Who are the biggest villains in the Supernatural universe so far? We take a look at Seasons 1 to 11 and highlight the best of the worst. Warning: there will be a lot of spoilers to follow, so if you haven’t seen all of the seasons or are planning on watching Supernatural then you have been warned.
Azazel
Azazel is a powerful demon working for Lucifer. Until the Sin City episode of Supernatural where his name is finally revealed, he is known by The Demon, Yellow Eyes, and The Yellow-Eyed Demon. In 1983, Mary Winchester interrupts Azazel feeding blood to baby Sam, and he kills her by pinning her to the ceiling and causing her to burst into flames. After Mary’s death, the Winchester men hunt him for 23 years, finally killing him for revenge in the Supernatural Season 2 finale. He may be dead, but his continues to influence both events and characters years later. Sam and Dean continue to hallucinate about him.
Lilith
Created by Lucifer, Lilith is the very powerful white-eyed demon of Supernatural. She is also the last of the 66 Seals that need to be broken in order to free Lucifer from his cage. Trapped in Hell until 2007, she escapes and defeats multiple rival demons that Azazel had released alongside her. She then takes over Azazel’s former position and leads the demon army on Earth. She also leads the rest of the forces of Hell in the War of the Seals against the Host of Heaven.
Lilith is responsible for Dean Winchester‘s death and suffering in hell. She lets the hellhound into the room and forces Sam to watch his brother die. This causes Dean to break the first seal and allows Sam to kill her. The 66th seal is therefore destroyed and Lucifer is freed from his cage.
Lucifer
Lucifer is the second of the four Archangels created by God and is considered his favorite son. He is also the very first fallen angel. He was the original ruler of Hell and the creator of demons who see him as a father figure and their god. Just like all other angels in Supernatural, Lucifer can’t forcefully possess someone. He needs the permission of a strong enough human to be used as his vessel. He is an archangel, so his immense power causes regular vessels to decay. He is required to drink vast amounts of demon blood or possess his true vessel (Sam Winchester) or a more stable vessel (Castiel).
When Sam breaks the final seal, he is freed from his cage and allowed to roam the earth. He starts the Apocalypse to rid the Earth of human beings. Even after Lucifer is able to possess his true vessel (Sam), Sam’s love for Dean allowed him to regain control of his body and put himself, Lucifer, Michael, and his half-brother Adam Milligan back into the cage.
Raphael
Supernatural‘s next villain, Raphael, is one of the four archangels created by God. He is older than Gabriel, but younger than Michael and Lucifer. In Season 4, Raphael protects Chuck from Lilith. When Dean and Castiel attempt to stop Sam from breaking the last seal, he kills Castiel.
In Season 5 of Supernatural, he repossesses his vessel, Donnie, so he can confront Castiel (now resurrected) and Dean. When they interrogate him as to where God is, he lies and says God is dead. As punishment, they leave him in a ring of Holy Fire. In the next season, Raphael escapes the Holy Fire and returns to Heaven to take it over. This spawns a civil war.
Dick Roman
Supernatural‘s Richard “Dick” Roman is a billionaire businessman and the secret leader of the Leviathans. Because of him, the Leviathan plan to dominate humanity as their meat and rule the earth with themselves at the top of the food chain. Although Leviathan despise all species, Dick hates demons even more than he hates humanity. He tells Crowley that if the Leviathan had spare time, they would wipe out demonkind.
Dean and Castiel eventually murder Dick with the Bone of Righteous Mortal Washed in the Three Bloods of Fallen. As he dies, he emits energy waves and explodes into black goo, dragging Dean and Castiel into purgatory with him.
Crowley
Supernatural‘s Crowley is a powerful demon and the former King of the Crossroads and King of Hell after Lucifer’s demise. He initially serves Lilith as her right-hand man but goes rogue after her death. He also aids the Winchester’s in resealing Lucifer in his cage.
In Supernatural Season 6, he allies with Castiel to take over Purgatory and then switches alliances to Raphael when Castiel betrays him. He allies with the Winchester’s again in Season 7 against the Leviathans. He then cuts his allegiance with the Winchester’s and Castiel in Season 8 and seeks vengeance against them. The Winchester’s plan to close the gates of Hell for good, catching him in his plan to capture the prophet Kevin Tran and the Word of God. Crowley is eventually hunted down by Abaddon in Season 9 as part of her plan to take over Hell. He was freed as part of his deal with Dean and he resumes his post as King of Hell.
Metatron
In Heaven, Metatron was personally selected by God to write down his word. When God disappears, Metatron fears the Archangels will steal the word of God from him, and he leaves Heaven to hide among Native American tribes. The Winchester’s find him in 2013.
Upon learning that all of the Archangels are either dead or in Hell, Metatron seeks revenge on the other Angels for forcing him to leave Heaven. He uses Castiel to create a spell to cast all Angels out of heaven. He becomes lonely and teams up with Gadreel to rebuild Heaven. He uses the Angel tablet to gain God-like powers, and only accepts the Angels he sees fit, killing or using those he doesn’t like.
After he kills Dean, he is thrown into Heaven’s dungeon where he remains until Sam Winchester and Castiel release him. They need his help to remove the Mark of Cain from Dean, but he doesn’t know how to remove the mark. Amara kills him in Season 11 when he tries to harm her in order to buy Sam time to get Lucifer away.
Abaddon
Abaddon is one of the two remaining Knights of Hell. (Her master, Cain, is the other one.) She is single-handedly responsible for wiping out the Men of Letters. She time-travels to the present to hunt for Henry Winchester and the key of the Order of Letters that he was entrusted with. She fails to retrieve it, and Henry’s grandsons, Sam and Dean Winchester, take it instead.
When Abbadon discovers the state that Hell has fallen into during her absence, she abandons her search for the key and instead focuses on gaining control of Hell. As part of her plan she has her few loyal demons pull the souls out of innocent people and bring them to hell to turn them into demons. She attempts to use Crowley to trap the Winchesters, but Dean kills her with the First Blade.
Rowena
Supernatural‘s Rowena MacLeod is one of the main antagonists in Season 10. She’s an extremely powerful witch and the mother of Crowley. She continues her efforts for power in Season 11 and eventually teams up with Lucifer upon promises of being his queen. She helps to set Lucifer free from his cage, but Lucifer snaps her neck so she can’t trap him in there again. She later revives herself with a spell that she had prepared earlier. She eventually teams up with Sam and Dean Winchester, Crowley, Lucifer, and Chuck in order to defeat The Darkness.
Amara
The Darkness is an extremely powerful primordial entity who has existed since before the beginning of time, and predates both God and Death. Her brother, God, created the Archangels to fight a terrible war against her but not even the powers of God and the Archangels combined could destroy her. So God tricks her and seals her away, using the Mark of Cain as both the lock and the key.
God later reveals that he had chosen not to kill her in her weakened state. She needed to exist alongside him so reality itself wouldn’t be destroyed. Rowena uses a spell from the Book of the Damned in order to free Dean from the Mark of Cain, which also frees her (The Darkness). While she is on earth she takes the body of a female baby, Amara. With Dean’s help she reconciles with her brother and departs the earth with him… but not before she leaves Dean a thank-you present.