There are bad guys, and then there are villains. The Walking Dead Universe has more than its share of dastardly characters who’ve slashed their way through TWDU’s interconnected worlds, threatening and in some cases even destroying our heroes. While we wait for the final episodes of The Walking Dead later this year, let's take a look back at the baddies we love to hate.

The Governor

By turns cruel and charming, the Governor savagely cut off the head of the fatherly Hershel, with Michonne's katana no less, and we all hate him for that. He also thinks nothing of massacres (including of his own people). He was viciously fixated with Rick's group and taking over the prison. In his first episode, in Season 3, the leader of Woodbury came off as a relatively reasonable person who managed to build a safe refuge for over 70 inhabitants—until he decimated a group of National Guardsmen and lied about it to his people. The Governor gazing at a wall of fish tanks full of walker heads was the final sinister shot of that episode, and served as a bad omen for things to come.

Alpha

In Alpha's first moment on screen in Season 9, she's wearing her Whisperers mask and pulls a shotgun on a rattled Alden and Luke and warns them, "Trail ends here." Viewers knew to be afraid. Very afraid. It only got worse. We learned that the leader of the Whisperers, who wore masks made of dead walker skins, killed her husband and was the most heartless of mothers. She gaslit her daughter Lydia about the events of her childhood to gain her loyalty, and physically and mentally abused her. She's willing to let babies be sacrificed to walkers and to slay anyone who gets in her way. Worst of all, she decapitated 10 people, including Enid, Tara, and Henry, and displayed their heads on pikes in an unflinching and horrifying warning.

Jadis

Jadis started out as the odd and resourceful head of the Scavengers on The Walking Dead—who, granted, did side with the Saviors for a while, but ultimately rescued a wounded Rick in a Civic Republic Military helicopter. It wasn't until The Walking Dead: World Beyondthough that she morphed into a full-on villain. As an officer in the CRM, Jadis has an almost cult-like belief in the righteousness of the Civic Republic's destruction of the Campus Colony and Omaha, as well as their plan to do the same to Portland. In the name of the CRM, she kills Huck, arrests Elizabeth for treason, and presumably lives on to further the CRM's mission.

Negan

Brutally clubbing Glenn and Abraham to death is one of the worst things anyone's ever done in The Walking Dead Universe. Which would make Negan one of the worst villains ever. But between the tyranny and the sadism (see Dwight's face), a funny thing happened, and Negan has become almost a sympathetic figure. His rehabilitation started with his takedown of Alpha, at Carol's behest. It continued when Maggie asked Negan, her sworn enemy, to help defeat the Reapers by teaching her the art of Whisperer warfare—and he agreed. And it's significant that Negan reacts calmly when an angry Hershel pulls a gun on him, telling Maggie and Glenn's son, "When you've grown up a bit, come find me. And I promise you, we will settle it." When we last see him, it seems even Maggie has come around, entrusting Hershel to Negan's care when she goes to do battle against the Commonwealth.

Virginia

She was Fear the Walking Dead's main villain for parts of Seasons 5 and 6, terrorizing our survivors from her perch in Lawton. Like all good dictators, Virginia didn't mind resorting to a little murder (Logan) or torture (Wes) or hiring a bounty hunter (for Morgan) when someone or something wasn't going her way. Even Janis's unjustified execution was an exercise in torture, with Virginia ordering Janis to be eaten by zombies. We find out in the end that Virginia did everything she did to protect Dakota, who turned out to be her daughter and not her sister. (Dakota herself had villainous tendencies, killing John Dorie and becoming one of Teddy's doomsday cult followers.)

Gareth

Gareth had a brief four-episode turn as a villain, but he made the most of it in a memorable Season 4 to 5 storyline. "Welcome to Terminus" are the words Gareth said to Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and Carl in his first episode, but things went south quickly. First there were the train cars and then there was the trough where Glenn almost got his throat cut. Who could forget the chilling scene when Gareth chews a piece of Bob's barbecued leg and tells a tearful Bob, "If it makes you feel any better, you taste much better than we thought you would." Through it all, Gareth's voice and expression remained nearly emotionless — until he was bludgeoned to death by Rick.
These six villains have committed a litany of heinous crimes and they're despised by the viewers. But it's worth remembering that the zombie apocalypse, with its accompanying destruction and loss, could drive lots of people to behave in ways that society would condemn. With that in mind, it's worth remembering some of the things that Rick, Daryl, Carol, and the others we consider to be heroes have done in the name of survival.

New episodes of The Walking Dead Season 11 will return in Fall 2022. Each episode will be available to stream one week early on AMC+. Full episodes are available to stream now on amc.com, the AMC apps for mobile and devices, and a week early on AMC+. Sign up for AMC+, which is available through several providers, including AppleTV, Prime Video Channels, DirectTV, Dish, Roku Channel, Sling, and Xfinity.