20 best movie villains of all time

Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter)

He Who Must Not Be Named — just kidding, we can say Voldemort now — is one of the most infamous, evil dark wizards in the history of the wizarding world. He wanted to take over and purify the community of Muggles, Muggle-born wizards, and basically anyone who isn’t a pureblood.

Voldemort is a prominent force in the Harry Potter series right from the beginning. He killed Harry’s parents with the killing curse right in front of baby Harry. But when he tried to kill the baby, something protected him and the spell bounced back and damaged Voldemort instead. The Dark Lord then spends years trying to get back in power in order to get his revenge and finish off the deed by killing Harry Potter.

Voldemort, born Tom Marvolo Riddle, is the son of a pure-blood witch named Merope Gaunt (a descendant of Salazar Slytherin) and a Muggle named Tom Riddle Sr. Tom grew up resenting his family, especially the fact that his father was a Muggle. As early as his Hogwarts days, Tom was already interested in the Dark Arts, and started researching ways to live forever, which is how he discovered the concept of Horcruxes. He ends up splitting his soul into seven Horcruxes, and another fragment that was placed into Harry Potter after he failed to kill him (which explained their abnormal bond).

The Dark Lord, like any evil dictator, has a band of loyal followers doing his dirty work called Death Eaters. They commit horrible crimes in order to get praise from their leader, like killing and torturing Muggles for sport. When Voldemort comes back into power, they slowly come back to him too, because they’re forever indebted to him.

Voldemort may be defeated in the end, but his reign is so deadly and horrible that the wizarding world will never forget his terrible crimes. He may have a sad backstory, but he turns out to be so gruesome that there is no way to justify his actions.