Here’s an interesting phenomenon:
When the same heroic character is played by more than one actor over the course of a franchise, and at one point, an actor who played that character in an earlier installment comes back to play a villain.
I can think of two examples (if I wanted to, I could apply the "if I had a nickel" meme to them), both from children's media.
In Rankin/Bass's Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, Mickey Rooney voices Santa Claus, while Paul Frees, who had previously voiced Santa in Frosty the Snowman and would voice him again in a few other Rankin/Bass specials, voices the villainous Burgermeister Meisterburger, who outlaws toys and tries to capture Santa. And later, in Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, it happens again: Mickey Rooney again voices Santa, while Paul Frees voices the evil wizard Winterbolt, who tries to take Santa's place. It's less obvious in Santa Claus in Comin' to Town because of Burgermeister Meisterburger's German accent, but in Rudolph and Frosty, Winterbolt's voice sounds so similar to the voice Frees always used when he voiced Santa, it really feels like Battle of the Rankin/Bass Santa Clauses.
Another example, which I only just learned about, was 1994's Barney Live in New York City. (Yes, I liked Barney as a little kid – don't think less of me, I outgrew him after about two years.) In that Radio City Music Hall show, as in Barney and Friends on TV, Barney's suit performer was David Joyner. Meanwhile, the show had one of the few antagonists the Barney franchise has ever had: a mischievous elf-like creature called the Winkster who steals the magical Barney Bag. And who was the actor who played the Winkster? David Voss, who was the suit performer of Barney back in the original 1988-1990 Barney and the Backyard Gang VHS series, which predated the PBS TV show. So in a way, it's as if the spirit of the original VHS Barney came back to play pranks on the more popular TV Barney.
Can anyone else think of any other examples like this?
