History Main / SpotlightStealingSquad

** Following [[Characters/TheFlashBarryAllen Barry Allen]]'s death in ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', [[Characters/TheFlashWallyWest Wally West]] took up the mantle, and, despite starting out as a bit of a ReplacementScrappy managed to grow to equal and arguably surpass his mentor. As time went on the Flash franchise accumulated many more unique and interesting speedster characters such as Impulse, Max Mercury and Jesse Quick, along with a returning Jay Garrick, plus supporting characters such as Wally's wife and kids. When Barry was resurrected in ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', those characters were all pushed into the background in favour of the entire franchise becoming The Barry Allen Show. Barry continued to be the main (often sole) focus of the series ever since, and for a time was pushed as not only the definitive Flash, but the ''only'' Flash as all other speedsters were retconned from existence, as well as a multimedia push for him to be the ''real'' Flash. Eventually, this died down, particularly after Creator/DanDiDio left DC, and focus strangely pivoted... everywhere. Wally was returned to the role of "main" Flash and lead of ''The Flash'', while Jay got a miniseries and appearances ''Justice Society of America''. This is deconstructed when Barry laments that he's no longer the fastest Flash nor as important as he used to be in ''ComicBook/TitansBeastWorld''.

** The 2010s and 2020s saw Magik become ''the'' face of the New Mutants, despite her not being a founding member and not being present for a big chunk of the original series' run. Her return as the TokenEvilTeammate in the late 2000s proved very popular and she quickly became one of the mainstays of the franchise, to the point that she's frequently included as a member of at least one superhero team, if not more, even when ''New Mutants'' isn't running. Even in multimedia projects that tend to focus on the 90s TV show line-up, Magik will frequently be included as well.

** Following [[Characters/TheFlashBarryAllen Barry Allen]]'s death in ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', [[Characters/TheFlashWallyWest Wally West]] took up the mantle, and, despite starting out as a bit of a ReplacementScrappy managed to grow to equal and arguably surpass his mentor. As time went on the Flash franchise accumulated many more unique and interesting speedster characters such as Impulse, Max Mercury and Jesse Quick, along with a returning Jay Garrick, plus supporting characters such as Wally's wife and kids. When Barry was resurrected in ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', those characters were all pushed into the background in favour of the entire franchise becoming The Barry Allen Show. Barry has continued to be the main (often sole) focus of the series ever since, and for a time was pushed as not only the definitive Flash, but the ''only'' Flash as all other speedsters were retconned from existence.

* In the ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'' sequel, the focus of the show shifted from the Wilson family to Naomi somewhere between seasons 2 and 3.

* On paper, ''WesternAnimation/CartoonNetworkActionPack'' was meant to be an anthology series featuring all of Creator/CartoonNetwork's action-oriented series. In practice, the vast majority of the stories were ''Franchise/Ben10''-centric, especially later in the run; several issues were either only advertised for their ''Ben 10'' content or only had ''Ben 10'' stories period. Not coincidentally, it was also the only show featured that was on air for the entirety of the comic's run, with most of the others either ending and thus getting cycled out or debuting late in the comic's life.

* Xanthe/"Trike Girl" from ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}},'' starting around September of 2011, has quickly taken over the strip - either she herself or the effects of her actions.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' ran into a small issue with how extremely prominent Zelda is. It was no surprise that she's so heavily focused on, as she is the titular character, but so many characters in so many situations constantly (and rightfully) praise her and call her important, yet Link wasn't given the same treatment. In the identically titled novelization ''Fanfic/BreathOfTheWild'', the author tried to avert this. The first way is by giving Link more equal spotlight-stealing power, since he now has his own character arc. The other way is through original arcs for supporting characters, specifically [[spoiler: Impa, Paya, and the New Champions, who all get their moment to shine during the massive Yiga War]].

** In ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'' the plot revolves around Batman, Wonder, Aquaman, Flash and Cyborg dealing with the AncientEvil Steppenwolf. But towards the end of the movie Superman is brought BackFromTheDead, and shows up the entire cast in CurbStompBattle and then he comes back for the climax just to humiliate Steppenwolf.

** In ''Film/BatmanForever'' Creator/JimCarrey’s Riddler and Creator/TommyLeeJones’s Two-Face take up the majority of the film’s runtime while Creator/ValKilmer’s Bruce Wayne beyond the action scenes as Batman foiling the villains spends most of the rest of the film tied to Chase Meridian and Robin’s stories. Although the film does actually take some time to explore Batman’s character and trauma like the 1986 film, something ''Returns'' didn’t do.

** Other than Wolvie, Charles and Erik aka Professor X and Magneto are pretty big cases of this having a massive amount of screentime across 12 of the 13 movies (even in ''Film/TheWolverine'' which isn’t about them they appear in TheStinger). The reboot timeline, if anything gives Charles and Erik even more focus over other characters with the emotional core of ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', ''Film/DaysOfFuturePast'', ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' and ''Film/XMenDarkPhoenix'' centred on them. While obliviously such treatment is expected when portrayed by Creator/PatrickStewart and Creator/IanMcKellen and Creator/JamesMcAvoy and Creator/MichaelFassbender, it’s still unfair for the rest of the characters (particularly in Xavier’s case since the point of Charles in the comics is that as the MentorArchetype he takes a backseat to the team).

* This was inevitable whenever Creator/LouisDeFunes was cast in a supporting role. The most blatant case has to be his role as Commissioner Juve in the ''Film/{{Fantomas}}'' trilogy. TheHero and main character is Fandor, played by Creator/JeanMarais, but Juve just steals the show (and gets an increased importance in the sequels).

* During the 2000's Progressive car insurance company introduced a plucky woman agent named Flo, who loved to tell potential costumers about the benefits of having progressive. She became a mainstay in the commercials for many years. During the 2010s, the public was introduced to Flo's equally goofy work colleagues who would appear in the commercials with her from that point onward. During this time, one of the members known as Jamie (Jim Cashman) would eventually take over in popularity, slowly getting more lines during the commercials with Flo getting less. And as of the 2020s, most of the recent progressive commercials feature Jamie with Flo being a background character with a couple of lines at most.

* [[Characters/SpiderManPeterParker Spider-Man]] frequently steals the spotlight from other heroes in almost every [[Franchise/MarvelUniverse Marvel]] Crossover he appears in, despite being considered a "street level hero" at best. Though since Creator/StanLee stated that Spidey is Marvel's equivalent to WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse his prominence is to be expected. Notably there are very few Marvel TeamUpSeries books that don't contain the wall-crawler.

** Characters/{{Emma Frost|WhiteQueen}} has stolen much attention away from women who have been in the book much longer because they've been removed in different ways. [[Characters/MarvelComicsJeanGrey Jean Grey]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsStorm Storm]] (whose shoes she both now fills) had a [[DroppedABridgeOnHim bridge dropped on her]] and got married off respectively. [[Characters/MarvelComicsKittyPryde Kitty Pryde]] was PutOnABus (or trapped in a missile). [[Characters/MarvelComicsRogue Rogue]] was put in a coma. [[Characters/MarvelComicsPsylocke Psylocke]] was outside the reality with the ComicBook/{{Exiles}}. Regardless of the changing status of those characters, Emma is still the most prominent. Subverted in ''[[ComicBook/XMen2019 House of X]]'' as Emma and the Stepford Cuckoos take a major backseat and are sidelined throughout most of the events. She's still present [[DemotedToExtra but don't play any active role]] in the building of Krakoa or the fight against Mother Mold.
** Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} falls into this to large degrees. This is part of the reason the trope WolverinePublicity is named after him, since he's given a spotlight even when he's barely there.

** ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' is by far the biggest case of this as between the villains Mr. Freeze (Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger), Poison Ivy (Creator/UmaThurman), Robinm and newcomer Batgirl, Batman barely has a fraction of the runtime to himself.

* ''Film/MortalKombat2021'' has Cole Young, whose personal life and character arc gets heavy focus while fan favourite characters such as Liu Kang, Sonya, Jax and Kung Lao are sidelined. Cole being a CanonForeigner similar to the aforementioned Alice, who only was put into due to ExecutiveMeddling mandating that there needed to be an AudienceSurrogate character didn't help either. To a lesser extent Kano and his antics take up a lot of screen time, but since he provides a lot comic relief in the [[AdaptedOut absence]] of Johnny Cage, the fans were more forgiving.

* ''[[Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody The Suite Life on Deck]]'' focuses constantly on Cody, while his twin Zack is the comic relief. And it also focuses a lot on Bailey, sometimes even more than Cody.
** This may have been an attempt on the writers part to course correct as in the Suite Life Of Zack and Cody, it was ''Zack'' who usually was the focus of episodes, especially in season one.

*** Lucky from ''Series/UchuuSentaiKyuranger''. The show's premise is about nine saviors that wil emerge to save the universe (with the team ventually gaining twelve members). In all fairness, Lucky isn't as bad as some examples given that some of the other Rangers still get their own sub-plots and focus episodes, but it's hard to argue he doesn't gets much more focus than most, being present in almost every fight whereas the rest of the Rangers rotate and eventually being revealed he was a prince and a descendant of a legendary warrior.

* Castiel from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''He was only meant to be in 3 episodes but Misha collins was so popular in the role and the creator and show runner found the character so interesting in the role he was kept on till the shows end. He was killed off a number of times and his return episodes ranked in the top of there seasons in ratings and IMDB. He was also used to promote the final episode, that he wasn’t even in.

* Brazil has a football obsession in [[SeriousBusiness religious levels]] - though the Olympics and [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff volleyball]] also get some love. And nationwide press basically just pays attention to the big 4 of both UsefulNotes/{{Rio|DeJaneiro}} and UsefulNotes/SaoPaulo (being the biggest two cities/states ''and'' the headquarters of the big media companies helps the other states being treated as a FlyoverCountry), getting even worse if one of those 8 hires a big name player or wins a major championship.

* ''Series/SesameStreet'' has focused a lot on Elmo and Abby since their respective introductions (Rosita and Zoe have also had this problem on and off), with Grover, Ernie, Bert, Big Bird, Oscar, etc. mostly [[DemotedToExtra shoved into the background]].

** ''Film/BatmanReturns'' is a far worse case of this as despite Keaton’s Batman being the highest payed actor in the film, most of the movie is devoted to Creator/DannyDeVito’s Penguin and to a slightly lesser extent Creator/MichellePfeiffer’s Catwoman. In fact Bruce Wayne doesn’t even show up until 13 minutes into the film. Given Burton’s great AuthorAppeal towards “freaks” and “outcasts” it isn’t too surprising he gave more attention to the outlandishly gothic villains whilst Batman himself is demoted to just the ActionHero of the movie as there are only a handful scenes of him as Bruce Wayne with Alfred, Max Shreck and Selina.

** ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' is by far the biggest case of this as between the villains Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy (played by Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Creator/UmaThurman) and Bane and Robin and newcomer Batgirl; Batman barely has a fraction of the runtime to himself.
** Averted utterly in ''Film/BatmanBegins'' which is mostly from Bruce’s prospective, his TrainingFromHell and transformation into Batman. There’s only a few scenes with Scarecrow, Gordon and Rachel where Bruce isn’t present as well.
** In ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' it’s very hard to deny Creator/HeathLedger’s late and great performance as the Joker steals the show despite having only roughly 33 minutes screentime. Creator/ChristianBale in respect to his late co-star claimed it was really Heath’s movie. Harvey Dent aka Two-Face played by Creator/AaronEckhart’s FallenHero plotline takes up a good deal of the movie as well.

** Averted in ''Film/TheBatman2022'' despite having both Penguin and Catwoman just like ''Returns'' and Riddler as the main antagonist for good measure, the film is still largely set from Bruce’s prospective and as such the rogues gallery take a backseat. Although a lot viewers can agree Creator/ColinFarrell as Penguin pretty much steals every scene he’s in.
* The final film in the Film/BladeTrilogy, ''Film/BladeTrinity'', is a victim of this. Instead of the film focusing on Blade, a group of hunters get the most attention with Blade showing up, every-now-and-again. The film suffered a huge backlash by the fans because of this and Creator/WesleySnipes even sued, claiming they were whitewashing him for his own film franchise. However, a myriad of rumours alleged that Wesley Snipes couldn't be bothered to show up on set most of the time, leaving his stunt double having to perform most of the filming in his place; if true, then it's not entirely surprising that Blade ultimately doesn't appear much?

** One of the biggest problems many critics have had with ''Film/TheLoneRanger2013'' is how it puts very little focus on the title character, instead being centered almost entirely around Tonto.

* In the Creator/MichaelBay ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'', most people agree that it's more like ''Series/DawsonsCreek'' with Guest Stars the Transformers. It wasn't just the primary human characters who stole the main roles, but [[HumanFocusedAdaptation nearly all humans had more prominent roles than the robots.]]

** Creator/MargotRobbie's Harley Queen steals practically the entirety of both ''Film/{{Suicide Squad|2016}}'' and ''Film/{{Birds of Prey|2020}}''. The latter was supposed to be a Birds of Prey film but it is actually centered around Harley after she became the BreakoutCharacter of ''Suicide Squad''. Towards the end of it's pandemic-shortened theatrical run, some chains were even advertising the film as ''Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.'' Some detractors went as far as to declare that the Birds became sidekicks in their own movie. Downplayed in ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'' while Harley does get a good chunk of the movie devoted to her, she notably doesn’t overshadow the other characters like in ''Birds of Prey'' nor does the plot centre around her.

* ''Film/MortalKombat2021'' has Cole Young, whose personal life and character arc gets heavy focus while fan favourite characters such as Liu Kang, Sonya, Jax and Kung Lao are sidelined. Cole being a CanonForeigner similar to the aforementioned Alice, who only was put into due to ExecutiveMeddling mandating that there needed to be a AudienceSurrogate character didn't help either. To a lesser extent Kano and his antics take up a lot of screen time, but since he provides a lot comic relief in the [[AdaptedOut absence]] of Johnny Cage, the fans were more forgiving.

*** Though the film has villains aplenty with a RoguesGallery of five: Doc Ock, Green Goblin, The Lizard, Sandman and Electro. [[labelnote:*]] Venom would complete the six but he’s only in TheStinger. [[/labelnote]] it’s undeniable that Creator/WillemDafoe’s Goblin steals the show away from the other villains Joker-style being the real ArchEnemy BigBad of the film. Creator/AlfredMolina (Doc Ock) and Creator/JamieFoxx (Electro) both gracefully accepted this however, with the latter even bowing in awe to Willem Dafoe on set.
*** [[spoiler:On the heroes side while MCU Spidey does gets the majority of the screentime and CharacterDevelopment his AlternateSelf counterparts Creator/TobeyMaguire Spidey and Creator/AndrewGarfield Spidey do effortlessly steal a lot of the limelight. Although since their PowerTrio chemistry works so well on screen and they help the “main” Peter’s story arc there were hardly any complaints.]]

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Spike, introduced in the second season as an antagonist, barely appears in the third season, but became a series regular in fourth season. He gradually became one of the most popular characters on the show, helped immeasurably by Creator/JamesMarsters' performance - even the other actors on the show were clamouring to have scenes with him. It became more obvious once Marti Noxon took the helm of the show. He continues in this role when he becomes a regular on ''Series/{{Angel}}'', and in the several canon comics thereafter.

** John Walker the government elected Captain America [[spoiler: who becomes US Agent later]]. He steals the spotlight in many of the scenes he appears in and being a EvilCounterpart to Steve Rogers, fans found him an interesting AntiHero and more compelling villain than the actual antagonists Morgenthau and the Flag Smashers.

** In Season 3, the show has become less about the group (and [[OutOfFocus Will]]) and more about [[OfficialCouple Finn/Rachel]] and [[BetaCouple Kurt/Blaine.]]

** The first is obviously The Child [[spoiler: Grogu]]. Being essentially a infant Yoda, he is such an RidiculouslyCuteCritter that even people who haven't watched the series know full well who The Child is. There's several times where the story will cut to the little hijinks The Child gets up to and there's only a couple of episodes where he isn't prominent.

*** Takaharu Igasaki from ''Series/ShurikenSentaiNinninger''. The show was supposed to be about five ninja vying to succeed their legendary grandfather as the "Last Ninja", but in practice Takaharu got far more focus than is sister and cousins, and was always seen as the frontrunner in the "Last Ninja Race". The main problem is that, unlike Daigo, Takaharu had many less redeeming character traits: While he was the {{Determinator}} and matured a bit over the course of the show (emphasis on "a bit"), since he was also the show's KidAppealCharacter, he tended to act in stupid, childish ways and belt out his "I'M ON FIRE!" {{Catch Phrase}}s every two minutes at the top of his lungs.

** It helps that Momotaros is a "good monster" character played by a suit actor and [[Creator/ToshihikoSeki a professional voice actor who frequently turns up in the series]] rather than a live actor, meaning it's far easier to bring him (as well as the other Taros) back for cameos since Toei never has to worry about the actor "moving on" as happened with Takeru Satoh and other ''Rider'' stars. Just by virtue of being ''the easiest Rider to bring back,'' you can bet he'll at least get to pop up and say a CatchPhrase or two in any major team-up.

* During the 2000's Progressive car insurance company introduced a plucky woman agent named Flo, who loved to tell potential costumers about the benefits of having Geico. She became a mainstray in the commerciels for many years. During the 2010s, the public was introduced to Flo's equally goofy work colleagues who would appear in the commerciels with her from that point onward. During this time, one of the members known as Jamie (Jim Cashman) would eventually take over in popularity, slowly getting more lines during the commercials with Flo getting less. And as of the 2020s, most of the recent Geico commercials feature Jamie with Flo being a background character with a couple of lines at most.

* During the 2000's Geico car insurance company introduced a plucky woman agent named Flo, who loved to tell potential costumers about the benefits of having Geico. She became a mainstray in the commerciels for many years. During the 2010s, the public was introduced to Flo's equally goofy work colleagues who would appear in the commerciels with her from that point onward. During this time, one of the members known as Jamie (Jim Cashman) would eventually take over in popularity, slowly getting more lines during the commercials with Flo getting less. And as of the 2020s, most of the recent Geico commercials feature Jamie with Flo being a background character with a couple of lines at most.

** Pop and Cub, but to a much lesser extent. They don't get as much spotlight compared to the above, but they tend to have frequent supporting roles and are often used for promotion.[[note]]They notably star in the only other ''HTF Break'' aside from ''Chore Loser'' that doesn't take place in the movie theater, and whenever the show gets reinstated from a hiatus, Pop and Cub are usually the first ones to star in an episode (e.g. '' Read 'em and Weep'', ''Clause For Concern'', and most recently, ''Too Much Scream Time'').[[/note]] It gotten to the point where Pop & Cub are featured prominently in the two TV episodes where Lumpy ''doesn't'' appear.

** Pop and Cub, but to a much lesser extent. They don't get as much spotlight compared to the above, but they tend to have frequent supporting roles and are often used for promotion.[[note]]They notably star in the only other ''HTF Break'' aside from ''Chore Loser'' that doesn't take place in the movie theater, and whenever the show gets reinstated from a hiatus, Pop and Cub are usually the first ones to star in an episode (e.g. '' Read 'em and Weep'',
''Clause For Concern'', and most recently, ''Too Much Scream Time'').[[/note]] It gotten to the point where Pop & Cub are featured prominently in the two TV episodes where Lumpy ''doesn't'' appear.

** Pop and Cub, but to a much lesser extent. They don't get as much spotlight compared to the above, but they tend to have frequent supporting roles. It gotten to the point where Pop & Cub are featured prominently in the two TV episodes Lumpy doesn't appear.

** Pop and Cub, but to a much lesser extent. While not as infamous because of it, they are given plenty of focus in the episodes featuring them. This even hails back to the early seasons, where Cub had appeared in ''five'' starring roles in season 2, three of them without his father.