The new series of Jaguar advertisements with Ben Kingsley, Tom Hiddleston and Mark Strong is an excellent example. But I agree that it is a particularly popular trope at the moment. “Universal horror films were built on the attractive and sometimes sympathetic monster, and Christopher Lee was a very alluring and fascinating villain for Hammer. “There is a long history of the romantic or glamorous villain throughout literature and film,” says Dr Stacey Abbott at London’s Roehampton University. And the makers of the Spider-Man movies are planning two separate spin-offs dealing with Spider-Man’s arch-enemies, The Sinister Six and Venom. Mark Millar, the writer of Kick-Ass and Wanted, has scripted a graphic novel about another supervillain, Nemesis, which is now being adapted into a film. Meanwhile, three cartoons (Megamind, and Despicable Me 1 and 2) have had a supervillain as their leading man. In the past four years, two live-actions version of the Snow White story – Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman – have featured an Oscar-winning A-lister in the role of the wicked stepmother. In films and television series everywhere, villains are taking centre stage. Look a bit closer, though, and it’s clear that the company is actually following a significant trend. The company, after all, made its fortune from squeaky-voiced rodents and winsome princesses, so it’s quite a departure to take the nightmare-inducing antagonist from Sleeping Beauty and turn her into a misunderstood heroine. From a distance, Maleficent seems like Disney’s most daring film.