The Rise of Everyman Heroes in Modern Action Movies

For decades, action movies were ruled by bulletproof icons — the kind of heroes who could bench-press a helicopter and walk away from an explosion without blinking. But over the last ten years, Hollywood has quietly reprogrammed the genre. Out are the invincible supermen; in are the anxious dads, retail workers, teachers, office drones, delivery drivers, and blue-collar strivers whose superpower is just… doing their best. And audiences are eating it up.

This shift didn’t happen overnight, but you can track it clearly across some of the biggest films and streaming hits of the last five years. According to recent research from The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, grounded action protagonists have surged specifically because audiences are responding to characters who feel more like people they know or people they are.

Let’s break down why the everyman hero has become the defining face of modern action.

We Crave Action That Feels Like Real Life (But With Better Choreography)

With franchises like John Wick and Mission: Impossible still dominating box offices, you’d think the superhuman model would stay king forever. But what’s happening beneath that blockbuster layer tells a different story.

Streaming data reported by Deadline and IndieWire shows consistent demand for “relatable action leads”, characters who aren’t elite operatives, but regular people forced into extraordinary situations.

Look at the recent breakout hits:

• Bob Odenkirk in Nobody (2021) — A middle-aged suburban dad whose boring routine hides a dormant skillset.

• Dave Bautista in Knock at the Cabin (2023) — A soft-spoken gym teacher turned doomsday messenger.

• Jennifer Lopez in The Mother (2023) — A retired assassin pulled back in against her will.

• Jamie Foxx in They Cloned Tyrone (2023) — Not an action star on paper, but a grounded, community-rooted character navigating a sci-fi conspiracy.

• Kumail Nanjiani in The Eternals (2021) — Even superhero movies are injecting more comedic, human energy into their characters.

And even outside traditional action—think The Bear, Reservation Dogs, Peacemaker—quirky, flawed, emotionally messy protagonists dominate the cultural conversation.

The message is clear: Audiences still love action, they just want it with vulnerability.

Post-Pandemic Hollywood: The Rise of “Relatability Urgency”

Variety reported late last year that post-2020 audience tracking shows a spike in demand for characters who reflect economic pressure, burnout, and day-to-day frustration. People aren’t connecting to flawless action giants anymore. They want:

• Characters who struggle with bills

• Characters who feel overlooked

• Characters who snap under pressure

• Characters who feel trapped in routine

In other words; us.

Movies like The Creator (2023), The Black Phone (2021), and Sound of Freedom (2023) lean heavily on everyday protagonists caught in moral or emotional stakes rather than spectacle. The tension comes from the character, not just the choreography.

This trend isn’t just emotional — it’s strategic. Studios see that grounded heroes make for:

• Lower production budgets

• Simpler narratives with clearer stakes

• Higher relatability in international markets

• More rewatchability on streaming

It’s a win for both audiences and executives — a rare alignment.

Stunt Teams and Directors Are Pushing for “Human-Centric Action”

Collider reports that Hollywood stunt teams and second-unit directors have been advocating for more grounded action because it allows:

• Longer takes

• Practical choreography

• More emotional storytelling through movement

The result? Films like Upgrade (2018), Extraction (2020), and The Equalizer 3 (2023) are celebrated not just for action, but for character-first sequences where the hero barely survives instead of effortlessly dominating.

This is the opposite of the superhero era and people love the tension.

Why These Characters Are Hitting Emotionally Harder Than Ever

When you give audiences a character who doesn’t win easily, every punch suddenly matters.

There’s a reason Nobody went viral after release. Bob Odenkirk trained for two years, not to look like a bodybuilder, but to fight like a guy with a bad back and decades of regret. When he gets hit, you feel it.

And with more actors pushing for authenticity, from Jake Gyllenhaal’s physical prep in Ambulance to Glen Powell doing his own stunts in Twisters, the everyman action wave feels more emotionally accessible than almost anything coming out of the superhero boom.

THR noted in a recent report that audiences score “human vulnerability” as one of their top factors for action-film satisfaction. Not spectacle. Not CGI.

Vulnerability.

Where the Trend Goes Next

Industry analysts at Variety and Deadline expect more “everyday action” in:

1. Mid-budget theatrical releases

Studios are revisiting the $20–40M action film after the breakout success of Nobody, Prey, and The Black Phone.

2. Streaming exclusives

Netflix, Prime Video, and Apple TV+ continue to invest heavily in character-driven genre films with grounded leads.

3. International co-productions

South Korea, France, and Spain have already been championing this archetype for years (The Night Comes for Us, The Stronghold, The Platform, The Raid lineage). Hollywood is catching up.

4. Franchise reboots

Studios are increasingly “de-powering” their action leads to focus on emotional accessibility. Even Bond 26 is rumored (per industry insiders speaking to Deadline) to be leaning into a younger, less polished 007.

Action movies aren’t getting smaller, instead they’re getting more personal. We still want adrenaline, but we want it through the lens of someone who could be our neighbor, our coworker, or ourselves on a particularly bad Tuesday. The new action hero doesn’t have to save the world. Surviving rush hour traffic and a criminal conspiracy in the same day is enough.

And if you ask me? That’s the kind of hero we could all use right now.