10 Essential DC Villains Not Yet Used In The DCEU

Seriously - how long will it take for Braniac to appear?!

by Andrew Pollard
Darkseid DC Comics
DC Comics

As the saying goes, every great story needs a great villain.

To date, the DC Extended Universe has offered up a mixed bag of bad guys, ranging from good, to decent, to painful (here's lookin' at you, Lex). This shared cinematic realm has showcased some of DC Comics' most notorious villains since it began back in 2013 with Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, but there's still so many of DC's famed rogues available to be given the big-screen treatment.

Of course, the very future of the DCEU is an uncertain one right now, yet there are plentiful movies in various stages of development. So much so, it's safe to start looking through the ranks of DC's most infamous names and see which ones would be best suited to being brought to life in an upcoming feature.

Just to give you fair warning, this article is aiming to stay away from those bad guys 'n' gals who have featured in a movie or two in relatively recent years, with the aim being to try and bring something fresh and new to what we've seen from Warners' DC-driven output.

With that in mind, then, here are some of the most sinister wrong 'uns that would be great additions to the DCEU over the next few years.

10. The Riddler

Darkseid DC Comics
DC Comics

In trying to not simply redo the Batman villains we’ve seen up against the last couple of incarnations of the cinematic Caped Crusader, one rogue ripe for another crack at the big-screen Bat-action is The Riddler.

To be particularly sceptical, it’s fair to say that The Riddler has never been done proper justice when it comes to film. Frank Gorshin’s take on the character could be a possible exception should you count the 1966 Adam West-headlined Batman movie, but Jim Carrey? No, that was not The Riddler.

With E. Nygma being a cold, calculating sort who spends his time masterfully planning cunning schemes designed to take down the Dark Knight and plentiful other DC heroes, Carrey’s Riddler was the polar opposite of this. Loud? Brash? Erratic? Joker-lite? Tick, tick, tick, and double tick.

The current landscape of superhero movies is now at a point where these are rightly viewed as serious films with some major stakes on the line. With that in mind, now could be the perfect time to give audiences a truly worthy take on Edward Nygma going up against Robert Pattinson's Batman. Riddle me this, indeed.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.