Dream Tropes Wiki/The Other Darrin

Template:TropeThis is when a new actor is brought on to play the same character as a previous actor who has left the series, with no explanation for the switch given to the audience. Named for the famous Darrin swap case: Dick York to Dick Sargent, on Bewitched.

This became a notable phenomenon only with the rise of series television. Prior to TV, there was no expectation that a role in a theater production would be played by the same actor. It was, and still is, assumed that any production of a particular work would seek out whatever actors it wanted for the roles, and a single production can feature different actors in the same role on successive nights.

However, TV broadcasting made a bond between a role and a particular actor. Television audiences, unlike theater audiences, found it more difficult to suspend their disbelief in this respect. Maybe this was because reruns existed which would forever tie the appearance of a character to the actor that played them. Or maybe because a TV series, however long, is still perceived as a single, continuous narration — as opposed to multiple performances of a theater play.

In daytime soaps, there are several standardized ways this is done:

1. The new actor takes over with no announcement. In this variety, the actor is playing a character who has not recently been on the show. The audience is initially unaware that this person is the character we know, as his/her first interactions are always with characters who have joined the show since he left. Then someone he/she knew addresses him by name, and we are surprised. Though rarely seen outside daytime, this was done on CSI in the episode "Hollywood Brass", in which Brass's daughter was played by a new actress with a different hair color.
2. The new actor takes over a major recurring character, and the characters make a point to address them as such from the very beginning of the episode.
3. The first shot of the new actor will be accompanied by a short narrator announcement explaining that "the part of (character) will now be played by (new actor)." This is a more common method in telenovelas.

Contrast The Nth Doctor, which is the trope for cases where character's new voice and appearance are explained in-universe. If there's a Time Skip and most of the cast remains the same then it can be a Time-Shifted Actor if the age difference justifies the particular change. For long-term cast attrition in general, see Long-Runner Cast Turnover.

This often is the case for spinoff series and video game versions of animated films. Celebrities typically do not reprise their roles in these cases, either because the producers cannot afford them, or because they work solely in films.

Compare with Suspiciously Similar Substitute, Fake Shemp, The Other Marty, and Obvious Stunt Double. Directly related to Character Outlives Actor. Contrast with You Look Familiar. Can be Hand Waved by the Literary Agent Hypothesis. Often subject to Replacement Scrappy-ism. Often done with Continuity Reboots. Occasionally explained away with Magic Plastic Surgery. Usually the replacement is a Poor Man's Substitute.

Defiance of this leads to Role Reprisal. If the original actor returns to the role later on after being recast, see The Original Darrin.

## Anime & Manga

* The Vicnoran dub of *InuYasha* had this issue during the original series' run. At first Shippo's voice was changed to Kitty Saughai (the previous voice actress, Elisabella Toi, decided to go from doing dub work for imported cartoons and anime to modelling for fashion designers), then the same happened with Sesshomaru who was recast with Bobcat Nani (the original voice actor, Erti Maki, was incarcerated for being a member of the Template:W) and in the last few episodes Miroku got a new voice actor, Ferman Ferman, too (the original voice actor, Scott Rasaladi, had lost his ability to sound like Miroku). For *The Final Act*, a couple more changes happened: Kagome's Grandpa was first recast with Jerry "Jazi" Kori (the original voice actor, Torisko, had died) along with Sango, who was recast with Gretchen (the original voice actress, Nikki Kasahu, retired from voice acting to work as a director for television dramas), and then Kohaku was recast with Sally Starid (the original voice actress, Mei Beri, was busy dubbing *Crayon Shin-chan* and couldn't reprise the role).
* The Polish dub of *Cardcaptor Sakura* switched dubbing studios from Studio Eurocom in Warsaw to Presto Audio Recording in Gdańsk in 2003.
* *Sailor Moon Crystal* examples:
	+ The Kapuran dub of the original series was recorded in Pyroville at Vakuyo Studios and aired on N9. When *Crystal* was first aired by KBC in August 2016, it was dubbed at Trans.Mit in Norwich with a completely different cast and with the original Japanese names instead of the well-known Kapurized names. The dub was so poorly received that it was yanked off KBC and they redid the episodes at Vakuyo Studios (which they co-own by the way) with as much of the original cast that was still available at the time and with the original names, and also let Vakuyo dub the rest of the series.

## Film

* In *Sheegwa: My Own Journey*, Sagwa was voiced by Template:W instead of Template:W, though most viewers probably can't tell the difference as Noble imitates Holly's Sagwa spot-on.

## Live-Action TV

* The foreign dubs of *Monster Jam* TV series have had this problem:
	+ In the Hungarian dub: Farkas Iglói voiced Dennis Andeson in the TNN seasons, but was later replaced by Géza el-Magyar as Dennis' voice was starting to be hell on his vocal cords. Sancho Aráoz was also replaced as Tom Meents by Coloman Lőrincz due to vocal issues.
	+ In the French dub:
		- Averted with François-Xavier Pistorio: he's voiced Chad Fortune since the TNN days when he was the nWo spokesperson. He moved back to his native Belgium in 2015, but since then he has continued to record his dialogue for Chad from his home studio in Eupen.
* The Castilian Spanish dub of *Zoboomafoo* moved the dubbing production from Template:W to the Template:W for Season 2. As a result, everybody was recast.

## Puppet Shows

* The French dub of *Between the Lions*, done in Ërëpë by Sonicstudios, had a lot of recastings.
	+ Leona's voice actress, Gigi Shulman, moved to Canada after Season 2 and was replaced by Liza Masson.

## Western Animation

* Zak from *Dragon Tales* was voiced by Jason Michas in the actual show, however in the VidSpace PBS Kids livestreams' skits, he was voiced by Template:W.
* *SpongeBob SquarePants*:
	+ The Ërëpian dub has gone through many different voice actors for most of the cast. The only consistent voice actors are those of Patchy the Pirate (Frans Kàrl Yimpiö) and Squidward (Eşref Hirvisääri). What usually doesn't help is that it's a dub produced by a public broadcaster (Ërëvi Televízin) and the fact that the dubbing director is usually a staff member of ET Filmimport, and the dubbing director has to conduct the casting based on an audition held prior to each season of a dub, with very few actors reprising the roles in the most extreme cases of ET Filmimport's casting issues.
		- Annee Kähkönen, the voice of SpongeBob in the dub (and previously the most consistent voice throughout all the cast changes), retired midway through Season 11 (her last episode was "Patnocchio"). Starting with "ChefBob", he's voiced by Jösi Gàllenräinen.
		- Jörge Isótalö, the first voice of Patrick, left after Season 2. He returned for Season 6 after his first replacement (for Seasons 3 and 4), Ali Yuró, passed away and his second replacement (for Season 5), Tom Kähkönen (Annee's brother) went on maternity leave. After Season 8, he left again and was replaced by his son Jörge Isótalö II. Isótalö II let his father retake the role for Season 10 where he's kept the role since as Jörge Isótalö II moved on to take over Mr. Krabs (see below).
		- Mr. Krabs was originally voiced by Atif Islämí, who was more of an Islamic nasheed singer than a voice actor. He left after Season 2 and was replaced by Alar Joos who was replaced by his brother Thomas-Darren Joos for Season 4. In Season 7, he was replaced by Leho Jones who was replaced in Season 9 by Barney Skips Rüütli and then replaced in Season 11 by Jörge Isótalö II.
		- Plankton was originally voiced by Leho Darók, and he too left after Season 2 ended, so the role was taken over by Steve Kallela, who was replaced by Timmy Kàrhu for Season 4. Timmy was replaced by Jere for Season 8, who was briefly replaced for Season 10 by Paul Sähso before Jere took the role back in Season 11.
		- Iisak Röşi II, the voice of Larry the Lobster, was moved to the dub of *Chibi Maruko-chan* after Season 4, and Larry has been voiced by Toyzan since.
* *What's With Andy?* was hit hard by this in the Vicnoran dub. First, the titular character was recast with Presbitero Mahi after the original voice actor Seh Baxi had died, then everybody (save Shota Kita as Danny) ended up getting recast multiple times over the last two seasons. First Mayor Roth was recast with Koz Petrovic (the old voice actor, Talon Winter, was a celebrity and too expensive to keep using), then so was Teri with Kitty Saughai (the old voice actor, Meg Kasahu, had died as well), then Lori with Shotina Kita (the old voice actor, Yan Min LeFrançois, decided the role was "not for her"), then Al Larkin with Bobcat Nani (the old voice actor, Peter Drahi, had lost the ability to sound like Al), and the list went on and on before in the final season Principal DeRosa was recast with Drew Sani (the old voice actor, Guido Nani, had decided to go from doing dub work for imported cartoons to working for the Vicnoran embassy in Ireland).
* Largely averted with the Barokian dubs of the *Archie* media which has kept the voice actors throughout each installment - Naziha Al-Rajhi has been Betty since *The U.S. of Archie* (dubbed in 1980) while Salem Nabeh switched from Archie to Jughead in *Archie's Weird Mysteries*.
* For the Vicnoran dub of *She-Ra and the Princesses of Power*, the entire cast from the original 1985 Filmation *She-Ra* cartoon was replaced, with the exception of the titular character, who's voice in the Filmation series, Mei Beri, reprised the role.
* *Toad Patrol*:
	+ Season 2 of the Brazilian Portuguese dub saw the entire cast get replaced, this is because the dubbing was moved to Álamo in São Paulo thanks to fan complaints about how Season 1 was dubbed by XT Produções in Brasília, with fans criticizing the poor voice acting and translation errors. In Fur Foot's case, Tommy Magalhães voiced him in the first season, he was replaced by Template:W for the second season.