History Main / SecondaryCharacterTitle

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': The player character and protagonist is Link (though [[HelloInsertNameHere you can choose his name in most games]]).

* The live-action ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' movies. The fact that the Transformers are secondary characters in the movies named after them is a frequent subject of mockery, due to the fact that they were the main characters in other incarnations of the franchise.

* Chicory is deuteragonist of ''VideoGame/ChicoryAColorfulTale''. She is the artist who motivates [[PlayerCharacter Pizza's]] journey and the story is just as much about her as it is about Pizza.

* The protagonist of ''Literature/{{Aimee}}'' is not Aimee but her best friend who is accused of killing her. In fact, the protagonist isn't named until the end of the book. [[spoiler:Her name is Zoe.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' zigzags this. Hank and Dean Venture are distinctly not the main characters of the series, but how prominent they are ranges from season to season. In the first three seasons, Rusty Venture, Brock Samson, and the Monarch all tend to have stronger claims to protagonist status and have much more involved arcs, with the boys generally coming across as TheDividual, [[TheLoad rarely affecting the plot]], and being around more for comedy than drama. Even an in-universe summary declared that Rusty was the real main character. In Season 4, however, they get significantly more CharacterFocus and go through DivergentCharacterEvolution, developing significant story arcs of their own while some prior characters flit in and OutOfFocus (particularly Brock) once their arcs were finished. By Season 7 or so, the large ensemble cast means that the show doesn't particularly have a single protagonist, but Hank and Dean are definitely good candidates. It's further played with by the season 2 opening on Rusty and his newly discovered twin brother Jonas Jr. though Jonas Jr. was never more than secondary character throughout the show. Revelations in Season 7 suggest that the "true" Venture Brothers are [[spoiler:Rusty and his half-brother Malcom aka The Monarch]].

SubTrope of CharacterTitle. Compare VillainBasedFranchise, AntagonistTitle, SupportingProtagonist, and {{Deuteragonist}}. May overlap with TrivialTitle if the secondary character is especially unimportant to the story, or with ArtifactTitle if the character [[OutOfFocus used to be]] the protagonist.

* This is parodied in ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' with a sketch about TheFilmOfTheBook of the abovementioned ''Film/{{Rebecca}}'', where [[ExecutiveMeddling the studio insists]] that if the film is going to be called ''Rebecca'', it has to be ''about'' Rebecca. As a result, she spends the whole movie listening to people talk about what it'll be like when she's dead and her husband's second wife moves in.

* The titular character of ''Film/{{Rebecca}}'' was [[PosthumousCharacter already dead before the movie even began]]; however, the disproportionate influence her memory still has over the other characters is central to the story.

* You'd be surprised how little ''VideoGame/{{Anna}}'' actually features in her own game. In fact, it's debatable if she appears ''at all'' (because TrueArtIsIncomprehensible).

** ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' averted the Antagonist Title from the original game in a very clever, Pun-Based Title way. In fact, the fact that it's a case of this trope and not just an example of the usual "Super X" snowclone common to USefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem games is somewhat of a spoiler:the reason the titular character is the Super Metroid doesn't become apparent until the final segment of the game.

-> ''"Michael Corleone is ''Film/TheGodfather''’s protagonist. The Don gets shot about 40 minutes into the film’s three-hour running time, and while he survives and has a few scenes thereafter, virtually everything memorable about [[Creator/MarlonBrando Brando’s]] performance occurs within the first couple of reels."''
-->-- '''Mike D’Angelo''', [[https://thedissolve.com/features/performance-review/301-in-1972-the-oscar-went-to-the-right-actor-in-the-w/ "In 1972, the Oscar Went to the Right Actor in the Wrong Category"]]

* The unfinished epic ''Literature/{{Titurel}}'' by medieval poet Wolfram von Eschenbach -a prequel to his romance epic ''Literature/Parzival''- was named by scholars after the first name mentioned in the surviving text. Titurel does not actually appear in the story, he is merely one of the protagonist's ancestors.

* The unfinished epic ''Titurel'' by medieval poet Wolfram von Eschenbach was named by scholars after the first name mentioned in the surviving text. Titurel does not actually appear in the story, he is merely one of the protagonist's ancestors.

* Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse: ''Film/BirdsOfPrey'' was more of a ComicBook/HarleyQuinn movie with the rest of the Birds being minor characters.