10 Movie Characters Who Returned Way More Badass In Sequels

2. Bucky - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

If you want an instant injection of cool, it's easy enough to simply rebrand yourself as a villainous assassin and get a new haircut that screams badass rock and roller. But poor Bucky Barnes had absolutely no say in the matter when he disappeared at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger and was "reborn" in The Winter Soldier as the titular bad guy.

Bucky went from being Steve Rogers' jock-like best friend - full of bravado but fundamentally good-hearted - who needed Captain America to rescue him when HYDRA captured his unit to being a one-man walking army in the sequel. He might have been pretty villainous with a list of key assassinations that will no doubt weigh heavy on his conscience, but there's no denying that The Winter Soldier is also easily the coolest MCU villain to date and it helped massively that Bucky's new character was so badass.

Then again, if you rob anyone of their ability to speak and team it with a shiny metal arm and super soldier skills and it's going to pay-off well.