Do we love villains more than heroes? The internet has gone wild over the reappearance of a beloved animated baddy. Perhaps we see ourselves in nefarious evil-doers.
Evil penguin spotted in new trailer
Do we love villains more than heroes? The internet has gone wild over the reappearance of a beloved animated baddy. Perhaps we see ourselves in nefarious evil-doers.
It was the day Wallace & Gromit fans had been waiting for. The trailer for their new film Vengeance Most Fowl features explosive action and talking gnomes.
But one character in particular has excited fans: the evil penguin Feathers McGraw, who first appeared 31 years ago in the 1993 short film The Wrong Trousers.
McGraw is a nasty piece of work. Yet fans are thrilled by his return. One X user called him "the greatest TV/movie villain of all time".
Villains rank among the most popular characters in fiction. In recent years, famous film and comic book baddies such as Cruella de Vil, the Joker and Loki have been given their own films and TV series.
We tend to like characters we can relate to. As science writer Jocelyn Solis-Moreira says: "fictional villains can allow us to privately explore a darker version of ourselves".
Yet we still tend to cheer on the heroes - and want their enemies to lose in the end.
Do we love villains more than heroes?
Yes! We know how the hero will act. But villains are unpredictable and leave us guessing about what comes next.
No! Heroes can be richly complicated and sympathetic characters too.