6 Great Disney Villains Who Deserve Their Own Spinoff ASAP

The success of the Wicked movies in the last two years has made one thing clear: audiences love a good villain origin story. Potentially jumping on that bandwagon, Deadline reported in December that Disney is developing a Gaston solo film, which was described as “swashbuckling” in tone. But while this is the latest attempt to bring villains from the animated classics into new contexts, it is certainly not the only one.

Nearly all of the villains have had some kind of reinterpretation, either in books like the Villains and A Twisted Tale franchises or in Disney-adjacent properties like Descendants and Once Upon a Time. But Disney has gone back and forth on how they want to handle their notorious bad guys in solo projects. While characters like Cruella and Scar got origin stories, the Maleficent movies were effectively alternate universe depictions of the original film.

While it’s always fun to see a new take on these classic characters, some deserve their own spinoffs more than others. Since these solo villain films typically make their characters more sympathetic, characters like Governor Ratcliffe and Claude Frollo are better off left as they were. On the other side of the equation, misunderstood antagonists (like Abuela in Encanto) are unlikely to have the evil flair people love so much.

With those limitations in mind, these six Disney villains are the most deserving of their own solo adventures. Read on to see why they deserve their own spinoff and what each project could entail.

Jafar
Yzma
Hades
Ursula
Dr. Facilier
The Queen of Hearts

Jafar

Jafar is one of the most iconic male villains in Disney’s line-up, which is a strong justification for a spinoff, but there aren’t many obvious ways to set up a solo project for him. He ends the first movie trapped in a lamp, which then leads to his complete destruction in The Return of Jafar. While it’s oddly common for Disney media to resurrect him for brief periods, it just doesn’t seem viable for Jafar to get his own sequel.

Despite that, he seems like too fascinating a character to leave unexplored. Jafar is pretty much ruling Agrabah at the start of the movie, and he only loses that power because of his obsession with acquiring the genie’s lamp. It seems like the best way to proceed with his character is by showing where he came from.

There is almost no information about his backstory in the original film to show how he rose to prominence at the Sultan's court and why he is so interested in the lamp. Jafar isn’t a very sympathetic character, so the goal shouldn’t necessarily be for audiences to root for him so much as to help explain how he became the monster he eventually was.

Yzma

Generally speaking, Disney movies intend for you to root for the hero to win and the villain to fail, but The Emperor’s New Groove intentionally made an unlikeable hero who the Incan Empire would be better off without. While Yzma would not be a benevolent leader, she would certainly be a more competent one than Kuzco, which puts her in an interesting position, especially as she is never defeated in any substantial way.

Between the original film and the series The Emperor’s New School, Yzma is able to transform back into a human and regain power as Principal Amzy. Her schemes to gain the throne typically fail, but they demonstrate her ability to come back stronger each time.

A solo project could show her giving up on usurping Kuzco and instead seeking to rule another empire, potentially expanding awareness of Pre-Colombian civilizations. While the death of Eartha Kitt makes a future project difficult, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph has taken over the role in recent appearances, leaving the door open for a future Yzma project, should the right story idea be presented.

Hades

Hercules has always been a bit of a complicated adaptation, because it is a lot of fun despite being deeply inaccurate to the source material. However, the Hades slander is one of the more annoying elements, because it is reliant on a flawed belief that Hades, a God known for taking his job very seriously, who never once tried to overthrow Zeus in the myths, would be eager to take over Olympus.

Because of this, a Hades spinoff could be really useful in helping connect the mythological figure to the sassy hothead we all know and love. The film could function as a pseudo-anthology, in which Hades is repeatedly snubbed and beaten.

Although some of the myths would need to be changed to suit Disney’s audience, the story could include Demeter forcing Hades to lose his wife for half of each year, Pirithous coming to the Underworld to steal Persephone from him, and Sisyphus halting all death and escaping the Underworld. If Zeus’s involvement in all of these events is prominent enough, audiences could learn why Hades had come to hate him and how exhausting Hades's life would be as ruler of the Underworld, particularly in the Age of Heroes.

Ursula

Ursula’s character is ripe for her own spinoff because she has such an intriguing (and barely explored) backstory. We know from the original film that she hates Triton and wants to take over Atlantica, but the why is a little iffy. In the original planning for the film (and some of its adaptations), she was meant to be King Triton’s sister, which would be a fascinating direction to explore.

In a potential Ursula spin-off, we might originally see a kind version of the character, similar to her depiction in the Disney Jr. series Ariel. Then we could watch a tragedy unfold—how did this kind, gentle princess turn into the wicked sea witch we all love to hate? It could follow a similar plot to her solo novel Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch or take a new perspective as it forces audiences to simultaneously root for Ursula’s turn to villainy and mourn her lost innocence.

Dr. Facilier

Dr. Facilier is the newest of the main-line Disney Villains, which has left him little time to build up cameos and side projects. But he is a fascinating character who absolutely deserves his own story, so long as his connections to voodoo traditions are handled respectfully. Though his story in the land of the living seems to be pretty clearly over by the end of The Princess and the Frog, his journey on the other side could be a great base for a darker aesthetic Disney movie.

Facilier was inspired by Loa like Baron Samedi and Papa Legba, who manage the boundaries between life and death. A solo project could show Facilier thrust into the other side, where he owes debts to his ‘friends.’ Over the course of the film, he would learn the workings of the spirit world and eventually come to terms with his death by taking his place among them.

The Queen of Hearts

The Queen of Hearts is perhaps the Disney villain best suited to a solo sequel, because she is never actually defeated in Alice in Wonderland. Alice manages to escape, but the Queen isn’t removed from power. The only person who even moderately challenges her is the King, who seems happy to go along with her impulses most of the time.

While series like Once Upon a Time and Descendants show a future for the Queen of Hearts outside of Wonderland, it seems like a waste to take her out of the realm that eagerly bows to her every whim. Of all the Disney villains, she ends her movie with the most amount of power.

A potential solo project might show the Queen of Hearts facing off against an equally powerful foe, whom she has to combat in both the political and absurdist arenas. Go all in on the weirdness of Wonderland and show audiences why the Queen of Hearts deserves her throne!