Throughout the 21st century, the narrative of objectively “good” and “bad” characters has shifted. Movies centered around the audience’s favorite villains shine a new light on their stories: “Maleficent” (2014), “Joker” (2019), “Cruella” (2021), and, most recently, the live-action movie of the famous play “Wicked” (2025). This fascination with empathizing with the antagonist is a continuing trend- but why? Why do we sympathize with the “bad guy,” and why do we want to learn more about their stories? Most of all, how do you write one?
Cognitive scientist, Albert Bandura, wrote the theory of moral disengagement, a psychological phenomenon where people dismiss their own morals to perceive others. When understanding the motivations of villainous characters, humans naturally detach themselves from the inherent “bad” actions to see them in a sympathetic light.
A poorly-crafted villain often lies on a scale between two tropes. On one end stands the inhuman “horror” villain. They typically don’t speak, lack any dimensionality, and have no true motivations besides wreaking havoc.
The opposite end is the “sob story” villain. The character is written with a painful, tragic past meant to justify their actions but instead they come off as whiny and scattered in morals and motives.
These poorly written tropes share something in common: They aren’t understandable. A sympathetic character backstory can work, but it must be done with purpose. Humans won’t disengage themselves from their morals to assess characters they don’t care about.
The live-action remakes seek to bring more to villains in their original stories, but a lot of them largely fail. “Wicked” (2025) and “Maleficent” (2014) modify original stories, but others like “Cruella” (2021) make a poor attempt at explaining the original worlds of the antagonists.
The live-action “Cruella” is meant to give background to Cruella de Vil’s motives within the movie ,“One Hundred and One Dalmatians” (1961). Instead, the story adds nothing more to her character besides irrelevance.
Movie critic, Alex Cranz, from The Verge, writes about the absurdity of the movie: “At no point does the film attempt to explain— or even hint — at how Cruella would turn from a fashion icon with a very deeply buried heart of gold into a monster forcing her friends to kidnap puppies from another friend and to make a coat.” Cranz states clearly how the purpose of adding context to her character is never achieved.
The tragic villain trope will be a continuing trend, but it must be done correctly. With news of a live-action movie of “Hercules” releasing in 2027, the beloved villain of Hades has a chance to be seen in a new light. The hope is that, when crafting his story and the many others of villains in the future, it will leave the audience with a better understanding rather than irrelevance. When writing already established characters, they still need to be them. Trauma doesn’t make characters feel complex nor human; clear motivations and progression do.
Not Every Villain Needs A Tragic Backstory
