This article includes spoilers for Succession and Shogun.
Stories are made of conflicts, and the presence of a conflict implicates the presence of an antagonist, another key element in the success of a TV show. When the antagonist is an outright villain who is well-written and well-acted, watching a TV show becomes even more entertaining. That said, given the episodic structure of television, shows often have multiple villains, from the “monster of the week” to the overarching antagonists.
Plenty of shows have hadgreat villains over the years, but not as many have hadconsistently excellent villains throughout their entire run. Crafting one convincing villain is already difficult enough, so crafting a whole series of them—or a whole ensemble cast of them—is truly a feat that needs to be celebrated. Nailing not only one but multiple villains is something that onlythe greatest TV showshave managed to do.
Successiondoesn’t technically have villains, at least not in the most classic sense of the word. Every single one of the characters that populate the four seasons of HBO’s Shakespearian tale of the Roy family is deeply unlikable in one way or another, always more than ready to professionally backstab each other for power and control over the family’s entertainment business.
Succession’s 10 Best Episodes, Ranked
From hilarious moments to heartbreaking scenes, Succession’s best episodes blurred the line between drama and comedy to deliver instant classics.
That would already makeSuccessionan incredibly compelling “villain” led show whereeveryone is entertaining to watch because everyone is an absolutely despicable person—something that always makes for great storytelling. The fact that the Roy patriarch Logan, played by a brilliant Brian Cox, is even more horrible than everyone else makes him a villain among villains. He’s a masterful manipulator who spins everyone around him, his children included, for his own gain and always comes out on top. That’s true for the entire run of the show, even afterLogan died in season 4.
Squid Game, the K-drama sensation that took over the world with its first season, is a story about a secret, brutal game where 456 players play each other to the death in the hope of bringing home a monumental cash prize, all for the amusement of a selected group of ultra-rich.Squid Gameis another show where there isn’t a clear villainbut more of an ensemble cast, each diving deeper and deeper into moral corruption.
The third and final season ofSquid Gamereleases August 22, 2025.
The “antagonists” that protagonist Gi-hun encounters during the game are their own kind of villain, even though they’re still victims of the game and the machinations of the Front Man—played by Lee Byung-hun—and his pink-wearing guards. However, they too aren’t as evil as the men who watch people die for their entertainment, all while drinking and laughing as if they were sitting in front of a particularly engaging movie. That’s not to mention the Recruiter, played by Gong Yoo, whose love for his job is incredibly twisted.
Shōgunwas the great television success of 2024, adapting the 1975 novel of the same by James Clavell into a masterfully shot and acted series that is gorgeous to look at and keeps audiences on the edge of their seat from start to finish. Like most modern stories,Shōgunalso doesn’t have clear-cut villains. Audiences perceive them as such because they are the antagonists to the characters through whose eyes the story is told, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of villainess to go around.
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Shōgun season 1’s finale subverted expectations in the best way, revealing Lord Toranaga’s true goal and setting up a continuation of his story.
The regents that oppose Lord Toranaga are undoubtedly coded as villains, for example, but that doesn’t exempt Toranaga himself from the same label. He’s willing to do almost everything in his quest for power, includingsacrificing Anna Sawai’s Marikofor the success of his plan. Even the show’s lead character falls into this scheme. John Blackthorne is seemingly carried through events over which he has very little agency, but ultimately he arrived in Japan to attempt to wrest control of its ports from the Portuguese. That begs the question of how, exactly, he’s better than them.
The Boys’ entire premise rests on the idea of perceived versus real villainy and on completely turning the idea of heroes on its head. It makes sense, then, thatit has some of themost entertaining and well-written villains currently on television, especially within The Seven, the lead group of superheroes of Vought International and a collection of truly despicable characters.
No one, however, reaches the same level asAnthony Starr’s Homelander, one of the most recognizable villains of recent years. A reflection on what a Superman who couldn’t care less about humanity would be like, Homelander constantly proves that there isn’t a limit to how low someone with incredible powers and no moral compass could go.Starr’s performance is hands down one of the best parts ofThe Boysas a whole, one that keeps fans rightfully coming back for more.
SinceKilling Everevolves largely aroundJodie Comer’s spectacular character Villanelle, who could never be considered one of the “good ones,” it makes sense that the villains of this show are all incredibly entertaining and compelling to watch. While Sandra Oh’s Eve is arguablyKilling Eve’s main character—something that the title itself suggests—Villanelle is the undisputed star of the showand a villain that has very few equals in recent television history.
The writing team behindKilling Evefeatures Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Emerald Fennell, who have been head writers for Season 1 and Season 2 respectively.
Villanelle is ruthless and chaotic, cracking jokes while actively busy carrying out some horrific murder. It’s a role that truly allows Comer to stretch her considerable acting chops and one that feels refreshing when taken on by a woman since it’s a type of character that has been historically entrusted more to men—especially considering the amount of sympathy Villanelle manages to build with the audience despite her actions.
The three seasons ofHis Dark Materialswere an incredible adaptation of Philip Pullman’s book trilogy of the same name, a pillar of fantasy literature and one of the best worldbuildings the genre has ever seen. The show,led by Dafne Keen as Lyra Belacqua, features a truly impressive range of villains who are all, one way or another, emanation of the same oppressive Authority that reveals itself to be a great evil that needs to be defeated.
That’s what makes the villains ofHis Dark Materialswork so well, from Magisterium agents like Mrs Coulter, Lord Boreal, and Father MacPhail, to the angels fighting for the Authority, to Metatron.They are all metaphors for control and oppression, willing to become brutal to keep their undisputed power over people—something very real even in a world where people don’t have dæmons, and therefore incredibly terrifying.
The Walking Deadwas a pillar of the horror genre back when it was airing and it has remained one even now that its run is over and new zombie media has come to fill the gap it left behind. While the show’s eleven seasons are filled with all the gruesome scenes one would expect when it comes to stories set during a zombie outbreak,the undead aren’t really the villains ofThe Walking Dead.
The real villains of the show are humans, who can be much scarier than the zombies and usually much crueler—zombies, after all, simply do what their instincts tell them to do. While this is a famous trope from post-apocalyptic stories,The Walking Deaduses it well. All the villains that the main characters ofThe Walking Deadencounter on their path, fromJeffrey Dean Morgan’s Neganto David Morrissey’s The Governor, are complex, intriguing, and terrifying, reminding audiences once more of the core message at the heart of the show.
Before there wasKilling Evethere wasHannibal, another show focusing entirely on its villain—starting from the title itself—and a true pillar of fandom culture in the early 2010s. Most of its success comes from the incredible take on the character of Hannibal Lecter by showrunner Bryan Fuller and from the brilliant performance by Mads Mikkelsen as pop culture’s most infamous cannibal.
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Mads Mikkelsen has been vocal about his interest in reviving Hannibal but in a 2024 interview, he’s also revealed that time may be running out.
Mikkelsen plays up the striking contrast betweenHannibal’s surprising humor, polished manners, and confident demeanor and his peculiar appetites, crafting a master manipulator who is simply a truly evil person.Hannibal is a chilling and thoroughly enjoyable villain, especially when contrasted with Hugh Dancy’s FBI profiler Will Graham—the relationship between the two is a huge element of what makes Hannibal the success that it was and continues to be.
Simply one of the greatest television shows of all time,Breaking Badfeatured a wide array of villains throughout its five-season run. The best among them all is also the show’s main character, Bryan Cranston’s Walter White, who turns to a life of crime after a terminal cancer diagnosis. Walter has its ups and downs but he remains firmly an overall pretty bad person, and the show actually benefits from him coming onto the scene to give everyone his absolute worst.
Still, Walter isn’t the only villain audiences encounter inBreaking Bad. Once he decides to descend into the criminal underworld of New Mexico, Walter and his partner Jesse clash with several other antagonists, none as terrible asdrug kingpin Gus Fring, played bya monumental Giancarlo Esposito who pretty much made the trope his ownand set an example for anyone who will attempt to take on a similar role in the future.
Game of Thronesquickly became famous for its ensemble cast of morally grey characters, where even the ones considered noble and just are shown chopping off the heads of frightened young boys. The general air of villainy inGame of Thronesis justified by the brutal net of intrigue, feuds, and outright conflicts that tie Westeros’ great families together, all looking to get as close as possible to the Iron Throne and the person sitting on it.
Still, that doesn’t mean that the show doesn’t have its villains of villains. It most certainly does, and they’re all some of the greatest characters to ever grace television screens. Charles Dance’s Tywin Lannister, cold and calculating, and his daughter Cersei, played by Lena Headey, are just two examples. The Night King himself, although constantly silent and plagued by the same unsatisfying ending as the show, acts as an incredible looming existential threat that propels the entire plot forward.
