The rise of anti-hero: when darkness reigns

Released in 2019, DC Films and Warner Bros.’ “Joker” is currently the most profitable comic book movie of all time. The fact that the movie, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the title character, is an R-rated psychological drama featuring a major comic book ‘villain’ is no hindrance in nabbing the title.

More recently, in the summer of 2021, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) mini series “Loki” debuted as the highest rated content on the Disney+ Hotstar Platform in its first week, with roughly 731 million viewers per minute. The numbers beat the record once held by another MCU production, “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier”, which recorded 495 million viewers per minute in March 2021.

It is interesting to witness two characters originally known as the ‘baddies’ becoming so popular and generally loved by the public. What happened to the days of rooting for the hero and hating the villain? They may be over, because these days heroes look different and villains have hearts.

And that notion is perfectly showcased in the two examples we presented. For instance, Joker is no longer a senseless psychopath; he has inner demons resulting from past trauma (which, don’t we all?). He may still be a villain, but he has a heart. Loki is more of an anti-hero than a bad guy in the mini series; his characters are flawed and his methods questionable, but his intention is surprisingly good. The public loves these stories and character development. It is no longer a black and white world in which the bad guy is universally hated.

In fact, the bad guys sell. Not only in cinematic platforms, but in other areas as well. The American makeup brand ColourPop in 2019 launched its Disney Villains makeup collection. The collection was inspired by Cruella de Vil, Maleficent, Evil Queen, Hades, Dr. Facilier and Ursula. British automotive giant Jaguar also understood the allure of the bad guys.

Image: Disney and ColourPop collaboration

The company engaged three renowned ‘baddie’ actors – Tom Hiddleston, Sir Ben Kingsley and Mark Strong - to appear in a 60-second television advertisement that debuted during Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014. At that time, it was the company’s largest-ever brand and product marketing campaign, called “British Villains”.

We have seen different terms so far, from hero to anti-hero to villain, so let us set the definitions straight. The term hero refers to the classic protagonist who is generally admired for his bravery, strength, charm, or ingenuity.

On the other hand, an anti-hero is any hero or lead character who lacks conventional heroic qualities. An anti-hero is a flawed hero with a flawed moral character. The moral compromises an anti-hero makes can often be seen as the unpleasant means to an appropriately desired end.

Though, sometimes, the moral flaws are simply moral flaws, such as alcoholism, infidelity, or a violent temper. Modern day ‘protagonists’, such as Mad Men’s Don Draper, Disney’s Jack Sparrow and, yes, MCU’s Loki, all fit the definition.

Meanwhile, villains simply refer to antagonists, or characters with evil intentions and character flaws (think Hannibal Lecter and Darth Vader). Either way, pop culture is moving away from the classic hero character, albeit slowly. The Captain Americas and Supermen of the world are not abandoned, but there is an indication that the world is starting to increasingly love their darker, flawed counterparts.

It could be because these flawed characters offer more truthful representations of humans. We actually see ourselves in these anti-heroes and villains.

The blueprint for fictional protagonists has shifted. Just like us, anti-heroes are still developing, learning and growing. Anti-heroes liberate us. They reject societal constraints and expectations imposed upon us. Antiheroes give our grievances a voice.

Also, it turns out that we enjoy heroes and anti-heroes differently. The Affective Disposition Theory (ADT), which highlights moral judgment of character behaviour, can mostly explain our enjoyment of heroic protagonist characters. However, anti-hero film enjoyment does not follow the ADT formula. Rather, identification with the characters predicted enjoyment of anti-hero films.

Recent work proposes that viewers over time develop story schema that permit antihero enjoyment, despite character immorality. Specifically, that moral judgment may be less important to anti-hero enjoyment than ADT would predict, that previous exposure to an anti-hero narrative alters responses to similar narratives, and that moral disengagement cues impact the enjoyment process.

At the end of the day, it is about humanising the fictional characters. And it goes both ways. In recent years, we have seen the purest hearted heroes showing their darker, more human side. At the same time, we have gotten to know the ‘villains’ better, and getting an understanding of why they became who they are.

An example of the former is the character of Professor X or Charles Xavier from “X-Men”. For years, Patrick Stewart has portrayed him in the movies as a virtuous, untouchable figure. It was not until the past decade when younger actor James McAvoy was cast to play a younger Xavier that the audience got a glimpse of a very different Professor.

“For me, Charles Xavier is a monk. He's like a selfless, egoless almost sexless force for the betterment of humanity and mortality. And getting to kind of go, 'Alright, well he's got to be different from that.' It's quite fun because the complete opposite of that is an ego-fuelled, sexed up self-serving dude. And not going too far with it, but he's definitely got an ego and he's definitely got a sex drive as well,” McAvoy said in a 2011 interview.

Some iconic villains have had some heroic spotlight, too, including one of the best villains of all time: the Wicked Witch of the West. The wicked witch’s poignant, arguably heroic backstory was told in the novel and hit Broadway musical Wicked, in which we know her as the inherently kind but misunderstood young Elphaba. The show, which premiered in 2003, has since become one of the most popular Broadway musicals ever.

In the USA, the moral shift in pop culture – television characters in particular – was facilitated by the rise of American TV cable networks. Networks gave creators more freedom to create content that did not necessarily have mass appeal, and allowed them to push the boundaries of what could be shown and created. That started the growing flexibility in showing more complex characters. Nowadays, when we have so many different platforms to deliver content, there is even more room to explore, hence the rise of the anti-heroes and villains.

Not everyone is on board with the ‘baddie’ movement, however. Some believe that the rise of anti-heroes may cause far-reaching and unintended consequences, particularly when it comes to children. For example, children typically struggle to differentiate morally ambiguous behaviour — and nowadays many violent acts (on television and film) are perpetrated by the 'good guys', whom kids have been taught to admire. This can lead to confusion when kids try to understand the difference between right and wrong.

In that case, we all better carefully curate what our children can watch, because the hero blueprint has been rewritten. And the new hero is complex, flawed and may even succumb to their darker tendencies at times. We will not look at them with blind admiration, but we may see ourselves in them.