20 Secret Movie Villains EVERYONE Saw Coming

While there's something to be said for a film that introduces an unforgettable villain from the jump, the surprise villain is a tried-and-tested gambit that, when executed well, can elevate an already good movie far into the stratosphere.

But it's also fair to say that delivering a secret villain that remains a genuine secret until the moment of unmasking is much tougher than it seems, especially with the audiences of today being so savvy to all the movie tropes.

And so, it's incredibly common for viewers en masse to figure these things out long before the movie wants them to, in extreme cases gleaning it from the trailer or perhaps even a casting announcement before shooting started.

Though it's worth pointing out that not all obvious villain reveals are inherently bad - because some of these films are certainly about much more than that - sometimes the big moment is so outrageously predictable that one questions whether the filmmakers actually fully thought it through.

And so one way or another, just about everybody saw these not-so-shocking villain reveals coming a mile or two off...

The marketing for Men in Black: International centered around the hunt for a mole within the shadowy organisation, and in basically record time many fans predicted that said mole would end up being Liam Neeson's character High T - the head of MiB's London branch.

Nobody else in the cast would've made much impact as a surprise villain and, honestly, casting an actor of Neeson's stature as a throwaway figurehead just seemed like a huge waste otherwise.

In fact, High T was such an obvious prime suspect that some assumed he'd actually end up being a red herring, only for the real mole to be someone else entirely.

But no, most fans were right the first time - we eventually learn that High T's body has been taken over by the alien parasites known as the Hive, allowing them to infiltrate MiB.

It's such a blatantly telegraphed reveal that most were simply left waiting the better part of two hours for the other shoe to drop.