They don’t seem so bad now: These 7 villain origin movies can actually change your perception

We all love a good villain, the way they monologue, plot world domination, or cause a little, usually a lot of chaos. However, sometimes, their origin stories hit us right in the feels and make us wonder: Were they really all that bad? From misunderstood motives to tragic pasts, these cinematic deep dives reveal the heart, hurt, and humanity behind the madness. Take Cruella (2021), for instance. Before she was skinning puppies in our nightmares, she was Estella, a rebellious fashion prodigy trying to survive in a cutthroat world.

Or the 2019 movie Joker, where we see that Arthur Fleck wasn’t born Gotham’s most feared anarchist; he was shaped by a brutal society that ignored and discarded him. From Disney queens with ice-cold reputations to supervillains who just needed a hug (and maybe a therapist), these seven films peel back the layers of evil and force us to face a twisted truth: villains are people, too. So, before you call them heartless or evil, hit pause as we recall 7 Villain origin stories that had fans rewatching and reanalysing them for years.

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Coriolanus Snow in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)

Before the chilling smile and perfect white roses, before the Capitol wielded the whip of televised blood-stained terror, there was just a poor boy trying his best to survive. In the prequel titled 'The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes', we meet Coriolanus Snow not as the tyrant President of Panem, but as the protagonist of his story, a struggling 18-year-old student desperate to uphold his family’s crumbling legacy. Tom Blyth delivers a chilling, emotionally resonant performance, walking the tightrope between vulnerability and vanity. Played with magnetic charm by Rachel Zegler, Lucy Gray Baird, a tribute from District 12, and her relationship with Snow becomes the film’s emotional stronghold.

She's vibrant, defiant, and deeply human, everything Snow is not allowed to be. The twisted dance between duty, desire, and disillusionment begins here. Their romance is half Shakespearean tragedy, and half a cautionary tale. As Lucy Gray sings “The Hanging Tree,” we sense it — the slow, inevitable darkening of Snow’s soul. He wasn’t born a villain. He was shaped, crushed, and clawed into one. And while we still can’t forgive him, Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes makes it painfully clear that Coriolanus Snow could’ve been someone else, had the odds been in humanity's favour. The line, “Snow lands on top,” gets more complex as it feels less a boast, more a reminder of what survival can cost.

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Arthur Fleck aka Joker in Joker (2019)

Few performances in cinema history burn as brightly as Joaquin Phoenix’s take on Arthur Fleck, the man who would become Joker. In the 2019 film, Joker, director Todd Phillips strips Gotham of its comic book sheen and offers a raw, unflinching portrait of urban decay and mental illness. Arthur isn't a master criminal or a cackling clown prince yet, just a failed stand-up comic with a neurological condition that makes him laugh uncontrollably at the worst possible moments.

“Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?”

Arthur asks his social worker. It’s one of the film’s earliest lines, and one that sets the tone for everything that follows.

The brilliance of Joker lies in its ambiguity. Arthur's narrative is not a justification, instead, it is an explanation. Every humiliation, every dismissal, every cut in funding to his therapy chips away at his sanity. His transformation is gradual, terrifying, and at the same time, entirely human. Phoenix's performance, which earned him a Best Actor Oscar, and rightfully so. By the time he delivers that unforgettable monologue on The Murray Franklin Show,

“What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash?”

the audience is torn. Not between right and wrong, but between horror and sympathy.

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Miranda Presley in The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Technically not a villain origin movie, but let's be honest, The Devil Wears Prada is Miranda Priestly’s origin story. Even though she's not the protagonist of the story, the bulk of the plot centres on her life and personality. Meryl Streep's rendition of the icy editor-in-chief of the fashion magazine, Runway, is nothing short of legendary. With pursed lips, a steely gaze, and her iconic entrance, she made “That’s all” one of cinema’s deadliest mic drops. However, the genius of the film lies in the way it chips away at Miranda’s marble façade to reveal a woman who didn’t claw her way to the top; she climbed, alone, sharpening her wit and cunning.

At first, Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs sees her boss as nothing more than a soulless dictator in designer heels. But slowly, as the industry’s demands tighten their grip, Andy begins to understand the high cost of being Miranda Priestly. “Another divorce, splashed across page 6,” Miranda says, sitting in a hotel room, makeup smeared, and personal life in shambles. She didn’t become 'The Dragon Lady' because that’s what she wanted; she did it because she had to, to survive. A woman at the helm of a cutthroat fashion empire, battling sexism, betrayal, and constant scrutiny. So no, she’s not nice. But as the layers peel back, she becomes something far more powerful, a woman in a man's world.

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Estella aka Cruella in Cruella (2021)

She wanted to skin puppies, at least that’s how we first met her in 101 Dalmatians. However, in her new adaptation as a live-action, Cruella just wants to tear down the fashion elite with a vengeance, and a killer wardrobe. Emma Stone's punk-rock reinvention of the classic Disney villain is a chaotic delight. Set in 1970s London, Cruella is less about fur coats and more about found family, inherited trauma, and the fine line between genius and madness. Estella, Cruella’s birth name, is clever and kind but constantly trampled on by the world. Upon learning the devastating truth about her past and the terrible fate of her mother's demise, her transformation begins.

Not into a monster, but into the stuff of legends.

“You can’t care about anyone else. Everyone else is an obstacle. If you care about anyone, you’re weak.”

Her nemesis is the cold-blooded Baroness von Hellman, played to high-camp perfection by Emma Thompson. The Baroness isn’t just a fashion mogul, she’s a symbol of everything Estella is fighting against. Cruella hears her. But instead of becoming her, she outsmarts her. In Cruella, villainy is a mask, a performance. It's about reclaiming power in a world that never handed her any. It's revenge served with red lipstick and leather gloves. Cruella might not be good, but she's fiercely herself. And somehow, that makes us cheer for her, even as we remember the dog-snatching days ahead.

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Megamind in Megamind (2010)

“Oh, you’re a villain alright, just not a super one!”

At first glance, Megamind looks like a pastiche of Superman with a cartoonish cast and slapstick comedy. But dig a little deeper and you realise that the story is deceptively powerful, cutting to the heart of identity, belonging, and ultimately redemption. Will Ferrell lends his voice to Megamind, the titular villain with a giant head and a flair for dramatic entrances. Born on a dying planet (sound familiar?), Megamind was jettisoned to Earth, only to land in a prison instead of a loving home. Meanwhile, his babyhood nemesis, Metro Man (voiced by Brad Pitt), lands in the lap of luxury. Thus begins a rivalry that's less about good vs. evil and more about nurture vs. nature. Megamind’s descent into villainy is almost Shakespearean, as all he ever wanted was acceptance. But society constantly rejected him because he was different. He had brains instead of brawn.

His over-the-top evil plots are more comedic than catastrophic, almost like a child trying too hard to play the part he's been given. And then comes the twist: What happens when the villain wins? When Metro Man fakes his own death and Megamind finds himself ruling the city, he realizes he's unfulfilled. Because for him, the rivalry was never about destruction, but about purpose. Enter Roxanne Ritchi (voiced by Tina Fey), the smart, sarcastic reporter who sees through Megamind’s bravado and, over time, into his heart. Megamind isn’t evil. He’s just a lonely genius who wants to matter. By the film’s end, when he saves Metro City from his misguided creation, Titan (voiced by Jonah Hill), Megamind reclaims his story. From a villainous goofball to an accidental hero, Megamind flips the script and asks us: What if the bad guy just needed a second chance?

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Maleficent in Maleficent (2014)

"I had wings once, they were stolen from me."

The film Maleficent, which came out in 2014, turned the character of one of Disney’s most iconic villains on her horned head. The character of Disney’s dark fairy was not merely visually captivating in Angelina Jolie’s performance, it was emotionally potent, as well. In the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent curses the princess for simply not being invited to a party. Meanwhile, in the movie she curses Aurora not from evilness, but from heartbreak, betrayal, and the pain of lost innocence. Once a guardian of the Moors, a magical realm untouched by human greed, Maleficent was loving, kind, and a powerful fairy. But her trust in the power-hungry king, Stefan (Sharlto Copley), cost her everything she held dear.

His betrayal of drugging her and severing her wings, followed by Maleficent's brutal cry of agony, is one of the most haunting metaphorical violations in Disney history. The curse she casts on Aurora (Elle Fanning) is out of revenge, but it's also a cry of pain. In an unexpected turn of events, however, as Aurora grows, so does Maleficent’s love for her. She becomes the girl’s secret guardian, even her protector. In a surprising turn of events, it is not a prince’s kiss that lifts the curse on Aurora, but Maleficent’s love. In recasting the villain’s story as one driven by trauma, healing, and redemption, Maleficent challenges the black-and-white moral world of fairy tales. Maleficent isn’t the villain in this version, but the survivor. And perhaps, the true hero of the tale.

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Gru in Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)

Before he adopted three orphan girls, before the moon heist, and way before the dance battles with Balthazar Bratt, Gru was just an awkward 11-year-old kid with a dream. He wanted to become the world’s greatest supervillain. Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) takes us back to where it all began: a boy, a big nose, and a lot of ambition. Set in the 1970s, this prequel gives us baby-faced Gru, still voiced hilariously by Steve Carell, trying desperately to impress his idols, the Vicious 6. But they laugh him off. He’s too small, too young, and adorably pathetic. So what does Gru do? He steals their prized Zodiac Stone. Classic Gru.

However, beneath the theft and trickery, Rise of Gru peels back the curtain on the heart of this future villain. He’s lonely. Misunderstood. Raised by an ice-cold, unimpressed mother (voiced by Julie Andrews) who couldn’t care less about his evil aspirations. The only ones who believe in him? The Minions. Those banana-loving goofballs may seem ridiculous, but their loyalty is fierce, and Gru, for all his snark, learns to love them back. When the stakes get serious and Gru is kidnapped, it’s not gadgets or evil plots that save the day, it’s friendship, trust, and his growing bond with his yellow companions. The Rise of Gru isn’t about how a villain is made. It’s about how a hero finds family in the most chaotic way possible. Under the scowl and gadgets, Gru’s got heart, and that’s what makes him truly despicable, in the best possible way.