10 Movie Characters Who Lived On In Commercials

Sellouts.

Film characters have richer existences than we see on screen. A well-written, properly realised character will hint at a wider life beyond the ninety minutes they're on screen; they have histories, past relationships, all the stuff that actual people have. None of that necessarily appears in the movies themselves, but it's there, you know? And what isn't hinted at the audience can fill in for themselves. We're an imaginative bunch, and not just the ones who pen fan fiction or make their own short films that artificially extend the lives of their favourites once the curtains close. That sort of continuation of movie characters is quite sweet, a little cottage industry corner of film fandom. There are characters who wouldn't appear in another film - ones who weren't really designed for a sequel, or had pretty minor roles, or got killed off €“ but can continue to live on through the powers of imagination. Which is a lot nicer than when Hollywood takes a look over its dormant stable of classic characters and decides to have them shill in TV commercials. Something which happens far too often for our liking and is, in most cases, kinda sad, and always a little surreal. Sometimes it can be nice, having a beloved icon return to our screens. Sometimes it makes you worry about what dire straits the actor is in to have been reduced to dressing up for a role they haven't played for twenty years. Often it just makes us kind of angry about how eager studios are to sell out awesome films in order to make a quick buck. Inspired by a sudden spate of famous icons being resurrected on the small screen (for better or for worse), we decided to take a look at ten such movie characters who live on in commercials.
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Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/