Who are the greatest characters introduced in the last 20 years?
Entertainment Weekly knows and they’ve revealed them.
The list includes 25 genre characters with the highest ranking one coming in at number two. Thankfully it’s not anyone for the “Twilight” saga, but is Harry Potter. (Edward Cullen does show up later in the list)
Interestingly, Buffy Summers is third overall.
Here’s the list of the 25 genre characters included.
2. Harry Potter from the Harry Potter series
3. Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
5. The Joker from The Dark Knight
7. Edward Scissorhands from Edward Scissorhands
12. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully from The X-Files
13. Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean series
15. Shrek from the Shrek series
17. Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider franchise
19. Morpheus from The Matrix series
23. Austin Powers from the Austin Powers series
25. Woody from the Toy Story series
33. Sarah Connor from Terminator 2: Judgment Day
36. Gollum from The Lord of the Rings
42. Sydney Bristow from Alias
44. Jack Bauer from 24
53. Edward Cullen from the Twilight saga
59. Master Chief from the Halo series
63. John Locke from Lost
72. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace from Battlestar Galactica
79. Elphaba from Wicked
83. Jen Yu from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
87. Tony Stark from the Iron Man series
89. Wikus van de Merwe from District 9
91. Hancock from Hancock
94. Truman from The Truman Show
You can read the full list HERE.
So, how do you think is the greatest genre character?
This is complete bull! The majority of these characters were introduced more than 20 years ago.
Harrumph!
The majority of the 25 listed here, or the majority of the 100 from the full list?
I only count 5 genre characters who pre-date 1990… who else are you counting as from prior to 1990?
“Greatest” is a pretty broad category. A lot of these characters are awesome in their own way or their own niches. How can one go about comparing Woody from Toy Story against Harry Potter?
Well, there certainly are a few that are way past the 20 year mark. Gollum? Yeah, that’s a brand-spankin new character grown straight from the mind of Peter Jackson. Hah. Actually, I find it quite disappointing that Gollum would be the 1 character chosen from LOTR. I know they’re looking for more of a pop culture phenom then a well crafted character, but if ones from District 9 and Alias made the cut (not to mention Friday Night Lights, Rent, and Harold/Kumar on the main list), then I’m sure they could have thrown us a Gandalf.
Although, I must admit I do love that Homer Simpson was named #1. Not who I would have picked, but it tickles me nonetheless.
What? No Jar Jar Binks? 😛
If EW is basing this list by the character’s impact FROM the 1990’s until now, and not when the character was created, then they made a huge mistake leaving out Mario, and possibly some other Nintendo characters like Link or Samus from Metroid. You could also make a case for Sonic the Hedgehog. But then again some people might also make a case for Crazy Frog 😛
I love the Terminator franchise but i prefer Cameron in Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Summer Glau did a great performance as a Terminator; what a pity we couldn’t learn more about her!
No Firefly characters?! Bah humbug!
I second Chrickan’s “Bah humbug!”
Hello?? Doctor Horrible?? Captain Hammer?
Firefly fans just can’t catch a break can they? Also did not see anyone from Farscape or Bab 5. Sorry, as my daughter would say, “The fail boat has left the dock” on this one.
Tim
Buffy was the most uninteresting character on Buffy. What about Spike? Giles? Anya? Riley?
Okay, kidding, kidding, Riley sucks…I know 🙂
OK Morpheus was cool but shouldn’t Neo or even Agent Smith be on the list.
Ten years ago I might have picked Mulder and Scully but their aura has faded with time. A lot of the characters listed are not really from the last 20 years, they are much older. I don’t know, this list is both incomplete and has characters who don’t really belong on it. I’ll pick none of the above.