Scriptwriter says adopted children as film villains is harmful
- trushali Kotecha
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Rowenna Hoskin
BBC Wales
Published 7 December 2025
Loki is Thor's adopted brother in the Marvel films, but the original myth is that the two gods are friends, says adoptee James Evans
Hollywood blockbusters and horror films frequently using adopted children as psychopaths and villains causes harm in real life, adoptees have said.
James Evans, 23, was two-and-a-half months old when he was removed from his birth family due to their inability to parent and harmful behaviour.
Now with a masters degree in scriptwriting, James said films such as Thor, Annabelle and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, among many others, made him "frustratingly uncomfortable" at how adoptees are depicted.
PhD researcher Annalisa Toccara-Jones said she had interviewed adult adoptees who felt "a real disconnection between what they're seeing in TV and film and what they actually experience".
James, from Cardiff, said adopted characters had their trauma used to explain bad behaviour, which impacts the way society views people like him.
He was fostered by two families before Ruth and Andrew Evans adopted him when he was two and said no film or TV series had ever made him feel "properly seen".
One of the most high-profile adoptees in cinema is the Norse god of mischief Loki in the Marvel films.
While he is Thor's adopted brother in the film, the original myth is that the two are friends, external.
These stories reinforce damaging stereotypes of adopted people as imposters or "devil children" where trauma is used as a "lazy" plot device for evil, he said.
The other end of the spectrum is the "grateful adoptee", when a child's adoption is seen as a fairy tale ending, such as Miss Honey taking in Matilda in the Roald Dahl book and subsequent films.
This ignores "the loss and grief" of children being taken away from their birth parents, James said.
Adopted characters tended to be "criminals, psychopaths, these broken damaged people that are here to cause trouble".
He added that this approach "really knocks your confidence" and affects how adopted people go through the world.
James was adopted by Ruth and Andrew Evans when he was two years old
Susie James, 64, from Bournemouth is adopted, has adopted her son, and is researching complex psychological, social dynamics of adoption for a PhD at the University of Bradford.
She said horror films such as Orphan implied adoptees were "ticking timebombs" which fuelled "stigma and fear".
Adopted children are "labelled as coming with some kind of defect, something in the past which is going to turn them into a monster" which makes an "easy plot device for horror".
She said harmful stereotypes could increase bullying of adoptees and "doesn't do anything for their self-esteem".
James says he is grateful for his parents Ruth and Andrew who have provided him with love and stability
While James has been "loved and cared for" and has "the best support system" in parents Ruth and Andrew, he said just because his trauma was invisible, does not mean he did not need help.
"There was no post-adoption support when I was adopted back in 2004, I was left to drown in my trauma of grief, loss, identity and attachment, which has had a huge impact on my life."
He said he was often asked how he could remember trauma from infancy, but stressed "it's a huge misconception" that babies and infants can't remember things.
While they can't form explicit picture memories, external there are "subconscious memories" which "become part of the brain and body".
James said the portrayal of adoptees through the fairy tale lens was as damaging as being presented as villains as it tells society they were ungrateful if they behave outside this stereotype.
Both portrayals could be damaging in terms of future adoptive parents as they could think either everything will be easy or are put off because they think the children will be "naughty and really bad".
Language like "real parents" when talking about birth family compared to adoptive families was also unhelpful, he said.
"If an adopted child's parents are parenting them, they are their real parents.
"They are the ones who are there every day fighting for their child and that is real parenting.
Biology isn't fundamentally what defines parenting, it's what you do."
Despite all this, James and Susie highlighted some good portrayals.
Doctor Who fan James said the show's exploration of the Doctor's childhood during Jodie Whittaker's era felt nuanced and accurate, which makes sense as the writer Chris Chibnall is an adoptee himself.
They also both agreed that Lost Boys and Fairies by Daf James captured the complexity of the adoption process.
Daf James said he set out to reflect authentically his own experience of the adoption process
Inspired by his own experience, Daf's award-winning drama follows two husbands navigating the adoption process.
"Adopting my three children has been the most challenging yet rewarding thing I've done," Daf said.
"I realised I hadn't really seen it reflected authentically on screen.
"Social workers are often antagonists in dramas, rather than heroes. Kids are troubled rather than vulnerable children who need loving homes.
"Adoption can change lives, and so can the stories that reflect adoption positively."
Emily Frith, CEO of Adoption UK, said the organisation has heard from other adoptees who were upset by how they are portrayed on screen.
"Horror films and thrillers, where an adopted person is somebody coming into a family and causing a challenge or drama is very othering," she said.
"It's saying there's something really different, whereas obviously an adopted person has the same potential as anyone else in life, they just have stuff that gets in the way."
Her advice to screenwriters was to research and "understand the perspectives of different people with different lived experience".
Susie James said she wanted to give a child a home after having been adopted herself
Ms Toccara-Jones, 38, from Sheffield, who is researching narratives of adoption in media and how it impacts adoptees, said those voices "have been sidelined" in policy making as decision-makers are not adopted themselves.
This influences storytelling in TV and film which then further feeds the way adoptees are seen by society.
Within her research, she has interviewed adult adoptees who she said felt "a real disconnection between what they're seeing in TV and film and what they actually experience" which was "a form of gaslighting".
Susie said she wanted to see adoptees presented "with compassion", detailing "what they've been through" and their "struggle to function and reach their potential in our society" as well as the "trauma that lives inside them and how they navigate that with a support system that's crumbling".
Now he has graduated James is beginning his career in an industry he hopes to help change for the better.
His aim is to bring "authentic representation of adoption from the perspective of adoptees to TV and film".
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