Samantha Morton as Alpha – The Walking Dead _ Season 9, Episode 11 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC
The Walking Dead is on hiatus until the next season starts, but we have a lot left to ponder… especially in regard to the villains.
Well before she moved from the comic panels onto The Walking Dead television series, Alpha has been a menacing villain. She doesn’t just kill people. She destroys them mentally, especially those closest to her.
Though the current villain of the series has a chaotic approach to her horrifying reign, there have been plenty of villains before her. We’ve tasked ourselves with ranking all the worst villains on The Walking Dead. (To be clear, we mean the worst villains in a good way. They were great villains, but the absolute worst people.)
Everyone has their favorite Walking Dead characters, and that preference extends to the villains on the series. Unbiased opinions are hard to come by in any fandom, so we have some ranking criteria to keep our list in check. After all, we need something to base our rankings off of so that every villain has a fair chance to climb up our evil leaderboard:
- Are they really even a villain or just a product (or circumstance or other impacting factors) of the apocalypse?
- Did any character bolster or lessen their villainous persona? If they grew out of their nefarious ways, that’ll knock lessen their villainous credibility.
- Are there just some things they’ve done that are unforgivable? For example, killing a main character that we’ve cherished for seasons upon seasons, abused an innocent character, eaten people for who knows what reason, and so on.
- Did their villainous actions leave a lasting impact on the group? Did the group split up or stay together but with trust issues?
- Ultimately, how many good people did this villain kill in their reign of the apocalypse?
- What did they accomplish before they were ultimately defeated?
- Would they be a villain if the apocalypse never happened?
Finally, this list focuses solely on the television versions of villains on The Walking Dead — versus mixing in comic incarnations of them. See where your favorite (and not so favorite) baddies rank below.