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The reuse of characters or items from a previous work in Easter Egg cameos in a newer one (similar to a fictional Production Posse or metafictional Continuity Cameo). In some cases, this lays down the basis of a Verse.

If it's something the actor did rather than the production team, it's an Actor Allusion. If the work in question is an unreleased earlier version of the same work, it's a Development Gag.

When this is done for works that haven't yet been released, it's Production Foreshadowing.

Examples of Production Throwback include:


Anime and Manga[]

  • Mahou Sensei Negima is full of Shout Outs to Ken Akamatsu's previous series, Love Hina. Outside the numerous Expys, Tama the turtle has a cameo, the famous "Naru Punch" makes a reappearance, and one of Motoko's sword techniques sees some use in Negima. In addition, several characters from Love Hina make reappearances in Negima. The creator also confirmed that the hotel at which the characters stay in (one of) Negima's Beach Episodes is the same one where Naru and Keitaro stayed.
    • Akamatsu also confirmed that Nitta-sensei is the same Nitta-sensei from his first series, A.I. Love You. Not to mention that Negima's Big Bad Fate Averruncus is a rather obvious expy of Program Number 0.

Film[]

Literature[]

Live-Action TV[]

  • Any appearance of John Munch.
  • In Community episode Investigative Journalism Jack Black played a character named "Buddy Austen", who shares a last name with Jack Austen, the main character in the TV pilot Heat Vision and Jack (created by Dan Harmon) also played by Jack Black. Also, Owen Wilson, who voiced Heat Vision, made a cameo appearance in the same episode.

Video Games[]

  • Telltale's first game, Telltale Texas Hold'Em featured a mustached character named "Boris Krinkle", in which one possible line of dialogue has the character of Grandma telling him that he looks more like a 'Leonard Steakcharmer'." Naturally, when you first meet Leonard, sans mustache, in Telltale's Sam and Max episode The Mole, The Mob, and The Meatball, you get the option to say he looks more like a Boris Krinkle.
  • Hideo Kojima has a habit of inserting references to his previous works in his newer works, beginning with Snatcher, which included references to Metal Gear 1987 (such as Gillian's robotic companion modeled after the Metal Gear mecha), and then with Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake (which referenced the Snatcher Project and canonized Dr. Pettrovich's surname as "Madnar"), Policenauts (which included plenty of Metal Gear and Snatcher references), and the Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series (which included several Policenauts and Metal Gear Solid references). The most popular example is the Transplant of Meryl Silverburgh, originally a Policenauts character, into Metal Gear Solid.
  • Before creating Kingdom of Loathing, Team Asymmetric created a game called Krakrox the Barbarian. At least one item from that game appears in Kol, the Ring of Half-Assed Regeneration.
    • And there's also an item that lets you play as Krakrox for a few adventures.
    • And now Krakrox's Loincloth, "originally owned by the famous barbarian adventurer Krakrox," is part of the Seal Clubber's Legendary Regalia.
  • The arcade version of Double Dragon features the red sports car from Data East's FMV game Road Blaster (a.k.a. Road Avenger) inside Billy and Jimmy's garage, as well as a billboard advertising Nekketsu Koha Kunio-kun (the Japanese version of Renegade) just before the first boss battle. Both were games previously directed by Yoshihisa Kishimoto, the director of Double Dragon. In the arcade version of Double Dragon II, the helicopter from Cobra Command (Kishimoto's other FMV game he did for Data East) appears in the garage at the beginning as well.

Web Comics[]

Web Original[]

  • Anders Sandberg, one of the big contributors to Orions Arm has worked on several rpgs in the past, including Big Ideas Grand Vision. Every human colony from this game has been transplanted into Orions Arm, after being suitably altered to fit in with the new setting.

Western Animation[]

  • Pixar does this in most, if not all, of its feature films, usually with characters from its shorts:
    • The lamp from Pixar's (canonically) "first" short, Luxo Jr. crushes the i in "Pixar" in the studio's standard Vanity Plate.
    • The ball from the same short likewise appears in pretty much every movie they ever make.
    • Similarly, the Pizza Planet delivery van in every film since Toy Story.
    • The old man Geri from "Geri's Game" reappears as a toy repair man in Toy Story 2.
  • In The Simpsons, characters from Matt Groening's Life in Hell comic strip (usually Bongo) sometimes appear as stuffed toys.
    • In the early 1990s Simpsons arcade game, they appeared as enemies in the Dream Land level (as well as every interstitial title screen).
    • In Futurama, Bongo appears in a pet shop.
  • Sintel features characters from the Blender Foundations two previous shorts. In the market scene, you can clearly see Proog from Elephants Dream, and the butterflies in the bamboo forest are just a Palette Swap of the ones from Big Buck Bunny.
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