retcon

plural retcons

1. A fictional setting in which a new storyline explains or changes a previous event or attaches a new significance to it.

   TLC: What do you say to the Legion fans who have become disenfranchised with the series due to its various retcons and reboots?

   2003, Glen Cadigan, The Legion Companion, page 152

   2 more examples

   Fans talk of retcon—retroactive continuity—giving information that explains an earlier event, especially seeming plot contradictions or lacunae.

   2005, Rhonda Wilcox, Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, page 9

   It's a little trick called retcon, short for "retroactive continuity," […] Yet I'm unsure even Millar is fully aware of the power given him by the retcon.

   2006, Glenn Yeffeth, editor, The Man from Krypton: A Closer Look at Superman, page 155

present singular third person retcons · participle present retconning · participle past retconned · past retconned

1. To employ such a device.

   There’s a note of wistful, wishful thinking in all this retconning of reality — would that we could write a time jump into our own scripts!

   2022 January 7, James Poniewozik, “Wondering When the Pandemic Will End? On TV, It Already Has.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   4 more examples

   While ‘retconning' the scripts, I came up with a number of theories that throw new light on the Doctor, his past, and various other elements[…]

   2003, Jean-Marc Lofficier, The Nth Doctor, page 5

   A lot of people were like, "Oh, they just retconned their own continuity. They should have used Kyle. I don't like that." So we just threw Kyle in there to say, "No, no, Kyle's still there. He still exists in the animated universe; he's just not stationed on Earth at the moment, regularly."

   2004, Eric Nolen-Weathington, Modern Masters Volume 3: Bruce Timm, page 79

   Retroactive continuity (aka retconning), would reveal that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are also Magneto's children, showing that this was a guy who was really committed to his cause

   2006, Len Wein, ed., The Unauthorized X-Men: SF and Comic Writers on Mutants, Prejudice, and Adamantium 92

   Luthor appeared a handful of times, Gary "retconned" the Toyman and created Terra-Man, and Superman would get a worthy opponent whenever Len Wein did a fill-in.

   2006, Michael Eury, Daniel (CON) Best, Glen (CON) Cadigan, Mike (CON) Esposito, David (CON) Mandel, The Krypton Companion, p. 157