10 Movie Franchise Staples Nobody Actually Cares About

9. Solomon Lane As The Main Villain - Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible's fifth film, Rogue Nation, introduced the villain Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), who most fans quite reasonably expected to be a one-off antagonist, as has been the series' tradition.

And yet, recent follow-up Fallout opted to bring Lane back, and with him again living to fight another day at film's end, it seems highly probable that he'll return once more for the seventh film.

This would be all well and good...if Lane was actually a remotely interesting character. It's clear that Christopher McQuarrie wants to make Lane the Blofeld of the franchise - that is, an impossibly calculated, recurring, iconic baddie - yet between Harris' subdued performance and the character's general lack of presence, it doesn't quite work.

It's especially telling that Harris himself reportedly had no interest in returning for Fallout, and had to have his arm twisted.

Given that Henry Cavill's August Walker made for a far more compelling antagonist in the movie, it's a damn shame he was killed off while Lane lived.