In the prequel story Porto Bello Gold, written by Arthur D. Howden Smith with explicit permission from Stevenson's executor and published in 1924, Ben Gunn is a servant of captain Andrew "Rip-Rap" Murray, a Jacobite privateer.

The cunning Murray masterminds the capture of a Spanish treasure ship, having obtained details on its route through an elaborate ploy and his Jacobite connections.

During in-fighting among the pirates over the treasure map following Flint's death in Savannah, Ben Gunn and Darby McGraw escape to Charleston with the protagonists and a small amount of gold.

[1] In the 1996 Disney film Muppet Treasure Island, this character was feminized as Benjamina Gunn (Miss Piggy) by Brian Henson and the scriptwriters, in which she is written as Captain Smollett's former fiancée who was jilted at the altar and later became romantically involved with Captain Flint before being marooned and made queen of the native wild boars on the island.

Jim and his group meet BEN while exploring the planet's forest, and the robot invites them to his house to care for the wounded Captain Amelia.

Jim re-inserts the memory circuit from Flint, causing BEN to remember that the planet begins collapsing upon the treasure's discovery.

After narrowly escaping the exploding planet, BEN joins Jim's family and is finally seen working in the rebuilt Benbow Inn.

Ben Gunn was the main inspiration for Herman Toothrot, a marooned and half-crazed hermit in the Monkey Island game series.

He is first encountered by Captain Flint and his crew when they are captured and imprisoned after landing on an island inhabited by a large group of escaped slaves.