Role Reprisal

There is The Other Darrin, where a character is recast with a new actor due to various circumstances (death, legal, scheduling or backstage issues). This is the opposite, where after a prolonged period of time the character is played by the same actor.

This tends to come as a surprise that they were able to get the actor back, just because of the length of time involved and scheduling issues. Generally, this should be about relative extremes such as not showing up for 3-4 years and not just the following year.

Compare Regular Character, Recurring Character, Remake Cameo and Back for the Finale.

Examples of Role Reprisal include:

Anime

• Dragon Ball Kai got together most every possible voice actor who worked on the original series to voice the same character in the Re Cut, both Japanese and English versions. Masako Nozawa and Sean Schemmel voice Goku and Christopher Sabat voices Vegeta. It provided a marked example of Vocal Evolution.
  • Mostly averted in the Mexican Spanish version due to Executive Meddling, save for Rocío Garcel who re-took her role as Bulma. The major part returned for DBZ Kai: The Final Chapters and then Super.
• Inverted in the Japanese version of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, where most of the roles were recast despite only a few years passing after the first anime finished. The English and Latin-American Spanish dubs, by contrast, use almost the exact same cast as the 2003 adaptation.
  • Played straight when a Mexican dubbing company started working on a new FMA dub (the original dubs are from Venezuela): while almost all actors were recast, the ones for the Elric brothers (José Manuel Vieira and Johnny Torres) stayed.
• Spike Spencer was brought in to reprise his role as Shinji Ikari in the Rebuild of Evangelion movies, even though he's now a West Coast VA and FUNimation is located in Texas.
  • And Tiffany Grant still voices Asuka in the second film, though she had already been doing some work for FUNimation since ADV Films closed down.
• Super Dimension Fortress Macross features a bizarre variation. For the role of Lynn Minmay in their English dub of the show, ADV cast Mari Iijima--who had voiced the character in the Japanese version more than 20 years prior.
• The major part of the English dubbers for the Fruits Basket 2001 series returned for the 2019 reboot, save for counted exceptions - ie, Colleen O'Shaughnessey replaces Chad Cline as Akito, since this series did feature The Reveal in its second season. Cline, on the other hand, got another role: Akito's Disappeared Dad, Akira Sohma.
• In Tekken 3 and the JPN version of Tekken 4, Toshiyuki Morikawa voiced Hwoarang. In the Tekken: Bloodline anime, Morikawa retakes the role.
  • Yumi Touma also returns as Nina Williams, but NOT as Ling Xiaoyu (still played by Maaya Sakamoto).
  • Seiko Yoshida returns as Julia Chang, whom she voiced solely in Street Fighter X Tekken.
• The Ranma ½ 2024 remake keeps almost all of the original main cast - starting with Kappei Yamaguchi and Megumi Hayashibara as Ranma and Noriko Hidaka as Akane. The few changes include Genma (Kenichi Ogata - Yuichi Nagashima, albeit Ogata will be the Narrator), Soun (Ryunosuke Ohbayashi -> Akio Ohtsuka) and the up until now unnamed actors who will replace the late seiyuu for Kuno (Hirotaka Suzuoki AND Kouji Tsujitani, who also played Ranma's friend Hiroshi), Ukyo (Hiromi Tsuru) and Happosai (Ichiro Nagai)

Film

• The Toy Story series managed to have the same actor (John Morris) who played Andy as a kid, adolescent and young adult through all three films, with the third movie being made 11 years after the second movie. The characters grew up in approximate real time, 15 years have passed in real life and Andy aged about 12 years. All of the main characters are also voiced by the same actors, with only one (Slinky) being recast due to Jim Varney's death.
  • As with everyone in Cars 2 except for Fillmore, who is given a new voice actor due to the death of George Carlin; Red, who stopped speaking altogether due to the death of Joe Ranft; and Doc Hudson.
• One of the biggest accomplishments of the Harry Potter movies was keeping all of the same actors who played various parts in the same role over the course of a decade and 8 movies. The only exception is the recasting of Dumbledore due to Richard Harris' death.
• Jeff Bridges reprising the role of Kevin Flynn in Tron: Legacy after more than 25 years.
• One of the more impressive feats of getting the Star Trek movies was all of the original series characters being played by their original actors. Various bit characters played by bit actors also appeared in the movies, such as Yeoman Rand and Lieutenant Kyle.
  • Leonard Nimoy reprising Spock in the 2009 Star Trek film, after not having played the character since 1991's Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. This is somewhat ironic, as he almost didn't show up in the original movies due to not being interested in playing Spock anymore. He ended up playing his character longer than anyone else.
• Peter Cullen, the original voice of Optimus Prime, reprised his role in the live-action Transformers films, And the Fandom Rejoiced. Seriously. It may be the only thing they agree on.
  • The filmmakers considered offering Megatron's original voice actor, Frank Welker, the chance to reprise his role, but ultimately decided against it as the voice that Welker had used in the original cartoon would not fit with the redesigned look of the movie's version of Megatron and they felt that it was too iconic of a voice to ask him to change it. Welker did join the voice cast in the second and third movies to reprise the role of Soundwave, the other major Decepticon that he had voiced in the original cartoon, though his voice didn't have the heavy modulation that the original went through. Welker eventually reprised his role of Galvatron in Transformers: Age of Extinction and finally got to voice Megatron in Transformers: The Last Knight, though using Megatron's Transformers Prime voice rather than his 1980s voice.
• When Charlie's Angels was revived as a film two decades after the series ended, the same actor returned to play Charlie.
• Star Wars:
  • Quite a few actors from the original movies showed up again for the prequels. Probably the most impressive example is Ian McDiarmid; having played the Emperor under heavy aging makeup in his mid-30s, he ended up being just about the right age to play the younger version with no makeup at all by the time the prequels rolled around. Anthony Daniels also returned as C-3PO. As a respect to the actor who portrayed the shakes and movements of R2-D2, Kenny Baker, they credited him in the prequels although by that time R2 was largely motorized or CG.
  • Many Original Trilogy actors also showed up for the Sequel Trilogy. Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford all (obviously) reprised their iconic roles and were joined by Anthony Daniels returning as C-3PO and Ian McDiarmid eagerly returning as Palpatine.
• Despite the length of time from the first to the fourth, Bruce Willis played John McClane of the New York Police Department in all the Die Hard movies.
• Harrison Ford plays Indiana Jones in the first three movies (1981, 1984 and 1989), and then reprised the role in the fourth movie from 2008. Karen Allen also reprised the role of Marion Ravenwood from the first movie.
• Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West in Beyond Re-Animator. Explaining in an interview that West had been in prison for 13 years, the interviewer asked Combs if he'd be wearing aging make up. The answer was no, he was actually 13 years older.
• Everyone in The Hunchback of Notre Dame II except Laverne the gargoyle, due to the death of actress Mary Wickes.
• After George Lazenby's only role as James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Sean Connery came back as James Bond for Diamonds Are Forever before Roger Moore took over in Live and Let Die.
  • In 1980, Sean Connery came back as Bond in the Unofficial James Bond film Never Say Never Again.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • In Spider-Man: Far From Home, J. K. Simmons returns to playing J. Jonah Jameson, a role he originated in the 2000s trilogy.
  • In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Patrick Stewart returns as an Alternate Self of Professor X from the X-Men Cinematic Universe,

Live Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer pulled off a rather impressive string of actors reprising their characters in a single scene in the 7th season opener, with all previous Big Bads being impersonated by the new enemy who can take on the appearance of anyone dead or once dead. While one of them, Spike, had become a regular character on the series all of the others were reprised by the same actors.
• As a long-runner, Doctor Who has done this several times. The 2005 revival includes Elisabeth Sladen reprising her role as Sarah Jane Smith in "School Reunion", and later in spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures, which also featured appearances from Jo Grant and the Brigadier, while Peter Davison reappeared as the Fifth Doctor in "Time Crash".
• Smallville: Michael Rosenbaum was brought back as Lex Luthor for the Grand Finale, despite having been Killed Off for Real several seasons earlier.
• Star Trek:
  • The Pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation featured a cameo of Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy played by DeForest Kelley under heavy makeup. Leonard Nimoy and James Doohan also reprised their roles as Spock and Scotty respectively during the show's run.
  • Zephram Cochrane was played by James Cromwell in Star Trek: First Contact, and reprised the role five years later in a video cameo that bridges the events of that movie with Star Trek: Enterprise.
  • First Contact also introduced the Borg Queen, played by Alice Krige who returned to the role in the Grand Finale of Star Trek: Voyager. She later returned to voice the Queen in the Grand Finale of Star Trek: Picard.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had all three Klingon captains from TOS (Kor, Kang, Koloth) be played by their original actors from the 1960s. It even brought back Charlie Brill as Arne Darvin.
  • As a Sequel Series to TNG, it was no surprised that Star Trek: Picard had all of the original actors of Enterprise-D crew return. What was a surprise was the characters of Hugh and Seven of Nine returning, still played by their original actors. Hell they even got the bus punk from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home to be played by his original actor.
• The 200th NCIS episode "Life Before His Eyes" featured cameos from main and minor characters from previous seasons, even the dead ones. It Makes Sense in Context.
• Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale reprised their roles from the original Perry Mason series in the TV movies, 19 years later.
• Power Rangers was known for bringing back older characters into later series as semi-regulars. For example:
  • Jason Lee Scott (role reprised by Austin St John) in Power Rangers Zeo
  • Tommy Oliver (role reprised by the late Jason David Frank) in Power Rangers Dino Thunder
  • Bulk (role reprised by Paul Schrier) in Power Rangers Samurai

Video Games

• Batman: Arkham Asylum: Kevin Conroy would return to reprise his role of Batman, Mark Hamill would reprise his role of The Joker and Arleen Sorkin would reprise her role of Harley Quinn. The sequel, Arkham City, would only return Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. Arleen Sorkin was replaced with Tara Strong.~
  • DC Universe Online not only brought back Kevin Conroy for Batman and Mark Hamill for the Joker, but also Arleen Sorkin for Harley Quinn. Interestingly, they also brought back Corey Burton for the voice of Brainiac.
• Deus Ex Human Revolution: Cliff Stephens reprises his role as Bob Page, 10 years after the release of the original Deus Ex.
• Kingdom Hearts used the Disney voice actors in several languages.
• Not only is Peter Cullen back in the Transformers film series as Optimus Prime, but he also voiced Optimus Prime in Transformers: War For Cybertron
  • Interestingly, the upcoming sequel Fall of Cybertron will feature Gregg Berger reprising his role of Grimlock.
• Michael Gough would return in Diablo2 and Diablo3, reprising his role of Deckard Cain in both games. Lani Minella would reprise her role as Adria the Witch in the latter game.
• Star Craft 2 brought back Jim Raynor from the original Starcraft. Best of all, Robert Clotworthy returns to voice Raynor.
• While Sonic the Hedgehog was known for its Other Darrin status (First from the original voice cast to the 4Kids cast to the current cast), only one voice actor from the 4Kids realm returned to join the new cast, and that was Mike Pollock as Dr Eggman.
  • Sonic's guest star status in Super Smash Bros Brawl featured Jason Griffith (Under the name Adam Caroleson) voicing the Hedgehog. Also, the addition of Solid Snake, the other guest star, featured David Hayter providing the voice in many unique ways(He's also joined by Paul Eiding as Colonel Roy Campbell, Christopher Randolph as Otacon and Kim Mai Guest as Mei Ling
• Here's an interesting approach for Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3. The Japanese dub of the game features the return of Mami Koyama as Arale Norimaki
• The Video Game remake of From Russia with Love featured, for the first time since Never Say Never Again, the return of Sean Connery as James Bond.
• Clayfighter 63 1/3 brought in many well-known voice actors like Jim Cummings, Rob Paulsen, Charlie Adler and Frank Welker. Ironically, there was one reprisal, and that's by Dan Castellaneta as Earthworm Jim from the animated cartoon series

Western Animation

• Transformers:
  • Transformers Animated had Corey Burton reprise his G1 roles as Shockwave and Spike, Susan Blu voicing Arcee, John Moschitta as Blurr and Judd Nelson for Rodimus Prime.
  • Transformers Prime had Peter Cullen return to voice Optimus Prime and Frank Welker return to voice Megatron and Soundwave (though the vocoder effect is notably reduced). Cullen continued to voice Optimus, and Welker continued to voice Soundwave, in Robots in Disguise which featured any Prime actor reprise their character.
  • Jake Tillman voiced Optimus Prime in the WFC trilogy following Transformers: Cyberverse. Jason Marnocha and Frank Todaro likewise reprised their roles as Megatron and Starscream from the Prime Wars trilogy.
  • Among a sea of new voices, Transformers: EarthSpark shocked everyone by having Steve Blum reprise his Transformers Aligned Universe role of Starscream.
• The Looney Tunes Show brought back Jeff Bergmann from Tiny Toon Adventures and early 90s Looney Tunes Shorts for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester, Tweety and Foghorn Leghorn. Jim Cummings is back as Taz, Bob Bergen is back as Porky and June Foray is back as Granny. Sadly, due to her aging voice, she was unable to voice Witch Hazel (Now Witch Lezah).
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: The Animated Series brought back the entire original cast from Star Trek: The Original Series, with the exception of Walter Koenig (due to a stretched budget, Chekov doesn't show up at all). In addition, 2 new characters were added: Lt. Arex (Voiced by James Doohan who played Scotty) and M'Ress (Voiced by Majel Barrett Roddenberry, who voiced Nurse Chapel). To add to this, Walter Koenig wrote one episode for the series: The Infinite Vulcan.
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks has tons of characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager be voiced by their original performers.
  • Star Trek: Prodigy has Janeway, Chatokay, Dr. Crusher and Jellico be voiced by their original actors.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold featured a Pre-episode short called Space Safari, which was a crossover between Batman and Space Ghost. To sweeten the deal, Gary Owens, the original voice of Space Ghost, returns to reprise his role.
  • The Super-Batman of Planet X episode was more of an interesting point as it featured Kevin Conroy reprising his role as Batman, though a different Batman: The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh.
• While Ryan Drummond provided the voice of Sonic in Sonic Adventure in 1999, Jaleel White, AKA The Urkel Kid would reprise his role of Sonic in Sonic Underground. Furthermore, he also provided the voice of Sonic's two siblings: Sonia and Manic.
• While Mickey Mouse Funhouse brings back the regular voice actors such as Bret Iwan as Mickey and Kaitlyn Robrock as Minnie, among many others, the more surprising role reprisal is with the episode "Daisy And The Muses". The episode features the return of the muses Thalia and Calliope from Disney's Hercules, with Roz Ryan and Lillias White reprising their respective roles.
• Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight has Jack Black return to the role of Po. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, except that he's voiced by Mick Wingert in the first 2 TV shows, video games, and commercials. This marked the first time he voiced him for a series.
• Strawberry Shortcake: Berry In The Big City has Lemon Meringue voiced by Andrea Libman, who she first voiced in Strawberry Shortcake; Berry Bitty Adventures.
• Starting with Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures, the role of Barbie is done by America Young, who she first voiced in the Barbie vlogs on YouTube, and still does to this day in multiple projects. Similarly, Stephanie Sheh officially takes over as Renee here after she first voiced her in Barbie: Spy Squad and was briefly replaced by Shannon Chan Kent in Barbie: Video Game Hero.
• The Amazon series Hello Kitty: Super Style has Hello Kitty voiced by Sarah Anne Williams, who she also voices in the YouTube series Hello Kitty And Friends: Super Cute Adventures.
• Both of The Croods TV shows have some actors from different projects returning to the role. Dawn Of The Croods (a prequel to the first movie) has Eep voiced by Stephanie Lemelin, who she voiced in the video game adaptation of the first movie. The Croods: Family Tree (a sequel to the New Age movie) has Dawn voiced by her movie actress Kelly Marie Tran (though only for the first 26 episodes; she was replaced by Abby Trott after that) while Thunk is voiced by AJ Locascio (who he voiced in the first series).
• Megamind Vs The Doom Syndicate and the tie in TV show Megamind Rules has Megamind voiced by Keith Ferguson, who he voiced in the video game based on the original Megamind movie.
• The Disney Junior series Ariel has Sebastian voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, who be previously voiced in the video game Kingdom Hearts 2.
• Ben 10:
  • Tara Strong returns to voice the 10-year old Ben Tennyson in Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Ben 10: Omniverse and the reboot.
  • Paul Eiding returned to voice Grandpa Max in Ben 10: Alien Force. A rather notable example as Ben, Gwen and Kevin all had new voices (who reprised their roles in the Sequel Series).
  • Steve Blum reprised his roles as Vilgax and Zs'Skayr/Ghostfreak in Omniverse.
  • While mainly voiced by a new cast, the reboot did have, in addition to Tara being Ben again, Dwight Schultz as Dr. Animo, John DiMaggio Four Arms (and even Zombozo!), and Greg Cipes continuing on as the voice of Kevin.