There’s more than one character from The Wire that could be called an anti-hero, but Omar Little is distinct to fans. He’s tough and his strict moral code demands that he doesn’t harm innocent people.
He’s also gay, which not only serves to challenge the typical concept of masculinity, but also set him apart from some of the other anti-heroes we’ve seen in the past.
Omar is also set apart from the other anti-heroes by the fact that he’s dead before the series finale. However, since The Wire technically has many different stars and isn’t directly centered on Omar, this helps explain why writers would remove him from the show before the end.
Though I said earlier that I would only be looking at anti-heroes who were the stars of their respective shows, Omar played a big enough role (from what I understand from my parents and the Internet—I have never actually seen The Wire) in the show to be mentioned in this project.
Omar’s death takes place two episodes before the finale. Omar is killed in a Korean convenience store by a young boy named Kenard, who belonged to a rival gang.
It may come as a surprise to learn that President Obama, only a candidate at the time, revealed in an interview that Omar was his favorite character on The Wire. Though President Obama likes the character he does not, by any means, endorse his actions.
As I’ve said before, we may like anti-heroes, but that doesn’t mean we support them.