Fictional Characters
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50 free Fictional Characters trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Fictional characters often outlive the people who invent them. A detective, a superhero or a cartoon animal can stay famous for a century while the story of where the idea came from fades, and those origin stories are frequently stranger than the fiction: heroes named after pets and strangers, villains built from two different performers, icons drawn in a hurry to replace something an artist had just lost. This quiz covers famous characters from classic novels, children's books, comics, film, television, animation and video games. Questions ask who created a character, who played or voiced them, where they live and what inspired them, and every answer comes with a short explanation. It is written for quiz nights, classrooms and anyone who reads the credits. Start with the household names and work up to the literary deep cuts.
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Q 01Which fictional spy is named after the American ornithologist who wrote Birds of the West Indies?
James Bond
James Bond borrowed the name of a Philadelphia bird expert whose field guide Ian Fleming owned. Fleming, a keen birdwatcher, wanted a short, unromantic name for his hero.
Q 02Which film adventurer was named after an Alaskan Malamute owned by his creator, George Lucas?
Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones took his first name from the dog Indiana, who also inspired the look of Chewbacca. In early drafts the hero was called Indiana Smith.
Q 03Which superhero was created by a psychologist whose blood-pressure test led to the lie detector?
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman's creator, William Moulton Marston, built a blood-pressure device that was crucial to the polygraph. His tests persuaded him that women could be more honest than men.
Q 04Which storybook bear was named after a Canadian black bear that lived at London Zoo?
Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh owes half his name to Winnie, an animal a Canadian army vet named after Winnipeg and left at the zoo. The Pooh half came from a friend's pet swan.
Q 05Which video game hero was named after the landlord of Nintendo of America's warehouse?
Mario
Mario was first a carpenter, because Donkey Kong is set on a construction site, and the English instructions called him Jumpman. The landlord's full name was Mario Segale.
Q 06Which fictional boy's copyright did J. M. Barrie give to London's Great Ormond Street Hospital?
Peter Pan
Peter Pan has funded the children's hospital since 1929, when the playwright handed over the rights. UK law now lets it collect royalties on the story in perpetuity.
Q 07Which pirate captain did Johnny Depp model partly on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards?
Jack Sparrow
Jack Sparrow grew out of Depp's idea that 18th-century pirates were the rock stars of their day. Richards later appeared in two of the films as the character's father, Captain Teague.
Q 08Which cartoon character did Walt Disney create as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit?
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse replaced a rabbit that Disney and Ub Iwerks had made for Universal Pictures. The first design looked much like Oswald, apart from the ears, nose and tail.
Q 09Which arcade character did designer Toru Iwatani base on a pizza with one slice removed?
Pac-Man
Pac-Man also owes his look to kuchi, the Japanese character for mouth, which his designer rounded out and simplified. Lunch gave him only part of the idea.
Q 10Which comic book villain earned Academy Awards for both Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix?
The Joker
The Joker brought Ledger a posthumous supporting-actor prize, the first acting Oscar won for a superhero film. Phoenix followed with Best Actor for a 2019 film about the character.
Q 11Which fictional detective did his creator model on Joseph Bell, an observant Edinburgh surgeon?
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes owes his method to Bell, whom Arthur Conan Doyle met in 1877 and served as a clerk at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
Q 12Hercule Poirot served in which country's police force before settling in England as a refugee?
Belgium
Belgium gave Poirot his career before the First World War drove him to England. His name echoes two earlier fictional detectives, Hercules Popeau and Monsieur Poiret.
Q 13Which Star Wars villain was played on set by David Prowse but voiced by James Earl Jones?
Darth Vader
Q 21Which Lord of the Rings character did Andy Serkis bring to the screen through motion capture?
Gollum
Gollum takes his name from the horrible swallowing noise he makes in his throat. Before the One Ring corrupted him he was known as Sméagol.
Q 22Which Star Wars character is voiced and puppeteered by Frank Oz, also the performer of Miss Piggy?
Yoda
Yoda went to Oz because Jim Henson was busy with another project and recommended his Muppets colleague for the job.
Q 23Which fictional psychiatrist won Anthony Hopkins the Best Actor Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs?
Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter, as Hopkins played him, was named the greatest villain in American cinema by the American Film Institute in 2003. Hopkins returned to the part in two more films.
Darth Vader got a second performer because George Lucas felt Prowse's West Country accent did not suit the part. Prowse had turned down the role of Chewbacca to play the villain.
Q 14Which animated sitcom father shares a first name with creator Matt Groening's real father?
Homer Simpson
Homer Simpson got a name Groening chose to amuse and slightly annoy his dad, though little else about the character came from him. Groening later called his own son Homer too.
Q 15What breed is Scooby-Doo, the cowardly cartoon dog who solves mysteries with Shaggy Rogers?
Great Dane
Great Dane features were drawn wrong on purpose: designer Iwao Takamoto gave Scooby a sloping chin, bow legs and a sloped back, the opposite of a prize-winning example of the breed.
Q 16Which Toy Story character was named in honor of the second person to walk on the Moon?
Buzz Lightyear
Buzz Lightyear honors Apollo 11's Buzz Aldrin, whose name the filmmakers thought was the coolest of any astronaut. Aldrin once pulled out the toy during a speech at NASA.
Q 17Which horror character did Bela Lugosi play on Broadway before starring in the 1931 Universal film?
Dracula
Dracula was a part Lugosi already knew from the stage play, which helped him beat several other actors to the screen role. Universal paid $40,000 for rights to the novel and the plays.
Q 18Which superhero, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, first appeared in Action Comics No. 1?
Superman
Superman was dreamed up by two friends who met at Glenville High School in Cleveland, one an aspiring writer and the other an aspiring illustrator.
Q 19Which Muppet did Jim Henson first build from his mother's old coat and two ping pong ball halves?
Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog was not yet a frog in 1955: the first puppet was a vague lizard-like creature, with the ball halves serving as its eyes.
Q 20Which color was Marvel's Hulk in his first comic, before printing problems led to a switch to green?
Gray
Gray was Stan Lee's pick because he found it scary and tied to no ethnic group, but the colorist could not keep the shade consistent. Some panels even came out green.
Q 24Which physicist's surname does chemistry teacher Walter White use as his alias in Breaking Bad?
Heisenberg
Heisenberg is the name White gives when he walks into the lair of the dealer Tuco, and it grows into the reputation of a kingpin across the Southwestern drug trade.
Q 25Which fictional Scranton paper company employs Michael Scott in the American version of The Office?
Dunder Mifflin
Dunder Mifflin stands in for Wernham Hogg, the firm in the British original. The French and French Canadian remakes renamed the company again.
Q 26What is the home planet of the Time Lords, the Doctor's people in Doctor Who?
Gallifrey
Gallifrey went unnamed for the first decade of the series: the planet was first mentioned by name in the 1973–74 serial The Time Warrior.
Q 27Which of the six main characters in the sitcom Friends works as a paleontologist?
Ross Geller
Ross Geller was developed with David Schwimmer's voice in mind, which made Schwimmer the first of the six leads to be cast.
Q 28Which Star Trek officer, first played by Leonard Nimoy, has a human mother and a Vulcan father?
Spock
Spock is the son of Sarek and Amanda Grayson, and other Vulcan children bullied him for his mixed heritage. The part earned Nimoy three Emmy nominations.
Q 29What is the name of the hero the player controls in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda games?
Link
Link was so named because the hero was first meant to travel between past and future as the connection between them, creator Shigeru Miyamoto has said.
Q 30Which Pokémon species is the constant companion of trainer Ash Ketchum in the Pokémon anime?
Pikachu
Pikachu is an Electric-type whose red cheek sacs can generate large amounts of electricity. Ryan Reynolds is among the actors who have voiced it.