20 Characters Who Almost Tanked Beloved Franchises

Star Wars is a great franchise, and it's hard to lay all the blame for its downfall at Jar Jar's feet (even after they stepped in a pile of alien feces). At the same time, Jar Jar was such a misfire that came very early in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and the reaction to him was so negative that creator George Lucas clearly walked him way back from his initially planned primary role, signalling a pretty clear 'mea culpa.' 

For many, Jar Jar is the problem, but a more nuanced, insightful look could reveal that he's just another silly alien in a franchise densely populated by them. Was Jar Jar, though, a canary in the coal mine of that galaxy far, far away?

Was Mutt supposed to take over for Indiana Jones? It really seemed like that was at least part of the plan for the unfortunately conceived spawn of Indy and Marion. It's hard to believe the creative forces of Lucas and Spielberg thought this was a good idea, but whatever the plan for the future was with Mutt, the present was plenty bad enough. 

He appears as a pile of cinematic references, most specifically, perhaps, Marlon Brando's costume from "The Wild One." Mutt was such a misfire that when the franchise returned for a fifth and final entry, the creative forces had decided Mutt died in Vietnam to avoid having to deal with him on screen. 

The Office is one of the most successful series of all time, with fans returning over and over again. Andy's arc shift, however, left many feeling that the final seasons didn't live up to the first ones. First, Andy had to fill the gap Michael Scott left as manager, and was then written into something far more sinister and darker in season 9 with his regression to earlier selfishness and arrogance. 

The final season struggled to strike the tonal balance between a farewell and a raucous sitcom, and so much of that fell on Andy that he takes much of the blame. 

Some people forget, or try to forget, about the ill-fated third entry in The Godfather film series. It is perhaps the greatest fall-off in cinematic franchise history, not just because The Godfather Part III is bad, but because of how excellent the first two films were. They were both lauded in "greatest of all time" types of conversations, only to be followed much later by a movie that, well, everyone wants to forget. 

Mary Corleone, daughter of Michael, played by Sofia Coppola (daughter of Francis Ford Coppola), is a lightning rod for the general failure. It was not a good performance, not a good character, and not a good movie. Is it truly her fault? Probably not, but that character is a perfect symbol of all the things that went wrong. 

The Matrix was a near-perfect movie, leaving audiences fascinated by the sci-fi vision that broke new cinematic ground and wove in tons of philosophical concepts, creating a pop-culture phenomenon. The sequels tried to go deeper and broader and left everyone disappointed. 

Little embodies this letdown more than The Architect, a character who gives us a long intellectual puzzle via pretty dull exposition. Everything that worked so well in that first movie is reversed in this scene, where stilted dialogue "explains" what's going on, reducing everything in the process, rather than terse action demonstrating big ideas we take home with us and chew on for years. 

The Great Gazoo came to the Flintstones in their final season, and he was nothing more than a gimmick that had no place at all in the universe that had been hilariously crafted to that point. 

While this is a big time throwback, so many of the most popular animated series today owe it all to the foundational Flintstones. The ability to turn the sitcom of the era (in this case, it was The Honeymooners) into something that mocked and almost elevated the format while bringing laughs to all ages was new. The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Rick and Morty are all cut from the same cloth. The Gazoo himself was mocked to a certain degree by the legendary "Poochie" episode of The Simpsons.