The DCEU has often struggled with its villains, but upcoming DC movies are continuing the shift to make the universe's bad guys into good characters. Villain problems have long been commonplace in superhero movies, which have often been only as good as the nemesis the main character has to take down. It could be that, like Spider-Man 3, there were too many, though more often than not it's because the villains simply aren't interesting enough.
This was an issue that plagued the Marvel Cinematic Universe for its first couple of phases, during which Tom Hiddleston's Loki was its only truly celebrated villain among a sea of misfires. Even when the films themselves were good, the villains weren't necessarily so, and the very notion that the MCU had a villain problem took on a life of its own. Phase 3 has long put such doubts to rest, of course, but even now the refrain can still be heard.
The DCEU has long been held in comparison to the MCU, and it too has had its own struggles with making the bad guys into compelling characters in their own right. While the DCEU movies have also struggled for the same level of critical and commercial success as Marvel alongside this, putting the villain problem to bed can go some way to helping things improve - and thankfully, they're now on the right track.
The DCEU's Villain Problem Explained
Much like the MCU's earlier efforts, the DC Extended Universe has suffered from villains who aren't fully fleshed-out, and don't offer much in the way of motivations or a character arc worth investing in. This was actually less the case in the very first movie, where Michael Shannon did some solid work as General Zod, and indeed the biggest problem with the villain came from the controversial choice to have Superman be the one who killed Zod. Man of Steel's Zod wasn't exactly Terence Stamp, but he fit reasonably well with the movie's themes and offered something with a little more depth, which subsequent movies would fail to continue.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice rolled-out Doomsday, a horrible CGI creation that lacked any spark of life, and paired him alongside Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor. The former was as dull as he looked, and the latter was a mish-mash of styles, influences, and weird mannerisms that resulted in Luthor becoming a maniacal mess. This continued on through the DCEU, with Suicide Squad bringing the dreadful duo of Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) and Incubus (Alain Chanoine), who brought the trend to its nadir with their lack of, well, just about anything of note, alongside an off-putting gangster take on The Joker (Jared Leto), who was dramatically cut in the editing room.
2017 then brought two more bland, forgettable foes: Ares (David Thewlis) and Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds). Even though Wonder Woman was seen as the DCEU's saving grace, the film's third act once again spiralled into a bloated CGI scrap with a villain lacking any personality, and Steppenwolf, though in-part a victim of Joss Whedon's Justice League reshoots, went much the same way. None of these villains were interesting, iconic, or even worth wanting to see again.
The DCEU Has Already Started Improving Its Villains
Much like the rest of its problems, the DCEU is fixing its villain mistake - or at least, it has taken steps to make some improvements, even if it isn't fully there yet. The tide started to turn in James Wan's Aquaman, which included both Orm (Patrick Wilson) and Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) as its villains. Although Aquaman suffered somewhat from a clash of tones, and it might have been better to keep the focus more squarely on just one of these characters to streamline its story, this was at least a step in the right direction for villains who weren't just faceless CGI creations lacking in personality, but an attempt to create bad guys with more thematic heft and motivations.
Shazam further continued this, with Dr. Sivana again a serviceable, if not spectacular, villain. Played by Mark Strong (a man destined to be cast as an array of bad guys for all eternity), Sivana is perhaps the DCEU villain who feels most like the mid-level Marvel bad guys: a good actor giving a solid performance that doesn't ask a great deal of him, making for a foil that keeps all of the focus on the hero and let's him work for the plot, without truly becoming memorable in this own right.
Finally, there's Ewan McGregor's Black Mask in Birds of Prey, the best DCEU villain thus far. Although he's working against the balancing act of introducing so many other new DC characters and giving enough focus to Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) to boot, McGregor gives a committed, dialled-up performance that allows his Black Mask to shine. He's not only visually interesting, but gets a layer of complexity oft-missing from DCEU villains, with his masks attempting to hide his own perceived weaknesses and insecurities. The DCEU has at least started to shift into villains who are not only threats, but have their own personalities, backstories, and complications too, as well as a solid set of motivations (or, in Black Mask's case, a list of grievances).
Future DCEU Movies Are Making Its Villains Much Better
Future DCEU movies look to truly be making its villain problem a thing of the past. While there's still plenty of secrecy around many of the upcoming films, what has been revealed suggests that there'll be an array of compelling bad guys for the heroes to face, who aren't just major threats but strong characters to boot. This will seemingly begin in Wonder Woman 1984, which will include Kristen Wiig's Cheetah and Pedro Pascal's Maxwell Lord. Both are talented actors - with Wiig in particular an inspired choice - and there are signs from the trailers of them becoming a great villainous pair, yet ones who can each stand on their own two (or four) feet. Cheetah especially seems like an excellent foil for Gal Gadot's Diana, bringing her own vulnerability and a personal relationship that gets mixed with her newly-found powers and jealousy - that it's a female-driven rivalry only adds to the unique sense being offered.
Then comes The Batman, which will have several villains, but chief among them seemingly The Riddler (Paul Dano). A far cry from Jim Carrey's ridiculous take on the character in Batman Forever, Dano (another shrewd, outside-the-box casting pick), looks to be taking The Riddler into vigilante territory while playing his infamous games with Batman. Between that, Colin Farrell's unrecognizable turn as The Penguin, and Zoë Kravitz's Catwoman, there's a lot to be excited about with regards to The Batman's baddies.
The Suicide Squad's Starro is a more left-field choice, and one that takes the villains away from the human figures that have been proving successful and back towards the wholly CGI realm, but there's reason to be optimistic here too. Rather than a dark, dull, digital disaster, Starro should be every bit as bizarre as the rest of James Gunn's movie is shaping up to be and then some. As an alien who releases starfish-like spores to control people, there's the potential to not only create something that looks unlike any villain seen on screen before, but who is also a major threat and brings out the best in Task Force X.
And after all that, there's Black Adam, which will see none other than Dwayne Johnson take on the DC character. Though he'll shift Black Adam into more of an anti-hero figure, he'll still be villainous to a degree, at least at the beginning, and if The Rock can't fix a franchise problem, then presumably no one can. The entirety of the upcoming DCEU slate feels fresh and exciting in a way that seemed highly unlikely just a couple of years ago, and that goes down to its villains as well.
