Ranking the 10 best ‘Star Wars’ movie villains
When it comes to movie franchises, it doesn’t get much more legendary than Star Wars. Today, it is a multimedia behemoth that has expanded far beyond the realms of the original trilogy, making the epic space opera one of the most ubiquitous in the history of cinema.
Even before the days of the Disney purchase, it was a series whose canon was so tremendous that the films only comprised one aspect of the universe that is as big as the galaxy far, far away. TV series, games, books, toys, and theme park rides give Star Wars its life, with many different generations able to latch onto the everlasting excitement.
When George Lucas’ original films first burst onto the scene with 1977’s game-changing first edition A New Hope, the infinite possibilities it promised were there for everyone to see. Still, no one could have expected just how extensive it would become.
Lucas created a formula that was made for escapists, a more accessible alternative to Frank Herbert’s Dune and taking cues from filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa, Jungian archetypes, and countless others. There has always been a great demand for new content, as Disney has found with the ravenous reaction to the numerous films and series they have released.
No matter how many times you’ve seen the movies, the majesty of those scrawling yellow words and John Williams’ superb theme tune make Star Wars an experience that many other franchises have tried and failed to emulate.
One of the greatest strengths of the Star Wars universe is the characters, and it has delivered droves of iconic figures over the years, with Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo ranking at the top of the pile, followed closely by the likes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, and R2-D2.
Whilst these are all heroes, today, we’ve decided to turn to the dark side and rank the ten best villains from the Star Wars movies. For every great protagonist, there’s an equally as brilliant antagonist.
Expect to see some of the most dastardly evildoers to have ever appeared on the silver screen.
The 10 best ‘Star Wars’ movie villains:
10. Grand Moff Tarkin
Governor Wilhuff Tarkin, AKA Grand Moff Tarkin, is one of the most sinister villains in the whole franchise, greatly reflecting the fascism that influenced George Lucas’ creation of The Empire and their incredibly authoritarian goals for the galaxy.
Appearing in A New Hope, it is because of the late Peter Cushing that Tarkin is so memorable, as his unflinching goals for interplanetary domination are made so powerful courtesy of his dramatic genius. Nobody can forget the scene when he destroys Leia’s home planet of Alderaan as if it were nothing.
9. Captain Phasma
Captain Phasma is something of an underrated villain in the Star Wars movies. Portrayed by Gwendoline Christie, she was introduced in the 2015 reboot The Force Awakens, the first of the sequel trilogy.
An imposing figure, she is the commander of the First Order’s stormtroopers and carries out her role with deadly precision and invariable cruelty. Created from an old armour design initially intended for Kylo Ren, J.J. Abrams named her after the 1979 horror film Phantasm, which was perfect for the character’s nefarious outlook.
8. Darth Maul
One of the scariest Star Wars villains to date, no one can forget Darth Maul as his black and red skin, dual lightsaber, and killing of Master Qui-Gon Jinn are three of the most memorable aspects of The Phantom Menace. Although we thought he died at the end of the 1999 film, after Obi-Wan cut him apart, he did reappear in the 2018 movie Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Due to his menacing aesthetic, fascinating backstory, and skill with a lightsaber, he’s one character we wish to see again on the silver screen in more depth. Annoyingly George Lucas had intended for him to serve as the primary villain in the sequel trilogy, but this was abandoned when Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012.
7. Count Dooku
Another memorable villain in the Star Wars movies played by another film industry legend, Christopher Lee’s Count Dooku, was perfect for the English actor. Lee made his name portraying iconic antagonists, not to mention Saruman in Lord of the Rings, who he had starred as the year before he made his first appearance in 2002’s Attack of the Clones.
A former Jedi Master, who was trained by Yoda and the mentor of Qui-Gon Jinn, Dooku became disillusioned with the Jedi Order and the corruption of the Republic’s Senate and turned to the dark side becoming Sidious’s second apprentice after the death of Darth Maul. A pawn in Sidious’s great game, he finally meets his end at the behest of his master, who has just found his new apprentice.
6. Jabba the Hutt
There are many memorable antagonists in the Star Wars universe, but Jabba the Hutt is truly iconic. One of the most grotesque characters in film history, although only a minor antagonist, this rotund slug is one of the most unique in the films.
A crime lord on Tatooine, he’s like a traditional villain because he clearly represents lust and greed, as reflected in the elaborate palace he resides in and the slave girls he keeps in his throne room. Placing a bounty on Han Solo, he is responsible for the heroic smuggler being frozen and making life on Tatooine worse than hell.
5. General Grievous
One of the most unrelenting forces of evil in the whole canon of Star Wars, let alone the films, General Grievous is iconic. Although he was first introduced in the cult 2003 animated series Clone Wars, he made his debut film appearance in 2005’s epic finale of the prequel trilogy Revenge of the Sith.
A cunning military leader who is the Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies during the Clone Wars, Grievous is a Kaleesh cyborg who mastered the use of the lightsaber under Count Dooku and proved to be a tough match for even the best Jedi, Obi-Wan. Notably, Grievous hates the Jedi so much that he collects the lightsabers of those he slain as a grim reminder to all who challenge him.
4. Supreme Leader Snoke
Snoke is one of the more dastardly characters in the Star Wars movie, coming with an unsettling voice courtesy of Andy Serkis and a horrific aesthetic, making him perhaps the most demonic in the entire series. He made his first appearance in The Force Awakens as the Supreme Leader of the First Order.
He appears throughout the sequel trilogy as the secondary antagonist to Emperor Palpatine and is revealed to be a Force-sensitive artificial being created by Palpatine as a conduit for retaking the galaxy. Snoke manipulates Ben Solo to the dark side of the force and influences him to become Kylo Ren.
3. Kylo Ren
First appearing in The Force Awakens, like his grandfather Darth Vader, Kylo Ren goes from good to pure evil and then redeems himself with one last act before meeting his maker. Played by Adam Driver, Ren is another complex character that also serves as one of the primary narrative devices through his gradually unfolding personal history.
The child of Han Solo and Princess Leia, Ren AKA Ben Solo, was trained as a Jedi by uncle Luke Skywalker before being enchanted by the power offered by the dark side of the force, soon finding himself with lofty aspirations to become as powerful as Vader. The master of the Knights of Ren, he eventually usurps Snoke as Supreme Leader before discovering that he and Rey share the ‘Force dyad’, which shakes up events well and truly.
2. Darth Vader
Of course Darth Vader was included on this list, as he is arguably the series’ finest antagonist and one of the best in film history. He is a Shakespearean character because he was not always evil and was pushed into the dark side by a deadly mix of intrigue, ego, and events out of his control. However, the acts he commits are genuinely egregious, augmented by his ominous breathing apparatus and James Earl Jones’s booming voice.
From killing the younglings at the Jedi Temple and choking his wife to death when still in the form of Anakin to betraying the Jedi in general, or all the subsequent tortures and killings he commits, if Vader was a real human, he’d have been sent to Hague on numerous occasions. A complex character with many emotions, his story is one of George Lucas’ most outstanding achievements.
1. Darth Sidious
The greatest villain of the entire series, Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious, makes a solid claim to being the most outstanding antagonist of all time. Portrayed by Ian McDiarmid, he is the great spectre over the galaxy for the three trilogies and the one at the end of every string of evil.
A Machiavellian character who enacts a grand chess game that eventually brings him ultimate power, he has everybody fooled into thinking that he is the well-meaning Chancellor Palpatine when he is the greatest Sith Lord of all time, Darth Sidious. He is accountable for every death we see on screen, giving us an adequate sense of his terrible condition.
All powerful and omnipresent, whenever we think his threat has gone, he returns, exacerbated by the fact that he commits the most wicked acts in the series. Whether it be executing Order 66 or commissioning the Death Star to obliterate entire worlds, Palpatine’s brand of evil is so iconic that without him, Star Wars would not be the same as what we know and love today.
