There is something special about watching a truly magnificent villain at work. They aren’t just simple bad guys. They are forces of nature, often driven by complex motivations, and sometimes, just sometimes, they steal the show so completely that we find ourselves quietly cheering them on. In 2025, the world of OTT streaming delivered an amazing batch of these compelling antagonists, leaving us conflicted, captivated, and secretly hoping they’d get away with it.
How about we forget the heroes for a moment, huh? Here are the top OTT villains of 2025 we secretly rooted for!
1. Pennywise the Dancing Clown (IT: Welcome to Derry)
The chilling HBO prequel series, IT: Welcome to Derry, brought back the iconic, shape-shifting entity known as Pennywise, and thanks to Bill Skarsgård, he remained as terrifyingly charismatic as ever.
While his acts were undeniably horrific, there’s an undeniable theatricality and eerie, yet somehow mesmerising charm that makes him endlessly watchable. Skarsgård’s phenomenal work took the evil character to new heights this time.
Even as we found ourselves scared and in extreme discomfort, a part of us admired the sheer audacious creativity of his terror, right? The series, which delved deeper into the origins of Derry’s curse, amplified Pennywise’s mystique, making him less of a monster and more of an ancient, cosmic being with a twisted sense of humour.
2. Vecna (Stranger Things 5)
“Ab hoga Vecna-sur ka vadh!” We all want El, Will, Mike, and the rest of the group to close Vecna’s chapter once and for all. But we also root for him secretly. Come on! You know we’re right.
So why do many of us secretly root for him? Not because we want Hawkins to fall, but because, first of all, his backstory, as a sensitive child experimented on and discarded by the government, feels painfully human. Another big reason is Jamie Campbell Bower’s terrifying, chilling, and calculated take on the evil being. Amid all his cruel deeds and dark intentions, there is still a shattered human being underneath.
Has he lost his humanity entirely? Or are there still teeny-tiny, however small, shades of humanity left inside him? As we near the series finale, we still don’t know what truly terrifies him to the core. Why was he scared and chose not to enter the cave while trying to catch Max? There’s still so much left to explore in his character in the upcoming finale.
3. Charles Sobhraj (Black Warrant)
Playing a real-life killer is a high-wire act, but in Black Warrant, Siddhant Gupta’s portrayal of the Serpent was intoxicating. Positioned as a Hannibal Lecter–style mentor to a rookie jailer in Tihar, Sobhraj was the smartest person in every room. We found ourselves rooting for his escape, or at least his next psychological victory, because his snake-like ability to evade detection made the bumbling, corrupt prison system look even worse by comparison.
4. Rukma (The Family Man Season 3)
The shift to the North-East in The Family Man 3 introduced Jaideep Ahlawat as Rukma, a ruthless hitman and drug smuggler. While retaining his savagery and unpredictability, he somehow forms a complicated yet emotional connection with his lover’s child, showcasing that there are still some shades of humanity left in him.
Rukma also emerged as the first man who truly forced the unflappable Srikant to lose his cool, pushing him to extreme levels of pain, hatred, and vengeance. Somewhere amid his ruthlessness, we also witnessed a strange yet intriguing connection between Rukma and Meera (Nimrat Kaur), and their chemistry looked electric.
5. Badi Didi (Delhi Crime Season 3)
Huma Qureshi’s Meena, aka Badi Didi, was a revelation. Leading a human trafficking network inspired by the real-life Baby Falak case, the character is undoubtedly the meanest and most evil role Qureshi has ever played in her career.
However, as a woman who built a criminal empire to escape her own circumstances, she became a perversely fascinating figure. We rooted for her competence and her ability to outmanoeuvre a bureaucracy that had failed her long before she turned to crime.
6. Dedra Meero (Andor Season 2)
Dedra Meero remains the poster child for calculated yet menacing villains. In Andor’s final season, her ascent within the ISB was a masterclass in corporate ladder-climbing. We rooted for her because she was right. She was the only one smart enough to see the Rebellion coming.
Her story shows how fascism destroys even those who use it, making her downfall feel like a tragic waste of a brilliant mind.
7. The Front Man (Squid Game Season 3)
The finale of Squid Game turned the Front Man (In-ho) from a masked enigma into a deeply conflicted soul. Season 3 revealed a sliver of humanity when he intentionally spared his brother and wrestled with his own victory from 2015.
We rooted for him because he represented the ultimate cynic: a man who had lost faith in humanity and was desperately waiting for someone like Gi-hun to prove him wrong. His internal battle between duty to the VIPs and hope for humanity made him the series’s most tragic and strangely relatable figure.
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