10 Major Marvel Villains That Still Need an MCU Appearance

2025 brought a few of Marvel’s most iconic villains to the big screen. Captain America: Brave New World finally gave us Red Hulk, but even more importantly it finally introduced the Leader to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not to mention, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is going to introduce Galactus and the Silver Surfer (and perhaps Doctor DOom). It goes to show that the MCU hasn’t even gone through all of Marvel history’s A-level villains yet, much less all of its high B-level ones. Those are the villains that follow, those that have a certain amount of clout and feel like they’re inevitably going to be a part of either an MCU movie or one of the Disney+ shows.

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That said, it has to be a villain who would have a chance of working in an MCU project, though. That means no Fin Fang Foom, the alien that looks like a dragon (who often wears purple pants).

1) Enchantress

Marvel has confirmed that Loki‘s Sylvie is based on Enchantress (no relation to the DC Enchantress as seen in Suicide Squad). It’s pretty obvious, too, as they share a very similar headband (Sylvie’s is gold instead of green) and a practically identical green bodysuit. But the personalities are different. Furthermore, Enchantress’ real name, Amora, was mentioned in a deleted scene of Loki‘s second season, so they are certainly two different individuals.

Who is Enchantress? She’s an Asgardian, arguably the most powerful sorcerer to come from Asgard. She comes with any number of abilities, from superhuman strength and speed to the ability to summon energy shields and utilize telepathy. These are all things she’s used on Thor at one time or another. With some slight reworking of her background (unless she was sitting on the sidelines during the event of Thor: Ragnarok) she could be brought into the MCU fairly easily. The question is, would it be in another Thor movie? Do we really need another one of those? Or could it perhaps be in a continuation of WandaVision or Agatha All Along?

2) Mister Sinister

Mr. Sinister is one of those villains who could be teased in one movie then given full reign in the next. Namely, in a pair (or more) of X-Men movies. They’re about to be introduced in full in Avengers: Doomsday, so it’s not that far-fetched a notion. It would be akin to how Thanos used Loki and Ronan before getting his hands dirty himself.

Mister Sinister is one of the X-Men’s big bads, but he likes to use others to do his dirty work more often than not. He’s used Apocalypse, for instance. His goal is to turn humanity into a race consisting solely of superhumans. Naturally, many won’t make the cut in his plans. If that doesn’t sound like the villain of a third and final installment of an X-Men movie trilogy, what does?

3) Mephisto

Based on Mephistopheles of the Faust legend, Mephisto is a fully red demon who typically faces the Silver Surfer and Ghost Rider. He even caused the loss of Spider-Man’s marriage to Mary Jane Watson, but it’s doubtful they’ll go that route with a future sequel to Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

To get Mephisto right, whichever MCU project would need to take its time with the special effects. If not properly animated, he would look ridiculous. But with his superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and ability to use magic, he would work in quite a few different MCU series, from Doctor Strange to the Fantastic Four.

4) Blackheart

Blackheart is the son of the aforementioned Mephisto. If either name sounds familiar to Marvel movie aficionados it’s because they were portrayed by, respectively, Wes Bentley and Peter Fonda in 2007’s Ghost Rider.

Needless to say, both characters need more faithful (and overall less lame) adaptations than they were given in that nonsense. Blackheart isn’t quite as powerful as his father, but he’s arguably smarter, and he can still utilize magic just like his papa. Perhaps the MCU could make a really solid Ghost Rider movie and get them right this time. Afterall, Blackheart had basically no arc in the 2007 movie, even though there’s a lot to work with in the comics.

5) Nightmare

Both Doctor Strange and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness turned substantial profits, so a third film seems inevitable. When the time does come, Nightmare could make for a fitting opponent to up the stakes after Kaecilius and the Scarlet Witch.

He is the ruler of the Dream Dimension, an astral realm related to humanity’s collective psyche. It’s not far off from the Shadow Realm we saw in Thunderbolts*, which was one of that film’s stronger aspects. From there, Nightmare can drain people’s subconscious minds while they’re dreaming. He would essentially be the MCU’s Freddy Krueger, and that could work quite well if they nail the casting. People need to dream, and Nightmare needs them to dream to survive. There was one point in the comics’ history when Doctor Strange and Nightmare had to join forces to keep people dreaming, due in one part to Nightmare’s need to survive and due in another part because, without the ability to dream, people would go insane. Perhaps he could be one of those villains who isn’t killed by film’s end, but rather coerced into changing his ways so he could stay alive without draining humanity to the point it hurts them.

6) Magus

Magus is the evil future version of Adam Warlock, so casting is already down pat considering James Gunn brought Will Poulter into the fold with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Whoever takes the reigns of the Guardians of the Galaxy series from here on out (which seems inevitable, given how Vol. 3 was one of the more all-around successful entries in MCU Phase Five) should bring Poulter back in a dual role.

Magus is also typically featured in X-Men comics, so he could work in one of their inevitable mainline films as well. With his high intelligence and the ability to shapeshift, this techno-organic baddy could take on multiple heroes at once, so be it X-Men or the Guardians he would make for a solid addition to the MCU.

7) Annihilus

A villain the MCU could put on Thanos’ level, Annihilus seems bound to be a presence in the Universe now that the Fantastic Four have become a part of it. They are mostly who he’s butted heads with, after they travelled from the Earth to the Negative Zone, which is his strictly ruled domain.

However, he’s often set his sights on Earth. So, along with his partner Blastaar, he could easily serve as the villain of either an Avengers mash-up film or a The Fantastic Four: First Steps sequel. He would certainly make for a tough villain to take down, as he’s shown himself capable of taking down Thing and Thor in the comics. Not to mention, his insectoid appearance would be fun to see with a budget behind it.

8) Molecule Man

Molecule Man has an interesting backstory that would work in a movie. He was born Owen Reece, a shy kid with some mommy issues. After his mom passed, he grew to hate the world which he deemed to be against him. As is typically the case with Marvel villains (at least those in the Spider-Man movies), he was working as a lab tech at a nuclear plant where he was exposed infused with radiation.

Now, Molecule Man can control matter down to the molecule, which would make him a worthy main adversary of either a movie or TV series. Considering he usually goes up against the Fantastic Four, it would likely be a movie.

9) Ares

Marvel might avoid adapting Ares for the same reason they might avoid adapting Enchantress: He was already done in the DCEU. Of course, they’re different characters altogether…but are they really? There are definite throughlines. However, neither Enchantress nor Ares was adapted particularly well in the DCEU, so perhaps the door is open to get their mystical and war-hungry, respectively, quirks done properly.

Like DC’s version, Marvel’s Ares is based on the Greek God of War. As one might expect, he typically went up against Thor, though he’s also fought Hercules on occasion. So, should the MCU deliver on the Hercules promise given at the end of Thor: Love and Thunder, Ares would make a fitting inclusion. Perhaps Thor and Hercules could team up to take him down.

10) Madame Masque

A version of Madame Masque appeared on ABC’s Agent Carter, but the most well-known version of the character, with the golden mask, did not. So, really, she’s still fair game.

For the most part Madame Masque was both a love interest and adversary of Iron Man’s, but the MCU could still find use for her now that that character is dead. Specifically with her archenemy Kate Bishop. The MCU needs to bring Hailee Steinfeld back anyway.