33 Origin Stories That Paint Your Favorite Movie and TV Characters in a Whole New Light

Man, Disney did Ursula dirty
33 Origin Stories That Paint Your Favorite Movie and TV Characters in a Whole New Light

“It isn’t where you came from; it’s where you’re going that counts.” — Ella Fitzgerald

Wow, using an Ella Fitzgerald quote in a pre-listicle blurb. Never thought we’d see the day. Anywho, Ms. Fitzgerald definitely had a point, because some of these popular TV and movie characters ended up pretty far from where they started. And once you see where they started, you honestly might never look at them the same way again.

Goku

CRACKED.COM Goku When Goku was a little boy, he accidentally killed his adoptive grandfather Gohan, leaving him to take care of himself.

Flash Thompson

Spider-Man: Homecoming FLASH THOMPSON went from jock to nerd. Often portrayed as a blond, athletic dude who picks on nerds, the MCU has re-imagined Flash as a scrawny, smart kid. (He's still a jerk, though, and likely to engage in cyber-bullying.) CRACKED.COM

Baloo

CRACKED.COM The Jungle Book BALOO did teach Mowgli to be responsible, not to loaf around. Does the word serious come to mind when you think of Baloo? That's how Rudyard Kipling's book describes the bear-who is a Teacher of the Law, not some slacker.

Frankenstein’s Monster

CRACKED.COM Frankenstein FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER is highly intelligent, actually. Unlike the nearly mute brute from movies, the monster in Mary Shelley's novel quickly learns to speak and read - and does both at pretty much college professor level.

Hope Van Dyne

Ant-Man and the Wasp HOPE VAN DYNE is far from a hero in the comics. Hope was never the Wasp on the printed page. When she is there at all (she isn't a part of Marvel's main continuity), she's a baddie named the Red Queen. CRACKED.COM

M’Baku

CRACKED.COM Black Panther M'BAKU is a supervillain in the comics. Called the Man-Ape (a moniker the movie wisely dropped), M'Baku was exiled from Wakanda and became just another generic villain for the Avengers to fight.

Shae

CRACKED.COM Game of Thrones SHAE never cared for Tyrion in the books. Tyrion is just another client for Shae in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice -a particularly rich client, but that's all. She isn't at all heartbroken when she's forced to betray him.

Jessica Rabbit

CRACKED.COM Who Framed Roger Rabbit JESSICA RABBIT isn't just drawn that way in the novel. Jessica is a nasty piece of work in Gary К. Wolf's book. She's a gold digger who cares nothing for Roger, and will happily play patty cake with anyone if she stands to gain anything from it.

John Hammond

CRACKED.COM R Jurassic Park JOHN HAMMOND was originally a greedy, unsympathetic jerk. Children gaping in awe at dinosaurs? На! The only reason Hammond creates the park in Michael Crichton's novel is getting tons of money, and cares about nothing except that.

Anton Gruber

CRACKED.COM Die Hard HANS ANTON GRUBER had noble intentions in the book. Unlike Hans, who was in terrorism only for the money, Anton Little Tony the Red Gruber was trying to expose a corrupt corporation's dealings with the Chilean dictatorship.

Agatha Harkness

CRACKED.COM WandaVision AGATHA HARKNESS was Wanda Maximoff's mentor, not her foe. In the comics, Agatha is a generally benevolent witch who trained Wanda in magic. The show turned her into a villain mostly because they needed one.

Ursula

CRACKED.COM The Little Mermaid URSULA was originally an honest witch. In Hans Christian Andersen's story, the (nameless) Sea Witch is a scary but fair provider of magic services. She has no hidden agenda, and even warns the mermaid she's doing a stupid thing.

Constantine

Alan Moore's Constantine was based on Sting. The artists who worked with Moore on Swamp Thing asked him to come up with a character based on Sting for the comic, so he obliged, and created a warlock who looked, well, just like Sting. CRACKED.COM

Monsters

The monsters in Where the Wild Things Are were supposed to be horses. The original title of the book was Where The Wild Horses Are, but Maurice Sendak couldn't draw horses to save his life. So the title was changed to Where the Wild Things Are, and Sendak could draw whatever weird monsters he liked. CRACKED.COM

Wonder Girl

Wonder Girl was the result of the writer not reading Wonder Woman comics. When DC writer Bob Hanes was putting together Teen Titans, a comic book about superhero sidekicks teaming up, he included Wonder Girl as Wonder Woman's sidekick--but she was actually a young Wonder Woman, and the two only met in the same comic thanks to time travel. CRACKED.COM

Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn was just created for a random gag. who The Joker needed a female henchman for a joke in Batman: The Animated Series, so they came up with Harley Quinn. They got rid of the joke but kept her in the background, and viewers really liked her. CRACKED.COM

Pac-Man

Pac-Man was literally inspired by a pizza. OV When Toru Iwatani took a slice from a pizza, he noted that the rest of the pizza now looked like a face with an open mouth, seen from the side. From that, an iconic video game character was born. CRACKED.COM

Snake Eyes

G.I. Joe's Snake Eyes is only black to save paint. They made him black so they wouldn't have to put any paint on the action figure -- it's 100% black, the color of the plastic straight from the vat. CRACKED.COM

April Ludgate

They created April Ludgate after a casting director met Aubrey Plaza. The director called Parks & Rec writer Michael Schur and told him I just met the weirdest girl I've ever met in my life. You have to meet her and put her on your show. So Schur met with her, and wrote her into the show. CRACKED.COM

Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster was created for an ad for Munchos potato chips. ncho In the ad, he ate up a whole bag of the chips, to the slogan of There's more to a Muncho! Later, he made his way to Sesame Street and found a love of cookies rather than chips. CRACKED.COM

Franklin

Charles Schulz created Franklin because of a fan letter. In 1968, former teacher Harriet Glickman, wrote to Schulz and suggested he add a Black character to Peanuts as a small of way of helping change those conditions in our society which led to the assassination of MLK and which contribute to the vast sea of misunderstanding, fear, hate, and violence. After more correspondence, Schulz agreed, and came up with Franklin. CRACKED.COM

Hulk

Jack Kirby came up with The Hulk after seeing a woman lift a car. Her baby got caught underneath it, and in her desperation, Kirby says she lifted the rear of the car to save her baby. Не realized that we can all do something like that in desperation or rage, which led him to The Hulk. CRACKED.COM

Les Grossman

Tropic Thunder's Les Grossman was Tom Cruise's creation. The character wasn't in the script, but Cruise said I think you need another villain other than just the 12-year-old drug king, and suggested somebody who embodies the sleaziest, seamiest side of Hollywood. CRACKED.COM

Mario

Mario was only created because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye. When Shigeru Miyamoto was making Donkey Kong, Nintendo tried to license the Popeye characters, but that fell through, so he came up with new ones -- including Mario, the player character. CRACKED.COM

Geordi LaForge

Geordi LaForge was based on a disabled Star Trek superfan. His name was George LaForge, he'd suffered from muscular dystrophy, and he showed up all the time at fan conventions. Не made friends with Gene Roddenberry, and Roddenberry remembered him when he was creating characters for The Next Generation. CRACKED.COM

The Scooby Gang

The Scooby Gang was based on the characters in a 1960s TV show. It was called The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and it was a teen sitcom that the creators of Scooby-Doo basically just lifted the main characters from. CRACKED.COM

M. Bison

Street Fighter's M. Bison got that name kind of randomly. The original M. Bison M. Bison The character was originally called Vega in the Japanese version of Street Fighter II, and M. Bison was the name of a boxer character who was a pretty clear homage to Mike Tyson. When the game was released outside Japan, Capcom just gave the M. Bison name to another character out of fear of a lawsuit from Tyson. CRACKED.COM

Huey, Dewey and Louie

Huey, Dewey, and Louie are pretty much abandoned by their mother Della Duck. The reason? Their dad is admitted to the hospital after getting injured in a firecracker prank by the triplets. Не is never mentioned again. Dear Donald: I am sending Huly while angel the stay their nephews, and with father Dewey, you is W in hospital. a giant firecracker exploded under his darlings enjoy chair. I are hope consin, little so you The GRACKED.COM

Jessie

PoKéMoN When Jessie was little, her mother disappeared and she was put into a foster home. Jessie was sometimes forced to eat snow because the foster home was lacking in money and food. CRACKED.COM

Remus Lupin

CRACKED.COM The story of how Remus Lupin became a werewolf is even more horrifying than we thought. Lupin was four years old and asleep when the werewolf broke into his room and bit him. It would've killed him if Lupin's dad hadn't arrived.

The Chipettes

You may remember The Chipettes as the adorable female counterparts of ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS Did you know they grew up in an orphanage? They were abused and compelled to hide their singing talent because the owner forced the children to sing. CRACKED.COM

Mad Max

MADMAX FURY ROAD COMA the DooF WaRRiOR was discovered in a cave with his murdered mother's severed head as his only company. Now he pays respect to her by wearing her skin over his own, in battle. We suppose that's something of an improvement. CRACKED.COM

Rocket Raccoon

Rocket Raccoon's comment about unethical experiments on animals makes more sense if you read the comics. Guardians of the Galaxy His ancestors were basically lab rats. The robots that were entrusted with helping the patients at the Keystone Quandrant Asylum began to tinker with genetics, giving animals human intellegence and prosthetics to mimic human movement. CRACKED.COM

Tags:

Scroll down for the next article

Must Read

VIRAL ON CRACKED

A WEEKLY
NEWSLETTER OF
JOKES + TRIVIA

Forgot Password?