Has any sequel successfully pulled off a hero's heel turn into villainy?

[u/Bellikron]

Plenty of standalone movies have a character fall from grace, or be revealed as a villain all along, but this rarely happens with an established character in a sequel. On paper it's a solid twist because you've already grown to trust that character in previous films, but it's really hard to pull off without feeling like a betrayal of a character arc. The Mission Impossible series has one that was received very poorly, and the only reason I hear about Pacific Rim Uprising these days is people talking about how unearned the heel turn from one of the characters felt.

I struggle to think of an example where it was done successfully in a movie. There's more examples in TV I think since there's a much longer time to build a change in a character over multiple seasons, so I'm not really considering those. Since it did start with a movie series, though, and there really isn't too much of an extended character arc given in the show, the example I can think of that kind of works is Sharon Carter in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It was still super underdeveloped and it doesn't seem like they're going to do anything with it, but I can at least track the betrayal logic since there was kind of a meta angle about how that character had been forgotten by the movies. But even that's rather clunky.

I'm also talking specifically about situations where it wasn't clearly telegraphed by the source material or the rest of the franchise. Anakin becoming Vader was already known to the audience, for instance. I'm on the fence about whether something like Dune counts, since it's in the source material and the first two films are kind of just one long movie. I'm particularly interested in situations where it clearly wasn't the plan in the first movie but was written into a sequel.

[u/ihopnavajo]

On that note, if there's one area where Zack Snyder's watchmen messed up, it was in making ozymandius NOT likeable in the first place.

[u/IcedDante → u/ihopnavajo]

It's not a sequel, but even then... You can say a lot of things about comic book Ozy. "Likeable" was not a word I would have ever used to describe either one.

[u/Kitlun → u/IcedDante]

I agree but in the comics he perhaps gives off an impression of warmth and charm (even if fake or surface level). In the film he barely smiles and gives off almost an air of detachment and superiority to other people (a role already filled by Manhattan).

[u/lanceturley → u/Kitlun]

Yeah, at least comic Ozy shows actual emotion, which makes him feel more human and possibly even sympathetic. When his plan seems to be working he yells "I did it!" in excitement and has tears of happiness rolling down his face, because he thinks he just saved the world. He seems genuinely concerned for humanity in his own way. Movie Ozy is like this weird, robotic sociopath who barely seems to care that he just murdered millions of people.

[u/jayydubbya → u/lanceturley]

I agree, comic Ozy falls to the classic “greater good” paradox. He genuinely believes his course of action is the best if not only course to avoid nuclear Armageddon. Movie Ozy feels like he’s just another billionaire prick who thinks he knows better than everyone else and is using manipulative tactics to get his way in order to feed his own ego. He’s trying to save the world in the sense that Elon Musk is trying save the world.

[u/IcedDante → u/lanceturley]

I always thought the "I did it" moment was intentionally oversold to convince the other Watchmen to understand his motivation and not whack him.

[u/Dagordae → u/Kitlun]

In the comics he gave off a politician’s warmth, performative and obviously false affability. He wasn’t really likable because of it. You knew could tell he was a bad person and fake, the surprise was how far down he was.

[u/TheToastyToast → u/Kitlun]

YES I AGREE SO MUCH!!! 

[u/totallygeek → u/ihopnavajo]

Agreed. And, they could have pulled it off easily with a quick rundown of how much good Adrian has done with his intelligence and wealth. Heck, they could have referenced him coming up with a cure for AIDS (it was an alternative timeline 80s) or a solution to famines in Africa, while still keeping the nuclear standoff as a monumental world problem. Instead of someone you despise from his first scene, he could have come across as a super-likable person, while retaining someone apart from society.

[u/Strangedays999 → u/ihopnavajo]

Jeremy irons killed it in the show playing an aged Ozymandius

[u/TheToastyToast → u/ihopnavajo]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I never hear this mentioned and it bothers me so badly. In the movie he has ZERO warmth, fake or otherwise. Dude immediately had villain vibes from the actor to the lighting to the vibes.

Edit: ALSO THE GOGGLES AND SUIT MAKE HIM LOOK LIKE AN EVIL DWEEB

[u/ogrezilla → u/TheToastyToast]

yeah he might as well have had a mustache to twirl

[u/Bellikron → u/ihopnavajo]

He's also just bland. Ozymandias who doesn't shout "I did it!!!" isn't Ozymandias.