory is mostly unchanged, with one key difference— rather than keeping the cybernetics in his arms that got him banned from boxing and fighting to prove the world wrong, he gets the implants removed and now fights for redemption against his old cheating ways.
  • In the original games, Maya was the queen of a clan of warriors who once fought Gargos, but she was kicked out when he returned and sought to defeat him in order to regain her standing. In the reboot she's a regular member of a secret monster-hunting society who seeks to capture Kan-Ra and Aganos after their awakening.
  • Riptor was originally a grotesque lizard-human hybrid of Ambiguous Gender that happened to look like a dinosaur. In the reboot Riptor is a straight-up cloned dinosaur with cyborg enhancements who is confirmed to be female.
  • Ben Ferris, better known as Cinder, was originally a petty crook who was offered freedom from his sentence if he underwent Ultratech's experiments. The reboot reimagines him as a former spec ops agent turned con artist mercenary, who was hired by ARIA to undergo the experiments and did so very willingly in order to become stronger.
  • In KI2, Kim Wu was a member of a clan of warriors from the distant past who once helped seal Eyedol and Gargos. In the reboot, she's a contemporary descendant of a long-lost clan who is destined to help defeat Gargos.
  • Tusk was a nondescript barbarian warrior who wanted to fight Gargos in the original series. In the reboot he's an immortal Watchman whose purpose is to guard the Earth— however, he gets trapped in a glacier by Gargos' minions and only escapes in time to help stop the invasion.
  • In the original games Gargos was an ancient Warlord who was sealed away by a clan of warriors and makes his return only after his rival Eyedol's defeat. In the reboot he's an Ichorien who has conquered the Astral Realm and now threatens to consume the Earth too, thanks to Ultratech beckoning him over.
  • In the original series Eyedol was an ancient Warlord who was sealed in Limbo by a warrior clan and later brought back by Ultratech. In the reboot he is a former Watchman (like Tusk) who went mad with power and attempted to take over the Astral Realm, only to be killed by Gargos and later resurrected by Kan-Ra.
  • Thunder's brother Eagle was originally a competitor of Ultratech's tournaments who went missing. The 1996 comics, as previously stated, had him as Fulgore's real identity. In the reboot (where Eagle was eventually Promoted to Playable) he was captured by Ultratech, who put him in stasis and used his brain as a basis for Fulgore's AI, before Glacius busted him out and revived him with alien technology.

Web Animation

• DC Super Hero Girls does this to a majority of the cast due to them being Younger and Hipper and due to the amount of Adaptational Heroism. Most characters backstories haven't been discussed throughly but it's fair game to believe that most have been edited:
  • Harley Quinn's Start of Darkness in the comics was her meeting The Joker when she was a psychiatrist/psychologist at Arkham Asylum. Harley in DC Superhero Girls is too young to be a psychiatrist (under most circumstances) and was bullied by the Joker when she was younger. Her backstory has only briefly been mentioned. Harley had wanted to be a superhero since she was little, so she probably worked hard to get into the Superhero School given that she's a Badass Normal with no powers. Harley is a through-and-through hero unlike her villainous (occasionally Anti-Hero) comic book version.
  • Batgirl's origin didn't involve Batman at all. She received her title without any relation to Batwoman or Batman, unlike in her other incarnations where she intentionally styled herself after Batman. She received her name due to Supergirl, who called her "Bat Girl" due to Barbara liking bats.
  • Starfire and her sister Blackfire are friends, not enemies, for once. This obviously means Starfire was never made a slave. It's more likely that the reason she is on Earth is just because she chose Superhero High to be her high school.
  • Katana's comic backstory makes no sense anymore due to her young age. Her sword isn't even implied to be the soul-taker it is in the comics. It's just a normal sword.
• Enterprising Engines: Lady is a magic engine from Shining Time in her original film, but is a private engine from another railway on the mainland here.
• Friday Night Funkin' Logic changed the backstories of several mod characters.
  • In the canon lore of Happy Tree Friends, Flippy fought in a nondescript war while he was still an army private. Here, Flippy has explicitly stated that he fought in the Vietnam War. No, seriously.
  • In his mod's canon, Whitty was born in a facility all alone, had to raise himself, and had been a bomb-headed humanoid his whole life. In GameToons canon, he was actually a human child that was kidnapped and turned into a humanoid bomb.
  • Taki's origins were never stated in Friday Night Fever's lore; all that was known of her was that she shows up from the blue after beating Wee twice and was appointed to be a nun by Fever himself. FNF Logic did explore into Taki's creator's statement that she came from another planet, with her arrival being quite similar to that of Superman.

Webcomic

• Vixen: NYC: Comics Mari (Vixen) was the daughter of the President of from the small African nation of Zambesi; she fled to America when her father was killed. This version of Mari is a Ghanaian-American teenager whose normal parents both live in North Carolina.

Web Original

• In Five Nights at Freddy's, the Marionette was possessed by the Cassette Man's daughter. In FNAFNG, she is instead possessed by an adult woman named Marianna.
• Looming Gaia:
  • In Fairy Tale Rejects, Evan used to be a marshal in Evangelite military, and lost his leg in a battle against Folkvar Kingdom. Lukas and Glenvar are also Evangelite soldiers. In Looming Gaia, Evan lost his leg to a werewolf and fled the kingdom at an young age, never joining the military, and Lukas and Glenvar come from completely different continents.
  • In Fairy Tale Rejects, Solveig's tribe sent her to Mr. Ocean's cave to fight him. In Looming Gaia, she met him jumping off a cliff trying to kill herself because of her abusive husband.

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