1. Palpatine/Darth Sidious – Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
No list of evil masterminds would be complete without Palpatine. Introduced in The Phantom Menace as a seeming well-intentioned politician, he spends the prequel trilogy climbing the ranks of the Galactic Senate. It’s not until Episode III that it’s explicitly revealed he’s been the Jedi’s true enemy all along, and by then, it’s too late.
There’s far more to Palpatine’s genius plan than we can document here, but it’s truly a work of evil art. After just a few years of posturing, he manages to engineer an entire war, then manipulate his way into the most powerful position of government available. Once there, he eliminates his competition and proclaims himself Emperor. At that point, there’s no one left to openly oppose him anyway.
Of course, the original trilogy already revealed his ultimate fate, but that doesn’t make him any less brilliant. His capacity for deceit and cunning is unlike anyone else ever written, and he’s truly one of the greatest movie villains ever to hatch a genius plan. He even outsmarts the all-powerful space wizards that make Star Wars so great, making him one of the most dangerous men in the entire galaxy. Not bad for a seemingly harmless beaurocrat.
And that’s our list. Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to follow Corner of Film on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @corneroffilm to keep up to date with all our excellent content!