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Was 2016 the year of the villain? It feels like a LOT of people would say so. TV and movies have always been big on villains; you pretty much can’t have heroes without them, and heroes and villains are what Hollywood does best. Look at the two buzziest pieces of entertainment this year: The People v. O.J. Simpson and O.J.: Made in America. Both of them are looks into how one American hero became one of its biggest villains. O.J. Simpson doesn’t appear on our list of the 16 biggest villains of the year, but he’s practically the patron saint of it. Questions of the Juice’s guilt or innocence — and what got him to where he ended up — add up to a story that goes beyond mere heroism or villainy, and it felt reductive to put him into a box. But certainly the parts of the O.J. story that are the most villainous feel reflected in many (if not most) of the 16 baddies we picked. We’ve got men and women, humans and animals, social constructs and stunning betrayal.
Click along with our gallery and put the villains of 2016 behind you.
The first half of Marvel's Luke Cage hummed with tension, thanks in huge part to Mahershala Ali's titanic performance as Cottonmouth. Ali made the gang lord a multifaceted leviathan -- he was as physically imposing as his soul was broken. He wasn't brought down by the hero, but his own family.
[Where To Stream Marvel's Luke Cage]
-- Meghan O'KeefePhoto: Everett Collection
Every once in a while you have to stop and ask yourself, "Wait, did that guy just become too creepy to be considered hot anymore?" Hugh Dancy, why did you do this to us? As Cal, the unofficial leader of The Meyerist Movement, a cult in upstate New York, Dancy effortlessly portrayed a deranged man, so drunk on power and intent on taking over the cult while also driving his ex Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) away from her husband (Aaron Paul as Eddie). As The Path has so dangerously shown us, never trust a man with a welcoming smile.
[Where To Stream The Path]
-- Lea PalmieriPhoto: HULU
Felicity Huffman's calculating, overwhelmed private-school administrator character in the second season of ABC's anthology series wasn't all bad, but when she made the decision to protect the school at the expense of some of its most vulnerable students, her act of villainy had some shockingly disastrous consequences.
[Where To Stream American Crime]
[SPOILERS for The Witch follow] For much of The Witch, Black Phillip is a red herring, an example of the way that colonial cultures took their fears and uncertainties about nature and turned them into gods and devils and beasts. Sure, that ram got up on its hind legs that one time, but it was just agitated, and agitated animals act strangely. But then, in the knockout final minutes of the film, Black Phillip ... reveals himself. And more terrifying that what he becomes (we never do see him) is the fact that it was true all along. The devil exists after all. And he's been right with us the whole time.
[Where To Stream The Witch]Photo: Youtube
Everyone knew Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura) was going to die in Narcos' second season, but only well-researched viewers could speculate how dark that death would be. Whereas Season One focused on building Escobar up as the hero of the people, Season Two dove into the figure's darkness. Countless lives were lost at the hands of Escobar, both on screen and in real life. Moura transformed Escobar from an antihero into an indisputable villain, making Escobar's inevitable feel more than deserved.
[Where To Stream Narcos]
-- Kayla CobbPhoto: NETFLIX
Stephen Tobolowsky has been one of Hollywood's best small-role character actors for decades. Silicon Valley was smart enough to give him an extended run as the best kind of antagonist for Richard Hendricks and his pals: the old-tech dinosaur who's grown ruthless to survive.
[Where To Stream Silicon Valley]Photo: HBO
Is there any villain on TV right now as creepily terrifying as Black Jack Randall? He's a soulless fiend who literally gets off on torturing our heroes. What could possibly redeem him? Well, Season Two of Outlander answered that. Randall commits an act of humanity for his dying brother that complicates the series' internal history and makes him all the more complex.
[Where To Stream Outlander]
-- Meghan O'KeefePhoto: Everett Collection
I admit I didn't have very much faith in Disney's live-action (...except for all the CGI animals) Jungle Book. The all-star voice cast ranged from intriguing (Scarlett Johansson as the snake Kaa) to pandering (Bill Murray as Baloo). But from the moment the vicious tiger Shere Khan enters the screen, brought to snarling life by the voice of Idris Elba, I was sold. He's utterly terriying and reason enough to see the movie.
[Where To Stream The Jungle Book]Photo: Everett Collection
The pitilessness of nature found an unlikely opponent in Blake Lively this summer, as The Shallows became an unexpected little hit. And lurking just beneath the surface to ravage our blonde heroine was ol' sharky, an unexpectedly industrious lil' carnivore whose fearsome jaws were only matched by its ability to show up where you'd least expect it.
[Where To Stream The Shallows]Photo: Youtube
We're never given a name, but we don't really need one to know that John Gallagher Jr.'s character is bad news in Hush. Throughout the horror movie's 90-minute runtime, the man ruthlessly stalks our deaf protagonist (Kate Siegel), crossbow in hand. Gallagher's character proved that being needlessly and cruelly stalked to death isn't that crazy of a fear.
[Where To Stream Hush]
-- Kayla CobbPhoto: Everett Collection
Emmy-award winning actor Ben Mendelsohn brought a brand new kind of villain to the Star Wars universe: the bureaucrat. Sure, Krennic is willing to kill, decimate, and deceive to get to the top, but ultimately, he was just the project manager from hell.
[Where To Stream Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ]
-- Meghan O'KeefePhoto: Everett Collection
While Beyonce and Jay Z are still seemingly happily married, he caused quite a stir when it came to her hit movie/album this year, Lemonade. Whatever that man did or do not do with Becky with the good hair caused our beloved Bey to put on a flowy yellow dress and take a baseball bat to any automobile in sight, while strongly hinting at infidelity in her lyrics. We always root for the Knowles-Carters to stay together, but we are firmly "hos before bros". So, like Serena Williams, we will always be there to backup the Queen, and we ain't "Sorry". Stay on your best behavior Jay, because you know how quickly ladies can get in formation.
[Where To Stream Lemonade]
-- Lea PalmieriPhoto: Everett Collection
Somehow, we never thought he'd actually do it. When host TJ Lavin introduced the twist to the finale of "Rivals III," namely that one member of the winning duo would be give the choice to take the entire grand prize and leave his or her partner with nothing, it seemed like the grandest of fake-outs. Even though the whole Johnny/Sarah partnership was based on the fact that Sarah "screwed him" in their previous season (whether or not Sarah was out of line by doing so is another debate; but she wasn't), surely Johnny wouldn't be THAT much of a bastard as to steal her entire reward. A reward that she'd earned by being (his words) the best teammate he'd ever had. AND THEN HE DID. It was like the scorpion and the frog, if the scorpion had a bunch of 'roid muscles and a drinking problem.
[Where To Stream The Challenge]Photo: Everett Collection
The more powerful social media grows, the warier we are about its reach and power. In the feature-film Nerve, social media takes the form of a game where users direct the players to do more and more dangerous stunts for the mob's enjoyment. In Black Mirror's "Nosedive," social media has created a new social order, where likes are the only currency. In both, the future was immediate, exhilarating, and wholly unsettling.
[Where To Stream Black Mirror]
[Where To Stream Nerve]
Photos: Everett Collection ; NETFLIX
