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Curated category

Male film villains

  • Darth VaderDarth Vader first appeared in 1977, and the question George Lucas put before his production team was deceptively simple: how do you make a villain feel like…
  • Kylo RenKylo Ren is, in the words of Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw, "gorgeously cruel, spiteful and capricious." He is, Bradshaw added, a Star Wars villain given to…
  • Stormtrooper (Star Wars)Stormtroopers are among the most recognized fictional soldiers ever put on screen, introduced to audiences in the original Star Wars film of 1977.
  • IagoIago has more lines in Shakespeare's Othello than Othello himself. With 1,097 lines, the villain of the play speaks more than its hero, a structural fact…
  • PalpatineSheev Palpatine is the main antagonist of the Star Wars franchise, a character so carefully constructed that his first name did not appear on screen until…
  • SarumanSaruman the White arrives in Middle-earth as one of five angelic emissaries, dispatched by the godlike Valar to challenge the dark lord Sauron without…
  • Gríma WormtonguePsychologists Deborah and Mark Parker identified Gríma Wormtongue as the archetypal sycophant in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
  • Darth MaulDarth Maul arrived on screen in 1999 with a face that concept artist Iain McCaig described as what you would see if you stripped the flesh off your own face…
  • Captain AhabCaptain Ahab stands at the helm of the Pequod with a leg carved from ivory, staring out at a sea that once took something from him.
  • SauronSauron is the main antagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, a figure who rules the land of Mordor and covets dominion over all of Middle-earth.
  • Supreme Leader SnokeSupreme Leader Snoke stepped onto a movie set before anyone, including the actor playing him, knew what he would look like.
  • Vega (Street Fighter)Akira Nishitani stood before a whiteboard in 1990 and drew a list of countries. He needed fighters from Spain and Thailand to complete the roster for Street…
  • PeliasPelias, king of Iolcus in Greek mythology, owes his entire reign to a single missing sandal. When a young stranger arrived in Iolcus wearing only one shoe…
  • GollumGollum is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth, and he may be the most pitiable monster in the history of English…