Once Upon A Time Villains Ranked From Bad To Pure Evil - Collider

Once Upon A Time, on ABC from 2011 to 2018, is a highly popular fantasy show, with a unique premise. Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) is reunited with Henry (Jared Gilmore), the boy she gave up for adoption ten years ago, who brings her to the town of Storybrooke, Maine. She soon learns that she is the daughter of Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas). Yes, that Snow White and Prince Charming. In fact, the whole town is full of classic characters, from Disney and others. Definitely not fictional, but real people that don't remember who they truly are, thanks to a curse cast by the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla), who just so happens to be mayor... and Henry's adoptive mother. This premise allows the writers great creative license to introduce beloved heroes, like Belle (Emilie de Ravin) and Dopey (Jeffrey Kaiser), throughout the series' run. Oh, and lest we forget, despicable, evil villains too.

After all, every hero's story has a villain, and Once Upon A Time had many over its time. Some find redemption, while others stick with their villainous ways to the end. Out of this motley bunch arose some truly memorable nasties, villains who do their best for a happily never after.

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12. Captain Hook (Colin O'Donoghue)

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Arriving in Season 2 as an ally to Cora (Barbara Hershey), Captain Hook/Killian Jones (Colin O'Donoghue) notches a number of contemptible deeds before switching to anti-hero. He steals Rumpelstiltskin's (Robert Carlyle) wife, shoots Belle, steals Ursula's (Merrin Dungey) voice, and kills his father.

11. The Black Fairy (Jaime Murray)

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The Black Fairy/Fiona (Jaime Murray) gets banished to the Dark Realm by the Blue Fairy (Keegan Connor), where she kidnaps children from various realms, forcing them to mine dark fairy dust. She eventually kidnaps her own grandson, Gideon (Giles Matthey), raises him in the Dark Realm, rips his heart out and forces him to kill the Savior (who is her own son, Rumpelstiltskin) in Storybrooke. Set free from the Dark Realm, she battles Emma before being killed.

10. Maleficent (Kristin Bauer van Straten)

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Esteemed among her villain colleagues, Maleficent (Kristin Bauer van Straten) creates the Sleeping Curse, writes a highly popular spell book, can bend fire to her will, and can turn into a horrifying dragon. Basically the Martha Stewart of villainy.

9. The Snow Queen (Elizabeth Mitchell)

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The Snow Queen/Ingrid (as played by the always excellent Elizabeth Mitchell), driven insane by the loss of her two sisters, concocts a plan to make Emma and Elsa (Georgina Haig) her new sisters. She then uses the Spell of Shattered Sight, with the intent that all the inhabitants of Storybrooke kill each other, leaving them as the only three left. Truly cold-hearted.

8. Mother Gothel (Emma Booth)

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Pretty run-of-the-mill stuff: kills an entire civilization, vows to destroy every human on the planet, abandons her daughter Alice (Rose Reynolds) in a tower, poisons Alice and Alice's father Captain Hook just so they can never be together.

7. Hades (Greg Germann)

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God of death, ruler of the Underworld, and enthusiastic hobbyist, with a diverse collection of souls. Hades (Greg Germann) is evil, petty, cruel, sadistic... but on the plus side, he is the only villain whose flaming hair could toast a marshmallow.

6. Cruella de Vil (Victoria Smurfit)

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Played by Victoria Smurfit, who clearly had fun with the role, this version of Cruella is mighty nasty. She kills her father and two stepfathers. She gains the power to control animals, using it to get two dalmatians to kill her mother, then kills the dogs to make a coat. And that's all before even setting foot in Storybrooke.

5. Cora Mills (Barbara Hershey)

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Princess Cora Mills/the Queen of Hearts is the cold, cruel, and heartless - literally, heartless - mother of Regina and Zelena (Rebecca Mader), who was instrumental in turning them into villains. She kills Regina's true love, abandons Zelena in the forest, darkens Snow White's heart, and destroys an entire village, ripping the hearts out of all the villagers. Villain enough for you?

4. Zelena (Rebecca Mader)

As if she didn't already haunt our dreams from The Wizard of Oz. Zelena/The Wicked Witch of the West is revealed to be Regina's sister, and daughter of former Mother of the Year nominee Cora. Like many villains on the show, Zelena does find redemption, but not before she puts a sleeping curse on Dorothy (Teri Reeves), kidnaps Snow White's newborn son, and keeps Rumpelstiltskin captive, taunting him mercilessly with the help of the Dark One dagger. Bonus points for creepily disguising herself as Marian (Christie Laing), the late wife of Robin Hood (Sean Maguire), and sleeping with him.

3. Peter Pan (Robbie Kay)

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Certainly not the harmless scamp from the animated classic. Peter (Robbie Kay) is mischievous, manipulative, scheming and, well, evil. He's the father of Rumpelstiltskin, who he abandons just to regain his youth and stay in Neverland, and kidnaps children to become his Lost Boys (what's the deal with all the abandoning and/or kidnapping kids on this show?). Pan knows the heroes better than they know themselves, and uses that to his advantage time and time again.

2. Regina Mills (Lana Parrilla)

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Regina Mills/The Evil Queen is the one who cast the Dark Curse, bringing everyone to Storybrooke and erasing their memories. Arguably, the entire run of the series is about her road to redemption, but when she was bad, she was very, very bad. The evil stepmother of Snow White, Regina is a murderous, merciless, and evil sociopath. When angered, which was often, she snaps the necks of her guards by waving her hand, or simply stabs them. She is full of misery, and goes out of her way to make everyone else miserable, going so far as to even wreck other's romances. As mayor of Storybrooke, she intimidates the townspeople, using them to satisfy her insatiable need for power.

1. Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle)

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Out of all the villains on the show, only one had his gnarled hand on almost every single event — Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold. He controls who holds the advantage, either the heroes or villains, whichever one benefits him the most. He is the one that trained the Mills' women in magic, influencing them to even darker paths. In fact, Rumpelstiltskin has some sort of attachment to almost all the villains on the show, always pushing them to new heights of villainy. His relationship with Belle is always fraught with lies and manipulation. What truly cements his placing at number one is how he not only starts as a villain, but also is the final big bad of the series, a character so deeply developed and ingrained in the histories of the other characters that any other would pale in comparison. This was actually Wish Realm Rumpelstiltskin, a variant untouched by love, but still counts.