Every Harry Potter Villain Ranked From Worst To Best
8. Lucius Malfoy
Lucius Malfoy is at his worst a fairly entertaining but clichéd villain, and at his best, a broken and hateful man.
Jason Isaacs gives one of his best performances as this complex character. He shines brightest in The Deathly Hallows: Part 1, where he's at his most desperate. He frantically clings to any power he can with lines like "How dare you speak to me like that in my own house!". Voldemort even takes his wand from him. He has nothing left except for his family, which makes him cowardly running away with them a strangely satisfying end for his character.
However, he lacked this nuance in the earlier films. In The Chamber of Secrets he was an uninteresting and clichéd bad-guy. If he had more of a presence in the earlier films, he could've been one the series' best villains.