# Retcon > A later story changing what an earlier one established: a death that turns out not to have happened, a backstory that is rewritten, a rule that now works differently. Short for "retroactive continuity". Planned, it is a reveal; unplanned, it is a continuity error. Also known as Retroactive continuity ## In practice A retcon is new information in a later story that changes how earlier events, characters or rules should be understood. The dead character who survived, the parent who was someone else all along, the power that turns out to have always had a limit: each one rewrites the past the audience thought it knew, without anyone going back to change the earlier episodes. A planned retcon is a reveal. It changes what the audience thought they saw, and it works when the earlier material can bear the new reading: the clue was there, the line meant something else. An unplanned one is a continuity error that the story then has to explain away, and audiences can usually tell the difference. For a series writer, the defense is a record of what has been established: the series bible, the episode outlines, the room's notes. Before you change a fact, find every place it was stated or shown. If the change is deliberate, give the audience a moment that acknowledges it; if it is not, fix the later script instead of the earlier one. ## A retcon written as a reveal **A later episode reframes an earlier one** ``` INT. SAFE HOUSE - NIGHT Rain on the windows. COLE (40s), thinner than we remember, a pale scar at his hairline, stands in the doorway. LENA backs into the table. LENA I watched you go off that bridge. COLE You watched me go over the rail. You never saw me hit the water. He drops a climbing harness on the table, one strap cut clean. Lena knows that cut. She found its twin on the bridge and never could explain it. ``` The scene changes what the audience thought they saw, but it rests on something the earlier episode already showed: the cut strap nobody explained. That is the difference between a retcon that feels like a reveal and one that feels like the show changing its mind. ## Where the word comes from Retcon is a blend of "retroactive continuity", and it grew up in serial fiction: comics, soap operas and long-running series, where stories run long enough to revise themselves. It is used as a noun and as a verb, so a show can retcon a death, and fans will argue about whether the retcon worked. The classic example predates the word. Arthur Conan Doyle sent Sherlock Holmes over the Reichenbach Falls in "The Final Problem" in 1893, meaning to be done with him. Ten years later, in "The Adventure of the Empty House", Holmes returned with an account of how he had survived and why he had let Watson believe he was dead. ## Three kinds of retcon Adding. The story fills a gap the audience never noticed, without contradicting anything: a backstory, a hidden relationship, an earlier meeting between two characters. This is the gentlest kind, and most prequels are built from it. Revising. The story changes the meaning of something it already showed. In Star Wars, Obi-Wan tells Luke that Darth Vader betrayed and murdered his father. Once Vader turns out to be that father, Return of the Jedi has Obi-Wan explain that what he said was true "from a certain point of view". Erasing. The story undoes events outright. Dallas killed Bobby Ewing at the end of one season and brought him back by revealing that the whole following season had been a dream. It is the most famous retcon on television, and the reason erasing is the kind audiences forgive least. ## How to retcon well Build it on something that is already there. A detail nobody explained, a reaction that seemed slightly off, a line that can carry two meanings: the retcon then rewards an audience that was paying attention instead of punishing it. Keep the emotional truth of the earlier scenes. Viewers will accept that the facts were different from what they thought; they resent being told that what they felt was wrong. Holmes's return works partly because Watson's grief is honored, not dismissed. Acknowledge it on screen when the change is large. A character who says what everyone at home is thinking turns a contradiction into a beat, which is the hang-a-lantern technique applied to continuity. ## Keeping continuity in a series Most accidental retcons come from a fact that lived in one writer's head, or in an episode nobody rewatched. A current series bible is the fix: names, ages, dates, addresses, who knows which secret, what the world's rules allow and what each one costs. Before a script goes out, check every established fact it touches against the bible and against the episodes already written. When a change is deliberate, record it in the bible the same day, so the next script builds on the new version rather than the old one. ## Official sources & context Sources reviewed Oct 18, 2026 - [Merriam-Webster — retcon](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/retcon) [Catch accidental contradictions with Continuity Check](https://www.inkwell.software/skills/continuity-check) ## Common questions ### What does retcon stand for? Retroactive continuity: new information in a later story that changes how earlier events, characters or rules should be understood. ### What does retconned mean? That a later story has changed something an earlier one established. A death that is undone, a backstory that is replaced or a rule that is redefined has been retconned. ### What is an example of a retcon? Sherlock Holmes surviving the Reichenbach Falls, Obi-Wan's "certain point of view" in Return of the Jedi, and the season of Dallas that turned out to be a dream are three of the best known. ### Is a retcon a plot hole? Not by definition. A retcon is a deliberate revision that the story explains. It becomes a plot hole when the new version contradicts something the story never accounts for. ### Why do TV shows retcon things? An actor comes back, a series is renewed after an ending, new writers arrive with a better idea, or an early episode boxed the story in. A retcon lets the show move on without pretending the earlier episodes did not air. ### What is the difference between a retcon and a reboot? A retcon changes the past from inside the same continuity: the story carries on, with one fact revised. A reboot starts the continuity over, so nothing earlier has to be explained away, because it no longer counts. ### Is a prequel a retcon? Often in part. A prequel adds events before the original story, which is a retcon of the adding kind. It becomes a revising retcon when what it shows changes how the original scenes read, as prequels frequently do. ### How do you avoid accidental retcons in a TV series? Keep a series bible current with every fact an episode establishes, and check each new script against it and against earlier episodes before the facts reach production. ## Related terms - [Series bible](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/series-bible): The living reference for a show — characters, world rules, tone, arcs, and continuity the room consults while writing episodes. - [Continuity check](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/continuity-check): A skill that reads your scenes and flags continuity problems — vanishing props, unexplained costume changes, location contradictions — as findings you accept or dismiss. - [Pilot](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/pilot): The first episode of a series — the script that proves characters, tone, and the engine that can run for seasons. Often the draft a room or network judges hardest. - [Writers' room](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/writers-room): The team that breaks story, drafts episodes, and revises together. Rooms need shared drafts, clear history, and a way to try parallel takes without losing accountability. --- Canonical page: