What is an ensemble cast?

 In a theater if there are a number of actors in a play with each having the same amount of screen time, then the cast is called an ensemble cast. Today being the times of movies, the best example which comes to mind is the movie X Men as opposed to the movie Iron Man where the entire focus of the movie is on one actor who takes the maximum screen time. The more popular one out of the two is of course the option of having a protagonist. Who doesn't like a hero to take control of the plot, fight the bad men and walk into the sunset with the heroine. 

Do all the actors in an ensemble cast get equal screen time? No necessarily. Sometimes it comes to mixing of the two concepts like in case of the movie X Men, the character of Logan overpowers the entire cast to such an extent that the audience thinks that the movie revolves around the abilities of Logan. 

The term Ensemble might have originated during the era of theater and plays when play writers wanted to experiment with the audience to give them something new and exciting. 

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