Curated playlist
Male characters in film
- Company of the RingThe Company of the Ring, also known as the Fellowship of the Ring and the Nine Walkers, is a band of nine travellers sent out to face nine enemies. J. R. R. Tolkien says he fixed the number on purpose. It was meant to match and oppose the…
- Colossus (character)Colossus, whose full name is Piotr Nikolayevich Rasputin, began life as a homework assignment. In May 1975, editor Roy Thomas was in charge of reviving the X-Men for Giant-Size X-Men #1. He sent the creative team home with one instruction:…
- Erik SelvigUnder Loki's mind control, Erik Selvig opened the portal that began the invasion of New York.
- Tony Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe)Marvel's Tony Stark was created in 1963 to be the quintessential capitalist. Stan Lee based him on Howard Hughes.
- Scott Lang (Marvel Cinematic Universe)A rat set Scott Lang free from the Quantum Realm in 2023. He had been trapped there after the Blip erased his allies.
- Frodo BagginsFrodo Baggins reached Mount Doom and then claimed the Ring. Gollum bit off his finger and fell into the fire.
- Sherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes never says "Elementary, my dear Watson" in any of the sixty Conan Doyle stories.
- King ArthurGeoffrey of Monmouth gave King Arthur his first full life story around 1138. Much of it was his own invention.
- Pippin TookPippin Took, a hobbit who dropped a stone down a hole, ends up Thain of the Shire.
- James Bond (literary character)Ian Fleming took James Bond's name from the author of a bird guide. He thought it the dullest name he ever heard.
- Wolverine (character)Wolverine, the Marvel Comics superhero, shares his everyday name with a mountain. Writer Chris Claremont took the name Logan from Canada's Mount Logan for an issue of X-Men in 1977. He liked the idea of the tallest mountain naming the…
- Kylo RenKylo Ren kills his own father, Han Solo, on Starkiller Base. He later turns back and becomes Ben Solo again.
- Iceman (Marvel Comics)Iceman, born Robert Louis "Bobby" Drake, was at the center of a quiet scene in April 2015, in issue 40 of All-New X-Men. A teenage version of Bobby was pulled aside by Jean Grey, who had read his mind. She told him something he had never…
- Qui-Gon JinnQui-Gon Jinn dies in The Phantom Menace, yet his voice keeps returning. Liam Neeson voiced him in later films.
- Peter Pan (character)Peter Pan began as a seven-day-old baby in a 1902 novel for adults. He first flew into Kensington Gardens.
- Peter Parker (Marvel Cinematic Universe)Peter Benjamin Parker, better known as Spider-Man, was born on the 10th of August 2001 in Forest Hills, Queens. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tom Holland plays him across six films. After the death of his Uncle Ben, Peter is raised…
- Thor (Marvel Cinematic Universe)Thor Odinson, the God of Thunder, has appeared in nine films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as of 2024. Chris Hemsworth plays him. Thor was born roughly 1500 years ago to Odin, King of Asgard, and his queen, Frigga. The Asgardians are an…
- Merry BrandybuckMerry Brandybuck stabbed the Lord of the Nazgul behind the knee. His blow let Éowyn kill the Black Captain.
- Poe DameronPoe Dameron was originally written to die early in The Force Awakens.
- Finn (Star Wars)Finn, a Star Wars stormtrooper, abandons his post on his first combat mission.
- Han SoloHan Solo was first written as a green-skinned alien with gills. George Lucas's earliest draft gave him no nose.
- Sam Weller (character)A servant named Sam Weller lifted The Pickwick Papers from about a thousand copies to forty thousand.
- He-ManHe-Man, the muscle-bound hero of the Masters of the Universe franchise, changes from a prince into a champion with one spoken oath. Prince Adam raises his Power Sword and declares, "By the power of Grayskull..." Then comes the second half…
- Lando CalrissianLando Calrissian welcomes his friends to Cloud City, then hands them to Darth Vader.
- Willy WonkaFive Golden Tickets lie hidden inside chocolate bars, and finding one means a tour of a candy factory. Willy Wonka, the man behind the contest, is a fictional character created by British author Roald Dahl for his 1964 children's novel…
- Havok (character)Havok, the Marvel Comics hero whose real name is Alexander Summers, carries a power he has never fully tamed. The comics call the result "plasma blasts", and for years Alex needed a specially built suit to keep from harming the people…
- Connor MacLeodConnor MacLeod, the Highlander, began as a UCLA film student's class writing project.
- Jesse PinkmanJesse Pinkman is the only character besides Walter White to appear in every episode of Breaking Bad. Aaron Paul plays him. When the story opens, Jesse is a crystal meth cook and dealer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and his former high school…
- Sonic the Hedgehog (character)Sonic the Hedgehog, the blue hero of Sega's video games, was tested on strangers in New York City's Central Park before most of the world had heard of him. The designer Naoto Ohshima carried several of Sega's internal character sketches on…
- HulkThe Hulk is a Marvel Comics superhero who lives as two people in one body, and the two typically resent each other. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created him, and he first appeared in the debut issue of The Incredible Hulk in May 1962. One half…
- Max RockatanskyIn Mad Max, a highway patrolman hunts down the biker gang that killed his infant son.
- Flash GordonGeorge Lucas made Star Wars after he could not get film rights to Flash Gordon. Producer Dino De Laurentiis refused.
- Black Panther (character)Black Panther, the Marvel Comics hero known as T'Challa, made his debut in Fantastic Four #52, published in July 1966. He did not arrive as a sidekick or a soldier. T'Challa was a king, the ruler of Wakanda, a fictional African nation made…
- Samwise GamgeeTolkien called Samwise Gamgee, not Frodo, "the chief hero" of The Lord of the Rings. Sam mostly cooks and carries packs.
- Mister FantasticMister Fantastic, the comic book hero whose real name is Dr. Reed Richards, owes his stretching power to a borrowed idea. Stan Lee, who created him with Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics, once explained the choice in an interview. His words…
- Shazam (DC Comics)Shazam, the comic book hero also called Captain Marvel, headlined an issue, Whiz Comics #2, that sold over 500,000 copies. The hero at its center is a boy who becomes a towering adult by speaking a single word. Yet this same character…
- Gambit (Marvel Comics)Remy LeBeau, known to readers as Gambit, is a Cajun thief from New Orleans who became one of Marvel Comics' X-Men. Writer Chris Claremont and artist Jim Lee created him. When he joined the team, few of his new colleagues trusted him, and…
- Gimli (Middle-earth)Gimli the Dwarf asked Galadriel for one hair and got three. She had refused the Elf Fëanor three times.
- DeadpoolDeadpool, the masked mercenary of Marvel Comics, once ended a storyline by breaking out of his own book and into the real world. There he confronted the writers and artists who were making the comic, and he turned to the reader with a…
- Doctor StrangeDoctor Strange, the sorcerer of Marvel Comics, began life with a lukewarm review from the man who edited him. In a 1963 letter to Jerry Bails, Stan Lee described a five-page filler for Strange Tales and admitted that "The first story is…
- Bruce Banner (Marvel Cinematic Universe)Bruce Banner, the scientist behind the Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, holds seven PhDs and is also a medical doctor. When his heart rate climbs above 200 beats per minute, his body swells into a green giant. Anger or mortal danger…
- LegolasLegolas earned a place in the Fellowship by delivering a message. He reported Gollum's escape from his father's realm.
- ZorroZorro first rode into print in 1919, and the novel that introduced him eventually sold more than 50 million copies. That figure places The Curse of Capistrano among the best-selling books of all time. Its author, the American pulp writer…
- Vision (Marvel Comics)Vision, the android hero of Marvel Comics, cries alone in The Avengers #58. The team has just welcomed him as a person, not as a captured weapon, and the gesture overwhelms him. He excuses himself and weeps in silence. Writer Roy Thomas…
- Star-LordStar-Lord, whose full name is Peter Jason Quill, made his debut in Marvel Preview #4 in January 1976. That magazine was printed in black and white, not in the color comic format most readers knew. The character was created by writer Steve…
- Beast (Marvel Comics)Beast, the Marvel Comics hero Dr. Henry Philip McCoy, has a greatest fear, and it is a ball of string. In one X-Men story, that fear became a rescue tool. A psychic assault stripped away his higher human consciousness and left only animal…
- Red SkullThe Red Skull was dead by the final page of his first appearance, in Captain America Comics #1, cover-dated March 1941. The man under the mask, a businessman named George Maxon, rolled onto his own hypodermic needle in what looked like…
- Silver SurferThe Silver Surfer is an alien with gleaming metal skin who crosses the cosmos on a board that looks borrowed from a beach. His first editor never saw him coming. Stan Lee, who wrote and edited the comic that introduced him, remembered the…