Every Knives Out Villain Ranked: From Weakest Link to Ultimate Mastermind

Knives Out is back in the game. After Glass Onion left a lot of folks underwhelmed, Wake Up Dead Man hits Netflix and, yeah, people are loud about it. Fresh puzzle, nasty motives, and Benoit Blanc doing his thing. The catch: with Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig reportedly stepping back for a breather, it might be a minute before we get another one. So while the knives are still out, I ranked every villain and morally gray player across the series from least-bad to absolute worst. Spoilers ahead for all three films.

1. Richard Drysdale (Knives Out)

   Don Johnson plays Richard like the most basic flavor of Thrombey bad: husband to Linda, cheating, exposed by Harlan, and too cowardly to own it. The guy also can not keep Marta Cabrera's home country straight and sprinkles in some smug, self-serving politics. Not a mastermind, just a garden-variety phony.

2. Meg Thrombey (Knives Out)

   Katherine Langford's first big thing after 13 Reasons Why gives us Meg, who initially feels like the family's one decent person. She is kind to Marta... until the inheritance shifts, and she calls to fish for plans while the rest of the Thrombeys eavesdrop. Starts sweet, ends opportunistic.

3. Joni Thrombey (Knives Out)

   Toni Collette makes Joni a hilarious mess, but the facts are simple: she is Meg's mom, the widow of Harlan's late son Neil, and she was siphoning cash from Harlan. He found out. She did not kill anyone, but she was happily living on ill-gotten support.

4. Linda Drysdale (Knives Out)

   Jamie Lee Curtis plays the lone Thrombey daughter as a cool-headed real estate shark. She learns Richard cheated, and she is the family member most visibly hostile to Marta post-will reading. Some of it is about control (and not letting go of her father's legacy), but the vibe is icy entitlement more than outright evil.

5. Birdie Jay (Glass Onion)

   Kate Hudson is perfectly cast as Birdie, a celebrity fashion designer who outsourced to sweatshops and kept endangering people through sheer negligence. Fun fact: Kaley Cuoco almost got the role. Birdie's not a killer; she is just irresponsibly awful.

6. Lee Ross (Wake Up Dead Man)

   Andrew Scott, dialing it way down from Moriarty-level menace, plays a sci-fi author who spirals into lockstep with Monsignor Jefferson Wicks. He warps his smarts into paranoid, us-versus-them thinking. Not the worst in this world, but once faith turns culty, that mindset gets dangerous fast.

7. Simone Vivane (Wake Up Dead Man)

   Cailee Spaeny is Simone, a disabled former concert cellist clinging to Wicks's phony promise of a miracle cure. She endures his cruelty because she is desperate to believe. She is not malicious; she is manipulated. Still, following the wrong leader can pull you into some dark places.

8. Vera Draven, Esq. (Wake Up Dead Man)

   Kerry Washington's high-powered attorney does the books for the church and funnels huge sums to keep Wicks's operation humming. She wants her father's blessing and knows exactly what she is enabling. Not a pawn, a choice.

9. Lionel Toussaint (Glass Onion)

   Leslie Odom Jr. plays Miles Bron's in-house brain and one of the Disruptors. Lionel signs off on Klear despite knowing it is dangerous. Respect for Miles' supposed genius only goes so far; the real motivators are access and power.

10. Claire Debella (Glass Onion)

    Kathryn Hahn's governor looks the other way on Klear too, in exchange for campaign support. It is cynical, not clueless. The original piece even throws in the random aside that Hahn has a crush on Daniel Craig's wife, Rachel Weisz. Not the point, but noted.

11. Walt Thrombey (Knives Out)

    Michael Shannon turns Walt into the family's soft-spoken hammer. He runs Harlan's publishing arm and wants to pivot into adaptations, but he does not control the rights. So he tries to strong-arm Harlan and later threatens Marta when she inherits. Creepy, calculated, and more than a little scary.

12. Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Wake Up Dead Man)

    Josh Brolin brings the heat as a domineering priest who uses the pulpit to isolate, humiliate, and control. His sermons push followers into terrible choices through fear and superiority. He is both victim and spark for what follows, which is its own kind of rot.

13. Cy Draven (Wake Up Dead Man)

    Daryl McCormack plays Vera's adopted son, a would-be political brand-builder eager to weaponize Wicks's sermons and social reach into a right-wing media machine. The ambition plus the cynicism is chilling.

14. Duke Cody (Glass Onion)

    Dave Bautista's men's-rights streamer is a loud, funny chaos agent. He figures out Miles killed his ex-partner and tries to leverage that to boost his career. Blackmail is ugly, but in this crowd, he is hardly the darkest.

15. Samson Holt (Wake Up Dead Man)

    Thomas Haden Church plays the church groundskeeper whose fierce gratitude to Martha and Wicks (they helped him get sober) turns him into an accomplice. Loyalty is admirable; helping a killer cover up isn't.

16. Miles Bron (Glass Onion)

    Edward Norton's tech titan is the main event and also the fake-out victim. He is pure narcissism with no moral compass. To cover stealing Alpha Industries from Andi and to bury the truth about Klear, he eliminates Andi and, when blackmailed, Duke. The character is terrific; the movie's mystery gets dinged for being a bit lightweight, which is why he lands at 4 here.

    For context: Glass Onion is a Rian Johnson joint starring Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, and Dave Bautista, released November 23, 2022. It sits at 7.1 on IMDb with a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score, did $13 million in a limited theatrical run, comes from T-Street Productions, and streams on Netflix.

17. Dr. Nat Sharp (Wake Up Dead Man)

    Jeremy Renner slides in as a key accomplice in the murder of Monsignor Wicks. The motive is straightforward greed over a diamond, but the execution is not: a tight, three-person operation with Nat, Samson, and Martha that relies on clockwork timing and ruthless emotional manipulation.

18. Hugh Ransom Drysdale (Knives Out)

    Chris Evans turns the sweater into a weapon. Ransom wants Harlan's money, full stop, and his plan is mean and impressively put together. It works until Marta's involuntary truth-puke and Benoit Blanc's brain get in the way. If those two don't intersect, Ransom skates.

    For context: Knives Out (2019) is written and directed by Rian Johnson, stars Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, and Chris Evans, opened November 27, 2019, sits at 7.9 on IMDb and 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, made $312 million worldwide, is a T-Street Productions release, and streams on Netflix.

19. Martha Delacroix (Wake Up Dead Man)

    Glenn Close's Martha is the franchise's peak antagonist so far: razor-sharp, morally complicated, and a step ahead of Blanc for a decent stretch. She engineers a layered, three-person conspiracy featuring a fake resurrection and a body swap, executed with meticulous technical and psychological precision. The motive goes beyond a shiny diamond; it is rooted in decades of moral injury. That weight plus the craft puts her at number 1.

    For context: Wake Up Dead Man is directed by Rian Johnson, stars Daniel Craig with Cailee Spaeny and Andrew Scott among the ensemble, released November 26, 2025, holds a 7.7 on IMDb and 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, logged $1.6 million from a limited theatrical run, is from T-Street Productions, and is streaming on Netflix now.

Bottom line: Wake Up Dead Man is the course correction the series needed. And if Johnson and Craig really are stepping back for a while, this is a sharp note to pause on. Agree? Disagree? You know where to find me.