In this craft compendium, John and Craig take a look at everything you need to make your bad guys compelling, memorable, and the perfect antagonist for your story. Using some favorite villains as examples, they look at the importance of understanding their motivations and offer seven tips for making a villain unforgettable.
We also take a look at lackeys, henchmen and making sure your evil organizations are believable.
In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Craig shift their focus to monsters, and why even though those scary creatures are dangerous, they’re not always the villain.
Links:
- Scriptnotes Episode 75 – Villains
- Scriptnotes Episode 590 – Anti-Villains
- Scriptnotes Episode 465 – The Lackeys Know What They’re Doing
- Scriptnotes Episode 257 – Flaws are Features
- Every Villain is a Hero
- Writing Better Bad Guys
- Screenwriting and the Problem of Evil
- Mama
- The 1000 Deaths of Wile E. Coyote by T.B.D.
- Why do good people do bad things? by Daniel Effron
- Why some people are willing to challenge behavior they see as wrong despite personal risk by Catherine A. Sanderson
- The Monsters Know What They’re Doing blog and book
- Austin Powers deleted scene, “Henchman’s Wife”
- Redshirt
- 7 Tips for Creating Unforgettable Villains
- How Christopher Nolan writes a movie on our YouTube!
- Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
- Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
- Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription
- Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
- Craig Mazin on Instagram
- John August on Bluesky and Instagram
- Outro by Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!)
- Segments produced by Stuart Friedel, Megana Rao, and Drew Marquardt.
- Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.
Email us at ask@johnaugust.com
You can download the episode here.
UPDATE 7-16-25: The transcript for this episode can be found here.