Director James McTeigue on How the V for Vendetta Mask Became a Global Symbol of Protest

V for Vendetta director James McTeigue thinks it’s “amazing,” the way that the Guy Fawkes mask from his 2006 movie has taken on a life of its own. “When you make a film, you hope that it might seep into the culture at some point,” he tells Consequence on the eve of its upcoming Fathom Events re-release. “That’s like your craziest, wildest dream, that people will be talking about your film 20 years later.” While the smirking, mustachioed mask is often associated with modern protests and resistance movements, the origins of the Guy Fawkes mask go even further back in history than writer Alan Moore and illustrator David Lloyd’s original comic series and graphic novel from the ’80s. The real-life Guy Fawkes was part of a group of Catholics who, feeling repressed by their anti-Catholic government, aimed to blow up the House of Lords (the famous “gunpowder plot”) on November 5th, 1606. Fawkes was captured and executed before he could complete his role in detonating the explosives, and November 5th became a national holiday in Britain, traditionally celebrated with bonfires. The idea of children dressing up as Fawkes first emerged in the late 18th century, evolving into variations on the ...