8 Best Movie Villains of 2019 That Will Make or Break Their Films

A villain can make or break a movie. From Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds to Anthony Hopkins’s Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, the best cinematic villains are born when great writing meets a stellar performance by an actor who is able to find the shades of humanity (or inhumanity) in a character and elevate the material.  

With three Marvel Cinematic Universe films coming out each year, and the movie landscape populated by an increasingly generic slew of action heroes, filmmakers are getting more and more creative with their bad guys. It’s as important to give audiences somebody to root against as it is to give them somebody to root for. And as evidenced by the No. 1 pick on this list of the best movie villains of 2018 from Film School Rejects, the villain sometimes turns out to be the character we least expect.

This year, we’ll see a rogues’ gallery of monsters and malcontents make their way to our screens. Here are the movie villains, in no particular order, we can’t wait to watch wreak havoc in 2019. 

Read More: A Guide to 2019’s Best Movie Heroes

Release date: March 8

One of the most heavily memed moments from the Captain Marvel trailer comes when Carol Danvers, played by Brie Larson, appears to punch a defenseless old lady in the face. With Marvel confirming that the Skrulls, a shape-shifting race of aliens, will appear in this movie, it’s more than likely to be revealed that the old lady was, in fact, a Skrull in disguise. Also making an appearance in Captain Marvel will be Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, the Kree antagonist from Guardians of the Galaxy—although this film is set earlier in the Marvel timeline, so he might not be quite as much of a bad egg just yet.

Release date: April 12

This reboot will see David Harbour taking on the title role as he comes face-to-face with Nimue, the “Queen of Blood” who intends to destroy humankind. Inspired by the sorceress from Arthurian legend, Nimue is a major threat in the Dark Horse Comics series on which this film is based. She will be played by sci-fi and action star Milla Jovovich, best known for her kick-ass characters in The Fifth Element and the Resident Evil film series.

Release date: July 5

Peter Parker’s fate at the end of Avengers: Infinity War was sweetened slightly by the fact that we knew he had his own solo movie coming out this year. In Far from Home, Spidey (Tom Holland) takes a class trip to Europe, which is interrupted when he is recruited by Nick Fury. The trailer features a human-shaped tidal wave, which may well ultimately be revealed as Hydro-Man, the supervillain who can transform himself into a liquid state. The trailer ends with a brief appearance from Jake Gyllenhaal as Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio. He appears to be coming to Spider-Man’s aid—although in the comics, Mysterio is a trickster with quite a reputation for misdirection and deception, so his true role in Far from Home is anyone’s guess.

Release date: July 19

Jeremy Irons did some iconic voice acting in 1994’s The Lion King, playing Scar, the pretender to the throne who seeks to usurp his brother, Mufasa, as king of the Pride Lands. The upcoming computer-animated remake features a stunning voice cast, including Beyoncé and Donald Glover, and this time around Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the treacherous Scar. The teaser trailer gives a glimpse of just how eerily realistic the lions will be in the film, meaning Scar is certain to scare a whole new generation of young viewers.

Release date: September 6

Pennywise is right up there with the likes of Dracula and Freddy Krueger in the pantheon of iconic horror-movie villains. The monstrous clown has been giving people nightmares ever since Stephen King’s 1986 novel, It. The 2017 movie It: Chapter One (trailer above) chronicles the Losers’ Club’s first encounter with Pennywise during adolescence, and his true nature is further explored in Chapter Two, which revisits the characters as adults and takes them back to Derry, Maine, for one last terrifying showdown.

Release date: May 31

This latest installment in the Godzilla franchise sees humanity doing battle with a lot more than the big beast himself, with three more ancient, gigantic monsters long thought extinct all rising again. King of the Monsters pits Godzilla against Mothra, Rodan and three-headed Ghidorah, and the fate of the human race hangs in the balance.

Release date: May 24

When news first broke that Marwan Kenzari had been cast in the live-action remake of Aladdin, fans were confused…and a little thirsty. Kenzari is a lot younger and, to some, better looking than the original animated character, whose nefariousness was telegraphed in his mean features and pantomime-ish goatee. It looks like evil wears a much more pleasing face in 2019, and we can’t wait to see what Kenzari does with such an iconic role. Perhaps Princess Jasmine will be tempted into marrying Jafar after all?

Release date: April 26

We’re not going to waste any more column inches on whether or not Thanos’s motivations in Infinity War make sense. The important thing is that payback is well and truly on the way. The Avengers may be decimated and scattered across the universe, but avenging is right there in the name, so if we were the Mad Titan, we’d use those Infinity Stones and that gauntlet to snap our fingers and disappear, pronto.

Read more: 10 Best Movies and Shows Added to Netflix in February