10 Movies That Made Subtle Retcons They Hoped You Wouldn't Notice

The Godfather Part II may be arguably the greatest movie sequel of all time, but it also sneaks a retcon past audiences, albeit one which is ultimately well worth the trickery.

Part II introduces audiences to Frank Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo), a high-ranking capo in the Corleone family who is supposed to have been a close associate of Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) despite never once appearing in the previous film nor being part of Mario Puzo's source novel.

There is a reason for this, however: Puzo and director Francis Ford Coppola originally planned to have Richard S. Castellano reprise his role of Clemenza in the film, but amid disagreements with Castellano, he was written out.

Rather than recast the part, Pantangeli was created to serve as a Clemenza stand-in, no matter that it required attentive viewers to suspend their disbelief ever-so-slightly that he's seemingly emerged out of nowhere.

Considering how brilliantly Gazzo played the part, though, that wasn't much of a problem - he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work, ironically losing to co-star Robert De Niro.