8 Villains That We’d Love To See In The DC Cinematic Universe

With Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice less than a year away, DC is getting ready to blow the lid off its cinematic universe and we could not be more excited to see what they have in store for us. With no less than 9 additional films planned between when Batman V Superman releases and the year 2020, moviegoers are going to be inundated with characters and storylines from DC Comics. At this point, most of the details on what's being planned are being kept under wraps, and as such, we don't know which heroes and villains DC plan to use in future films, aside from a few obvious ones. So, we thought it'd be fun to take a look back through the catalogue and pick out 8 villains that we'd love to see make appearances at some point in DC's Cinematic Universe. 1) Mr. Freeze Though we've already seen Mr. Freeze on film, Arnold Schwarzenegger's portrayal of the iconic villain did not do him justice. It's been reported that he'll be showing up on the small screen in Gotham, but given that show's nature, the character will probably appear as Victor Fries in his pre-Mr. Freeze days. What we want is a full-blown version of the villain, Freeze gun and all. The technology is certainly there to make the effects work, and though DC is going for a more grounded, gritty feel with their cinematic universe, adding in a villain like Mr. Freeze could work as long as they don't go too campy with him, like Batman & Robin did. Perhaps they could look toward Arkham City or Batman: The Animated Series for inspiration? 2) The Riddler Like Mr. Freeze, The Riddler has shown up on film before and is also featured on the small screen in Gotham, but we still have yet to see a solid portrayal of the intriguing villain in cinema. For the character to work, they have to make him as twisted and psychotic as possible, and have him really dig into the psyche of the audience and Batman alike. Of course, this mostly depends on the actor playing him, but some of it most definitely comes from the writing. If they can nail that aspect of him and show us the psychological torment that he's capable of inflicting on Batman, then there's no reason that he couldn't go onto become one of the most threatening villains in DC's Cinematic Universe. 3) Anti-Monitor Perhaps one of the most powerful villains in the DC Cinematic Universe, Anti-Monitor would prove to be a formidable challenge for any superhero. Hellbent on destroying all universes except his own, he (or it?) can't be reasoned with and only has one goal: take out everything in his path. Made up of pure energy, his power is unstoppable as he can travel through time, absorb universes and fire bolts of pure energy. The Anti-Monitor doesn't really have any weaknesses either, and given his reputation as one of the most powerful supervillains, he could factor into the DC Cinematic Universe perfectly as a Thanos-type character. Speaking of which, although this would never happen, how awesome would it be to see some kind of team-up film between DC and Marvel characters where they have to work together to take down Anti-Monitor? 4) Crime Syndicate of America The Crime Syndicate of America are absolutely perfect for DC's Cinematic Universe as they're essentially just the evil and twisted version of the Justice League (a group of superheroes that DC already plans on bringing to the silver screen). You have Owlman (counterpart to Batman), Johnny Quick (counterpart of The Flash), Power Ring (counterpart of Green Lantern), etc. The list goes on, but the point is, adding an "alternate version" or "evil twin" component to the DC Cinematic Universe could make for a very fun element that Marvel is currently without. 5) Hush Often depicted as one of the Caped Crusader's foes, Hush started off life as Tommy Elliott (who actually appears briefly in Gotham) and was childhood friends with Bruce Wayne at one point. Without diving into too much backstory, he eventually grew to hate Bruce and adopted his alter-ego, Hush, in order to match Batman. In fact, he became so obsessed with that goal that he performed plastic surgery on himself to mimic Bruce's appearance. Now that's a level of crazy we have yet to see a comic book villain take on! His genius-level intellect and super tactical skills make him a formidable opponent for The Dark Knight, not to mention that he's also an expert marksman and can hold his own in hand-to-hand combat with Batman. Like Bruce, he's also quite wealthy and can easily fund his operations. In almost every way, he's nearly Batman's equal, and it would be thrilling to see these two go head-to-head on the big screen, especially if they could find an actor to match Ben Affleck in terms of physicality and screen presence. 6) Darkseid If you want to talk about powerful comic book villains, look no further than Darkseid. This badass possesses immeasurable power and has posed a massive threat to many of our favorite heroes, most notably Superman and Batman. He's about as evil as you can get when it comes to not only DC villains, but villains in general, and while it might be hard to work the character into the gritty, more realistic world that this cinematic universe is building, it really wouldn't be a Justice League movie if DC didn't include him. Also, it's important to remember that in the comics, Darkseid has often served as a catalyst for the formation of the Justice League, which could make Zack Snyder's job of bringing together DC's various heroes incredibly easy. 7) Injustice League The Injustice League is a team of DC's greatest villains who constantly clash with the Justice League. Though many character have been associated with the group at one point or another, notable members include Lex Luthor, The Joker, Poison Ivy, Deathstroke, Black Adam, Captain Cold, Sinestro, etc. Seeing as some of these villains are already scheduled to make an appearance in the DC Cinematic Universe, or have already showed up in past/current DC television shows and movies, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for them to appear in the Justice League film. Then again, with a Suicide Squad adaptation already on the cards, having the Injustice League show up as well might cause too much confusion for audience members and create too many conflicts (especially if they plan to follow some of the comic book storylines). Regardless, if they could somehow pull it off and put together an Injustice League that wouldn't ruffle any feathers within the continuity of the DC Cinematic Universe, I think it could be a lot of fun to see them on screen. 8) Victor Zsasz Yes, it's another Batman villain, but there's just so many good ones to choose from that we couldn't help ourselves. Plus, like Mr. Freeze and The Riddler, he's appeared on film (and even on TV, in Fox's Gotham) before but has never been done justice. Vastly underestimated, Victor Zsasz can possibly become one of the most terrifying villains in the Bat universe. A sanitized version of the serial killer appeared in Batman Begins, as a mere thug for Carmine Falcone, but his history cuts much deeper. Zsasz was a wealthy man who became a depressed gambler after his parents died. A botched suicide attempt involving a knife-wielding homeless man made him see existence as pointless and caused him to devote himself to increasing his body count. Since then, Zsasz has left a cut on himself whenever he killed someone, accumulating tally marks that are in most incarnations too many to count. His entire body maps out all of Batman’s failures and his breakouts from Arkham are guaranteed to result in murder. There is nothing salvageable in Zsasz that Batman can reason with, no bargaining chips to pacify him with. He’s deranged without the theatrics of dressing up as a scarecrow or a punchline for an audience. He’s the sort of villain who could live in our world, and really put viewers at odds with Batman’s moral code of letting mass murderers live.