5 Potential Female Villains That Could Join The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Shane Black made headlines last week as he announced the original villain in Iron Man 3 was intended to be a woman. We’ve seen Black Widow and Scarlet Witch in the films, and Jessica Jones as a Netflix series, but no one can deny there’s been a serious drought of females in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe.

To make matters worse, rivals DC are beating Marvel to the punch. While the DCEU doesn’t have the audience, or critical acclaim, of the MCU, they are spearheading the female driven stories. Wonder Woman has just wrapped principal photography and looks on pace for its 2017 release date, and Harley Quinn is emerging as the shining star in the upcoming villain team-up, Suicide Squad. Just this week, DC announced plans to make a film starring the Birds of Prey, a team of female villains led by Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn.

Not only is Marvel behind on female-driven hero films, they also suffer from a serious lack of lady villains. What makes this difficult to understand is the number of awesome female villains throughout the pages of Marvel comics. They have rebounded a bit this week with the first photos of Cate Blanchett’s Hela in Thor: Ragnarok, and the increasing possibility of Nebula having a bigger role in Guardians Vol. 2, but that’s only two great female villains in 15 films. It’s a great start, don’t get me wrong, but there is always room to improve. Let’s take a look at five female villains who we would love to see join the fold sooner rather than later.

Enchantress

It’s already been revealed that the third installment of the Thor franchise will feature a female villain in Hela, and a new female hero, Valkyrie. That’s huge news for comic fans, but they could easily add one of Marvel’s all-time greatest Asgardian villains into the mix.

Fans have been clamoring to see Enchantress on screen ever since the first Thor. Two films have come and gone, and everyone is still disappointed with the absence of one of their favorite Thor villains. For those who don’t know, Enchantress is an Asgardian, so she has all of the same physical strengths as Thor, with the extra abilities of sorcery and manipulation. She’s known for her uncanny talent as a sorceress of man’s mind. She can make most men do her bidding at any given point, and that would prove to be dangerous in a situation, like Ragnarok, where all of Asgard’s most powerful men are a bit preoccupied with saving their planet. Their minds will be at their weakest, and it presents a unique opportunity for the talents of Enchantress.

While the photos of Hela have shown her in charge of a large portion of Asgardians, it’s not crazy to think she got that power on her own. If Hela’s goal was to gain power of Asgard, she could have enlisted the help of Enchantress in order to make certain men bend to her will. Think about it, Loki and Thor, both powerless at the hands of Enchantress and Hela. That’s a powerful image.

This could also play to the popular fan theory that Ragnarok will have plot elements of Planet Hulk. We know Bruce will somehow be on Asgard, but we’re unsure of his role. What if, and I’m just speculating here, Hulk needs to fight his way through Thor and his comrades in order to save their lives? Enchantress manipulates the men of Asgard into becoming slaves and gladiators of Hela. She then takes the most powerful men on the planet and has them fight in a gladiator-style arena, creating a sport of male violence for the now-powerful women to enjoy. Hulk, who can’t be controlled by Enchantress, has to battle his way through a gauntlet of Asgardian warriors in order to free them from their oppressors. Doesn’t that sound awesome? That isn’t the only way in which Enchantress could fit into the story, but I’d sure love to see it.

Morgan Le Fay

The release of Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange this November, marks Marvel’s first foray into the realm of magic. This seems like a great opportunity to introduce the Cinematic Universe to one of the oldest mystic villains in comics, Morgan Le Fay.

Half-human, half-faerie, Morgan was born in the time of King Arthur. When her faerie abilities gave her some attention, Merlin took her in as his pupil. Through her training, and natural abilities, Morgan can manipulate minds, control environmental resources, harness mystical energy, and even time travel. Basically, Morgan Le Fay can do anything, making her one of the most powerful sorcerers in all of history.

While Doctor Strange would be a great opportunity to introduce the character, I think she’d be a great villain for Tony Stark if Iron Man 4 ever happens. We know he’s really having a hard time with the Pepper situation, and many of Morgan’s story-lines involve manipulating love and the minds of those in love. Her ability to time travel would also work in an Iron Man film, seeing as how he always wishes to change his actions. If Tony was presented with a chance to go back and fix his mistakes, he would likely take it, not realizing the consequences.

Throughout the comics, Tony Stark and Stephen Strange spend a lot of time working together. A journey into the magical world would be a great way to get Doctor Strange into Iron Man’s story, and it would give him a powerful villain his films have been missing.

Moonstone

Throughout the pages of comics, we’ve often seen a villain born from an incredible scientist. Norman Osborne, Doc Ock, Doom, Red Skull; the list goes on and on. It’s an interesting take, but I think it’s time to see a transition from a different kind of science. A psychiatrist, perhaps? Karla Sofen is one of the world’s leading psychiatrists, and also one of its deadliest villains; Moonstone.

While paying her way through school, Karla found herself working for a major mob villain in order to help with her bills. Through this source, she realized one of her patients was the original Moonstone. Using her incredible manipulation, Karla was able to convince Moonstone to relinquish his power to her, and she took up the mantle. The power itself is Kree in origin, so it gives her the ability to thrive in space. In addition, she can pass through solid objects, fire beams from her hands, and create small black holes. She is undoubtedly one of the more powerful women in the MCU.

Our best chance to see Moonstone in the Cinematic Universe would be in Captain Marvel. She has been a long time nemesis of the hero, and her abilities in space make her perfect for the film. This would be our first chance to have a truly female-centric movie. Instead of dominating the cast with male characters, it would be great to see two powerful women pitted against each other.

The only downside is that Captain Marvel is still a couple of years out. What I’d love to see is Karla teased a little earlier than that. She was famous as a psychiatrist for handling high profile clients, so it wouldn’t be crazy to see someone like Tony or Bucky getting some mental help. While she was an enormous villain as Moonstone, Karla was easily as dangerous. It was once said that she drove at least eight of her clients to suicide with her words alone. She could be used in a number of ways in the MCU, let’s hope we get to see at least one of them.

Sin

With a lot of Marvel’s attention going to space and magic in Phase 3, I’d love to see a great Earth-level villain join the fray. All signs are pointing toward Bucky Barnes taking over as Captain America, and he should be given a nemesis that he can take on over multiple films. Since Steve Rogers got to duke it out with the Red Skull, it would make sense for the next Cap to wage war against The Red Skull’s offspring; Sin.

The Red Skull’s search for power didn’t stop with himself. He wanted to build a dynasty of powerful people, and it started with his daughter; Sinthea Schmidt. As a child, she was indoctrinated with his quasi-Nazi beliefs, and taught his methods as a fighter. Before reaching her teenage years, Red Skull gave Sinthea a version of the super soldier serum that also aged her rapidly into an adult. In addition to the super-human strength acquired by the serum, Sin was also given telekinetic abilities. She’s basically a cross between Captain America and Professor X. That’s a lethal combo if I’ve ever seen one.

The only problem with her back story is that she would have to have been born back in the forties, seeing as how that’s when The Red Skull met his fate. Complicated, but I see a couple of ways to work around this. We know Baron Zemo is going to have a larger role in the MCU after Civil War, and he has a lot of info on the Winter Soldier Program. Sin could be frozen somewhere in former Nazi Germany, left for him to find and activate. The other, and more obvious option, is that we haven’t seen the last of the Red Skull. We know he wasn’t killed, but sucked up into space via the Tesseract. A popular fan theory suggests that he’s alive and well, helping Thanos gather the infinity stones. What if these two used their infinite power and created Sin, a destructive tool used to reak havoc on Earth while the Avengers are tied up with the Infinity Wars? However they choose to bring her about, Sin is a villain that could rival the likes of the New Avengers, and that could stick around for years to come.

Black Cat

One of the most exciting things about the future of the MCU, is that we finally get to see Spider-Man join the fight. After appearing in Civil War, we’re going to see Spidey’s first solo film in 2017. He’s got a lot of great villains to choose from, but why not give him one more that could really give him trouble in the streets, as well as in the classroom?

A native New Yorker, Felicia Hardy was the heir to one of the most famous cat burglars in the city’s history. After her father died, Felicia decided to continue his legacy, and take on the mantle of The Black Cat. She doesn’t have super-human abilities like the other women on this list, but her stealth and charm more than make up for it.

With Spider-Man: Homecoming set to place Peter Parker right in the middle of high school, it would make sense to give him a villain that aides in his high school problems. What gives a high school guy more problems than anything else in his life? If you said girls, you’re correct. I’m sure we’ll see Peter going after either Mary Jane Watson or Gwen Stacy, but Felicia would enter the fold and complicate things. If Felicia can give him issues in school by making him question his current relationship and make him chase her around as Spider-Man by breaking into every jewellery store under the sun, she could become a unique kind of nemesis for the web-crawler.

The best thing about Black Cat, is that she isn’t a real villain. Sure, she commits crimes, but she’s not trying to kill anyone or take over the world. A little harmless theft and she’s on her way. This allows her to stay in Spider-Man’s story for years, as we won’t be in a situation where he has to put her down, or away, in order to save mankind. She can just go on being a thorn in his side as he tries to navigate bigger problems.

What did you think of this list? Who else would you want to see join the MCU? Let us know in the comments below!