Unchosen Ones in Live-Action TV series.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer::
- The Potential Slayers, sort of. Under normal circumstances one of them could become the Chosen One if the previous Slayer died, but not all of them at the same time. They don't have much choice on whether or not they'll join Buffy in the fight against the First for much of Season 7, because if they don't, they'll probably end up dead. In the series finale, Buffy gives them a choice — become real Slayers through a massive rule-changing spell cast by Willow and fight the First and his army, or not. They choose the first option.
- Also Spike, when he chose himself to fulfill the destiny that had seemingly been planned for Angel.
- The BtVS RPG includes the "Slayer Poseur" template, who is not even a Potential Slayer, but fights vampires anyway.
- Played straight however with Xander, who despite being a somewhat nerdish guy who's vastly outclassed constantly, gets swept into Buffy's larger than life Monster of the Week/Apocalypse of the Year situations, and continues to help her to the best of his abilities. At one point in the third season, he even passes on the opportunity to become a supernatural being (a zombie), realizing the group needs someone normal (keep in mind at this point most of his friends have displayed some sort of superhuman ability or are themselves supernatural beings). Plus is not like he is always useless, striking one of the most solid hits against Glory, the Big Bad of the fifth season, by attacking her with a construction wrecking ball. This even gets lampshaded in the seventh season, with a speech he gives to Dawn, who herself at this point has become another Unchosen One since the end of her plot from the fifth season, in which he almost calls the trope by name:Xander: They'll never know how tough it is, Dawnie, to be the one who isn't chosen. To live so near to the spotlight and never step in it. But I know. I see more than anybody realizes because nobody's watching me. I saw you last night. I see you working here today. You're not special. You're extraordinary.
- Chuck, as of the end of Season 2, has graduated to actively being the Not-Chosen One after being The Woobie since the beginning.
- Kamen Rider:
- Gentarou, of Kamen Rider Fourze. He was never meant to be Fourze by anyone, instead coming out of nowhere and actually stealing the Fourze driver to become the Kamen Rider.
- This trope is a point of much frustration for Shroud in Kamen Rider Double. Shoutarou transformed with Philip for the first time pretty much out of necessity, with no idea what he was doing. Shroud spends the majority of the season trying to split them up and put her Chosen One with Philip instead. Unfortunately, her Chosen One is rather uncooperative, and she eventually accepts that Shoutarou is not only Philip's true partner, but also the trump card that can take down Museum.
- Shinji/Ryuki and Tezuka/Raia in Kamen Rider Ryuki are another by-chance Riders, as the intended user of the Ryuki and Raia decks were Koichi Sakakibara and Yuichi Saito respectively. Shinji happened to found the deck when he's investigating Sakakibara's house and found the Ryuki deck lying on the floor, or in the 13 Riders timeline, by Sakakibara passing his deck to Shinji after Sakakibara saved Shinji's life (at the cost of his own) inside the Mirror World; while Tezuka got the Raia deck after Saito refused to become a Rider and got eaten by GuldThunder, his intended Contract Monster, as a result. They would become a serious problem for Kanzaki, because unlike Kanzaki's handpicked Riders, these two don't have any pressing desires and really just want to end the fighting.
- Most of the Riders in Kamen Rider Gaim are chosen by Sid and/or Yggdrasill, except for Kouta (he got the Driver intended for his dance team's leader, whom Kouta later unknowingly killed in the first episode because he turned into an Inves), Zack (Kaito stole a Driver and gave it to him), and Oren (forcefully got one from one of the person that was chosen by Sid to become a Rider because he made a mess on his bakery).
- In Kamen Rider Zi-O this was revealed to be the case regarding The Hero himself. As it turns out, that he was just a pawn that was to be used by the Big Bad of The Movie himself. His goal was to distract all his enemies by getting a pawn to collect all the the Riders powers in one spot so that he could destroy them all and recreate everything in his image. Needless to say, Sougo does not take it well upon finding out. However eventually realizes that just because he was born a fake, didn't mean that he had to stay as one and takes the fight to the Big Bad.
- Guinevere in Merlin is the only main character never to be mentioned in any prophecy uttered by the dragon or any other seer (though she appears briefly in one of Morgana's prophetic dreams). She ends up being the individual who rules over the Golden Age of Camelot, with it being heavily implied that she also unites the kingdoms and legalizes magic. Up until the final episode, everyone assumed that this was Arthur's destiny.
- The unnamed female protagonist in The New Legends Of Monkey. The original Tripitaka was killed in a raid by a bunch of demons to prevent the Monkey King from coming back to the world, along with the rest of the temple's monks and the Scholar who knew how the prophecy would go. Since she was the Sole Survivor and the only person left who knew the details of the quest, she takes on the role and name of Tripitaka in order to complete it.
- Once Upon a Time: While Emma is the destiny-ordained default Saviour throughout the series and the mythology of her role as such gets expanded as the show goes by, post-Heel–Face Turn Regina finds herself or steps up to be this on multiple occasions.
- In the second half of Season 3, it is Regina who unexpectedly breaks the new Dark Curse by giving Henry a maternal True Love's Kiss, and subsequently takes down the Wicked Witch of the West with Light Magic when Emma is Brought Down to Normal. Contrary to Emma, who was prophesied to be the Curse-breaking Saviour and wield Light Magic by being born of True Love, Regina achieved both by Character Development alone.
- When Emma becomes The Dark One in Season 5, Regina steps up to be the Saviour both in Camelot and in Storybrooke. In the former she merely impersonates the Saviour in order for the group to be granted access at Court; in the latter, she fully embraces her role to counter Emma’s new iteration of the Dark Curse, and even goes around undoing some of Emma’s spiteful minor spells.
- In the series finale, Regina puts a permanent end to the Dark Curse by casting it in reverse so that, instead of ripping everyone apart from their loved ones, all the Fairy Tale Worlds are brought together in Storybrooke so no one is separated ever again.
- Power Rangers:
- In Power Rangers Samurai, the core Rangers are the descendants of the original Samurai Rangers. However, Antonio isn't. He built his own morpher from a discarded cell phone after examining some Ranger tech, just because he wanted to and he could (which causes some friction with Ji, who initially refuses to let Antonio join the team.) Also, the Red Ranger power was not really supposed to go to Jayden, but his sister Lauren. Jayden served as a body double to allow Lauren to practice the sealing symbol, only to wind up saving the day when the Big Bad finds a way around that symbol.
- In Power Rangers Beast Morphers, Devon and Zoey become the Red and Yellow Beast Rangers due to the fact that Evox is able to essentially capture the intended Rangers, Blaze and Roxy, and turn them into his Avatars. This is doubly so as Devon was a civilian who trespassed onto the Grid Battleforce HQ to see the Battle Simulator and Zoey was a candidate, but was cut in favor of Roxy.
- Supernatural:
- Sam and Dean dive very heavily into this, particularly Dean who is even more stubborn about not embracing his destiny, and not letting Sam embrace his. Considering their destinies, this is probably for the best. Note that both of them were SUPPOSED to be The Chosen One in different ways — Sam as The Antichrist and Dean as Michael's host. The boys refused to accept the destinies forced upon them, then went above and beyond by creating their own roles and getting accomplishing things nobody though possible — especially for two mortal humans.
- Castiel also applies; originally an accomplished angel given the honor of protecting Michael's future host (aka Dean), but not particularly noteworthy. From Season 5 on, he starts taking initiative and directly or as a direct result of his actions initiates the main plot of Seasons 6, 7, and 9, as well as becoming a major force for driving the plot along.
