From the wise-cracking sidekick to the wily trickster, the just-out-of-reach love interest to the grizzled mentor, archetypal characters fit into age-old storytelling patterns. The most popular character archetypes permeate literature, film, and TV, providing us with familiar faces that make us feel at home, even in the most innovative of narratives.
A character archetype is a universal, recognizable fictional figure who appears across different stories and in different cultures. Character archetypes are easily recognizable due to their major traits or behaviors, which frequently represent fundamental human motivations and roles. They may have different faces across different projects, but they represent the same (or at least very similar) roles.
Identifying these archetypes as an actor or creator allows you to familiarize yourself with their usual tropes and learn how to make them your own.
Here’s our roundup of examples of archetypal characters in movies, on TV, and in our collective psyche.
The hero
The hero is the all-around-good protagonist everyone roots for, such as Maria from “The Sound of Music,” Marty McFly from “Back to the Future,” or the titular demigod from “Hercules.” We join this character as they embark on a hero’s journey—a literal or metaphorical quest during which they overcome obstacles, achieve their goals, and ultimately return victorious. The hero may be a Mary Sue like Bella Swan from “Twilight,” both idealized and beloved, or a tragic hero like Willy Loman from “Death of a Salesman,” a sympathetic character with a fatal flaw who experiences a fall from grace. They can even be a brooding and rebellious Byronic hero like Don Draper from “Mad Men,” or a troubled and morally ambiguous antihero, like Walter White from “Breaking Bad.”
Stock Characters: How to Spice Up the Usual Suspects as an Actor The sidekick
The sidekick is a supporting character (and, often, a type of deuteragonist) who is the hero’s trusty right-hand person. Sidekicks are along for the ride to provide moral support and a few chuckles, like Chewbacca from “Star Wars,” Patrick Star from “SpongeBob SquarePants,” or Elder Cunningham from “The Book of Mormon.” The straight man, like Ben Wyatt from “Parks and Recreation,” is a type of sidekick who provides the voice of reason for their wacky other half.
The love interest
The love interest is the hero’s romantic counterpart who provides motivation, conflict, or both, all through the lens of good old-fashioned love. They might be a true love connection, like Pam Beesly and Jim Halpert from “The Office,” or they can be a projection of the protagonist’s desires, like manic pixie dream girl Penny Lane from “Almost Famous.”
The villain
The villain serves as the hero’s primary antagonist. They’re the big baddie, like the Joker from “The Dark Knight,” Hannibal Lecter from “The Silence of the Lambs,” or Nurse Ratched from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” holding up a darkly nefarious mirror to the hero and challenging ideas of power and morality. The anti-villain, like Erik Killmonger from “Black Panther” and Cersei Lannister from “Game of Thrones,” is a sub-type of this category that breathes life into the saying, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” due to the character’s use of questionable means to achieve goals they view as noble.
The Protagonist's Journey: How to Create + Play Great Main Characters The mentor
The mentor is an elder who helps the protagonist by providing much-needed guidance, whether in the form of simple life advice or supernatural assistance. Examples include Gandalf from “The Lord of the Rings,” Rafiki from “The Lion King,” and Berthe from “Pippin.”
The creator
The creator is an artist, scientist, or thinker who leans toward the obsessive. They may be the eccentric and megalomaniac mad scientist, like the monster-creating doctor from “Frankenstein,” or a true creative type, like the real-life painter Margaret Ulbrich portrayed in “Big Eyes.”
The enchantress
The enchantress is a mysterious, mystical female character who owns her sexuality and creativity. She may be a mostly good-natured healer or even a witch, like the Owens sisters from “Practical Magic,” or she can be a sultry yet dastardly femme fatale, like Catherine Tramell from “Basic Instinct.”
The trickster
The trickster or jester is a chaos-creator and pot-stirrer, and can be friend, foe, or switch. Examples include “wildcard” Charlie Kelly from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” narcissistic Jack Sparrow from “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and god of mischief Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The everyman
The everyman is your everyday person—a highly relatable character who finds themselves in extraordinary (or at least extra-interesting) circumstances, such as Bilbo Baggins from “The Hobbit,” Alice from “Alice in Wonderland,” and Ted Mosby from “How I Met Your Mother.”
The damsel in distress
The damsel in distress is a mostly helpless character who requires saving, whether that’s from a fire-breathing dragon, an evil stepparent, or even themselves. Notable examples include the poisoned princess from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” the kidnapped Kimberly Mills from “Taken,” and the seemingly perpetually chained-up Xander from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
The herald
The herald alerts the hero to news of change, thus jump-starting their quest. Consider how Hagrid from “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” shook things up with a single “yer a wizard, Harry,” or how the ghost of Jacob Marley from “A Christmas Carol” warned Ebenezer Scrooge that he must find redemption by the end of the night to avoid a ghastly fate.
The guardian
The guardian is a protector who stands between the hero and their goals (at least initially), testing the hero’s fortitude and stick-to-it-ness. The Black Knight from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and the Grail Knight from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” are just two iconic instances of this obstacle-creating character archetype.
