History Main / VillainBasedFranchise

This trope is very popular with the SlasherMovie genre, probably because the heroes can die off in the end without ruining the series. Often though, the villain will appear to die at the end, to allow closure to the series if another one is not made. TheEndOrIsIt ending optional. Naturally, JokerImmunity is in full force. There are a few iconic horror ''heroes'', like [[Literature/{{Dracula}} Dr. Van Helsing]], but they're usually a lot less prominent and iconic than their respective villains. [[Franchise/EvilDead Ash Williams]] may be the only real exception.

* ''Franchise/DoctorWho'': The BBC attempted to give the evil Daleks their own spinoff in TheSixties, but all it ended up amounting to were a few Dalek comic books.

* ''Film/TheAbominableDrPhibes'' and its sequel, ''Film/DrPhibesRisesAgain''. Each gives the eponymous abominable doctor a new nemesis, with the only other recurring characters being [[ThoseTwoGuys a pair of ineffectual detectives]].

** Disney Villains. Most animated Disney films that failed at the box office will inevitably become this.

* Music/RobZombie's "Firefly Trilogy" of ''Film/HouseOf1000Corpses'', ''Film/TheDevilsRejects'', and ''Film/ThreeFromHell'' has the Firefly family, a family of [[HillbillyHorrors backwoods]] {{serial killer}}s based on the Sawyers from the below-mentioned ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre''. Notably, it's a franchise in which they were elevated to outright {{Villain Protagonist}}s by the second movie.

* ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre'' has Leatherface and, more broadly, the entire Sawyer family, the CannibalClan he serves as TheHeavy for, hunting down and butchering their victims. The series as a whole is known for not really caring about continuity beyond treating [[Film/TheTexasChainSawMassacre1974 the first film]] as canon, but the lone constants throughout the series are Leatherface and the Sawyers.

* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' is based upon the eponymous [[DemonLordsAndArchDevils demon lord]], who always seems to return to threaten the fate of the world. ''VideoGame/Diablo2'' and ''VideoGame/Diablo3'' bring in the other six Great Evils for some scheming of their own, but Diablo's still the one to take center stage by the end.

* The ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}''[=/=]''VideoGame/EarthBound'' series is a special case. None of the heroes ever return, but the BigBad from the first one reappears in the next one, in which a [[TheDragon Dragon]] for him is introduced. [[spoiler:The third one then features only TheDragon from the second one, since the original BigBad was killed in the second game.]] A couple of characters ([[WildMassGuessing how many exactly depends on the player]]) from the second game appear, though, and Ness, the hero from it, is referenced a lot.

* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': ComicBook/TheJoker had a short comics series of his own in the 1970s While radical in its day, villain-based series have since gotten more common.

[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* Following the ComicBook/BrightestDay event, the Franchise/{{Superman}}[=-=]based title ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' was retooled to star Superman's ArchEnemy ComicBook/LexLuthor, even being billed as ''Lex Luthor's'' Action Comics. This lasted about a year and followed Luthor's quest at godhood, which culminated in him [[spoiler:actually getting it only to lose it when a condition of the godhood was that he couldn't use his new power to harm Superman]].
* The BBC attempted to give the evil Daleks from ''Series/DoctorWho'' their own spinoff in TheSixties, but all it ended up amounting to were a few Dalek comic books.
* ComicBook/TheJoker had a short comics series of his own in the 1970s, and ComicBook/{{Eclipso}} had an ongoing one in the 1990s. While radical in their day, villain-based series have since gotten more common.
* Similar to ''Action Comics'' above, the Franchise/SpiderMan books took a stab at this after a storyline in which Spider-Man villain ComicBook/DoctorOctopus [[spoiler:successfully pulled a GrandTheftMe on Peter Parker]], resulting in the book being retooled into ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan''. As with Lex above, the [[StatusQuoIsGod reset button]] was eventually pushed on this, but Marvel milked a couple of years worth of stories and plenty of outrage sales out of the stunt.
* ''Comicbook/TheTombOfDracula'' comic, of course.