History Main / TheatrePhantom

* ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce introduces Hyde in [=MegaMan=] Star Force 2 who fancies himself an actor and who considers his schemes as scripts. He can Wave Change into Phantom Black, and his plot in his debut game involves abducting Luna or manipulating various people into using [=UMAs=] to furthering their own agendas and by extention his leader's. He also returns in the third game as Dark Phantom, though at this point, he's already gone insane and after being defeated falls to his death.

* ''VideoGame/TheMessenger2018'': Despite his name, Phantom was originally not this trope, but the Demon King fixed that by placing a cursed mask on him and imprisoning him in a music box to play the pipe organ for all eternity.

''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' is considered by many to be one of the best stories of all time due to its gripping combination of drama and horror. The title character himself is very intriguing, being a masked madman with a lot of [[AlasPoorVillain tragedy]] and sadness has made him one of the most iconic villains (if not characters) in movie lore.

As with most successes, the concept of a "phantom of the X" has since been used countless times since its introduction. In comparison to the original, characters based on the Phantom are often varied. Sometimes they are a CaptainErsatz, sometimes they're a thoughtful parody of their inspiration, but they often share a few key features:

* The Trapdoor Daemon in ''The Vampire Genevieve'' by Creator/KimNewman, who haunts Detlef Sierck's theatre, and has his own box. This being ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' he is ''much'' more deformed than the original, with warpstone having transformed him into something utterly inhuman.

* ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}'' presents the Literature/{{Discworld}}'s take on ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', with the mysterious 'Opera Ghost' haunting the Ankh-Morpork Opera House. Ultimately there turns out to be two different Opera Ghosts.

''Franchise/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' is considered by many to be one of the best stories of all time due to its gripping combination of drama and horror. The title character himself is very intriguing, being a masked madman with a lot of [[AlasPoorVillain tragedy]] and sadness has made him one of the most iconic villains (if not characters) in movie lore.

''[[Franchise/ThePhantomOfTheOpera]]'' is considered by many to be one of the best stories of all time due to its gripping combination of drama and horror. The title character himself is very intriguing, being a masked madman with a lot of [[AlasPoorVillain tragedy]] and sadness has made him one of the most iconic villains (if not characters) in movie lore.

''[[Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1925 The Phantom of the Opera]]'', based on the book and play, is considered by many to be one of the best movies of all time due to its gripping combination of drama and horror. The title character himself is very intriguing, being a masked madman with a lot of [[AlasPoorVillain tragedy]] and sadness has made him one of the most iconic villains (if not characters) in movie lore.

* In ''Film/{{Bruiser}}'', Henry becomes one during the company's masquerade. Having organised the masquerade, he attends dressed as the Phantom of the Opera, incorporating his white mask of doom. As usual, most people fail to notice him. He then skulks around backstage and uses the props he arranged to be present to take his revenge on [[spoiler:Miles Styles]].

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E10FlamingMoes Laming Moe's]]": During Homer's haughty speech from the rafters when he reveals that the Flaming Moe's secret ingredient is cough syrup, notice the robe deftly draped over his face like the Phantom's mask (from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical).

* An episode of ''Western/Animation/{{Babar}}'' features a Phantom-esque character who lived in the cellars of a rundown movie house, and frightened people away so that he could be left alone. He (unnecessarily) wore a DominoMask.

* In a season 4 episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Sam is seen walking into a moviehouse called the Goethe Theater after hours. The feature film is ''The Phantom of the Opera''. In the stereotypical Phantom fashion, a "mysterious" shadowy figure inside is at the organ playing Bach's "Toccata and Fugue". Believing this organist to be a murdering shape-shifter, Sam sneaks up behind him in a gender-bender parody of the unmasking scene in an attempt to tear off his ear. This turns out to be an embarrassing mistake for Sam.

* ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'' had an episode similar to the plot of ''Phantom of the Opera'' about a monster who lived in a high school and kidnapped a talented female violinist

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheMaskTheAnimatedSeries'' called "Broadway Malady" had The Mask as The Phantom of the Opera who tried to ruin the Mad Monkey Musical with a falling chandelier, but due to budget constraints, was reduced to using a small light fixture (the chandelier fall was seen at the end of the episode when the insane Broadway director creates a musical number with many Mask villains while in prison).

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* Uncle Deadly in ''Series/TheMuppetShow''. In episode 121, he is "the Phantom of the Muppet Show". One by one, the Muppets tell Kermit that they have seen a phantom, but Kermit refuses to believe them until he sees Uncle Deadly with his own eyes. Once revealed, Uncle Deadly explains that he used to perform at the Muppet Theater, where he played Othello until he was killed... by the critics.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': An episode set in the future said Martin Prince went missing after a science fair explosion and lives beneath the school, playing the piano and wearing a Phantom mask.

* ''Manga/CrayonShiNChan'' have a WhatIf manga story that spoofs this trope (released around the same time as the 2004 Hollywood film) in which Shin-Chan is the Phantom and Nanako as Christine Daae. Shin-Chan's phantom isn't disfigured in any way however, working as a janitor while pretending to be the phantom to reclaim his birthright, the opera house who was stolen by his parents' subordinate leading to his parents' deaths. [[spoiler:At the end of the story, Shin-Chan's parents appears to spook the villains into giving up, proving that there ''are'' actual Phantoms in the Opera after all]].

# The character will almost always wear some kind of mask.[[note]]Oftentimes people forget the original novel's Phantom had a full black mask; the movies and the play made the popular WhiteMaskOfDoom a staple. Usually this mask covers only half of the character's face, but full masks aren't unheard of.[[/note]] The mask usually covers some kind of gruesome deformity, though as with the original Phantom, the derivative characters have gotten ProgressivelyPrettier over the years.

* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'': In ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheAuditorium'', Brooke Rogers and Zeke Matthews are chosen to play Esmeralda and The Phantom in their school's version of ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', but a chain of accidents impede production and threaten to have Zeke kicked off the cast.

* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'': In ''The Phantom of the Auditorium'', Brooke Rogers and Zeke Matthews are chosen to play Esmeralda and The Phantom in their school's version of ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', but a chain of accidents impede production and threaten to have Zeke kicked off the cast.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'': An episode titled "Phantom of the Sewers" has the titular character haunting a pizza restaurant. The Phantom even has a secret lair full of booby traps! It turns out that his business partner had betrayed him (as he wanted to use the robots he'd built) and threw chemicals in his face, disfiguring him. But in another twist, the "chemicals" were actually paint, so his face wasn't actually disfigured at all.

''[[Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1925 The Phantom of the Opera]]'', based off the book and play, is a considered by many to be one of the best movies of all time due to its gripping combination of drama and horror. The title character himself is very intriguing, being a masked madman with a lot of [[AlasPoorVillain tragedy]] and sadness has made him one of the most iconic villains (if not characters) in movie lore.

# The Theatre Phantom will either be depicted as a BadassNormal, or actually ''be'' a supernatural creature when finally confronted.

* The {{Elseworlds}} story ''Franchise/{{Batman}}: Masque'' has an 1890s version of Batman fighting a villain called the Phantom who is terrorising the ballet. The Phantom is Harvey Dent, once a proud and accomplished dancer, who was horribly scarred on stage when his costume caught fire from one of the stagelights. He is now obsessed with up and coming ballerina Laura Avian, and will do anything to make her happy. Even commit murder.

* Jason and Marcus of ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' once wanted to go to start attending the opera. Andy saw they were up to this, since they made the mistake of applying the Phantom's well-known mask before asking her for permission.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' has gotten some mileage out of this kind of character. The fact that the original story was a ScoobyDooHoax ([[OlderThanTheyThink Long before Scooby Doo was around]]) too probably helps.

# The character will almost always wear some kind of mask. (Oftentimes people forget the original novel's Phantom had a full black mask; the movies and the play made the popular WhiteMaskOfDoom a staple. Usually this mask covers only half of the character's face, but full masks aren't unheard of.) The mask usually covers some kind of gruesome deformity, though as with the original Phantom, the derivative characters have gotten ProgressivelyPrettier over the years.