Authors, showrunners, directors and horrible people. They
kill characters we love constantly, just to make us feel emotions, or they give
us awesome characters and then plan to get rid of them for no reason! Luckily,
sometimes fans can come together and keep these bastards from destroying the fictional
people we love — here are some of those times.
1) Agent Coulson, Avengers
Despite Joss Whedon’s love of killing off beloved
characters, it was actually Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige who ordered
Agent Phil Coulson’s death in Avengers,
giving the movie the tragic heft he thought it needed. When Avengers came out in May 2012, there
were no concrete plans to bring him back, and Agents of SHIELD was only a glimmer in Feige’s eye. Even when the SHIELD pilot was ordered, there was no
guarantee than Coulson would return… until actor Clark Gregg announced it in October
2012. If you don’t think the fans had anything to do with this decision, you’re
crazy.
2) Goku, Dragonball Z
When Goku sacrificed himself to defeat Cell and save the
earth (thus dying a second time), Dragonball
author Akira Toriyama didn’t just want to leave Goku dead, he wanted to quit
making the manga entirely. But since the anthology Dragonball was in was selling a record-breaking six million copies
per week, and the Dragonball Z anime
had similarly insane ratings, Toriyama’s editors convinced him to keep going.
Toriyama wanted to refocus the manga on Goku’s son Gohan, but eventually fan
pressure led to Goku returning… even though he was still dead for a while (you
can tell by the halo he was sporting at the time).
3) Sherlock Holmes
The first and perhaps most famous fan resurrection of all
time, author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was sick and tired of writing his immensely
popular Sherlock Holmes tales, and thus devised a way to give the detective a
proper send-off. Doyle invented an arch-nemesis for Holmes, and had the two apparently
falling off a cliff at the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland (Watson didn’t
witness this himself) in “The Final Problem,” published in December of 1893. Doyle
managed to weather the public pressure to bring back the character for 11 long
years — although he did try to sate the public with The Hound of the Baskervilles, set prior to “The Final Problem,” in
1902 — until resurrecting the character fully in “The Adventure of the Empty
House” in 1903.
4) Spike, Buffy the
Vampire Slayer
Pretty much everyone
on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel was supposed to die at one point
or another, some of them set to return, and some supposed to stay dead. For
instance, Angel was supposed to die permanently in the season 2 finale until The
WB wanted a Buffy spin-off, which led
to Whedon brining back the character for season three in order to prep the
character for his own series. But Spike was the one actually saved by the fans;
he was originally supposed to die in his fifth episode — “What’s My Line, Part
Two” — but the character was such an instant hit with fans that the character
was spared.
5) Tommy, Power Rangers
With Green Ranger Tommy Oliver was depowered in the middle
of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
season 2, he left as he could no longer be an effective Power Ranger. Shortly
after his disappearance, Zordon announces he’s making an all-new and
unfortunately named White Power Ranger, who turns out to be… Tommy! The role
of the White Ranger was supposed to go to an actor named Brad Hawkins, but
Tommy’s actor Jason David Frank was such a hit with the show’s audience the
producers wanted to keep him around. Frank and Oliver have been constantly
returning to the Power Rangers universe ever since.
6) Castiel, Supernatural
Actor Misha Collins was only hired to do six episodes of Supernatural as Castiel, an angel who
comes to earth to help the Winchester brothers in their battle against the
demons of the world. Originally, Castiel was supposed to die in the fourth
season episode “Heaven and Hell,” and Anna was supposed to guide Dean through
the oncoming apocalypse. But of course the character was an instant hit, stuck
around, and Collins was promoted to season regular in seasons 5 and six. Of
course, Collins becomes a guest-star for season 7, dying in episode two.
Executive producer Sera Gamble quickly revealed that they did indeed plan on
bringing Castiel back to the show in some form eventually, and Castiel can thank the fans for that, too.
7) Optimus Prime, Transformers
The death of Optimus Prime in 1986’s Transformers: The Movie was mandated by corporate greed, as
toymaker Hasbro wanted kids to buy more toys, and they thought (justifiably)
that giving the Autobots new characters and a new leader would facilitate that.
What they didn’t expect, though, was a legion of traumatized kids whose first
experience with death was of their favorite cartoon character. Hasbro
resurrected Optimus in 1988. Whether it was because of the actual tears of
children or just another naked attempt to sell some more toys, the fans were
still technically the reason he came back.
