In a media landscape populated not only with new stories, but also prequels, sequels and reimagining of said stories, Hollywood has been quietly obsessed with a new way to tell the classics.
Wicked questions whether the Wicked Witch of the West was born into villainy, thrust into it by life’s circumstances, or even whether she was a villain at all.
Sony’s Spider-Man films have bravely attempted—and often entirely failed—to turn many of the famous hero’s foes into anti-heroes, characters who still fight for some semblance of good but often with questionable methods.
Disney has taken a similar tack with two Maleficent movies and 2021’s Cruella. Although personally, it’s hard for me to believe the woman whose goal was to skin 99 dalmatian puppies was nothing more than a misunderstood activist the whole time.
DC has hopped on the bandwagon, too. And after the billion-dollar phenomenon that was 2019’s Joker (let’s just not mention its sequel), and with Clayface carving out a nice chunk of change for itself at the box office, one could imagine this trend isn’t going anywhere.
But why is that? And should parents be aware of content that tells kids to root for the “bad guy?”
Perhaps the original story, that of good versus evil, is no longer quite so simple.
Just … Misunderstood
Now, the cynical answer to this question of why these villain origin stories keep coming down the pipeline is a tad obvious: money. Joker was the first R-rated film ever to cross a billion dollars at the box office. And while the performances of Spidey spinoffs like Morbius and Madame Web hardly set the world on fire, the much more commercially successful Venom trilogy made close to $2 billion.
But money is a boring answer. Beyond the lucrative nature of intellectual property, something is drawing creatives to these projects.
I do believe there is something about being human that makes us want to understand each other, perhaps especially those that hurt us. A sympathetic villain is often times more interesting that one whose motivation is simply “take over the world.” And, while human greed and selfishness certainly motivate real-life “villains,” it’s much more fulfilling to hope that a shred of light might still permeate the darkness.
In a way, this is a very faith-based belief. Yes, humans are born sinful, but we also have the capability to forgive one another. A villain who can be understood is one that may, to some capacity, hope to be redeemed for their actions. Humans are not black and white but complex individuals—and it is true that most everyone thinks they are the hero of their own story.
But, like most stories, this content can be taken too far. Not every villain needs an origin story in which audiences question whether that character was the antagonist to begin with. Whether this trend is an attempt at an interesting thought experiment or simply an excuse to use familiar characters to entice fans to buy a movie ticket may depend on the film.
For those of us who are curious, though, we need to understand that these villains occupy fictional worlds. In our own world, our good God has defeated all evil—and that’s about as black and white as it gets.
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