What ficitonal character has been "reimagined" the most?

[Deset Gled]

I think most of the really big names have been mentioned, but I'll throw Zaroff from The Most Dangerous Game into the mix. He has fewer direct reimaginings, but the character basically became a modern archetype that has popped up in a million places.

Hm. I don't know how many outright "reimaginings" there really are of Biblical material. There are many versions, but most of them are pretty straightforward, keeping to the same basic vision of the characters and setting.

The Passion of the Christ, Godspell, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, Jesus Christ Superstar, Saint Young Men, Life of Brian, Lamb, Prometheus, Lucy the Daughter of the Devil... and that's just getting started on one specific biblical character (i.e. Christ). For that matter, couldn't different sects of Christianity all essentially be seen as different reimaginings of Jesus?

So, yeah, reimaginings of biblical material happens all the time.

 

[Morrus]

I think most of the really big names have been mentioned, but I'll throw Zaroff from The Most Dangerous Game into the mix.

Not that I claim to be any kind of barometer, but I've never heard of Zardoff. I'd suggest that's possible evidence that he or she hasn't been reimagined enough times to win this particular contest!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

So, yeah, reimaginings of biblical material happens all the time

My mother, over lunch the other day, mentioned to me one I had never heard of. Apparently, back in the 1970s or so, someone did a movie in which JC and his apostles were all gay. She couldn't remember the title, though.

I swear, Mom looked to me like she had 2 care-bear heads at that moment. I thought my tea had been laced with LSD. And LDS. And LCDs & LEDs too.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Not that I claim to be any kind of barometer, but I've never heard of Zardoff. I'd suggest that's possible evidence that he or she hasn't been reimagined enough times to win this particular contest!

"The Most Dangerous Game"- and a few similar stories, like the real-world experiences of John Colter- have been adapted to film & TV numerous times. Nifty stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Most_Dangerous_Game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_Prey

My favorite versions are The Naked Prey, the Criminal Intent episode, and Surviving the Game.

But I'm thinking even so, its a few short of the top of the list.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Don't forget "The Buddy Christ".
If the next section offends, I'm sorry. Welcome to Western Civ.
Christ/Christianity got a major overhaul/re-imaging during the renaissance. A description was found of an old philosopher describing his view of the best deity to worship being one of love, understanding, and compassion. "Modern" people read this, assumed it had to be about their god, and adopted it. It wasn't until later that the document was discovered to have been written about 500BC. Before that, Christianity and Christ were both seen as being perfectly OK with conquest and war.
Would love to see the flaming Christ movie.
Good ol' Zardoff. That was such a nice story. Pity that in most retellings, they change or just leave off the ending of what happens to the guest.

 

[Tonguez]

Sun Wukong, journey to the west has had many reimaginings

 

[Bagpuss]

Oh, and the Bible, of course. Lots of versions of that!

Which in itself seems to be a reimaging of a number of pagan myths, when you look into it a bit deeper.

But how about character from the Greek myths? Odysseus/Ulysses, Hercules, etc?

I suppose the further back you go the more chances they have had to be reimagined.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

How about Mary Shelley's Adam? He's been reimagined so many times and in so many ways that we know his look and forget his name and many of you will be scrambling to look up about whom I just wrote.

 

[Morrus]

I suppose the further back you go the more chances they have had to be reimagined.

To a limit - then you run into lack of documentation. Which doesn't mean anything in itself, of course, but it means we can't to more than guess. I think there's probably a prime period where you've gone back far enough that they've had time to resurface lots of times, but not so far that we don't remember them.

 

[Morrus]

How about Mary Shelley's Adam? He's been reimagined so many times and in so many ways that we know his look and forget his name and many of you will be scrambling to look up about whom I just wrote.

I bet not a single person here will need to scramble to look him up.

The concept has certainly been reused many times; heck, there's a flesh golem in D&D. The character itself has been, too, but not as much as the concept.

I kInda assumed by "reimagine" we mean "the same character portrayed differently" not "the same archetype". If we mean the latter, then I withdraw all my previous suggestions and go with "weary cop" as portrayed by [pick any one].