Disney’s ‘Cruella’: All the best movies giving iconic villains a backstory

Disney’s Cruella arrived in 2021 and immediately made the case that even the most cartoonish villains carry private histories. The movie framed its title character as the product of class resentment, ambition, and a flair for spectacle. A sequel remains in development with Craig Gillespie expected to return, suggesting audiences still want to know how the fur-obsessed antiheroine came to be. That curiosity lines up with a broader pattern: studios keep returning to origin stories that ask whether villains are born or built. The question lingers across prestige dramas and popcorn franchises alike, and it keeps resurfacing whenever a new prequel lands.

Maleficent (2014)

Disney opened the door with Maleficent in 2014, presenting the fairy as a guardian whose wings are stolen by the man she trusted most. The betrayal turns her protective instincts into calculated revenge, yet the film still lets her show mercy toward the child she once cursed. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil followed in 2019, and a third installment is in development. The sequels have kept the original focus on trauma and choice rather than innate wickedness, extending the same questions that Cruella later revisited.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Freddy Krueger arrived in 1984 with a backstory already baked into the script. Conceived during a prison riot and mocked as a child, he grew into the Springwood Slasher before the parents of Elm Street burned him alive. The franchise eventually reached nine films, but a new revival is now targeting 2027 with an emphasis on sleep paralysis and inherited trauma. The shift toward psychological detail keeps Freddy’s origin relevant without softening the character’s brutality.

The Incredibles (2004)

Buddy Pine’s arc stays the shortest on this list and the most cautionary. After Mr. Incredible brushes him off, the boy channels that single rejection into a lifetime of tech-fueled payback. Syndrome’s origin never needed extra sequels to land; the film simply shows how quickly a hero’s indifference can manufacture its own nemesis. The lesson remains intact years later because the scene still plays like a warning about small cruelties with outsized consequences.

Friday the 13th (1980)

Jason Voorhees barely appears in the original 1980 film, yet his absence drives the entire series. The counselors’ neglect allows a bullied, disabled boy to drown, and their later decision to kill his mother seals the cycle. A new A24-produced prequel series titled Crystal Lake is set to premiere on Peacock in December 2026, starring Linda Cardellini as young Pamela Voorhees. The show promises to explore the camp’s early days and the drowning itself, giving Jason’s childhood the extended treatment the theatrical films only hinted at.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)

Released in 2023, the prequel traces young Coriolanus Snow’s path from Capitol scholarship student to future president. Directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler, the film shows how ambition, scarcity, and public spectacle erode whatever moral footing Snow once claimed. The story sits comfortably beside Cruella because both projects treat villainy as a sequence of choices rather than a single dramatic break. Viewers leave with a clearer sense of how systems reward the very traits that later make Snow terrifying.

Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)

The 2022 animated prequel follows an eleven-year-old Gru who dreams of joining the Vicious 6. Steve Carell voices the aspiring supervillain while the Minions supply comic relief and occasional sabotage. The movie keeps the tone light, yet it still maps the same pattern seen in darker entries: mentorship, repeated failure, and the slow acceptance that criminal flair might be the only skill set that fits. The contrast with live-action horror makes the point sharper—origin stories travel just as easily through family animation as through slashers.

Upcoming Villain Origin Projects (2026-2027)

Development pipelines show no sign of slowing. Cruella 2 remains on the table with possible movement in 2026 or later, while the Nightmare on Elm Street revival aims for 2027 and leans into mental-health themes. Studios continue to green-light these projects because the formula delivers built-in recognition and low-risk curiosity. Each new title extends the same conversation that began with Maleficent and Cruella, testing how much sympathy audiences will grant before the body count starts.

Crystal Lake (2026 Peacock Series)

The December 2026 Peacock series functions as a direct expansion of the Jason Voorhees timeline rather than a standalone entry. By focusing on Pamela Voorhees before the drownings and the killings, the show supplies the maternal perspective the original film only sketched. Early casting news already positions the project as a tonal bridge between prestige horror and the camp-slasher roots of the franchise. If the series lands, it will give Friday the 13th the same extended origin treatment that Maleficent and Cruella received on the big screen.

The through-line across these titles is simple: even the most theatrical villains usually arrive with receipts. Whether the inciting wound is stolen wings, a single ignored autograph, or systemic neglect at a summer camp, the films keep returning to the same premise. Audiences keep showing up because the question never really changes—how much of the monster was already waiting inside the child, and how much did the world hand them on the way out.