Marvel Comics has always been home to some of the most famous villains in recent movie history, from Magneto to Doctor Doom to Loki. But as we've moved deeply into the next phase of comic book movies, the lesser and more obscure bad guys are starting to come out of the woodwork. In the past year alone, the big screen has seen the likes of Coldblood, the Collector and Malekith The Accursed, and this Friday's Captain America: The Winter Soldier opens with the early menace of Batroc The Leaper. These are some serious deep cut characters, ones that not even nerds could spot in a lineup.
But Marvel still has a bevy of great baddies that haven't popped up in movie form quite yet. And with the multi-tiered Avengers mythology, the growing Spider-Man universe and the worlds of X-Men and Fantastic Four, there's reason to believe some of Marvel's evil heavy hitters are coming right up. Neglecting the villains who have already been announced for future Marvel films (including the likes of Ultron), we've assembled a group of ten of Marvel's most beloved baddies that have yet to hit the screen.
Fin Fang Foom
Who Is He? Fin Fang Foom is an ancient alien dragon from before mankind's era, one who wakes ready to destroy. And sometimes, he talks.
Where Would He Fit? Imagery featuring the character was shown in both the first and third Iron Man movies, and Tony Stark did battle with the beast in the animated The Invincible Iron Man, fulfilling his common association with the villainous Mandarin. But as a mystical being, he could easily throw down with the God of Thunder in a third Thor, perhaps requiring the Asgardian legend to re-team with Avengers cohort the Hulk.
Mr. Sinister
Who Is He? Nineteenth century geneticist Nathaniel Essex was hated by peers and feared by his family for his disturbing experiments on humans, and his belief in mutation as a form of evolution that could be enhanced and weaponized. With his philosophies aligning with the mutant demigod Apocalypse, he was given superior abilities in exchange for serving the wold-be ruler of the mutant race.
Where Would He Fit? With the coming of X-Men: Apocalypse comes the chance to feature one of the character's most well-known associates. Sinister also always took a great interest in the Summers' family: if you want a way to bring back Cyclops, who died in X-Men: The Last Stand, Sinister is the character who establishes that Scott Summers and Jean Grey are the focal points in the next step in mutant evolution. We consider Sinister's ridiculous cheekbones and come to only one conclusion: it must be James Franco.
M.O.D.O.K
Who Is He? A freak accident turned Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) technician George Tarleton into a being they soon called the Mobile Organism Designed Only for Computation, or M.O.D.O.C. for short. (The "K," changed later, stood for "Killing.") But his transformation drove him mad, and soon he slayed his colleagues, re-naming himself the Mobile Organism Designed Only for Killing. His obscene intellect allows him the ability to inhabit other machines, though he is permanently stuck in the cursed form of a giant head attached, with limited support, to a tiny body.
Where Would He Fit? First of all, M.O.D.O.K. fits just about anywhere: all Marvel fans absolutely love one of the canon's strangest and most unpredictable villains. Though A.I.M. is more of a corporate threat on par with Justin Hammer's (Sam Rockwell) Roxxon from Iron Man 2, there's reason he could pop up in a future Iron Man film. It's the role Burn Gorman (Pacific Rim) was born to play.
Klaw
Who Is He? Ulysses Klaw is a deranged physicist who has designed a way to turn sound into mass and vice versa. Procuring the material to create such tech has made him turn his entire being into pure sound, which is filtered out through the prosthesis in place of his missing hand. Klaw is insane, dude.
Where Would He Fit? It was established that to continue his experiments, Klaw would need to procure Vibranium, which can only be found in Wakanda, Africa. That region, however, is protected by the Black Panther. If Marvel does a Black Panther movie, you'd have to believe Klaw would show up, which could be interesting: after committing the insane act of turning himself into actual sound (!), stealing Vibranium is basically an act of self-preservation as much as it is outright villainy. For some reason, Rob Lowe feels just right for this part.
Kang
Who Is He? Entire civilizations have fallen at the feet of the time-traveling conqueror known as Kang. Arriving on our Earth, the near-invulnerable madman deigns to add another trophy to his collection, no matter how many lives are lost on his conquest through all of time.
Where Would He Fit? Kang's tangoed with just about every Marvel hero thus far, but his closest relation seems to be with The Fantastic Four. Which makes sense, given that, depending on which reality is followed, Kang just might be the son of Mr. Fantastic. As far as casting, it needs to be someone as scary and regal as possible: Benedict Cumberbatch would do quite nicely.
Kraven
Who Is He?: Sergei Kravinoff is one of the world's deadliest and most accomplished hunters. His boredom shows when he decides to pursue Spider-Man, however, engaging in his deadliest mission yet. It wasn't personal for Kraven, who simply wanted to find the most capable prey he could find, and when he finally defeated Spidey in battle, he took his own life.
Where Would He Fit? As one of Spider-Man's greatest foes, it's a surprise he hasn't factored into any of the Spider-Man films quite yet. It would be entirely plausible to make Kraven a reality television star dead-set on attacking and conquering New York's friendly neighborhood web-slinger. Someone give Oded Fehr (The Mummy) a call.
Mojo
Who Is He? In an alternate world that came to be known as Mojoworld, the denizens have been driven mad by television programs beamed from Earth. One of the few unaffected as been the monstrous, spineless beast called Mojo, who sought to kidnap humans and manufacture his own programming to continue enslaving the people. However, his highest ratings came when he was able to kidnap the X-Men, which he did with regularity.
Where Would He Fit? Look, Mojo is a ridiculous character, which is part of his charm: basically, he's a drooling, slobby caricature of a television executive. The X-Men movies have already trafficked in crazy space travel and are about to introduce an alien-like character in X-Men: Apocalypse: how far can we really be from a multiverse that includes Mojoworld? Also, tell Meatloaf to gain some extra weight, he's got a great role waiting for him.
Mysterio
Who Is He? Quentin Beck is a special effects wizard and bit-part actor frustrated with his lack of career mobility. Using his powers for evil, he starts to use his illusions to commit crime and frustrate an easily-confused Spider-Man.
Where Would He Fit? While some cling to the theory that Bruce Campbell played Beck as an out-of-work actor in all three Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man movies, we still haven't seen him onscreen yet. If Now You See Me proved anything, it's that audiences are game for characters who are arrogant illusionists, and in that aspect Mysterio would be a great addition to the onscreen Marvel universe. We'd fantasy-cast him, but Mysterio is almost never seen outside of his famous fishbowl, so why bother? Just get Bruce again.
Purple Man
Who Is He? Zebediah Killgrave was a Yugoslavian spy until an accidental dose of chemicals gave him highly-irradiated skin and the extreme powers of persuasion.
Where Would He Fit? Purple Man is a real nasty ground-level villain, one with pretty vile ties to the worlds of Daredevil, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones (look it up, it's pretty insidious). With those three characters earning their own Netflix series', you can bet your ass he'll be showing up to engage in some particularly nasty torturing. While we've already seen him as Multiple Man in X-Men: The Last Stand, why not give the tall, handsome, highly-untrustworthy Eric Dane a call?
THE SKRULLS
Who Are They? This billion year old alien race exists at the far reaches of the universe. Through years of mutations and genetic experimentation, they have retained vaguely human features, which has assisted in the development of their ability to change shape into any living being. They are war-like people, some of whom walk amongst the humans undetected.
Where Would They Fit? There's vague confusion over who actually owns the Skrulls, whether it be Fox (as part of the Fantastic Four package) or Marvel. If it's the former, that would be more appropriate, considering the Four have clashed repeatedly with the murderous invaders. However, one of the lesser-known wrinkles in the comics is that the Skrulls are believed to be the creators of the Cosmic Cube, the device referred to in the Marvel onscreen universe as the Tesseract.
HONORABLE MENTION: We wanted to find spots, but couldn't, for Carnage, Taskmaster, Swarm (he is MADE OF BEES), Impossible Man, The Mole Man, Tatterdemalion, Dormammu, Ultimo, Omega Red, Annihilus and the Apocalypse Beast.
