7 TV and Movie Side Characters That Deserve Their Own Spinoffs

One of the most criminally under-appreciated side characters in science fiction history, Wedge Antilles is a name that most casual fans of the Star Wars saga probably wouldn’t even recognize. After all, he only had a handful of lines throughout the original trilogy, but he was one of the few characters outside of the main cast to not only appear in, but survive the entire saga. Not only that, but he was the only Rebel pilot to be present at both Death Star runs, serving as Luke’s wingman for the initial assault before being the guy who actually blows up the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi. People seem to forget that it was Wedge, and not Lando, who fired the shot that destroyed that second Death Star. Oh, and he was also a hero at the Battle of Hoth in Empire Strikes Back. There are Star Wars books that have been written about Wedge, and we can only hope someday we’ll get one of those stories in a movie theater near us.

The downside to getting a spinoff about Haymitch Abernathy, the mentor of both Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark in the Hunger Games franchise, is that for the story we’d like to see told it would mean recasting the role, thus losing the great Woody Harrelson in the process. But the most intriguing part of Haymitch’s life came when he was a teenager, and he won the 50th Annual Hunger Games. The manner through which young Haymitch won the games, and the incredible odds he faced are briefly touched upon in the book Catching Fire, but they aren’t even mentioned in the movie adaptation. That’s a shame, too, because the story of his games is arguably the most awesome part of any of the books, and makes us yearn to see those specific games unfolding on the big screen.

There are numerous characters from the Harry Potter universe we could focus on, such as Grindelwald or, heck, even Neville Longbottom. Regulus Black or his brother Sirius would be pretty great to read about as well, but right now, the one guy we’d all like to see having his own adventures is Mad-Eye Moody. The most feared auror – or dark wizard catcher, if you will – in the entire Harry Potter universe, he’s a sly, blunt, somewhat brutish yet genius wizard who strikes fear into anyone who dabbles in the dark side of magic. We’re told most of the cells in Azkaban prison are filled because of Mad-Eye Moody, so why not give us a prequel showing him kicking ass, taking names, and locking those evil wizards up one at a time?

For a character that has barely been in the George R.R. Martin series, and was in only a handful of episodes of the HBO adaptation, Jaqen H’ghar made one hell of an impression on fans. He’s one of the most intriguing and mysterious characters in the entire series, a shadowy assassin who can seemingly alter his appearance at will and almost magically appear anyplace he’s summoned by Arya Stark, who spared his life and therefore has earned a debt from this dangerous warrior. He speaks in cryptic prose and has virtually zero moral compass other than living by his very specific assassin’s code. There’s no indication that he’ll be popping up on Game of Thrones anytime soon, so all we can do is wish he would get his own spinoff about his murderous adventures.

Well what do you want, nothing but science fiction and fantasy characters all over this list? Too bad, because it’s not going to happen. We have to lighten things up a little with the ongoing adventures of Badger and Skinny Pete, the right and left hand men of Jesse Pinkman. They’re comic relief in the show Breaking Bad, but both show flashes of being ridiculously interesting characters, such as when Skinny Pete randomly starts playing a keyboard at a master level. And let’s not even get started on their numerous awesome conversations about science fiction television shows. Not much would really happen on the Adventures of Badger and Skinny Pete, especially if they didn’t have flashbacks to them helping out Jesse or Walter White, but every episode would still be entertaining as hell.

This movie has only just recently come out, but if you’ve seen it you know we’re absolutely right in suggesting that Sam Wilson, also known as Falcon, deserves to have his own solo film in the wake of Winter Soldier’s success. We have to think he’ll eventually get it, too, considering how acclaimed Anthony Mackie’s performance has become, and how iconic the character is in the grand scale of the Marvel Universe. After all, this was one of the first major black superheroes, and Mackie plays him to perfection. If he does not pop up in numerous future Marvel projects, starting with Avengers: Age of Ultron, then someone is seriously dropping the ball over at Marvel and Disney. Give us more Falcon, and do it as soon as possible.

It’s kind of criminal how little screen time Beorn got in the second Hobbit film. He basically existed in that film for expositional purposes, and was given virtually no background, and the audience was left thinking he was just some big hairy dude who lived alone and probably had sex with animals. But man, there is so much more to Beorn, as fans of Tolkien already know. He’s one of the few beings in Middle Earth who has the power to single handedly turn the tide of a battle, and perhaps the only one that orcs and goblins alike absolutely fear, knowing that this hulking man who can turn into a giant, vicious bear hates their kind and will kill any such evil being he runs across. Hell, in the books it appears that even Gandalf is frightened of Beorn. If you can scare Gandalf, then man do we want to see a movie about you just unleashing hell on the horrors of Middle Earth for two solid hours.