10 Movie Villains Who Deserved MUCH WORSE

10. Saruman - The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King

Though it was Sauron who was the ultimate big bad of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, as the literal Lord of the Ring, the malevolent monster waited in the wings for the first two movies. In his place was Saruman (Christopher Lee), who abandoned reason for madness and joined the Dark Lord.

Not only did the powerful wizard imprison Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen), he sent the Fellowship into Caradhras where his fellow sorcerer was killed by the Balrog; built an army of Uruk-hai for Sauron; and engineered the attack on Helm's Deep. It was essentially he who was going to take Middle-earth for Sauron in the name of Mordor.

However, when the White Wizard was defeated, thanks to Treebeard and his army of Ents at Isengard, he was just kept in solitary confinement in his tower. No punishment to be spoken of outside of complete isolation. 

Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) wanted Saruman killed, which would have been far more fitting of the crime(s), but Gandalf said no. Because Saruman had no power anymore he would no longer be a threat. This was especially stupid since a year earlier they believed Sauron to be without power, but he still managed to wage a bloody war on the whole of Middle-earth. Did Gandalf learn nothing?

In the extended edition of The Return of the King, Saruman was killed by his lackey, Grima Wormtongue (Brad Dourif), a much more fitting ending for such a villain.