Even before the publishing of the first James Bond novel in 1953, we as a society were celebrating the antihero. Whether it was Shane in the 1953 movie of the same name or Rick Blaine in 1942’s Casablanca, we wanted the antihero to win. We cheered James Bond when he killed people on instructions from the British Secret Service. Tony Soprano made us root for a mobster with a conscience. I remember a theater cheering Clint Eastwood’s “man with no name” even though he was as bad as the men he murdered. When Batman growled, “I am vengeance,” we all nodded like it was a philosophy. John Wick was a mob hitman, but we applauded him because he killed those who killed his dog. We’ve convinced ourselves that 
moral decay was nuance — that cynicism was the grown-up choice.
But I would argue that that is wrong. Somewhere along the way, the thrill started to die. Maybe it was one too many “gritty” reboots or maybe it was something else. Maybe the politics of our real life got darker than the fiction we read and saw. Whatever the reason, the appetite for antiheroes suddenly felt…done.
Unexpectedly, we seemed to be ready for something else. We seem to be ready for a hero – a real hero. Ted Lasso celebrated decency and sincerity — and became a global hit. In 2025, Superman returned to being a symbol of hope, not trauma. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds rediscovered the joy and optimism that made the 1966 TV series a favorite. And the TV show about the lawyer-detective, Perry Mason, has NEVER been out of syndication since it went off the air 60 years ago.
Maybe, remembering that the concept of idealism isn’t childish — perhaps it’s now defiance. In an age of constant cynicism, sincerity, honesty and empathy suddenly feels radical. Unexpectedly, standing for something seems to be better than meandering into nothing.
We don’t want flawless heroes. We want characters who wrestle with the world as it is and still choose decency. Characters who fall, but rise with their empathy intact. And no, that’s not being naïve — it’s being brave. And brave is what is called for now.
Maybe, that’s the real evolution of modern storytelling: realizing the hardest thing in life isn’t to be dark — it’s to be good. Hope and kindness, it turns out, were never passé. Maybe, just maybe, they were just waiting for us to get tired of pretending we didn’t need them.
