10 Weird Early Appearances By Iconic Film Characters

Why does the Predator keep insisting on doing the splits?

Heroes aren't made; they're born. Or, wait, is it the other way around? Whatever the maxim is, it's wrong. Or right. They're most definitely made, but they rarely emerge from the creative mind (or hive mind) fully-formed. Putting together a character who will become iconic, who will live on after whatever screen or page they originally appeared on and exist forever in the hearts and minds of audiences across the globe, takes a lot of work. A melting pot of influences, concepts, themes and characteristics will be mixed thoroughly beforehand, with ingredients added and taken away consistently through the process. And the only way to see if a character work is to try them out in a story. Usually this means that a writer will put them in a screenplay and, if they're not working out, remove them and give them a re-jig until they do. That's why you see, say, the legendary script meeting between George Lucas and Steven Spielberg where they hammer out the details of Indiana Jones, watching them figure out all the nuances and subtleties that would make Harrison Ford's archaeological adventurer be as popular now as his debut in 1981. A similar process will have gone into everyone from Homer Simpson to James Bond. Sometimes, though, those characters are put to the test in a more real sense; or else their creators can't hold onto them any longer, and let them loose into the wild too early. When they're not ready, the characters sink without a trace, only to get a more successful shot at superstardom later. There are action heroes who appeared on TV years before they were blockbuster fare, space-based villains who were originally cartoon characters, powerhouse performances by acting legends that were first essayed by people you've never heard of - these are ten weird early appearances by iconic film characters.
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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/