Christopher Lloyd Has Appeared as Doc Brown in More Than Just the Back to the Future Movies

Christopher Lloyd has had a busy career spanning over five decades. But even with his work as Reverend Jim Ignatowski in Taxi and as Fester in the two The Addams Family movies, he’s most associated with the role of the eccentric Dr. ‘Doc’ Emmett Brown in Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future trilogy. So inextricably linked, in fact, that he’s continued to play the character in various forms of media ever since the film trilogy wrapped up back in 1990. Lloyd isn’t alone in reprising his Back to the Future role, either. But, even more than Marty McFly himself, Michael J. Fox, Lloyd has always been the quickest to return to the role that made him an icon.

More often than not, his reprisals of the role have been quite clever too. From video games to a Seth MacFarlane movie, these are the times Christopher Lloyd has played Doc Brown outside the trilogy.

Where Else Have You Seen (Or Heard) Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown?

Suffice it to say, it didn’t take Lloyd long to recognize just how lovable the character of Doc Brown is. The same year Back to the Future debuted, he played the role in Huey Lewis and the News’ “The Power of Love” music video. And, in-between the release of the second and third film, he made a cameo in The Earth Day Special, which served to educate viewers about the effects of pollution on the Earth. He was one of several who reprised a famous role, joining the likes of Candice Bergen as Murphy Brown and Will Smith as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

In 1991 he guided attendees through Universal Studios’ Back to the Future: The Ride and began his 26-episode tenure as the lead of the animated Back to the Future spin-off by the same name. After over ten years away from the role, he once again played Brown for the slot machine game Back to the Future Video Slots then returned to Universal Studios in 2008 for a cameo in The Simpsons Ride.

In 2010, he, alongside quite a few other Back to the Future veterans (more on them in a bit), came back for Back to the Future: The Game, as well as its later 30th Anniversary Edition. In 2011 he played the role in Back for the Future, a short film promoting the auction of the Nike Mag shoe and made his first of two appearances on Robot Chicken as Doc Brown.

Cut to 2014 and both he and the DeLorean popped up for a moment in Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West. The following year he was back in the video game Lego Dimensions (which featured actors reprising their roles from properties such as Ghostbusters, The Lord of the Rings, and, of course, The Lego Movie), led the Robert Zemeckis co-directed short film Back to the Future: Doc Brown Saves the World, and popped up in-character alongside Michael J. Fox on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Believe it or not, there’s still even more. Lloyd played the role in Funny or Die’s satirical Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal: The Movie (2016), showed up for the escape room Back to the Future: Outatime in 2022, and a video intro for the pop-punk band Busted in 2023.

In What Projects Have His Back to the Future Co-stars Reprised Their Roles?

Back to the Future: The Game also featured Michael J. Fox as Willie McFly and a future version of Marty. Furthermore, 2015’s star-studded video game Lego Dimensions also featured Fox. Lastly, Fox reprised his role in a preview for Lil Nas X’s song “Holiday” titled “The Origins of Holiday.”

[RELATED: 7 Movies You Need to Watch If You Love the Back to the Future Franchise]

The actress who played Jennifer Parker in the first film, Claudia Wells, also reprised her role for Back to the Future: The Game. Furthermore, she came back once more for the 2015 short film Back to the 2015 Future, which also saw the return of the first film’s Goldie Wilson (Donald Fullilove) as well as the second film’s Spike (Darlene Vogel) and Data (Ricky Dean Logan).

Tom Wilson (who played Biff Tannen (young, middle-age, and old), Griff Tannen, and Buford ‘Mad Dog’ Tannen) has also come back a few times over the years. Wilson joined Lloyd in 1991’s Back to the Future… The Ride and joined some of his cohorts for the 30th Anniversary Edition of Back to the Future: The Game (released in 2015).

Lea Thompson, who played Marty’s mother, Lorraine Baines McFly, reprised her role in an episode of Robot Chicken as well as in an episode of Family Guy. As for James Tolkan, who played variations of Principal Strickland throughout the trilogy, he joined Lloyd, Back to the Future Part III‘s Mary Steenburgen, and Wilson in the early ’90s CBS animated series.

It seems only Elisabeth Shue, who took over Wells’ role for Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III has refrained from reprising her role. Well, her and Crispin Glover. But given how the replication of his likeness for Back to the Future Part II led to an industry-altering lawsuit, it’s not at all surprising the latter has never been itching to jump back into Zemeckis’ time-traveling world.