10 Movie Villains Killed By Characters Nobody Expected

Most audiences quite reasonably expect to see the hero triumph over the villain at the end of a movie, usually killing them by their own hand in satisfying fashion.

But sometimes filmmakers have other ideas, to toy with expectations and give the baddie-busting honour to another character entirely - or in rare cases, just leave the villain to their own devices until they take themselves out.

These 10 movies all featured villains who audiences just couldn't wait for the protagonist to vanquish, yet as it turned out, another totally unexpected character stepped up to do the job instead.

Perhaps they were comic relief with little battle readiness, a sidekick nobody took particularly seriously, or maybe even another villain waiting in the wings to take up their mantle.

Whatever the outcome, these unforgettable movie villain deaths all deviated from the predictable, to ends either gloriously satisfying or unmistakably divisive.

Regardless of your own opinion on how these anticipated death scenes played out, it sure wasn't what anyone was expecting to happen...

Undoubtedly one of the most shocking movie deaths of the last decade, no matter hero or villain, was that of Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Though any Star Wars fan worth their salt expected Snoke to eventually be killed, nobody thought it'd happen half-way through the second movie of the sequel trilogy, nor that it'd come at the hand of anyone but our intrepid heroine Rey (Daisy Ridley).

Shocking it was, then, when Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) brought Rey to Snoke's Throne Room, and moments later Snoke suddenly found himself sliced in half by the Skywalker lightsaber, courtesy of none other than his own apprentice Ren.

While fans remain divided on whether or not Snoke's death was actually worthwhile given that it clearly ran counter to the original plan, not a single fan saw it coming.

It certainly achieved its storytelling function of elevating Ren to the stratosphere - until The Rise of Skywalker summarily ruined him, at least.