Extended Story - Hero's Journey and initial ideas

Before considering the characters and world, I researched into the Hero's Journey.I wanted to create something new, something that I would be able to continue with after university. Whether, being optimistic, succeeds in a pilot episode online, or in the form of a motion comic/ storyboards. I immediately knew that I wanted a male main character and a companion that would be with him from the first episode. I also visualised the main character to travel regardless of the plot that I end up with. I knew I wanted a plot that was set in a fantasy world, had supernatural themes and had a twist on the culture.

Using both the basic concept of The Hero’s Journey and Directing a Story by Francis Glebas, I looked into which setting would work for the immediate ideas that I wanted to continue with. I preferred the Call to Adventure the most, I like the idea of the main character being in his normal setting and something disrupts this routine, and with the characters personality, he feels like this is his responsibility and sets off on a quest.  However I felt that something was missing.

In Directing a Story, the book describes the Neurotic’s Road Trip, a simple diagram that shows the cycle of the main characters journey. For example, the main character starts with his mundane life, something changes and enemies or obstacles occurs resulting in tests for the main character and an ordeal, most likely in the form of a death.  After this ordeal the character finds a new path and continues on his journey, hitting more obstacles and guards, defeating the main obstacle and triggering a rebirth of the main character.

For the overall plot I really liked this main structure, with a little bit of development and refinement, I would be able to make a good quality plot. However I was still missing something. The companion that I wanted with the main character needed to be interesting, something different.  This resulted into considering the idea of a villain working with the main character. I had recently rewatched Luther, a BBC detective drama, where the main character ends up working with a serial killer to solve his cases. I quite liked this idea, of course this plot is unsuitable with the target audience that I wanted but the act of the villain working with the main character filled the missing part of the plot.

I wanted this villain to be mischievous, to start with being a villain to one that starts to care and act heroic over the course of the plot. With this in mind something had to force the villain and the main character to work together.  I thought about how this villain could absorb the supernatural themes, so in the form of a monster or spirit. If the villain was a spirit or monster than the villain could be cursed to the main character and the journey revolves around them fighting a force more powerful than them unless they work together.