Before the premiere of just about any TV show hits the screens or streaming platforms, showrunners almost always have a picture of how things will turn out for each character on that show. It’s usually something along the lines of “kill this guy off in episode nine, keep that one around for exactly three episodes, and don’t get too attached to that extra playing the weird neighbor.” In quite a few cases, those have turned out to be well-intentioned plans that just didn’t pan out. And that’s primarily because an actor shows up with a performance that wins over the show’s audience, to the point where it becomes sacrilegious not to feature their characters in later episodes.
That’s basically how things turned out for every character in this list. None of them were supposed to become fan favorites. One was basically a corpse-in-waiting, one didn’t even exist in the comics, and another spent her screentime pretending to be a bored neighbor with a weird casserole obsession. But somehow, each one became the reason why many fans of their respective shows stuck around.
1. Jesse Pinkman, Breaking Bad (2008)
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Vince Gilligan, the mastermind behind Breaking Bad, had a simple, brutal plan for Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman: dead in a drug deal gone wrong before season one even ended. His death was supposed to guilt-trip his partner Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and send him down the villain path faster. Imagine for a second that happened. It automatically means no “Yeah, Science,” and no five seasons of Jesse being chewed and spit back up. But then Paul and Cranston started acting together, and it was like watching two firecrackers in a tin can.
The chemistry they shared was so electric that Gilligan ripped up his original outline. He’s admitted he just couldn’t pull the trigger on Jesse because Paul made him too human. And thank goodness for that, because watching Walt go all Heisenberg without Jesse as his bleeding, broken conscience would have felt like watching The Godfather without Fredo—still a classic, but missing that one tragic character that made it all hurt. By the way, Paul bagged three Emmys for a character who was supposed to be a… footnote.
2. Steve Harrington, Stranger Things (2016)
Just like Jesse, Steve Harrington was a dead man walking. The Duffer Brothers wrote him as the stereotypical jock bully, and that Demogorgon fight in season one was supposed to be his last scene. The death was originally written for Jonathan’s dad, Lonnie Byers (Ross Partridge), but then Joe Keery showed up for an audition. He didn’t just throw a wrench in the works; he threw the whole toolbox, and it worked on the writers and audiences alike.
The Duffers have straight up admitted that they fell for how likeable he made Steve, and they just couldn’t get rid of him for that reason. So, instead of becoming monster food, Steve got one of TV’s best redemption arcs, going from Nancy’s (Natalia Dyer) self-obsessed boyfriend to the group’s unofficial, extremely reluctant babysitter. He outlasted most of the characters who were supposed to stick around longer, and all without a dent in his perfect hair.
3. Daryl Dixon, The Walking Dead (2010)
This one is even more remarkable, and not just because Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) dodged an early death. Anyone who’s read the Walking Dead comics knows that Robert Kirkman never drew a crossbow-wielding redneck with a heart of gold. Reedus originally auditioned for the part of Merle, Daryl’s racist older brother, but ultimately lost that gig to Michael Rooker. But his audition impressed showrunner Frank Darabont so much that he created a whole new character on the spot just to keep him around.
Daryl started as a casting afterthought, but he ended up outlasting pretty much every character from the source material, survived all eleven seasons, and even got his own spin-off. That’s something not even Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) can brag about. What’s more, Kirkman still can’t put him in the comics because AMC owns the character outright.
4. Ben Linus, Lost (2004)
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Back in 2006, Michael Emerson signed on to Lost for a three-episode guest gig. He was playing Henry Gale, a mysterious prisoner who claimed he crashed in a balloon. The original plan was to shoot his scenes, get paid, and move on because the writers were just testing the waters. That plan went up in smoke after Emerson delivered one perfectly unsettling line about wanting milk of all things, and the producers realized they had something special.
Since not many people let go of something special, a three-episode mysterious guest role turned into a series regular role as Ben Linus, the mastermind behind the Others. He became arguably the best villain the show ever produced. Emerson has admitted that he had no idea Ben Linus and Henry Gale were the same person until he figured it out on set. That confusion makes his slow-burn creepiness even more impressive.
5. Agatha Harkness, WandaVision (2021)
For most of WandaVision Season 1, Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) wasn’t even the villain. She was Agnes, the nosy neighbor who shows up with a bad joke and a casserole dish—basically a red herring dressed up as comic relief. The big reveal in episode 7 was supposed to be a fun twist, not a springboard for an entire spin-off.
But Hahn’s performance, which includes a perfect delivery of a musical number (Agatha All Along) that somehow went viral, meant that Agatha graduated from “memorable villain” to “give her a show” territory. Hahn herself has said she never expected people to be clamoring for more of a centuries-old witch who spends her time tormenting suburbanites. Yet, Agatha All Along dropped three years later, built entirely around a character who spent her debut pretending to be nobody special.
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