What Does This Mean?
A minor character introduced mainly to be killed, signalling danger to the main cast. The term is used for any expendable extra in film, television, games and tabletop adventures, and as a joke for someone who seems certain not to survive.
REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
""The new guy in the red jacket joined the away team, and the whole group chat agreed he was a redshirt.""
LORE & ORIGIN
Wikipedia describes the redshirt as a stock character who dies soon after being introduced and says it derives from Star Trek; its article on the original series notes that security personnel in red uniforms were often killed or injured soon after introduction, which inspired the term. Wiktionary gives the same sense and cites a 2017 episode of 12 Monkeys; the date of the term's first use is not documented. John Scalzi published a novel titled Redshirts in 2012 built on the idea.
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