It’s not easy being a woman and an evil overlord. If you’re going to break the laws of physics and carry out heinous acts, you’re going to need a shady wardrobe. And you don’t just go into Mordor. That’s why the list of the world’s most excellent female villains is the best place to start a terrible new fashion trend.
Our love of all things enigmatic and sinister is what prompted us to reach into our collective back pocket and bring you our list of the world’s most excellent female villains. But, of course, the only thing more terrifying than a woman with a $US6 million ($A6.28m) diamond ring on her left hand is when there’s an entire slate of them running around bashing heads in with mallets made from their enemies’ skulls.
Here’s our list of the world’s worst female villains, and maybe you’ll discover your new favorite fashion trend.
1. Miranda Frost
Miranda Frost is a fictitious Special Task Force member of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6), but her actual allegiance is to the legendary diamond dealer Gustav Graves. Rosamund Pike, a British actress who first appeared in the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day and is also included in the companion novel, plays a responsive character and Bond girl. Raymond Benson wrote the screenplay.
2. Madison Lee
Demi Moore played Madison Lee in the 2003 film Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle as the main antagonist. She’s a former Angel with plans to sell critical information to criminal organizations.
3. Kathryn Merteuil
Kathryn Merteuil is a fictional character portrayed by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Amy Adams in Cruel Intentions and Cruel Intentions 2. Kathryn is the series’ major antagonist and is based on the Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 novel Les Liaisons dangereuses.
4. Queen Ravenna
Queen Ravenna is the antagonist in Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) and The Huntsman: Winter’s War (2016) fantasy action-adventure films. Freya and Finn, a hunter, are her siblings.
5. Jennifer Check
Jennifer Check is the main antagonist in Jennifer’s Body, a 2009 horror film. Jennifer Check was a high school student who became a Succubus after being accidentally sacrificed by Low Shoulder. She enticed the male students on the school campus to consume her to sustain her life and power.
6. Blair Waldorf
Blair Cornelia Waldorf is a crucial character in the Gossip Girl series, first featured in the novels and then starred in the television adaptation; she also appeared in the manga adaptation. According to creator Cecily von Ziegesar, she is a New York City social media site and outrageous comic, featuring both an arrogant and compassionate side. Because of her status as the queen bee of Manhattan. Blair’s social life and her activities and relationships are constantly scrutinized by the enigmatic Gossip Girl, a famous blogger.
7. Artemisia
Artemisia is the primary antagonist in the 2014 film 300: Rise Of An Empire. She was the Persian Navy’s vicious and brutal leader, and she fought the Greek fleet alongside the 300 Spartans stationed at Thermopile’s bottom. She is devoted to Xerxes and appears to be advising him to go to war with the Greeks, but she also has emotions for her Greek counterpart Themistocles, which led to them being forbidden from fighting each other. Her persona is inspired by a real-life historical figure of the same name.
8. The Baroness
The Baron is a fictitious character that first appeared in Marvel Comics’ GI Joe: A Real American Hero comic book series in June 1982. The Baron is a villain related to King Cobra from Team GI Joe. Baroness is Commander Cobra’s intelligence officer and lieutenant. Baroness is a seductive black woman with long hair, black-rimmed spectacles, and leather attire. Her beauty is equal to her cruelty. She is frequently shown to be having an affair with Destro.
She was the first character to transition from comic book to animated series and then to the toy line. In the 1984 series, she made her action figure debut, wearing a new costume that was eventually translated back to the comics and cartoons. In the 2009 film GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, actor Sienna Miller plays the character; in the 2021 film Snake Eyes, she is played by Ursula Corberó.
9. Catwoman
Catwoman (Vietnamese: Miao Nu), often known as The Cat, is a fictional character in the DC Comics series, appearing in Batman Season Spring 1940. Her real name is Selina Kyle (at the same time as Joker). Bob Kane and Bill Finger created Catwoman after being inspired by Kane’s cousin Ruth Steel and actress Jean Harlow. Catwoman is a well-known anti-hero who is both Batman’s lover and rival.
10. Santánico Pandemonium
Dusk Till Dawn‘s main enemy, Santánico Pandemónium (sometimes written Santanico Pandemonium), is a 1996 crime action thriller. Titty Twister, a tiny hole-in-the-wall saloon and strip just across the Mexican border where crime brothers Seth and Richie Gecko eloped with a family of captives, is her major draw. She is the vampire queen who has taken up residence in Titty Twister. Santanico is introduced to her captive, drawn audience as a prestigious and highly arousing exotic dancer. Still, she and Titty Twister’s elegant patrons are revealed to be a group of vampires. With her, a terrible dragon, enormous and aggressive.
11. Sabine Moreau
In Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Sabine Moreau plays a villain. Léa Seydoux portrays her. A French assassin who only takes diamonds as payment. When she takes nuclear launch codes in return for diamonds, she is responsible for the assassination of Mission Impossible Agent Trevor Hanaway. Her personality is cryptic, chilly, defiant, deceptive, clever, arrogant, bloodthirsty, cruel, manipulative, ruthless, and intellectual, and she is extremely vicious and ruthless.
12. Elektra Vavra King
Elektra Vavra King, along with Renard, is one of the two main antagonists in the 1999 James Bond film The World is Not Enough. She is a wealthy oil heiress kidnapped by Renard, but she and her father end up as his accomplices after understanding her father’s betrayal when he refuses to pay her ransom. Following M’s instructions, she became increasingly disgusted and cynical, determined to avenge those who had harmed her.
13. Xenia Onatopp
Famke Janssen plays Xenia Zaragevna Onatopp, a fictional character, and a Bond girl in the James Bond film GoldenEye. She works for renegade MI6 agent Alec Trevelyan as a fighter pilot and assassin who smashes her enemies with her thighs (Sean Bean).
14. Catherine Tramell
Catherine Tramell is a fictional character who appears in the 1992 film Basic Instinct and its sequel Basic Instinct 2 as the main antagonist (2006). In both films, Sharon Stone portrays Catherine Tramell, a character developed by writer Joe Eszterhas. Catherine Tramell is a serial killer and the love interest of detective Nick Curran in Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct; in Basic Instinct 2, she is paired with similarly unstable British psychologist Michael Glass.
15. Poison Ivy
Poison Ivy, whose real name is Pamela Isley, is a fictional villain in the DC Comics series. The character was first introduced in Batman #181 in June 1966 by Robert Kanigher and Sheldon Moldoff. A dangerous plant is commonly known as poison ivy. She is well-known as one of Batman’s most fervent foes.
16. Emma Frost
Emma Frost is a powerful telepathic mutant who can have her body encased in a diamond-like shell, and she’s one of several characters in the X-Men comics and the Marvel universe who has done so. The evil switches sides and becomes a decent guy. As the White Queen, she has been a member of the Hellfire Club for a long time.
17. Regina George
The Plastics’ leader is Regina George, and the film and musical Mean Girls’ main adversary. Rachel McAdams plays her in the film, while Taylor Louderman plays her in the musical.
18. TX
TX (also known as Terminatrix) is the primary antagonist in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the third film in the Terminator franchise and the first in the Rise of the Machines and Salvation Timeline rather than the Mainstream Timeline. She is a formidable gynoid dispatched by Skynet to track down and murder John Connor, the leader of the Human Resistance, and all of his prospective friends, including Katherine Brewster.
19. Mystique
Mystique (Raven Darkholme) is a mutant who can change into many forms. Mystique is most known as the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants’ second generation, despite having a completely unknown past. Even though the organization disbanded, Mystique remained a dangerous individual when acting alone. Mystique is also the adoptive mother of X-Men Rogue and the biological mother of X-Men Nightcrawler. Mystique is a natural leader with excellent fighting skills, particularly in the employment of contemporary weaponry and technologies. Mystique is one of the earliest Marvel characters to be bisexual while having relationships with men and women (Sabretooth), but her true love is another lady.
20. Number Six
Number Six is a fictitious family from Battlestar Galactica, a reimagined science fiction television series. Tricia Helfer, a Canadian actress, and model play her. She is the sixth of the “Seven Important People” among the twelve known Cylon models. There are various versions of her, including Caprica-Six, Shelly Godfrey, Gina Inviere, Natalie Faust, Lida, Sonja, and the other members of the “Significant Seven.” In addition, she’s the only model who gives each clone a unique human pseudonym.
21. Grendel’s mother
Grendel’s mother, also known as “Hag” in the original Viking Beowulf legend, is one of the three primary adversaries in the Viking saga Beowulf and its various retellings over the years, including the main villain in the capture film 2007 3D motion. She has evolved from a nasty old girl to a seductive obese female (akin to a siren), but her motivations have stayed constant: to avenge her son Grendel’s death at the hands of her son, Beowulf, the Viking hero.
22. Serleena
Serleena XPath (also known as Serleena) is the primary antagonist in Men in Black II, a sci-fi comedy released in 2002. She is the Kylothian queen, on a quest to find the Light of Zartha to destroy the planets Zartha and Earth.
23. Regina Mills
Regina Mills, popularly known as “The Evil Queen,” is the principal character and main antagonist of ABC’s Once Upon a Time fairy tale television series. She is the primary antagonist in Season 1 and a minor antagonist in Season 2. (along with Captain Hook), one of the main protagonists/sub-anti-heroes in Seasons 3-6, and the main character in the series. Central in season 7. Snow White-crowned her as the Queen of Mercy in the finale.
24. Amanda Woodward
Heather Locklear portrays Amanda Woodward, a fictitious character on the television show Melrose Place. The character was added to the show to boost its ratings, which worked. Amanda made a cameo in The CW’s 2009 remake, but her presence wasn’t enough to save the show from cancellation.
25. O-Ren Ishii
In Tarantino’s Kill Bill series, O-Ren Ishii is the main antagonist. In Kill Bill Vol. 1 as the main enemy and as a postmortem villain in Kill Bill Vol. 2. She is the ultimate head of the Tokyo Yakuza and one of The Bride’s greatest opponents. In addition, she is a member of the Deadly Assassins Squad (DeVAS).
26. Queen Akasha
The primary antagonist in Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles novel series and the 2002 film adaption Queen of the Damned is Queen Akasha, also known simply as Akasha. Because she is the first vampire to be born, she is the repressive queen of vampires. According to the Chronicles of Vampire novels, Akasha is one of two ancient vampires who have gone missing, along with her husband and king, Enkil, both of whom are known as the Must-Knows.
27. Cersei Lannister
Queen Cersei Lannister is a primary antagonist in A Song of Ice and Fire and the television series Game of Thrones. She is the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms at the start of the series. She was Lord Tywin Lannister’s daughter, Ser Jaime Lannister’s twin sister and lover, and Tyrion Lannister’s sister and arch-enemy. She was the wife of King Robert I Baratheon and the mother of incestuous children Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen. She is also a bitter rival of House Stark, particularly Arya, Ned, and Sansa Stark.
28. Elsa Schneider
Dr. Elsa Schneider is the second villain in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the third installment of the Indiana Jones series, released in 1989. She’s an Austrian art professor who wants to find the Holy Grail, and she, like Walter Donovan, keeps her Nazi ties hidden. Elsa is a nasty and conflicted woman, unlike Marion Ravenwood and Willie Scott, Jones’ former love interests from prior escapades. Throughout the film, she has seduced Jones, first Henry, then Indiana. Elsa was also a close friend of Indiana Jones, both the first and last.
29. Elle Driver
Elle Driver, popularly known as California Mountain Snake, is a well-known actress, are the primary antagonist in Vol. 1 and the minor antagonist in Vol. 2. Along with Vernita Green, O-Ren, and O-Ren, she is an arrogant and vicious swordswoman loyal to Bill and a member of Bill’s elite assassins squad, the Deadly Assassins Squad. Beatrix Kiddo, alias Black Mamba and The Bride, Ishii, Budd, and the film’s protagonist, Beatrix Kiddo, Black Mamba and The Bride.
30. Marisa Coulter
Marisa Coulter appears in Philip Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Material, as a recurring villain. Mrs. Coulter is a chilly and sophisticated villain who initially debuted in her first novel, Northern Lights, known as Mrs. Coulter throughout the series. In her third work, The Amber Spyglass, her character endures various alterations before rehabilitating.
31. Victoria Grayson
The main antagonist of the ABC series Revenge is Victoria Harper (previously Victoria Grayson). She is the Grayson family’s most powerful matriarch, and she would go to any length to safeguard her social rank and guarantee that her offspring achieve their maximum potential. She is also Conrad Grayson’s ex-wife, and she had a love relationship with David Clarke before accusing him of terrorism while pregnant with their daughter.
32. Milady de Winter
Milady de Winter (together with Captain Rochefort) is a secondary villain in the 2011 film adaption of The Three Musketeers. She is Athos’s sweetheart, and she assists the Musketeers on a mission in Venice, but she betrays them to Cardinal Richelieu, with whom she is genuinely working.
33. Katinka Ingaborgovinanana
Katinka Ingaborgovinanana is the second villain of Zoolander and its sequel Zoolander 2.
34. Irina Komarov
In the film A Good Day to Die Hard, released in 2013, Irina Komarov played a secondary antagonist. She is Yuri Komarov’s daughter and second-in-command.
35. Alex Forrest
In the 1987 live-action film Fatal Attraction, Alexandra “Alex” Forrest was the primary antagonist. Glenn Close, who previously portrayed Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons, Cruella De Vil in the 1996 live-action production of 101 Dalmatians, and Dr. Caroline Caldwell in The Girl With All the Gifts, plays her.
36. Harley Quinn
Harley Quinn is a fictional character and appears in the DC Comics universe, and she is a foe of Batman. In September 1992, the character was first seen in Batman’s animated series The Animated Series, developed by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. Harley Quinn made her first appearance in DC Comics’ The Batman Adventures #12 (September 1993). Calliope Jones, played by actress Arleen Sorkin in the TV series Days of Our Lives, was the inspiration for Harley Quinn’s appearance and voice. Harleen Quinzel’s real name is Harleen Quinzel, and the moniker “Harley Quinn” is a pun on the name “Harlequin,” a type of character frequently seen in masked plays in Europe. dell’arte).
37. Helen Sharp
Along with her adversary Madeline Ashton, Helen Sharp is the second main character villain in the black comedy Death Becomes Her. She’s been Madeline’s love rival since the actress married her first lover after robbing her out of jealousy. However, Madeline persisted in doing so, to Helen’s chagrin.
38. Amy Dunne
Amy Elliot-Dunne is the main antagonist in David Fincher’s 2012 novel and 2014 film Gone Girl, written by Gillian Flynn. She is a clever, calculating psychopath who devises an elaborate plan to fake her death and forces her husband Nick to kill her as punishment for Nick’s infidelity.
39. Alexis Carrington Colby
Alexis Carrington Colby is a fictitious character in the American television series Dynasty and its remake as the main antagonist. Blake Carrington’s ex-wife conspired to bring him and their children Adam, Amanda, Steven, and Fallon a slew of problems.
40. Miranda Priestly
Miranda Priestly is the primary antagonist in Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel The Devil Wears Prada and the 2006 film adaptation.
