History Main / MakeWayForTheNewVillains

* ''Fanfic/WeAreNothing'' introduces Freddy Krueger about halfway through the plot of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''. Literally the first thing that Freddy does as soon as he invades Harry's mind is to murder Draco Malfoy, and then move on to killing Severus Snape next. Over the course of five days, he escalates by removing ''all'' the original antagonists of ''Order of the Phoenix'' from the equation; [[spoiler:he curb-stomps Voldemort and subjects him to an UncertainDoom offscreen, kills Umbridge by burning her alive, and indirectly gets Fudge ousted from his position as Minister of Magic far earlier than in canon.]] This leaves Freddy as the sole remaining BigBad with the rest of the story being about Harry and his allies desperately trying to find a way to put a stop to Krueger's dream-killing spree once and for all.

* ''Fanfic/WeAreNothing'' introduces Freddy Krueger to the Potterverse about halfway through the events of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''. Literally the first two things that Freddy does as soon as he invades Harry's mind is to murder Draco Malfoy and then Severus Snape. Over the course of five days, he escalates by removing ''all'' the original antagonists of ''Order of the Phoenix'' from the equation; [[spoiler:he curb-stomps Voldemort and subjects him to an UncertainDoom offscreen, kills Umbridge by burning her alive, and indirectly gets Fudge ousted from his position as Minister of Magic far earlier than in canon.]] This leaves Freddy as the sole remaining BigBad with the rest of the story being about Harry and his allies desperately trying to find a way to put a stop to Krueger's dream-killing spree once and for all.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'''s expansion pack, ''VideoGame/HalfLifeOpposingForce'', has both the Black Operations and the Race X aliens do this. The Black Operations(despite appearing a few times in the main game) are another clean-up crew sent in to silence everyone(including the ''first'' clean-up crew, the HECU) and destroy Black Mesa, while the Race X are another group of aliens who are invading Earth to harvest its minerals, and they also have a bone to pick with the already-invading Xen aliens.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Super Robot Wars Z}}2: Rebirth Chapter'', [[spoiler: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHkSmu91PRc Uther does this to Gaioh]]]].

* ''[[Fanfic/StarWarsVsWarhammer40K Star Wars vs Warhammer 40K]]'': By the end of Season 1, the Imperium of Man has replaced the Separatists as the main villainous faction of the Clone Wars after they intervene during a major battle between the Republic and CIS, CurbStomp both sides, and then conquer the very planets which they had been fighting over. To further hammer this in, the Imperium then launches a genocidal crusade into Separatist space which sees the Confederacy's capital world destroyed and most of the Separatist leadership killed.

** In 2003, [[Characters/MarvelComicsMacGargan Mac Gargan]] replaced [[Characters/VenomEddieBrock Eddie Brock]] as the new and much more monstrous ComicBook/{{Venom}}, and as a result Characters/{{Carnage|CletusKasady}} was killed off in early 2005 since the writers had no more need for him for the time being. After Flash Thompson took over as the more heroic Venom, Carnage quickly returned.

** For a brief period in the early '90s, the main villains were the Upstarts, a group of bratty rich mutants who competed with each other to kill other mutants in a "contest" sponsored by an [[TheOmniscient omniscient]] mutant called the Gamesmaster; among the casualties numbered the Reavers, the Hellions, Sebastian Shaw, Characters/{{Emma Frost|WhiteQueen}}, Selene, and even Characters/{{Ma|rvelComicsMagneto}}gneto himself. This plotline was not well received, all the dead villains but the Hellions came back, and most of the Upstarts ended up meeting ignominious ends themselves. In this case, the problem was that the storyline replaced popular characters who had years of character development with relatively generic villains. Most of the Upstarts did not have distinctive personalities.

** ''Series/KamenRider555'' has an almost invoked example. [[spoiler:Kyoji Murakami is the main antagonist for most of the series, but when the Arch Orphnoch is awakened, he willingly allows it to [[DevourTheDragon devour him]].]]
** ''Series/KamenRiderGhost'' has a non-lethal example. [[spoiler:Alain is the main antagonist for the first half of the series, until his older brother [[TheEvilPrince Adel]] kills their father and blames it on Alain, forcing him out of Gamma society and solidifying himself as the main villain from that point forward.]]
** ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'' has a chain of these. [[spoiler:Tajimi is the BigBad until she's captured by Masakuni Mido and his army. Mido is later killed off by [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Juzaburo Namba]], who takes center stage from that moment forward until he's supplanted and killed by [[AliensAreBastards Evolt]].]]

This often implies that the new villain is more competent, more evil, or for whatever other reason more threatening, but not necessarily. Cases where the new villain is ''less'' threatening instead can qualify as this trope, too. May be the result of BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', [[MegaCorp Shinra]] is rendered a secondary threat after Sephiroth is introduced. They still remain a threat throughout the game and their presence is still strongly felt as more revelations show that they are basically responsible for the worlds' current situation (including indirectly making Sephiroth the danger that he is in the first place) but once Sephiroth is revealed he becomes the more immediate problem.

* ''Film/JamesBond'': While Spectre and Blofeld are TheManBehindTheMan or the outright BigBad for every Creator/DanielCraig Bond film up to ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' and are a callback to their classic counterpart in the novels and older movies, ''Film/NoTimeToDie'''s Lyutsifer Safin is a younger and more dangerous villain who doesn't work for them at all and is actually opposed to them. [[spoiler:Safin ends up killing all of Spectre's leadership with the nanobots-based virus Heracles.]]

* After Keith Giffen took over the second series of ''ComicBook/AmethystPrincessOfGemworld'', he did a storyline where Carnelian is killed off to make way for the return of the first series' BigBad Dark Opal. This lasts for one page in that issue and two pages in the following issue before Dark Opal himself is dispatched to make way for the new villains, The Child and Flaw.
* In the buildup to the Great Darkness Saga in the ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' (which Keith Giffen also worked on -- he seems to love this trope), previous {{Big Bad}}s Mordru and the Time Trapper are found beaten and helpless to show how bad [[spoiler:[[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]]]] is.
* Kingpin has been the BigBad of ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'', up until the relauch of ComicBook/UltimateMarvel after ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}''. In the new arc there is a new villain, Mysterio, and the first thing he did when he showed up was shoot the Kingpin out of a window.
* In ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' when the Marquis of Death appeared he set [[Characters/MarvelComicsDoctorDoom Doctor Doom]] on fire and tossed him into prehistory. [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt Unsurprisingly, he came back]].
* One of ComicBook/{{Onslaught}}'s first actions was to beat Characters/{{Juggernaut|MarvelComics}} to a pulp and hurl him all the way to New Jersey. [[spoiler: Mostly to get back at Juggernaut for the crap he did to ComicBook/ProfessorX all their lives as Onslaught turned out to be Xavier's dark side run amok.]] At the time the issue was written the writers had no idea who or what Onslaught was, they just wanted to demonstrate he was a threat.
* When trying to establish Kaine as a credible threat during ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'', the writers had him kill off longtime Franchise/SpiderMan foe [[Characters/MarvelComicsOttoOctavius Doctor Octopus]]. [[DeathIsCheap It didn't take.]]
* ''ComicBook/LesLegendaires'' did this in the [[CerebusSyndrome Anathos Cycle]] by having both [[spoiler:[[ArchEnemy Darkhell]] and [[JerkassGods the Guardian]]]] being obliterated by [[GodOfEvil Anathos]] to show how bad the new villain was (though this had already been established by having him effortlessly delivering a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown to the good guys).
* Toyed with in ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'', where [[Characters/MarvelComicsRedSkull Red Skull]] was assassinated by [[Characters/MarvelComicsBuckyBarnes the Winter Soldier]] during Creator/EdBrubaker's first issue, leading many readers to think the writer was playing this trope straight. Instead, it was revealed that [[SharingABody Red Skull had survived inside the body of the Winter Soldier's employer]], setting up one of the series' longest running PlotThreads.
* For a brief period in the early '90s ''Comicbook/XMen'' comics, the main villains were the Upstarts, a group of bratty rich mutants who competed with each other to kill other mutants in a "contest" sponsored by an [[TheOmniscient omniscient]] mutant called the Gamesmaster; among the casualties numbered the Reavers, the Hellions, Sebastian Shaw, Characters/{{Emma Frost|WhiteQueen}}, Selene, and even Characters/{{Ma|rvelComicsMagneto}}gneto himself. This plotline was not well received, all the dead villains but the Hellions came back, and most of the Upstarts ended up meeting ignominious ends themselves. In this case the problem was that the storyline replaced popular characters who had years of character development with relatively generic villains. Most of the Upstarts did not have distinctive personalities.
* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives'', the comic made to settle once and for all the true identity of the original Hobgoblin. Since another character had taken up the mantle in the intervening years, the story had the older villain murder the newer one. In this case the problem was the difference between the two villains. The "original", Roderick Kingsley, was one of the most dangerous and mysterious foes Spider-Man faced in the 1980s. The replacement, Jason Macendale, was initially depicted as a credible replacement. But over the years, Jason was depicted as mentally unstable, willing to go to insane lengths to increase his powers, and still surprisingly easy to defeat. Writers and readers had started treating him as a joke. Not a good sign for your status as a high-profile villain.
* In 2003, [[Characters/MarvelComicsMacGargan Mac Gargan]] replaced [[Characters/VenomEddieBrock Eddie Brock]] as the new and much more monstrous ComicBook/{{Venom}}, and as a result Characters/{{Carnage|CletusKasady}} was killed off in early 2005 since the writers had no more need for him for the time being. After Flash Thompson took over as the more heroic Venom, Carnage quickly returned.
* Traditional in retellings of Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}}'s early years is a period where the primary threat in Gotham is the mafia or organized crime in general, only for the old guard of gangsters to be supplanted as the traditional supervillains roll in and take over, usually involving the major gangster villains being outplayed and killed off by the new villains - such as Carmine Falcone being killed by [[Characters/BatmanTwoFace Two-Face]] before a throng of supervillains in ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween''. This also makes it into adaptations (such as ''The Dark Knight'', which supplies the page quote), and even in present-day storylines whenever there is a new big gangster villain unless that character is also a supervillain it's inevitable that they will eventually be killed off to prop up the next, ''bigger'' supervillain threat.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', [[MegaCorp Shinra]] is rendered a secondary threat after Sephiroth is introduced. They still remain a threat throughout the game and their presence is still strongly felt as more revelations show that they are basically responsible for the worlds' current situation (including indirectly making Sephiroth the danger that he is in the first place) but as once Sephiroth is revealed he becomes the more immediate problem.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', [[MegaCorp Shinra]] is rendered a secondary threat after Sephiroth is introduced. They still remain a threat throughout the game and their presence is still strongly felt as more revelations show that they are basically responsible for the worlds current situation (including indirectly making Sephiroth the danger that he is in the first place) but as once Sephiroth is revealed he becomes the more immediate problem.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', [[MegaCorp Shinra]] is rendered much less of a threat after Sephiroth appears and kills its president.

*** A variation appear at the beginning of the Cell Saga. Frieza is killed by Future Trunks with ease, who came to warn the Dragon Team about the upcoming threat of the Androids, and Trunks himself can't measure up to the pair of Androids he's fighting in his timeline, which highlights how powerful the new villains are compared to Frieza.

** Thanks to a strange case of ExecutiveMeddling, Cell Saga nixed each of its initial {{Arc Villain}}s this way. Android 20/Dr. Gero is killed by Androids 17 and 18, who become the new main villains... only for Cell to appear soon after, reducing 17 and 18's role to {{Living MacGuffin}}s he absorbs to power up.
*** A variation appear at the beginning of the Cell Saga. Freeza is by Future Trunks with ease, who came to warn the Dragon Team about the upcoming threat of the Androids, and Trunks himself can't measure up to the pair of Androids he's fighting in his timeline, which highlights how powerful the new villains are compared to Freeza.

** Later deliberately [[InvokedTrope invoked]] by [[spoiler: Kylo Ren]] in ''Film/TheLastJedi''. [[spoiler: By murdering Snoke, he essentially gives himself a KlingonPromotion by revenging himself on the villain who had previously been holding him back. It's seen as a good thing at first, but things take a darker turn when it's revealed that Kylo Ren just wanted to make his own rules as opposed to doing a true HeelFaceTurn, making it this.]]

* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', [[spoiler:Kyubey]] is, for lack of a better term, [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]]. Killing him is utterly useless, trying to out-gambit him is nigh-impossible, and while [[spoiler: Madoka's sacrifice]] denies him victory on his terms, he ultimately still gets exactly what he wants. Come ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'', [[spoiler: [[MadGod Akuma Homura]] reduces him to a quivering, traumatized mess by forcing him to hold all the curses of the world. However how much of a villain Homura is, is up for debate]].
* In ''Manga/DragonBall'', after General Blue returns having failed to kill Goku, he is given a chance if he can defeat Mercenary Tao. After his psychic paralysis fails to have effect on him[[note]]which is anime-only[[/note]], Tao proceeds to kill him with a single strike to the head. Using his ''tongue''.

* Thanks to a strange case of ExecutiveMeddling, ''Anime/DragonBallZ''[='=]s Cell Saga nixed each of its initial {{Arc Villain}}s this way. Android 20/Dr. Gero is killed by Androids 17 and 18, who become the new main villains... only for Cell to appear soon after, reducing 17 and 18's role to {{Living MacGuffin}}s he absorbs to power up.
** Actually happened once per arc. At the beginning in the series, Nappa was the biggest HeroKiller in the series, but after being defeated by Goku, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Vegeta kills him]], not to mention Vegeta himself is eventually killed by Frieza. Majin Buu also has a HeelFaceTurn only to be defeated by his EvilCounterpart, who becomes the new villain.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Fanfic/OneDayAtATimeFanfic'': This was invoked by Ricky Sionis (Black Mask II) in the previous timeline. When he arrived in Gotham, one of the first things he did was murder the Penguin, the last active surviving member of the original Batman's RoguesGallery, to establish his credibility.

** Viggo's near-death results in his army being taken over by Krogan, who returns the villains the direct approach of brute force. Unlike the rest, he's capable of overwhelming force, using a captured Death Song to lure in Singetails that he and his men ride to combat the riders more effectively.
*** Several cues allow the audience to notice that Krogan works directly for Drago Bludvist, the BigBad of [[WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon2 the second movie]]. In his minute-long cameo in this show, Drago has Krogan executed for [[YouHaveFailedMe failing him]] while the latter desperately begs for his life.

* ''Franchise/MonsterVerse'':
** The antagonists of ''Film/Godzilla2014'' are two [=MUTOs=], which are able to bring Godzilla to his knees. When Ghidorah is unleashed in ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters'', its power compels numerous Titans to obey it as their Alpha, including another MUTO.
** An enormous Skullcrawler serves as the BigBad of ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', so powerful that it killed both of Kong’s parents and comes very close to killing Kong as well. In ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'', an equally massive Skullcrawler is released in the APEX facility, but it gets overpowered in seconds and sliced in half by [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]].

* In the Season Two [[SeasonFinale Finale]] of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' [[spoiler:[[HumanoidAbomination The Collector]] is [[SealedEvilInACan unsealed]] in the last five minutes of the episode and reduces [[TheEmperor Emperor Belos]] (the series BigBad up until that point) to a splatter on the wall with a FingerPokeOfDoom. While Belos is able to just barely survive due to being little more than a humanoid BlobMonster that this point, it's clear that the Collector has replaced him as the primary threat. This is ultimately subverted over the course of the final season, as the Collector is more amoral than truly malicious due to being an immortal child that doesn't understand the fact that death is permenant for mortals. Luz is ultimately able to coax them into a HeelFaceTurn before the final episode is even half over, with Belos regaining his role as the true BigBad]].

-->-- '''[[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]]''', ''Film/TheDarkKnight''

* This is how Phibrizo reveals his identity in ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'', by killing current villain Gaav right out of the blue, and after he was already giving Lina and the others an increasingly tough time.

* ''Series/{{Mutant X}}'' - in the final episode of season 1, new BigBad Gabriel Ashlocke imprisons original BigBad Mason Eckhart and takes over his mutant-hunting facility for his own ends.

* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', Species 8472 is introduced by destroying an armada of Borg Cubes.

* ''Series/WarOfTheWorlds1988:'' The series underwent a major re-tool for its second and last season; one scene has the new batch of alien villains casually executing one of the leaders of the previous faction.

* In the Season Two [[SeasonFinale Finale]] of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' [[spoiler:[[HumanoidAbomination The Collector]] is [[SealedEvilInACan unsealed]] in the last five minutes of the episode and reduces [[TheEmperor Emperor Belos]] (the series BigBad up until that point) to a splatter on the wall with a FingerPokeOfDoom. While Belos is able to just barely survive due to being little more than a humanoid BlobMonster that this point, it's clear that the Collector has replaced him as the primary threat]].

* In ''Manga/DragonBall'', after General Blue returns having failed to kill Goku, he is given a chance if he can defeat Mercenary Tao. After his psychic paralysis fails to have effect on him, Tao proceeds to kill him with a single strike to the head. Using his ''tongue''.
** In the anime, the Red Ribbon Army's introduction has them fight against the previous {{Arc Villain}} Emperor Pilaf once he manages to steal one of the Dragon Balls. Once they catch up to him, they proceed to very easily defeat him by destroying his ship and then wordlessly asking him to hand over the dragon ball, setting up how the organization is going to be a much bigger threat to Goku than Pilaf could ever hope to be.