While the main characters are supposed to steal the show and make fans love a series or film, sometimes, it’s the side characters who are even better.
Supporting characters, who don’t even necessarily have a lot of screentime, can be really compelling and well-loved by fans.
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Here are 10+ characters who had little screen time but were still the best part of a project.
Princess Diana in *The Crown.*
In the recent season of the series, Princess Diana is introduced.
The Crown still centers around Queen Elizabeth, but the scenes with Diana were some of the most interesting and compelling.
Fans can’t wait to see more of Emma Corrin’s portrayal in season five.
Gimli from *The Lord of the Rings.*
It’s hard to say who the best member of the Fellowship is, but Gimli is one of the most underrated characters.
He doesn’t get much screentime as he’s not super essential to the plot, but he’s hilarious, and fans feel he has more depth than he’s given credit for.
Fantine in *Les Misérables.*
Fantine is one of the most tragic figures from a story that has a lot of depressing characters.
While she only has a handful of scenes in the film version, Anne Hathaway gave a powerful performance especially during the “I Dreamed A Dream” song.
Edna Mode from *The Incredibles.*
Anyone who has seen The Incredibles is going to remember this character.
Despite only appearing for a few minutes on screen, she’s easily one of the most iconic parts of the movie. While many people don’t remember much about the plot, they do remember her.
Juan from *Moonlight.*
This movie is split up into different parts to show different times of the main character, Chiron’s, life.
Mahershala Ali only shows up in the first third of the movie, but the performance was so great that he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Hannibal Lecter in *Silence of the Lambs.*
It might be weird to think about, but this iconic movie villain isn’t really in the movie all that much.
The story centers mostly around Clarice Starling, who is also amazing, but Hannibal Lecter captured the imagination in the few scenes he’s on-screen.
Brienne of Tarth from *Game of Thrones.*
There are so many characters from Game of Thrones , and many of the actors gave great performances.
However, despite not being one of the main cast, Brienne, played by Gwendoline Christie, was one of the few characters fans could really root for.
Bucky Barnes from the *Captain America* trilogy.
Bucky might seem like he’s in more of these movies than he is because he has such a big impact on the plot and on Captain America.
He rarely speaks at all, but his story is so compelling that he became a fan-favorite almost immediately.
Eric Effoing on *Sex Education.*
This hilarious and insightful Netflix series is made better by many of its supporting characters.
Eric is an outgoing, likable character with some very real and well-written struggles. Ncuti Gatwa does a great job in this role.
Mrs. Miller from *Doubt.*
Viola Davis becomes the star in pretty much any projects she’s in, so it’s not surprising that she was legendary in this role.
Her monologue scene is amazing, and while she only has a few minutes of screentime, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards.
Darth Vader from *Star Wars.*
While he’s technically the main villain of the original trilogy, he’s not on screen all that much.
This just goes to show that an iconic character doesn’t even have to be in a lot of scenes to make a long-lasting impression.
Beth Pearson on *This Is Us.*
With an amazing cast and many characters, it can be difficult to stand out.
However, while she’s not even one of the main characters from the Pearson family, Beth is a well-rounded character that steals the attention each time she’s on-screen.
Jarvis in *Iron Man.*
This character is an interesting one because he’s actually just an AI program based on a real person. While he might not have been human, he was one of the best-supporting characters from the Iron Man films.
Fans really loved him, and they were a bit disappointed when Jarvis morphed into Vision.
Luna Lovegood from *Harry Potter.*
While the main trio might be loved by fans of the series, Luna Lovegood is a great character that fans wanted more of.
She’s really only in the last three books/movies, and, even then, she doesn’t get a ton of scenes. Yet, she’s such a fascinating character and is loved by many fans.
The Joker in *The Dark Knight.*
Once again, we have an absolutely perfect villain that wasn’t even on screen as much as you’d think.
Heath Ledger really stole the show as The Joker, and he posthumously won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor because of his acting skills.
