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5 Most Beloved Background Characters in Sci-Fi

1/08/2014 06:00:00 PM , ,

In movies and TV shows, not everyone can be a major character. Sometimes, you have to have extra people hanging around in the background. But sometimes, it's those very characters who the audience falls in love with. With sci-fi, the audience is a little more rabid than most, causing that trend to increase even more. Here are five characters fans have fallen in love with.

5. P1ZZ4 Guy (Spiderman 2)
Donnell Rawlings, Spider-Man 2
In Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker was hurrying to deliver pizzas to keep his job. He decided to take a shortcut into an alley and change into his Spiderman costume. When he comes flying out of the alley carrying the pizzas, a bystander yells, "Whoa, he stole that guy's pizza!" This scene was originally supposed to be Stan Lee, but the shot didn't turn out well. Lee was replaced by comedian Donnell Rawlings, who made the brief cameo surprisingly memorable. His moment was turned into cartoons, music, and sound bytes in a meme known as P1ZZ4 Guy. 

4. Giant Plush Bunny (Iron Man 3)
In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark gets a gigantic stuffed rabbit as a gift for Pepper Potts. Before the movie even premiered, the bunny became a sensation when it made a brief appearance in the movie trailer. Speculation ran wild as to why the bunny would be in the movie. It even got its own Twitter account known as Starkbunny.

3. Tattooed Pilot (Battlestar Galactica)
Leo Li Chiang, Battlestar Galactica
In a battleship the size of the Galactica, there are a lot of background characters running around. One character stood out more than most. Known only as the Tattooed Pilot, the bald, Asian man with extensive tattoos never had an official name or callsign, and only had one line in the entire series. He usually only showed up in the background during card games. Nevertheless, his distinctive appearance made him a beloved part of the series.

2. Porkins (Star Wars: A New Hope)
Porkins (William Hootkins), Star Wars IV: A New Hope
If you want to fight a war, your soldiers have to be in shape. That's why Porkins, an overweight pilot seen briefly in the cockpit of an X-Wing fighter, stood out. Fans found it comical to see him squeezed into a cockpit. The name "Porkins" only seemed to make it funnier. Behind the scenes, actor William Hootkins didn't think much of the role. His uniform had to be slit in the back for him to fit, and he worried with the name "Porkins" that he would end up in alien makeup. While Porkins never ended up in the rest of the movie series, his exploits have been heavily chronicled in the Expanded Universe of novels and comic books.

1. Morn (Deep Space Nine)
Mark Allen Shepherd, Deep Space Nine
He never said a word during the DS9 series, but Morn is one of the most popular characters in the series. The bald, mournful looking alien was often seen sitting in the Quark's bar. His name is an anagram of "Norm," referring to the barfly from the TV show, Cheers. The character was only meant to make a brief appearance in the first episode, but the cast loved him so much that he remained throughout the series and even got his own episode.

Which is your favorite? What background characters have you fallen in love with?

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5 comments:

  1. Alex J. CavanaughJanuary 8, 2014 at 6:09 PM

    Morn wins hands down! Such an awesome play on the name Norm from Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pat DillowayJanuary 8, 2014 at 7:15 PM

    I think by now every background character in the Star Wars movies has an action figure of it. I always thought Dak, Luke's tail gunner in the snowspeeder who got shot and then crushed by an AT-AT, got a raw deal.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nigel MitchellJanuary 9, 2014 at 4:31 AM

    It was hard to narrow down which bit character to feature, Pat. SW loves to crank out action figures

    ReplyDelete
  4. DAVID WALSTONJanuary 9, 2014 at 6:46 AM

    Love Morn!
    I always expected more out of the bunny.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tony LaplumeJanuary 9, 2014 at 9:11 AM

    Morn had better have been on the list!

    ReplyDelete

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