10 Heroes Reinvented As Villains In A Different Movie

Some heroes undergo villain arcs across multiple movies, but it’s even more surprising when a character is completely reimagined in a new movie as one of the bad guys. Unlike Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars or Michael Corleone in The Godfather, these characters don’t gradually get pulled toward the dark side. Instead, they are pre-existing popular heroes who show up as villains in different movies to provide a shock.

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Reinventing a hero as a villain doesn’t work for all characters. Audiences would likely reject a movie with James Bond, Ellen Ripley or Spider-Man as a villain, because this would represent a betrayal of what the stories are supposed to be. The best candidates for an unexpected heel turn are either secondary heroes like the Wizard of Oz, or characters so old that they have already had dozens of different stories told about them, like the Fairy Godmother in Shrek.

10 The Wizard Of Oz

Wicked (2024)

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Wicked makes the villain from The Wizard of Oz much more sympathetic, so it makes sense that one of the heroes from 1939 movie is cast in a villainous light. Jeff Goldblum’s portrayal of the Wizard of Oz is much darker and more mysterious than Frank Morgan’s. His character is ultimately revealed to be the one responsible for subjugating the talking animals in the kingdom, as well as a cunning fraud.

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Wicked
makes the villain from
The Wizard of Oz
much more sympathetic, so it makes sense that one of the heroes from 1939 movie is cast in a villainous light.

Wicked makes some changes to Gregory Maguire’s novel, just like the stage musical does, but the characterization of the Wizard of Oz is something that exists in Maguire’s material. It’s a smart subversion of the character that seems to come from a more skeptical view of power, and it’s more in line with modern attitudes toward movie villains. These days, having a character swoop in at the end and save the day is often criticized as convenient and lazy.

9 Scrappy-Doo

Scooby-Doo (2002)

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There have been plenty of Scooby-Doo TV shows and movies over the years, and Scrappy-Doo stands out as the franchise’s most divisive character. Scooby’s feisty little nephew was created in 1979 to try and boost ratings, but many fans disliked the character, especially since he threw off the dynamic of the Mystery Gang. Some subsequent Scooby-Doo projects have chosen to ignore Scrappy entirely.

The extra layer to this twist is that Scrappy holds bitterness over his mockery by the
Scooby-Doo
fan base.

2002’s Scooby-Doo, the franchise’s first live-action adaptation, acknowledges the audience sentiment towards Scrappy by making him the big twist villain. Scrappy is revealed to be the real mastermind behind the terrors on Spooky Island, seeking revenge on Mystery Inc. for being abandoned. The extra layer to this twist is that Scrappy holds bitterness over his mockery by the Scooby-Doo fan base.

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8 Buzz Lightyear

Lightyear (2022)

Lightyear Movie Poster

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ScreenRant logo 8/10 6.3/10 Lightyear

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*Availability in US Director Angus MacLane Release Date June 8, 2022 Cast Chris Evans , Keke Palmer , Peter Sohn , Taika Waititi , Dale Soules , James Brolin , Uzo Aduba

Lightyear was a box office bomb, and it has been criticized as one of Pixar’s weakest movies. This is especially damaging since its a spinoff of the studio’s most successful franchise, but Lightyear tries to tell a completely different story to Toy Story. The focus on Buzz Lightyear – the sci-fi hero not the toy – makes it a more conventional sci-fi movie in some ways. It even has a twist reminiscent of Star Wars, as the evil Zurg is revealed to be Buzz himself, similar to how Darth Vader shares a connection with Luke Skywalker.

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Lightyear‘s villain twist feels like a betrayal of what Toy Story is all about, not because Buzz is some kind of unimpeachable hero, but because the franchise isn’t supposed to be so melodramatic. A serious space opera could have a twist where the villain is revealed to be a version of the hero from a different universe, but this doesn’t fit the whimsical tone of Toy Story, or Pixar in general.

7 Ken

Barbie (2023)

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Ken isn’t necessarily a hero in Mattel’s line of Barbie toys, but that’s because there aren’t really heroes and villains when it comes to dolls. The different types of Ken toys show off a range of occupations and fashion styles just like Barbie, although his personality is usually a blank slate. He’s certainly never thought of as a villain or a bad guy, but Greta Gerwig’s 2023 movie turns Ken into an antagonist.

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His personality is usually a blank slate, but Greta Gerwig’s 2023 movie turns Ken into an antagonist.

Ryan Gosling’s Ken starts out as one of many Kens who spend all day at the beach while Barbies run the matriarchal society of Barbieland. Once he learns about the patriarchy in the real world, he returns to Barbieland with a plan to subjugate all Barbies and ensure that Kens can reign and get the respect he believes they deserve. Ken gets some redemption towards the end of Barbie. His villainy is born of ignorance rather than pure malice.

6 Kaa

The Jungle Book (1967)

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Disney’s animated classics are well-known for their liberal approach to their source material. This is usually not such a big deal when the material in question is a fairy tale which has already been changing for hundreds of years, but The Jungle Book is based on an 1894 novel by Rudyard Kipling, so it can be directly compared to the text. There are some big choices that Disney makes to alter the story.

Kaa is more like a father figure in the book, advising Mowgli and keeping him safe just like Baloo.

One noticeable change that The Jungle Book makes to the novel is that it turns Kaa into a villain. In Kipling’s story, Kaa is one of Mowgli’s allies. Kaa never hypnotizes Mowgli or tries to eat him in the book, but Disney clearly leaned into the Biblical connotations of the serpent by making him an evil character. Kaa is more like a father figure in the book, advising Mowgli and keeping him safe just like Baloo.

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5 Vanessa

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

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The Austin Powers movies have an irreverent sense of humor which lets them get away with fudging a few plot details. Mostly, this is used to avoid getting bogged down in time-travel paradoxes, but it’s also a technique that allows the first sequel to start with a blank slate. The first Austin Powers movie ends with the spy marrying Vanessa, but the opening scene of The Spy Who Shagged Me reveals that she was an evil Fembot all along.

The nonsensical villain twist in
The Spy Who Shagged Me
is a humorous way to get Vanessa out of the way.

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The nonsensical villain twist in The Spy Who Shagged Me is a humorous way to get Vanessa out of the way so that Austin can start the movie as a single man again. This is a meta joke about how the James Bond franchise often treats women as disposable. Many movies end with Bond and his latest lover wrapped in each other’s arms, but the women are forgotten about by the start of the next movie.

4 Jim Phelps

Mission: Impossible (1996)

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Before it became a huge action franchise, Mission: Impossible started out as a TV show which ran from 1966 to 1973. Brian de Palma’s first entry in the movie franchise brought back Jim Phelps, who was played by Peter Graves on TV and Jon Voight in the movie. He’s the main character in the TV series, but the movie shifts focus to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, a brand-new character.

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Rather than simply easing Jim Phelps out of the picture to make way for Ethan Hunt, Mission: Impossible makes the controversial choice of turning him into a villain. Ethan spends a lot of time hunting for a mole within IMF. Neither he nor the fans of the Mission: Impossible TV show could have guessed that the mole was Jim Phelps. It’s a divisive twist, but Jim still ranks as one of the best Mission: Impossible villains.

3 Benvolio

Gnomeo & Juliet (2011)

gnomeo and juliet

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Gnomeo and Juliet

Director Kelly Asbury Release Date February 11, 2011 Cast James McAvoy , Emily Blunt , Michael Caine , Jason Statham

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William Shakespeare’s works have been twisted, subverted and reimagined more than almost any other writer in history. In a world where West Side Story, The Lion King and 10 Things I Hate About You all exist as sneaky Shakespeare adaptations, Gnomeo and Juliet isn’t all that surprising. Still, it takes a lot of creative tweaking to make one of Shakespeare’s most heartbreaking tragedies into a child-friendly comedy.

In the play, Benvolio is one of Romeo’s closest friends who helps console him through his romantic woes.

Gnomeo and Juliet follows the broad strokes of Romeo and Juliet, but many characters are cut or changed. In the play, Benvolio is one of Romeo’s closest friends who helps console him through his romantic woes and backs him up in his battle with the Capulets. Gnomeo and Juliet renames the character Benny, combines him with Mercutio, and turns him into a reckless villain who almost destroys the two warring gardens where the red and blue gnomes live.

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2 Winnie The Pooh

Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey (2023)

Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey Poster

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Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

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*Availability in US Director Rhys Frake-Waterfield Release Date February 15, 2023 Cast Amber Doig-Thorne , Maria Taylor , Danielle Ronald , Natasha Tosini , May Kelly , Paula Coiz , Craig David Dowsett , Richard D. Myers , Nikolai Leon

Winnie-the-Pooh is one of the most wholesome children’s characters imaginable, as an anthropomorphic teddy bear who simply wants to help his friends and eat some honey. English author A. A. Milne first created Pooh in the 1920s with illustrator E. H. Shepherd. Pooh has since appeared in dozens of short stories, TV shows and movies, many of which were produced by Disney.

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After Winnie-the-Pooh entered the public domain in 2022 – 95 years after the publication of the first short story featuring the character – Rhys Frake-Waterfield capitalized by creating the gory slasher Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey. Its unusual premise garnered a lot of interest, but it was soon derided as one of the worst movies of all time. Still, its box office success spawned a sequel, which was met with slightly more positive reviews. Now, there are plans for more Winnie-the-Pooh horror universe movies, with characters like Bambi and Peter Pan potentially getting the same treatment.

1 The Fairy Godmother

Shrek 2 (2004)

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Shrek 2 faced the tough task of creating another villain who could fill Lord Farquaad’s tiny shoes, but it created two great villains. Prince Charming and the Fairy Godmother both bring something unique to their evil schemes, with the Fairy Godmother acting as the real brains behind the operation. She isn’t the sweet and helpful character that she is often portrayed as in fairy tales like Cinderella.

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Robin Hood is reimagined as an arrogant bandit in
Shrek
, while Jack and Jill are an outlaw couple like Bonnie and Clyde in
Puss in Boots.

The Shrek franchise often reinvents fairy tale characters in surprising ways, and there are a lot of villains based on heroes from old folklore. Robin Hood is reimagined as an arrogant bandit in Shrek, while Jack and Jill are an outlaw couple like Bonnie and Clyde in Puss in Boots. The franchise also subverts this idea by making the Big Bad Wolf a harmless character who seems to just like wearing nightgowns. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the villain in the upcoming Shrek 5 also put a twist on a classic fairy tale hero.