The age of the superhero is inarguably upon us, as theaters and streaming services are continually drenched in fresh super powered content.
The last decade has seen superhero heavyweights debut on an annual basis, as both the MCU and DCEU beef up their selection of overpowered protagonists. Each franchise is practically overflowing with leading men and women, which is perhaps the culprit behind a new, and overall unpopular, superhero trend.
The last few years have seen a major increase in villain protagonists, and it’s adding absolutely nothing to the world of cinema. Fans of the genre—overcrowded as it may be—are already praying for an end to the fixation on villain origin stories. This long-held hope was finally vocalized in a viral post from Twitter user @RedLReviews, who begged the cinematic world to put an end to villain movies.
“Please tell me ‘villain’ movies are gonna die out,” the post begins, before noting that “no one on the planet knows how to make” the highly-specific releases. Instead, filmmakers “just make regular superhero movies with occasional scenes and dialogue about how dangerous the main character is despite them saving the city/planet by the end.”
It’s one of the more accurate Twitter takes from the last several weeks, and commenters are in stark agreement. The cinematic world seems to have found a new fixation in “villain” films, and few of the films are even worth a watch. The latest film to lean on the villainous hero trend is Black Adam, which released in mid-October, and its lukewarm reviews say all that needs to be said about the film. It joins other lackluster villain releases like Morbius and The Suicide Squad in generally boring any audiences foolish enough to purchase a ticket.
Of all the recent attempts at a villain backstory, Joker is arguably the top of the line. The 2019 film remains highly divisive among audiences, but its approach was at least interesting enough to garner solid reviews. With all this being said, however, the film hardly feels like a villain story. It provides the origins, and backgrounds, for one of DC’s most infamous bad guys, but it doesn’t fixate on his villainous traits, so much as honing in on the “otherness” that led the character to evil.
Sony is clearly the biggest offender, when it comes to the obsession with villain stories. The Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU) has put out three villain-oriented flicks over the last several years, focusing in on Morbius and Venom and largely painting them as anti-heroes, rather than outright bad guys.
It’s also far from finished. Sony aims to continue with its increasingly unpopular trend via Kraven the Hunter, a 2023 film that focuses on the Spider-Man villain of the same name. Several of the projects currently underway at Sony also aim to highlight lesser-known—or at least lesser-liked—Marvel villains, leaving fans to look ahead, and dread, films like The Sinister Six.
Thankfully, the MCU doesn’t seem to be on the same track. The larger of cinema’s superhero properties has its sights set on heroes, with the majority of its future releases veering far from Sony’s fixation on bad guys.
It seems, at the end of the day, that audiences simply aren’t here for villain origin stories. They’re too hard to manage, and studios don’t have the courage—and backing—necessary to truly pull off an unlikable leading character. It seems that the genre conclusively peaked with the release of 2010’s Megamind, leaving us with nowhere to go but down.