History Main / SecondaryCharacterTitle

* The protagonist of ''Literature/TheBoyInTheStripedPajamas'' is the young son of a Nazi officer who becomes acquainted with the boy of the title, who's a prisoner in a concentration camp. Some people were annoyed about this.

** "Literature/FeminineIntuition": The 1970 German translation, "Jane 5", prompts the prototype robot to titular importance, despite not ever speaking on-screen.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Film/TheLastJedi'': The title refers to Luke, but the film very much belongs to his nephew [[VillainProtagonist Kylo Ren]].

* It wasn't uncommon at all for rock bands in TheSixties to be named after the founding member, even if, instead of being the lead singer, they were the guitarist (Spencer Davis Group, Jeff Beck Group), the keyboardist (Music/ManfredMann, Music/PaulRevereAndTheRaiders) or the drummer (The Dave Clark Five). Continuing into TheSeventies, we have Music/VanHalen (Eddie and Alex Van Halen were the guitarist and drummer, respectively) and Music/TheJGeilsBand (J. Geils was the guitarist).

* ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'': "Sleeping Beauty" refers to Aurora, but she's just a DecoyProtagonist and the real protagonists are the three fairies. Aurora has a total of eighteen lines of dialogue in the entire movie and the shortest screentime for any Disney heroine. The fairies, despite being treated as if they were sidekicks, have much more screentime (and dialogue) than Aurora and basically, do everything for both Aurora and Phillip.

* Most comic book series starring Creator/DCComics' Captain Marvel are named ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'', after Captain Marvel's wizard mentor, or, more specifically, the [[IAmNotShazam often conflated word Billy Batson says to transform]]. This is actually due to an agreement with Creator/MarvelComics over the use of the name "Captain Marvel" -- it can't be used in the title of a DC book. At least it ''was'' the case, since in 2011, Captain Marvel was officially renamed Shazam.

* ''ComicBook/XMenNoir'', an {{Elseworld}} miniseries set in a version of 1930s New York without any superpowered heroes, is an example of this, oddly enough. Its protagonist is actually [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_(Thomas_Halloway) Thomas "The Angel" Halloway]],[[note]]Completely unrelated to Warren Worthington III of the original ''ComicBook/XMen'', who's a PosthumousCharacter in this story.[[/note]] a mostly forgotten Timely Comics character who spends the story investigating the murder that kicks off the plot. "The X-Men" are a fugitive gang of teenage criminals who are suspected of said murder and end up helping Halloway take down the real criminals by the end.

* ''Polly and Her Pals'' ultimately became this. Initially, Polly ''was'' the main character, until Cliff Sterrett (the artist) decided that her father, Paw Perkins, had more comedic potential and made ''him'' the star of the strip.

SubTrope of CharacterTitle. Compare VillainBasedFranchise, AntagonistTitle, SupportingProtagonist, and {{Deuteragonist}}. May overlap with TrivialTitle if the secondary character is especially unimportant to the story.

* Roger Rabbit is not actually the main character of ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit''. He's just the one who solicits the services of the story's actual protagonist, human [[PrivateDetective detective]] Eddie Valiant. Roger steals every scene he's in and is pivotal to the case, though.

* The bride in ''Literature/BrideOfTheRatGod'' refers to the actress Christine, but her cousin Norah is the central character.

* In ''Animation/WaltzWithBashir'', President Bashir is referred to but doesn't actually appear in the movie except on posters.

* ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' spends the entirety of the film version in a glass jar. He's somewhat more active in the manga version, but while plot-relevant (being a young psychic PersonOfMassDestruction who destroyed Tokyo), he isn't much more than tertiary as a character.

* Richard of ''LightNovel/TheCaseFilesOfJewelerRichard'' is actually the deutragonist. Seigi Nakata, his employee, is the protagonist.

* ''[[Manga/Reborn2004 Reborn!]]'' has Reborn, the hitman who is the tutor to the main character Tsunayoshi Sawada. Reborn does nothing except making Tsuna stronger and stronger, so the latter can beat the crap out of the enemies.

* Most comic book series starring Creator/DCComics' ComicBook/CaptainMarvel are named ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'', after Captain Marvel's wizard mentor, or, more specifically, the [[IAmNotShazam often conflated word Billy Batson says to transform]]. This is actually due to an agreement with Creator/MarvelComics over the use of the name "Captain Marvel" -- it can't be used in the title of a DC book. At least it ''was'' the case, since in 2011 Captain Marvel was officially renamed Shazam.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** The main character of ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}}: Adventures of Superman'' is the Pre-Crisis ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}. Franchise/{{Superman}} himself is the {{Deuteragonist}}.

* ''Franchise/XMen: Noir'', an {{Elseworld}} miniseries set in a version of 1930s New York without any superpowered heroes, is an example of this, oddly enough. Its protagonist is actually [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_(Thomas_Halloway) The Angel,]][[note]]Completely unrelated to Warren Worthington III of the original X-Men, who's a PosthumousCharacter in this story.[[/note]] a mostly-forgotten Timely Comics character who spends the story investigating the murder that kicks off the plot. "The X Men" are a fugitive gang of teenage criminals who are suspected of said murder, and end up helping The Angel take down the real criminals by the end.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAssaultOnArkham'' focuses on the ComicBook/SuicideSquad more than Franchise/{{Batman}}.

* ''Animation/WaltzWithBashir'': President Bashir is referred to but doesn't actually appear in the movie (except as a poster).

** "{{Literature/Lenny}}": Lenny, the InSeriesNickname for LNE models, was built for mining boron from asteroids. However, due to an accident during the initial planning, it doesn't work correctly.
** "{{Literature/Sally}}": Sally is Jake's favorite [[AutomatedAutomobiles self-driving car]], but he's the viewpoint protagonist and the one who changes over the course of the story.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Half true for ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingChanAndTheChanClan''. Film/CharlieChan only would appear at the beginning and end of the episodes which mainly dealt with his kids engaging in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' antics.
* Timmy Turner is the main protagonist of the ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents''. The title characters grant his wishes, teach him lessons, and generally serve as [[ParentalSubstitute parental substitutes]], since his actual parents constantly neglect him.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gawayn}}'', the heroes are searching for the crystal of Gawayn in order to break the curse on Princess Gwendolyn, but it is not clear who Gawayn actually is (or was), though presumably he's meant to be the one from Arthurian legend.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'': Changes from series to series as each series has a different number of characters, with Scooby typically receiving more focus the less characters there are. But in the series that feature the full gang, Scooby-Doo almost always receives very little focus and is more an extra.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': The ultimate TropeCodifier in that the ''true'' protagonist is Link.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'': [[spoiler:Link's companion in this game, Midna, is the Twilight Princess, not Zelda (who barely appears)]].

** Averted by the infamous ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames Zelda's Adventure]]'', where Zelda really is the protagonist and player character. Not that it matters, since the CD-i games aren't canonical to the series.
** To push the irony even further, the one game where it can be argued that she is the true main character over Link is ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriorsAgeOfCalamity'', which as you can see, does not have "The Legend of Zelda" mentioned anywhere on the title.

* ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' spends the entirety of the film version in a glass jar. He's somewhat more active in the manga version, but while plot-relevant (being a young psychic PersonOfMassDestruction who destroyed Tokyo), isn't much more than tertiary as a character.

* ''Franchise/XMen: Noir'', an {{Elseworld}} miniseries set in a version of 1930s New York without any superpowered heroes, is an example of this, oddly enough. Its protagonist is actually [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_(Thomas_Halloway) The Angel]],[[note]]Completely unrelated to Warren Worthington III of the original X-Men, who's a PosthumousCharacter in this story.[[/note]] a mostly-forgotten Timely Comics character who spends the story investigating the murder that kicks off the plot. "The X Men" are a fugitive gang of teenage criminals who are suspected of said murder, and end up helping The Angel take down the real criminals by the end.

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

* ''FranchiseStarWars'', ''Film/TheLastJedi'': The title refers to Luke, but the film very much belongs to his nephew [[VillainProtagonist Kylo Ren]].

* Victor Hugo's ''Lucrezia Borgia''. Lucrezia is at most a deuteragonist. The main character is Genarro, [[spoiler: her abandonned incest-born son]].

** ''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.

* ''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]].

* ''WesternAnimation/PixelPinkie'': Nina is the main protagonist while the titular Pixel Pinkie is the deuteragonist

* The title character from 1991 film ''Film/{{Oscar}}'' doesn't actually show up until the last minute or two of the movie. While some of the earlier events of the film do revolve around him in some way, the real point of the title is as a nod to Creator/OscarWilde; both the film and the play on which it's based pay homage to his style of humour.

* MarvelCinematicUniverse: In a subtitle case, ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', as it might be an AntagonistTitle, but it's not of the main villain. Then again, [[Comicbook/{{HYDRA}} the main villains]] -- who are employing the Winter Soldier's services -- are a big twist with franchise-wide impact, so focusing on the secondary antagonist makes for a lesser SpoilerTitle.

* ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'': None of the Robinsons is the main character. But they do welcome the actual orphaned protagonist--Lewis--into their family. [[spoiler:This is technically a subversion since a future version of Lewis is the Robinson patriarch.]]

* ''WebAnimation/InvaderZimAVeryTallProblem'': Almighty Tallest Red and Purple are the show's {{Villain Protagonist}}s who the titular Zim serves.

* ''Literature/TheGratefulBeasts'' are the hero's allies and helpers after he cured them.

* ''Literature/TheFeatherOfFinistTheFalcon'': Finist is the LoveInterest.

* The titular Girl-chan in ''WebAnimation/GirlChanInParadise'' appears only a handful of times (it's implied she and Swirly Glasses are traveling with the group, but even in group shots they rarely appear) and contributes absolutely nothing but [[MsFanservice blatant fanservice]] (or [[FanDisservice the exact opposite]] thanks to [[DerangedAnimation the art style]]).

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' is the sotry of how TheHero met his OneTrueLove, [[EleventhHourRanger who isn't even properly introduced to him until the last five minutes of the series finale]].