10 Worst MCU Villains, Ranked Find help us

Ever since the release of 2008’s Iron Man, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been one of Hollywood’s most prominent franchises. Currently spanning 34 films as of the release of 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, the long-running cinematic universe has earned billions of dollars at the box office, all while introducing audiences to now-iconic heroes like Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans) alongside memorable villains like Vulture (Michael Keaton) and Ultron (James Spader).

Unfortunately, while there have been plenty of great villains throughout the MCU’s long history, there’s also been an unfortunate number of totally forgettable, bland foes that play a role in the plot but do little else. In many cases, bizarre screenwriting and acting choices can keep antagonists from being nearly as effective as heavy-hitters like Thanos (Josh Brolin) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston), while other foes are held back by a lack of screen time and uninteresting characterization. These are the MCU’s worst villains, ranked based on how ineffective they are as antagonists.

10

Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce)

‘Iron Man 3’ (2013)

In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark must face Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), founder of Advanced Idea Mechanics, also known as AIM. He also happens to be the creator of Extremis, a virus capable of healing physical ailments and disabilities but also likely to explode those infected with it. Killian, like a number of MCU villains over the years, is motivated by a vendetta against Stark, beginning in 1999 when Tony failed to hear out his ideas.

Starting with the positives, Pearce does an excellent job with his portrayal of Killian, lending the character the appropriate amount of arrogance to make him intimidating. He is clearly willing to go to great lengths to achieve his goals, even killing off fellow scientist Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) when she attempts to get him to free an imprisoned Stark. But overall, Killian is largely forgettable due to his limited role in the film. Initially, The Mandarin, one of Iron Man’s most well-known foes in the comics, is set up to be the movie’s main antagonist, but he is revealed to actually be Trevor Slattery (Sir Ben Kingsley), a struggling actor following the orders of Killian. This reveal wound up disappointing fans while limiting the time they had to familiarize themselves with Killian as a villain. His powers were also incredibly bland, cementing him as a subpar addition to the MCU’s vast catalog of villains.

Release Date

May 3, 2013

Director

Shane Black

Runtime

130 Mins

Writers

Drew Pearce
, Shane Black

9

Darren Cross / Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll)

‘Ant-Man’ (2015)

In Ant-Man, recently released convict Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) finds himself an unlikely ally to Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), the brilliant scientist responsible for the creation of both Pym Particles and the Ant-Man suit. After his former company, now run by Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), develops the Yellowjacket suit, a creation similar to the Ant-Man suit, Hank sends Scott to steal it, fearing that the technology will end up in the wrong hands.

Darren, a man willing to do anything in the pursuit of profit, serves as the film’s antagonist. He has some great moments, like a scene in which he turns a concerned executive into literal goo before flushing his remains down a toilet, but for the most part, Darren’s a fairly nondescript origin story villain. He functions as he needs to within the context of the film’s plot, but he lacks the charismatic nature of more memorable and perfectly cast villains like Loki, while his powers fail to stand out, as they directly mirror Scott’s. A few brief highlights keep him from being the MCU’s worst villain, but he’s far from its best.

Release Date

July 14, 2015

Runtime

117 minutes

Writers

Edgar Wright
, Joe Cornish
, Adam McKay
, Paul Rudd
, Stan Lee
, Larry Lieber

8

Ivan Vanko / Whiplash (Mickey Rourke)

‘Iron Man 2’ (2010)

In Iron Man 2, the MCU’s first direct sequel, Tony Stark is pitted against Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), the CEO of a rival weapons company, and Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), a Russian scientist who has created another arc reactor. Vanko initially uses his reactor to power a pair of electric whips that he wields in a public attack on Iron Man, ultimately proving the hero’s vulnerability. Hammer witnesses this attack, prompting him to break Vanko out of prison in an attempt to gain access to the technology behind the arc reactor.

Vanko’s first encounter with Tony at the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco is an especially memorable scene in the film, but from that point on, he fails to make much of an impression. Because Rourke’s performance is fairly understated, Vanko’s unique quirks, like his close relationship with his pet bird, come off as puzzling screenwriting decisions rather than interesting character traits. The final fight, in which Vanko faces off against both Tony and Rhodey (Don Cheadle), doesn’t do him many favors either, especially after the more interesting final battle against Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) in the first movie. Ultimately, Ivan Vanko is one of the most forgettable characters in the MCU, also making him one of its worst villains.

Release Date

May 7, 2010

Runtime

124 minutes

7

Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace)

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ (2014)

Back in 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy was an exceptionally refreshing entry in the MCU’s canon. The film contained much of writer and director James Gunn‘s unique creative voice, giving it a distinctly comedic edge that made Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) and the rest of the Guardians quick fan favorites. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the rest of the film was bursting with originality, its villain, Lee Pace’s Ronan the Accuser, was exceedingly bland, failing to give the group a memorable central threat.

Ronan, a Kree extremist, pursues an Infinity Stone in exchange for Thanos’ help in destroying the planet of the Xandarians, whom Ronan holds responsible for the deaths of many of his people. His motivations could be interesting, but his past is never fully explored, failing to truly make much of an impact. The majority of his scenes are also played completely seriously, killing momentum in what is otherwise a stellar comedic sci-fi adventure movie. As a whole, Guardians still stands as one of Marvel’s best films, but Ronan is one of its worst aspects.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Release Date

July 30, 2014

Cast

Zoe Saldana
, Karen Gillan
, Vin Diesel
, Michael Rooker
, Djimon Hounsou
, Lee Pace
, Benicio Del Toro
, Glenn Close
, Dave Bautista
, ​Chris Pratt2
, Bradley Cooper
, John C. Reilly

Runtime

122 Minutes

Writers

James Gunn
, Nicole Perlman
, Dan Abnett
, Andy Lanning

6

Dreykov (Ray Winstone)

‘Black Widow’ (2021)

2021’s Black Widow gave a well-deserved spotlight to Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, a central part of the MCU since Iron Man 2. The film, which kicked off phase four despite taking place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, gave audiences far more insight into Natasha’s character by introducing audiences to her adopted family, as well as Dreykov (Ray Winstone), the mastermind behind the Red Room, the facility where Natasha was trained as a Black Widow.

Conceptually, Dreykov is actually quite strong. He’s a power-hungry man whose power comes from his (chemical) influence over the women of the Red Room, mirroring disgraced public figures like Harvey Weinstein. Unfortunately, while the thought behind Dreykov is interesting, he never lives up to his potential. The script repeatedly hammers home how weak he is, and Winstone, while a great actor, seems bored, never fully allowing Dreykov to be a truly intimidating force. Again, the central idea behind the character is absolutely worth exploring, but Dreykov was a weak attempt at doing so, leaving viewers with a dull villain in what was already one of the MCU’s weaker releases.

Release Date

July 9, 2021

Runtime

134 minutes

Writers

Ned Benson
, Don Heck
, Stan Lee
, Don Rico
, Jac Schaeffer

5

Yon-Rogg (Jude Law)

‘Captain Marvel’ (2019)

Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) is the twist villain in 2019’s Captain Marvel, introduced as both the leader of Starforce and mentor to Brie Larson‘s titular hero (also known as Carol Danvers). It is eventually revealed that he was never interested in her as a person but rather in the power that she holds as the result of an experience with the Tesseract.

Yon-Rogg could be a more effective villain if his relationship with Carol were better written. Alas, the writing never makes them seem particularly close, and, to make matters worse, Law’s performance always carries a cold undertone, even when they’re supposed to be friendly. If the two characters had better, more believable chemistry at the start of the film, the reveal regarding Yon-Rogg’s true intentions would be far more impactful. As it is, Yon-Rogg is a shockingly unsurprising twist villain who never has a moment to stand out in a positive way.

Release Date

March 6, 2019

Director

Anna Boden
, Ryan Fleck

Runtime

Writers

Anna Boden
, Ryan Fleck
, Geneva Robertson-Dworet
, Nicole Perlman
, Meg LeFauve

4

Dormammu (Benedict Cumberbatch)

‘Doctor Strange’ (2016)

Dormammu (Benedict Cumberbatch) is one of the antagonists in Doctor Strange. The ruler of the Dark Dimension, Dormammu works together with Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) in an attempt to take over Earth. Unfortunately, Dormammu makes his first appearance late into the film and fails to make an impact with the small amount of screen time he’s given.

There’s just nothing particularly interesting about Dormammu. He’s an overly powerful CGI creation with no personality, making him feel more like a giant weapon than an actual character. It doesn’t help that most of his actions are almost immediately undone by the Time Stone, reducing how threatening he feels as a whole. His one redeeming trait as a villain is that he’s at least intimidating at first glance, appearing absolutely massive when compared to Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch), but this one trait alone isn’t enough to save him from being one of Marvel’s worst villains so far.

Doctor Strange

Release Date

October 25, 2016

Director

Scott Derrickson

Runtime

126 minutes

Writers

Steve Ditko
, Stan Lee

3

Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen)

‘Doctor Strange’ (2016)

Unfortunately for fans, neither of Doctor Strange‘s antagonists is great. Kaecilius is a former student of the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), now an ally of Dormammu in the pursuit of eternal life. Despite being played by the extremely talented Mads Mikkelsen, Kaecilius fails to stand out in any meaningful way, lacking the screen time needed to be a fully developed character.

Kaecilius’ first scene, in which he and his underlings behead a man after infiltrating Kamar-Taj, is promising, but from that moment on he never gets much time to shine. He doesn’t pose much of a threat in combat, lacking an interesting, unique set of powers to oppose Strange and his cohorts’ sorcery. His motivations are fairly run-of-the-mill, with the screenwriters’ attempts to give him depth falling flat in the face of his limited time on screen. In a non-origin story, Kaecilius could likely have received the focus necessary to become a more compelling villain, but as it is, he stands as one of Marvel’s worst.

2

Kro (Bill Skarsgård)

‘Eternals’ (2021)

Eternals is one of Marvel’s more forgettable releases. While it featured some memorable performances from actors like Richard Madden and Kumail Nanjiani, it lacked the fun of other MCU entries, with its tone more closely resembling the melodramatic Thor than the energetic Thor: Ragnarok. The film also suffers from having a weak antagonist for much of its runtime, Bill Skarsgård‘s Kro.

Kro is the leader of a group of Deviants, creatures initially created to ensure the safe arrival of emerging Celestials but eventually slowly killed off by the Eternals after betraying their original purpose. He is unique in that he is the only one of his kind shown to communicate with the Eternals, gaining this ability after killing Gilgamesh (Don Lee), at which point he reflects upon the extermination of his people. Unfortunately, after this brief monologue, Kro never really gets another moment in the spotlight, dying in a battle with Thena (Angelina Jolie) before being further developed. Overall, he’s completely forgettable, especially when compared to Ikaris, who turns out to be Eternals‘ twist antagonist.

Eternals

Release Date

November 5, 2021

Runtime

157 minutes

Writers

Matthew K. Firpo
, Ryan Firpo
, Jack Kirby

1

Malekith (Christopher Eccleston)

‘Thor: The Dark World’ (2013)

The first two Thor movies are typically considered some of the MCU’s weakest efforts. Both films take themselves far too seriously, lacking the humor present in most MCU outings and hurting their rewatchability. However, while the first Thor featured one of Marvel’s best villains, Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) brother, Loki, the second film, Thor: The Dark World, features the franchise’s worst foe, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), the completely forgettable leader of the Dark Elves.

While villains like Kaecilius and Whiplash at least have memorable moments in their movies, Malekith doesn’t have a single scene that stands out. His dialogue is exceedingly bland, hitting all the major villain tropes in the book, and Eccleston is completely wasted in the role. It’s hard to say too much about the character, as he receives little attention throughout the film, but the small amount of screen time he gets still cements Malekith as the MCU’s worst villain.

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