Can't Die Before Getting Killed

A strange mixture of Saved by Canon and Doomed by Canon, and a subtrope of Foregone Conclusion.

A character in a prequel has the ultimate, most durable Plot Armor of all:

he/she can't die...

...because he/she dies in the original movie/game/comic/show/book/episode.

Thus, the character is destined to survive everything the prequel throws at him/her, simply because we saw/read with our own eyes how that character dies.

This trope usually generates the Eight Deadly Words, since it's hard to get invested in a character that is unable to die before his destined death.

Examples of Can't Die Before Getting Killed include:

Anime and Manga

• Frieza can't die in The Father of Goku because he is killed by Goku during the events of Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball Super: Broly renders this OVA non-canon, but the end result is the same: Frieza can't die during the flashback scenes of Broly because Frieza is eventually killed by Goku during the Namek Saga.
• One Piece: Ace can't die in the flashback Gray Terminal arc since we have seen him die in the present day in the Marineford War arc.

Film

• Immortan Joe can't die in Furiosa because he dies in Mad Max: Fury Road.
• Jud Crandall can't die in Pet Sematary: Bloodlines because he dies in the 2019 film.
• Esther can't die in Orphan: First Kill because she dies in the original Orphan.
• Star Wars:
  • Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, Palpatine and Obi-Wan Kenobi can't die in the Prequel Trilogy because they all die in the Original Trilogy
  • Han Solo can't die in Solo because he dies in the Sequel Trilogy.
  • Remember the hallway scene in Rogue One? Darth Vader wasn't in any danger, since he dies in Return of the Jedi.
• Gollum and Saruman can't die in the Hobbit trilogy, because they both die in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
• Gellert Grindewald can't die in the Fantastic Beasts movies because he is killed by Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Same thing for Albus Dumbledore, who appears in the Fantastic Beasts movies and dies in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Likewise, Nagini, who also appears in the second Fantastic Beasts movie, can't die because she is killed by Neville Longbottom in Deathly Hallows.
• As we have already seen Father Merrin die in The Exorcist, we know he can't die in the prequels Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.
• Ronan the Accuser and Korath the Pursuer can't die in Captain Marvel, because they both die in Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Black Widow can't die in Black Widow because she dies in Avengers: Endgame.

Literature

• In The Chronicles of Narnia, Queen Jadis the White Witch can't die in The Magician's Nephew because she dies in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Live-Action Television

• Any characters that dies in either The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit can't die in The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.
• Any character who dies in the "present day" of Once Upon a Time is unable to die during the flashback scenes set in the Enchanted Forests and places other than Storybrooke or Hyperion Heights.
• Any character who dies in the 'present day' of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or some time between the post-WWII 1940's time period when Agent Carter is set and the present day, cannot die in the Agent Carter series.
• In its later seasons, Highlander The Series had a number of episodes featuring flashbacks (some of them Whole-Episode Flashback such as 'The Stone of Scone') where Duncan MacLeod teams with his friend Hugh 'Fitz' Fitzcairn. We know that Fitz is safe in all of them, since we'd already seen Fitz die in the present day during season 2.
• Cassian Andor will most likely survive anything the series featuring him throws at him, since we already saw him die in Rogue One.
• Obi-Wan Kenobi can't die in his show because he dies in the Original Trilogy.
• In season 2 of Better Call Saul during the fourth episode ("Gloves Off"), Nacho Varga offers Mike Ehrmantraut money in exchange for assassinating his former criminal associate, the drug distributor and user Tuco Salamanca. Those familiar with Breaking Bad (to which this series is a prequel) already know Mike won't succeed, since they'd already seen Tuco meet his end after a confrontation with Hank Schrader early on in Breaking Bad's second season (in the episode entitled "Grilled"). And naturally, just about any other character we've seen die in Breaking Bad is pretty much destined to survive anything Better Call Saul throws at them.

Video Games

• Nymphadora Tonks, Cedric Diggory and Fred Weasley cannot die in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery as they all did in the Harry Potter book series. Same with Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape and a few other characters.

Western Animation

• Scar and Mufasa can't die in Mufasa: The Lion King because they both die in The Lion King.
• The Joker can't die in Justice League because he dies during the non-future scenes of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (which take place after the events of Justice League).
• Clu can't die in Tron: Uprising because he dies in Tron: Legacy
• Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, Palpatine and Obi-Wan Kenobi can't die in Star Wars: The Clone Wars because the four of them die in the Original Trilogy. Likewise, Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin and Saw Gerrera can't die in Star Wars: Rebels (Vader and Tarkin die in the Original Trilogy, and Saw Gerrera dies in Rogue One).
• Ursula can't die in The Little Mermaid: The Series because she dies in the original movie.