10 TV Villains You Wish Got More Screen Time

Here's a rule everyone should follow for the rest of time: If you get Mahershalla Ali to play a villain, don't kill him off without giving him the development he deserves.

In Luke Cage, Ali only appears as crime lord Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes for the show's first seven episodes, after which he finds himself bludgeoned to death by his bitter cousin Mariah, an admittedly great character who nonetheless serves as a crushing reminder of what the show threw away in Ali.

Given the towering performance of two-time Oscar winner Ali, and Cottonmouth's boundless potential going forward in the MCU, it's truly enraging to remember how and when his time on the show ended.

Honestly, the MCU's Netflix series are all pretty damn great, rarely missing an opportunity to blow audiences away before they were unfairly cancelled, but the loss of Cottonmouth is still their biggest mistake.