Breakout Character in in Films and Animated Films.
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Films — Animation
- The scene-stealing Minions from Despicable Me definitely qualify. In the first movie, they're minor characters mostly there to further Gru's character. After becoming the most popular characters in the film, they have since then starred in countless mini-films, dominate the soundtrack, have earned the position of official Mascot of Illumination (and by extension Universal Pictures), and got a feature film of their own in 2015 as well as a sequel.
- Disney Animated Canon examples, in chronological order:
- Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The personality of Gideon the cat from Pinocchio was completely altered during the film's production to make him more like Dopey in Disney's hopes of capturing the same lightning twice.
- Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio ended up becoming one of the three mascots for Disney alongside Mickey Mouse and Tinker Bell due to his popularity. He reappeared in Fun and Fancy Free as a narrator and starred in numerous Disney educational films and albums throughout the '50s and '60s. He even hosted a Walt Disney World Vacation Planning Video in the early '80s
and still occasionally serves as a host for parades, shows, or anything Disney related nowadays. - Figaro who was also in Pinocchio was one of the earliest Disney characters to become popular outside of the film he came from, similar to Donald Duck. In the mid '40s, Figaro got his own series of shorts and would also become Minnie's pet cat. Figaro is also seen in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and several spin-off/retools to the show (such as Minnie's Bow-Toons, Mickey Mouse Roadster Racers/Mixed-Up Adventures, and Mickey Mouse Funhouse).
- Casey Junior from Dumbo is the film's most famous character, with enough recognition that he rivals a certain blue tank engine in terms of popularity, despite being a Flat Character in his debut film. Made memorable by his design, voice, and iconic self-titled theme song, he got an opening attraction at Disneyland, has been included as one of the floats in the Main Street Electrical Parade, has made cameos in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Kronk's New Groove, the opening credits of The Jungle Book (2016) and The Lion King (2019), and even the Mickey Mouse (2013) shorts.
- Thumper from Bambi is by far the most popular character from the film next to Bambi himself. He is the star of his own series of books; "Disney Bunnies", and he even got his own merchandise line. He was also intended to have his own spin-off feature film and TV series in the Disney Afternoon block, though these ideas were dropped. He also starred solo in a few of the vintage Dell Disney comic books.
- Jose Carioca from Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros became huge in Brazil. He was also popular enough in the U.S. to reappear in Melody Time and cameo in Alice in Wonderland, as well as pop up in shorts and TV specials through the 1970s.
- Tinker Bell from Peter Pan has become one of the main spokes-characters for Disney and one of its most popular and iconic characters. Disney has also started an entire franchise (Disney Fairies) where she is the main character.
- Scamp, the son of the titular couple of Lady and the Tramp only appeared in one scene without any dialogue in the movie and has No Name Given. However, he was popular enough to get his very own daily comic strip in the 50s which is popular enough to be released in collections outside the U.S. till today. He grew so popular that when Disney gave the movie a direct-to-DVD sequel in 2001, the movie was titled Scamp's Adventure with the puppy being promoted to protagonist.
- Sleeping Beauty has Maleficent. Every time the evil fairy showed up, she shamelessly stole the scene. To this day, she is perhaps the iconic Disney villain. Maleficent is all over the merchandise, one of the most epic bosses in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, and even got a movie of her own starring Angelina Jolie which gained a sequel a few years later.
- 101 Dalmatians: Cruella de Vil, Cruella de Vil... What does it say that the 1961 animated version treats her simply as the villain, but the '90s live-action films are essentially a Villain-Based Franchise focused on Cruella? In fact, Cruella is the only human character to return in the live-action sequel. Of course, this is compounded by the dogs not talking in the live-action versions, although they still have Amplified Animal Aptitude. She even gained her own origin movie in 2021 with a sequel in the works. Ironically, the original book has a sequel in which Cruella only has a small role.
- Baloo from The Jungle Book became so popular in the late 1960s that Disney brought his voice actor back to basically play similar roles in The Aristocats and Robin Hood, not to mention they made him the lead character of TaleSpin for the Disney Afternoon.
- Marie from The Aristocats. While Marie is one of the main characters in the film, it was Thomas who was initially the character Disney used to represent the film. In the mid to late 90's, though, Marie became popular and started taking that role. She's featured a lot in any merchandise for The Aristocats. Marie is so popular in Japan that she even got her own one-shot manga◊ Miriya & Marie where she is the main character and even her own music video. Outside of Japan, Disney released a book in 2006 called "Disney Marie" where she and Roquefort visit the famous places in Paris. A year later, Disney also released a book with a CD called "Disney Marie A is for Adorable A Fabulous Alphabet" which is a read-along CD which mostly follows any alphabet letter related to Marie, Paris, or anything related to her complete with a Bragging Theme Tune titled "Everyone Loves Marie" which serves as the theme and background music for the book. A remix by D!tto called "Oui Oui Marie" was created to promote the Blu-ray release of the film that is focused on Marie that was actually commissioned by Disney. The remix was actually uploaded to Disney's Official Website. There's even a Spin-Off children's book/graphic novel series called The Aristokittens note where she alongside her brothers (Berlioz and Toulouse) are the main protagonists and work at a cafe for animals.
- Aladdin:
- Iago. His popularity has grown to the point that he's arguably more iconic than Aladdin himself, and he even has a Heel–Face Turn. Only the Genie rivals him in popularity.
- The Genie himself is an example. Originally he was going to be a somber character who granted Aladdin his three wishes. Then they cast Robin Williams.
- Timon and Pumbaa from The Lion King. They got their own TV show, a P.O.V. Sequel, and have tons of fan art dedicated to them, far more than Simba, Nala or Mufasa get. An episode of House of Mouse that has Timon and Pumbaa as the club's special guests has Simba in the audience lampshade "those guys always get all the attention".
- In the animated movie The Emperor's New Groove, Yzma's servant Kronk delivers many of the film's funnier moments. Because of this, and partly because he is voiced by the deep-voiced Patrick Warburton, Kronk was popular enough among the fanbase to be the main character in the sequel, Kronk's New Groove.
- Stitch from Lilo & Stitch. Chris Sanders' mischievous blue alien quickly became one of Disney's most iconic characters during Disney Animation's lull in the 2000s. He was heavily promoted throughout the decade, especially in Disney Parks, and still remains a money-maker for Disney even long after his franchise peaked in popularity. He became especially popular in East Asia; the Japanese made an anime that lasted for more episodes than the Western-animated first TV series and later got a bizarre Alternate Universe Spin-Off manga in 2020 with him crash landing in Feudal Japan, while in 2017, the Chinese broadcasted their own animated series about him.
- Despite Anna being the protagonist of Frozen and Olaf initially receiving most of the marketing before the movie's release, Elsa became the most popular character in the film by far, eclipsing not just Anna and the rest of the cast but pretty much the whole Disney Princess line. As a result of her popularity, Disney quickly moved to build a franchise that heightened her role and, to a lesser extent, Olaf. The Broadway musical even bills Elsa as the protagonist, despite closely following the same story as the first film. Most marketing and press often gives Elsa a more prominent role, too.
- Winnie the Pooh: A minor character in the original books, Tigger was made one of the main cast in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and subsequent materials. His popularity led to being the first to be given his own spinoff film in the early 2000s and he was made a title character with Pooh in My Friends Tigger & Pooh.
- Throughout the Winnie the Pooh series, Roo has always been something of a background character who is mostly just a case of Big Brother Worship when it comes to Tigger. However, The Tigger Movie promoted Roo to a Supporting Protagonist, with later Pooh movies and TV series increasingly pushing him and his mother Kanga as part of the main cast, having made only sporadic minor appearances beforehand. Similar to Tigger, this eventually led to Pooh's Heffalump Movie where Roo is the lead character.
- Finding Nemo has Dory. Popular enough to call the sequel Finding Dory, with her as the new main lead.
- Mavis Dracula, the daughter of Dracula from Hotel Transylvania, quickly became the most popular character — and almost the face — of the franchise, to the point that she received her own animated series as protagonist.
- Ice Age franchise:
- Scrat quickly rose to become the most popular character in the first movie, which led to larger roles in the later ones and his own short films and eventually becoming the Mascot of Blue Sky Studios.
- Buck as well. He first debuts in the third movie, where he became one of the things that everyone agreed was great about the movie, made a surprise return in the fifth (where, again, everyone agreed he was one of the few good parts) and got his own spin-off movie on Disney+.
- Tigress had a somewhat modest role in the first Kung Fu Panda film as the aloof Jerkass member of the Furious Five. Following her having Took a Level in Kindness at the end of the plot however, both the sequel films and the spin-off TV series quickly formed her a Tsundere relationship with the main protagonist, with her being the most popular and limelighted character besides Po throughout the franchise.
- Chomper from The Land Before Time film series. He was originally just a guest character brought in for the second film. But he proved to be so popular with fans and critics that he was brought back as a supporting character in the fifth film. Eventually, he became a main character in the TV series as well.
- Unikitty from The LEGO Movie proved to be the most popular original character in the movie: Packs containing Unikitty for LEGO Dimensions would be frequently sold out in stores, LEGO sets containing Unikitty would often sell for double their retail price when the movie was still new (and minifigs of Unikitty herself could reach US$50), and she now has her own show on Cartoon Network.
- In a similar manner, The LEGO Movie's Batman received his own film.
- Despite being almost pure comedy relief, the Penguins and King Julien from Madagascar and its sequels were so obscenely popular that they got their own Spin-Off series, The Penguins of Madagascar, as well as a film all to themselves Penguins of Madagascar. Julien himself would get his own show a few years later.
- Monsters vs. Aliens has B.O.B., who by virtue of being the Kid-Appeal Character, the silliest looking monster and the funniest character, managed to upstage the other main monsters to become the most iconic part of the movie, even upstaging the actual main protagonist, Ginormica. His popularity among kids eventually led to him getting extra focus to the point where he was practically the main character of the 2013 series, and he's also appeared in a couple of Dreamworks-related crossovers such as Madagascar Kartz and DreamWorks Super Star Kartz as the sole representative of his series.
- This happened with Sunset Shimmer in the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls series. In the first movie, the character was seen as a generic Alpha Bitch with relatively shallow characterization, and wasn't received very well. The sequel, Rainbow Rocks, was originally intended to have Sunset return as just a minor character who did little more than contact Twilight Sparkle for help before fading into the background. However, it was quickly decided after writing the initial draft that the movie needed to build more on the aftermath of the previous film, which resulted in the second draft upgrading the Ex-Big Bad to deuteragonist instead. Sunset's Reformed, but Rejected reformation arc was received very well in the fandom and she exploded in popularity, with her going on to become the de facto main character of the entire spin-off series, while Twilight Sparkle (the "princess" one from the pony world, anyway) was Demoted to Extra.
- Puss in Boots, the swashbuckling feline who became the primary protagonist of the 2011 a Spin-Off prequel Puss in Boots, was a supporting character who first appeared in Shrek 2 as an assassin on Shrek and Donkey's life before making amends and joining them as a team of three in all the other sequels. Audience and critics alike gave him credit for stealing the show. Even after the Shrek franchise ended for several years, his own popular spinoff has left room for an entirely new franchise focused on him, including his own TV show and a sequel.
Films — Live-Action
- Wednesday Addams was such a popular part of The Addams Family that she was made the co-protagonist of the sequel Addams Family Values, which revolves (in part) around her antics at Summer camp. Moviegoers of the 1990s instantly fell in love with Christina Ricci's performance as an eternally snarky Creepy Child, and she's still cited as one of the most memorable parts of the movies. Many younger fans — who mostly discovered the TV series through the films — are often surprised to learn that Wednesday was a rather minor character in the show, and she was originally a relatively normal Cheerful Child. In 2022, she got her own TV show on Netflix, titled Wednesday.
- Steve Stifler from the American Pie movies. He started off as a supporting character in the first movie; then, thanks to his popularity with the fans, he got a more central role in the sequel where he tags along with the main quartet on their summer vacation. By the third film he was the protagonist (despite the film nominally being about Jim and Michelle's wedding) and received a decent amount of Character Development. In the reunion movie he's the Deuteragonist. The name of Stifler has become so associated with the franchise that all the direct-to-video movies feature a Stifler relative, with the first three (Band Camp, Naked Mile, and Beta House) having a Stifler as the protagonist.
- The Blue Lamp: PC George Dixon started off as PC Andy Mitchell's mentor who ultimately ends up murdered. People took a liking to the Old-Fashioned Copper and the rest was history — Dixon of Dock Green, his resulting spin-off, lasted 21 years.
- Punic Wars-era strong man Maciste (played by Bartolomeo Pagano) was the breakout character of the Italian epic Cabiria (1914). Pagano reprised his role as the star of 25 Maciste films in the following twelve years, and a further slew of Sword and Sandal films during the 1960s and 1970s starred various other actors in the same role.
- Clerks — Jay and Silent Bob are originally bit characters. Smith put them again in Mallrats only because he wanted to see Jason Mewes play Jay one more time. According to his blog, he had no idea they were so popular at all until the screening of Mallrats at 1995 San Diego Comic Con. After that, he felt confident enough to put them as bit characters again in Chasing Amy, to give them a more prominent part in Dogma, and finally to make a whole movie about them: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. And, of course, they made their return in Clerks II.
- Aldous Snow from Forgetting Sarah Marshall was so popular that he got his own movie, Get Him to the Greek.
- Tommy Lee Jones' version of Deputy Gerard in The Fugitive was so popular that he got his own sequel, U.S. Marshals.
- Slimer from Ghostbusters didn't even have a name in the original film, yet he wound up the mascot of the animated series and franchise. The third season of the animated series was even titled Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters. His semi-official name during production of the first film was Onionhead, but the fans nicknamed him Slimer and it stuck.
- Dina in Girls Trip. Ironically she was the only main character played by a relative unknown, Tiffany Haddish (the other leads were Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett, and Regina Hall). Almost all of the positive reviews of the movie mentioned Haddish's performance and she even hosted Saturday Night Live a few months after the film's premiere.
- Funnily enough, Godzilla was this for the Godzilla series. To elaborate: when Toho brought Godzilla back to the big screen in 1962 after the disappointing reception of the second movie, it was only so that he could serve as the antagonist of their new King Kong movie (which was originally supposed to pit Kong against Frankenstein's Monster), with Kong being envisioned as the star of the show. Similarly: Godzilla's next two outings were actually crossovers where he got roughly equal billing with the preexisting monsters Mothra and Rodan. But as audiences gradually fell in love with the character, his role in successive films just got bigger, while Mothra and Rodan (and numerous other preexisting monsters) effectively became supporting characters in his story. By Destroy All Monsters, most of Toho's giant monster movies had definitively become part of a shared universe, and Godzilla was the undisputed protagonist of that universe.
- Sharpay Evans from the High School Musical films, despite being the Designated Villain, proved so popular that she ended up getting her own spin-off film in which she's the protagonist.
- Jurassic Park films:
- The original Jurassic Park made Velociraptor a stock dinosaur. Jurassic Park III did the same thing for Spinosaurus.
- Among the human characters, Deadpan Snarker and Female Gaze magnet Dr. Ian Malcolm was this. Because he was Spared by the Adaptation, when Michael Crichton wrote the sequel novel The Lost World with a movie adaptation in mind, he retconned the death so Ian could be the protagonist. Although his appearance in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom was a glorified Bookends cameo, it was heavily featured in the advertising campaign.
- The Pink Panther (1963) was originally meant to be about David Niven's jewel thief character, with Inspector Clouseau as the bumbling antagonist. The animated Pink Panther only appears in the opening credits as a nod to the non-literal "pink panther" that's the name of a diamond serving as a MacGuffin.
- The animated Pink Panther that appeared in the opening credits to the movies ended up as an independent character with multiple TV series written around him, as well as several video games.
- A last-minute casting change put Peter Sellers in the Clouseau role, and the rest is history. Let's face it, the whole thing ended up turned around. The thief, the antihero, the glamour romance interest and the plot all end up being forgotten in favour of Clouseau, who became the protagonist of future installments in the film franchise. note
- Pirates of the Caribbean:
- Captain Jack Sparrow. The original intention was for the series to focus on the adventures of up-and-coming pirate Will Turner. Jack was meant to be a freewheeling, accidental mentor, with a large role only in the first film. But Johnny Depp ended up re-imagining Jack during the filming, and audiences loved the character enough that his increased role continues into the sequels until the fourth film, where he's the only star and the previous main characters are not present.
- Barbossa was originally only meant to be a Foil and nemesis for Jack in the first film, but proved to be so memorable (due to Geoffrey Rush's incredible performance) that the writers decided to resurrect him at the end of the second film, leading him to become one of the main characters in the third, fourth and fifth.
- James Norrington was originally going to be a secondary character that only appeared in the first movie (in fact, he was meant to be a Big Bad Wannabe before Jack Davenport's performace proved to be too charming to make it believable) but the character's popularity lead to him becoming a prominent character in the first two sequels.
- Scream series:
- Randy Meeks is among the most popular characters from the saga for his Adorkable nerdy-personality. Filmmakers learned this the hard ways when many fans reacted angrily to him being killed off making him a subversion. Writers thought of bringing him back, Ret-conning his death as mere wounds but settled for the more realistic decision of giving him a posthumous role in the form of a Video Will. The fifth movie ensures Randy's legacy lives on by introducing his niece and nephew as main characters.
- Dewey Riley was supposed to be killed off in the first movie. Positive feedback from test audiences led to director Wes Craven inserting a shot of Dewey being loaded into the back of an ambulance, and thus Dewey survived for all films until the fifth.
- Kirby Reed quickly became the fan favorite of Scream 4, thanks to her spunky movie buff personality and Hayden Panettiere's strong performance. With Jill Roberts revealed to be one of the Ghostface killers, many an audience member expressed enthusiasm for Kirby to take over as the new Final Girl if Sidney ever left the franchise — hope that was seemingly dashed when Kirby was stabbed to death by Charlie near the end of the film. However, since the original cut contained a scene similar to Dewey's hinting at Kirby's survival, fans continued to insist for years that she did pull through... which was finally confirmed over a decade later via a Freeze-Frame Bonus in Scream (2022). At long last, Scream VI brought back Kirby in a major role.
- Agent Stone, Robotnik's Sycophantic Servant in the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie and its sequel, quickly became very popular with the fanbase despite being a character created for the movies who never appeared in previous Sonic media. His Affably Evil personality, his great on-screen chemistry with the Doctor and the fact that he's a genuinely smart and competent underling in his own right have endeared him a lot to the fans, who welcomed him to the Sonic universe with open arms.
- Star Wars:
- Han Solo. George Lucas wanted Luke Skywalker to be the hero that everyone else just supports, but the public just went for Han, eventually leading to his own spin-off film, Solo. Doesn't hurt that it was Harrison Ford, even before he was big.
- Even Darth Vader is one of these. In the first movie, he barely even appears, and when he does, he's usually being subordinate to Grand Moff Tarkin. He didn't even get his iconic "Imperial March" Leitmotif until The Empire Strikes Back. In early drafts of the script, he was even killed in the Death Star trench run, and was never intended to be Luke's father. Fortunately, however, Lucas decided to insert a shot of him escaping as a Sequel Hook, and he ended up becoming one of the most popular characters, enough to sustain the demand for a three-movie-long Start of Darkness arc.
- Admiral Piett is a more minor example. Viewers found him so sympathetic in The Empire Strikes Back that he was written in to Return of the Jedi to reprise his own role as Admiral of Vader's fleet... and then he dies. (At least he goes down fighting.)
- Boba Fett became so popular that a decent chunk of the prequel trilogy's second film was dedicated to his origin story. His father became the sole genetic basis for the Grand Army of the Republic, one of the single most influential factions in the entire saga. He was even digitally added into a restored scene of A New Hope when Lucas released the Special Editions of the original trilogy. This in addition to his role as a supporting character and protagonist in the Expanded Universe stories, as well as getting his own show on Disney+. All of this is pretty crazy when you realize he has just two lines in Episode V and none in Episode VI (and in the latter, he gets about fifteen minutes worth of screentime).
- Darth Maul definitely qualifies. While The Phantom Menace has divided people on many of its aspects, Darth Maul remains one of the few things about the movie that is near-universally loved. He only had two lines of dialogue and was killed at the end, but he was still a total badass. This popularity was enough for the writers of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars to retcon his death and bring him back, while giving him an equally badass brother, Savage Oppress. He then received a comic revolving around him: Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir, which is based off of unmade scripts for The Clone Wars. And he was brought back for more in Star Wars Rebels, where he caused more than enough trouble for the main characters, and confronted Obi-Wan during his exile on Tatooine in a Last Dance. He's even getting another comic revolving around him, but this time, it will be pre-Phantom Menace.
- From the Star Wars EU, Grand Admiral Thrawn, AKA Mitth'raw'nuruodo, is most definitely this. Originally one of the two central antagonists of The Thrawn Trilogy (which received the name retroactively), sharing the spotlight with the mad Jedi Master Joruus C'baoth, he has become popular to the point where he could rival characters from the films in popularity. He's now a Canon Immigrant as a result of being added into Star Wars Rebels, and continues to enjoy mass popularity for his affable demeanor, strategical intellect, taste in art, and for being overall magnificent. It speaks volumes that when in the Hand of Thrawn duology, it is said that Thrawn never needed a superweapon like the Death Star to bring success, because he was the superweapon.. And now, he made his way into The Mandalorian as a Greater-Scope Villain and the Big Bad in Ahsoka. And as for Joruus C'baoth... who?
- Step Up 2: The Streets has Andie's adorkable and talented friend Moose who was very popular even with those who didn't like the movie. His actor won a "Best Scene Stealer" award. Moose became a main character in the third movie and the only character who appears in all the films except the first one.
- Burt Gummer, a supporting character in the original Tremors, wound up stealing the franchise so completely that the TV series never bothered to give leads Kevin Bacon or Fred Ward so much as a Continuity Nod.
