Cruella de Vil, Voldemort and the 25 greatest movie villains of all-time

21. Kylo Ren

Perhaps what helps to make Kylo Ren one of the greatest villains of the movies is the fact that his parents are perhaps two of the greatest heroes. We are talking about Han Solo and General Leia here and yet, even with these two people as his role models, he still went to the dark side. And while there is always more to a person’s story than who their parents are, in this case, it certainly adds to the sense of horror and tragedy that surrounds Kylo Ren as a villain.

When you consider some of the amazing villains that the Star Wars movies have given us (Palpatine and Darth Vader certainly come to mind), it is impressive how Kylo Ren went from Emo baddie to a truly horrific villain of the dark side.

Here is a character who is both deadly and driven. And when we say he is driven, we mean that he was willing to kill his own father to get him out of his way. That’s right, he killed THE Han Solo. And if that doesn’t make him an epic villain in his own right I don’t know what does.

Kylo Ren’s only real objective is victory for himself. And it doesn’t matter what he has to do to get that to happen. He is on his very own path and while it is a path devoted to the dark side (at this point), there are hints of him struggling not to give into the light within. Perhaps this is what helps to make him truly villainous, the fact that even with good inside him, he is willing to give into the dark side.

Beyond murdering his own father, his plans also include taking down his mother’s resistance group. And maybe it is just me, but it certainly seems like he has some issues with his parents that might be the root of all his evil.