From evil enchanting warlocks to fireball-wielding sorcerers, for this list, we’ve rounded up the most powerful wizards and witches in tv series, and movies. Who, then, is the most “powerful” wizard and witch? To compare different characters from different universes, we need to discuss the various abilities that they show.
This list qualifies those who use and learn how to cast spells academically, like a chemical science through intellect and learning. We list 30 wizards and witches, and your assignment is to rank the most powerful magical being of all time. Just click this link and upvote your way! Find out who the masses voted for.
40. Wei Wuxian (The Untamed, Chinese TV Drama)
The Untamed follows the story of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, two young cultivators that fall in love in ancient China. The wuxia series have vast magical and sorcery cultivation, and Wei Wu Xian is the most powerful demonic cultivator of them all, (top of his generation) caring little for rules.
He grew up to become a notorious terror of the cultivation world. He makes use of resentful energy, amplifies, and manipulates energy, living up and beyond his title as the Yiling Patriarch.
39. Sorcerer Mickey (Fantasia, Film)
Sid is a powerful wizard who was once Mickey Mouse’s master. He taught him everything he knows about magic and the Keyblade. He owns a magical hat, which is the source of his power. When Mickey wears Sid’s sorcerer hat, it amplifies his magic skills and allows him to cast spells that don’t drain him.
He can bring inanimate objects to life, teleport objects, generate and throw fireballs, and reverse time. Mickey can make commits crash down from space. However, he never fully mastered its power. The hat can easily backfire against him, it cannot contain darkness and will instead unleash the darkness into someone else.
38. Gargamel (The Smurfs, Animated TV Series)
An evil and poor wizard that doesn’t think about the consequences. Gargamel is the sworn enemy of the Smurfs. His life mission is to capture Smurfs to make them as an ingredient for the potion to make gold. But his efforts always fail.
His magic skills are debatable. He relies on books to compose magic from different components, but he’s one of the worst magic alchemists on the market.
37. Kiki (Kiki Delivery Service, Anime Film)
Kiki is a magical girl and a witch/spellcaster. Even though the anime movie is about a witch, the only supernatural acts in the movie are Kiki flying on a broom and talking to her cat. Kiki was simply born a witch and stays a witch.
The anime film features no powerful superheroes, no evil monsters, and no fight scenes. So why is Kiki included in this list? Not using her skills doesn’t mean Kiki’s not powerful, so it’s up to you to decide.
36. Miracle Max (The Princess Bride, Film)
While his magic powers are not amazing, we just love Miracle Max (Billy Crystal), a Mel Brooks New Yorker stereotypical character. Inigo Montoya and Fezzik rescue Wesley from the dungeon, but he’s almost dead. They go to a man who can supposedly do miracles for a price. They find this old wizard in the woods who creates a magic potion to bring the hero back from the dead.
Billy Crystal made Rob Reiner laugh so hard that he had to make someone else direct his scenes because he couldn’t hold in his laughter long enough to get the shots. Now that’s magic!
35. Atsuko Kagari (Little Witch Academia, Anime TV Series)
It is impossible to include Little Witch Academia in this list without mentioning the words Harry Potter, the anime version. Boomstick riding witches, a forbidden forest surrounding the school, wands, it’s all here. Atsuko Kagari, Akko for short, is a cute girl who worships the witch Shiny Chario, and first sees her perform at a crowded pavilion.
Now a freshman in high school, Atsuko enrolled in Luna Nova Magical Academy, the same boarding school that Chariot attended in her youth. Akko works extremely hard at trying to overcome her lack of magic talent. She can learn some magic spells, and she does develop her magic steadily as the series goes on.
34. Miss Hardbroom (The Worst Witch, Netflix)
Miss Hardbroom (Miss Constance Hardbroom), is the strict Ice Queen teacher at Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches. She is quite skillful in magic combat, and was referred to as “the dangerous one”.
Her most notable magic power is to appear out of thin air. She once claimed that she scored “the best results of virtually every potion teacher in the country”. It is often left up to her to save the day.
33. Ursula (The Little Mermaid, Film)
This half-human half-octopus witch wants total power of the seas. She uses a black magic spell to capture Ariel’s voice.
By making Ariel mute, and by gaining Ariel’s singing ability, Ursula has the power to seduce the Prince and thus gain his lands. And with Ariel’s soul, she would be able to force King Triton to kneel to her. She’s already powerful without it.
32. Matilda Wormwood (Matilda, Film)
Next on our list ist is a six-year-old young witch. After severe emotional abuse from her parents and the school principal, Matilda develops powers of telekinesis. How does she use these powers, you may ask? She can move objects with her mind and has hyper-sensitive reflexes.
Her magic powers are like how the Jedi use the Force. They emerge inexplicably but are motivated by strong negative emotions. Throughout the movie, she terrorizes others (mostly deservingly). For example, Matilda uses her powers to keep her classmates from getting seriously injured. When her brother throws a carrot at her, she stops it in mid-air. “With great power comes great responsibility”, and Matilda knows that. Indeed she uses them for the collective good.
31. Bonnie Bennett (The Vampire Diaries, TV Series)
The teenage tv series has magic, vampires, wolves, sirens, siphons, and witches. Bonnie Bennet, (Kat Graham) is a powerful witch. She has the most powers compared to all the other witches in the Vampire Diary. Bonnie uses, spirit and dark magic, she destroyed hell and turned people to stone.
30. Alex Russo (Wizards of Waverly Place, TV Series)
The Disney series chronicles the story of 3 teenage wizard siblings from the Russo family training to compete at the wizard world competition, where one of them becomes the family wizard. Alex Russo, (Selena Gomez) is carefree, funny, never follows rules, and always has her way with people around her.
All the wizards in the series have magical skills that can be comparable regardless of bloodline, and they must be practiced on and advanced through wands, spell memorization, and magical power.
29. Jafar (Aladin, Disney)
The Sultan’s loyal vizier is a cunning and greedy wizard who can’t accept Sultan’s passive position regarding Agreba’s future. He gets more powerful as the story progresses. From a pretty lame magician who needs props to perform mediocre magic, he turns into an all-powerful genie.
At his fullest powers, he can wrap up reality, change people’s clothes, summon large objects, and turn into a huge terrifying snake.
28. Fujimoto (Ponyo, Ghibli Anime Film)
Fujimoto is the father of Ponyo, a small being that nearly destroys the world by being so hyperactive and enthusiastic. in Ghibli’s animated film Ponyo, Fujimoto is a talented potion maker, wizard, scientist, and guardian of sea life. Some fans suggest that Fujimoto is originally taken from Julius Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the sea”.
He seems to exit his human being form because he dislikes humans and instead became a sea creature. He can make potions that can increase the level of life in the ocean or the strength of his magic. His magic powers enable him to survive in both salty and fresh water.
27. Skeletor (Masters of the Universe, Animated TV Series)
The blue-skinned sorcerer, and He-Man’s arch-enemy, is skilled in black magic and all forms of combat. Skeletor was King Randor’s long-lost brother Keldor, who had tried to master magic and in a failed experiment was lost in a dimension beyond time, which is probably where he lost his face and became Hordak’s pupil.
He is easily capable of the same kind of powers as the strongest wizards from the Harry Potter series. In addition, Skeletor knows science and swordplay and cracks jokes while casting spells. He is extremely cunning and intelligent which makes him a powerful wizard indeed!
26. Alina Starkov (Shadow and Bone, Netflix)
Alina, the teenage heroine girl, is one of the most powerful Grisha, and Sun Summoners, a long-rumored saint destined to defeat the Fold. She harnesses her powers by killing the living and objects, taking their essence and amplifying their powers, if she doesn’t, her powers make her ill. Once she uses her powers, she appears healthier. Alina planned to harness her powers to control the world.
25. Hisirdoux “Douxie” Casperan (Wizards: Tales of Arcadia)
A guitarist who is also Merlin’s apprentice and adoptive son. Douxie was not as an impressive magician as Merlin, he had made good use of “beginner magicians” but eventually became a master wizard who wants to protect the world against evil creatures. He is a skilled practitioner in the ancient art of magic, he can manipulate energy, fire beams of blue magic bursts, and vanish into thin air, and on top of his magic skills, he’s a badass martial arts fighter!
24. Willow Rosenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, TV Series)
Willow (Alyson Hannigan) is one of the most powerful witches in the Buffy realm. She is practically at the level of a goddess, especially when she is super pissed off and planning to destroy the world. When she’s burning hot and seriously angry, there’s just no way for her opponents to win. This is the witch who nearly burned the Earth to a cinder, who cast a spell that empowered thousands of young women in the Buffyverse. But, most of her magic requires spells, she’s limited to what she knows when she isn’t Dark Willow.
23. The Wicked Witch of The West (The Wizard Of Oz, Film)
A feared ruler of the land of the Winkies, The Wicked Witch Of The West, (Margaret Hamilton) chases the misplaced Dorothy Gale to recover her sister’s magical Ruby Slippers. She just loves to spread terror all across the lands of Oz by commanding an entire army of flying monkeys to do her bidding.
She can throw fireballs, teleport, disappears, throw large hourglass, spy and cast spells with a crystal ball, and can fly a broomstick. However, when confronted by a bucket of water, she melts.
22. Shang Tsun (Mortal Kombat, Movie)
An ancient and powerful wizard. Shang Tsun consumes the souls of others to fuel his own stolen life force and amplify his cosmic powers. He had corrupted the Mortal Kombat Tournament for his own goals, taking all the warrior’s souls for his collection. He uses a mix of science and sorcery.
When Shang Tsun wears his Flesh Pits form, he can create new slave mutants for his own master, Shao Kahn. He uses the souls not only for energizing his sorcery but to shapeshift and take on the look and skills of anyone he copied! Kind of like Gargamel and the smurfs, but on steroids.
21. Raelle (Motherland: Fort Salem, Freeform)
Raelle is the reluctant Chosen One, who must save the day because Chosen Ones are the only witches who can do that. She suffered from the injustice of the American system. The sci-fi show is a sort of alternate historic version of the famous witch-hunting in the Salem Trials. Instead of witches being all killed, they made a pact with the government to join the army and help humanity fight their wars.
Raelle is the overpowered Witch and the only one who can heal by using two types of magic, canon & Christo-pagan, and knows how to work powerful spell casting. She is the glue that holds the unit made up of Raelle, Abigail, and Tally herself.
20. Melisandre (Game Of Thrones, TV Series)
Granted she’s not a witch, but rather a (Red-Haired) Priest who worships the Lord of Light. Melisandre has a constant urge for religious sacrifices. Taking lives for magical powers seems to be part of the godly portfolio of the Red God. Melisandre controls the “power within” – resurrection, not a simple piece of magic.
She owns a mix of shadow magic and skills she has picked up in her long life. Yes, Melisandre’s magic is limited, because those who practice magic in Game Of Thrones tend to be persecuted and exploited.
19. Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files, TV Series)
A former wizard and private investigator. Harry Dresden, (Paul Blackthorne) solves mysteries that concern the mystical world that lurks just behind the veil of the windy city.
Harry’s skills include dirty’ magic which creates large blasts of fire and force, weather control, manipulating gravity, and lightning magic. Harry Dresden has a gun and magic shield made out of his will, a very powerful wizard.
18. Sabrina (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, TV Series)
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina TV series is as dark as the original comics. Sabrina, (Kiernan Shipka) doesn’t use a wand, she is naturally powerful and has a lot of experience along with that is sort of the queen of hell and also super experienced in fighting a variety of dark creatures. “Chilling-Sabrina” actually kills things now and then.
She is not the most talented magician, and she’s a bit clumsy and impulsive. However, she never gives up and always wants to win.
17. Yennefer (The Witcher, TV Series)
Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) is one of the protagonists of The Netflix show The Witcher. She is a member of the lower chamber council of the Brotherhood of Sorcerers. She is a quarter elve, and this might give her additional skills and a favorable genetic background as a sorceress. Yennefer is the second most powerful mage during the Second Nilfgaardian war. She has to control her emotions to control her powers. Her first time with magic, she created a portal, impressive magic by all accounts.
Her skills are evident in several events. She can keep extremely difficult healing spells going, and teleport beings. Essentially her magic has a dark side. The book series describes her magically charming men and then performing intercourse with them while using their home for protection and whatever she can enjoy from it! In the series, this is reduced to her just enchanting the town and watching them have an orgy for her amusement. Yennefer fights and wins against impossible odds.
16. Neena (Charmed, Zenescope Entertainment Comics)
The misunderstood immortal who had good intentions. In the comics version, Witches, Warlocks, Spellcasters, and Wizards are all descendants of one pre-witch and her mate. And Neena is the mother and First Witch of the line. She is also the most powerful member of any supernatural cadre.
Besides basic powers such as spellcasting and portion-making, Neena can also enhance, grow and manipulate plant life, cancel out the powers of others and banish extremely powerful beings, throw fire from her hands, and create portals to other locations or realms.
15. Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty, Animated Film)
Self-proclaimed “Mistress of All Evil”, some fans would say she’s a fairy, others suggest she’s a witch from an inherently magical Druids, wizards, sorceresses, and clerics race who are usually portrayed as humans who have no internal magic but can manipulate magical forces.
Cartoon Maleficent can cast hellish spells and can turn into a giant dragon. She has killed using the magical “Sword of Truth” created by the fairies, and it is unknown if anything else is even capable of doing her in.
14. The White Witch (The Chronicles of Narnia, Film)
Queen Jadis (Tilda Swinton), the White Witch of Narnia, is extremely powerful. During 900 years of her banishment, she grows stronger and stronger in dark magic. The white witch is half jinn, a species with innate magical abilities, and half-giant, a species with sub-human intellect and high physical prowess. Jadis’s max attack is the deplorable word, which kills everyone but the person speaking it.
Her powers are quite amazing but still limited to influencing the weather and turning people to stone. In several ways, she is like a powered-down version of Saruman.
13. Merlin (Excalibur, 1981 Film)
Merlin (Nicol Williamson) from ‘The legends of Arthur‘ Excalibur (1981.) He is not a character from novels in the literary sense, but from legends. Merlin comes from a combination of stories and storytellers. His magical power level changes from one story to the other.
He’s nearly god-like in his powers, sometimes he’s very limited. However, he can be so powerful that he can fight off entire armies with his destructive spells.
Merlin can call entire biblical storms into being, and rain fire from the sky, he is typically shown to be a master shapeshifter. Merlin is pretty much anything else he wants to be.
12. Zatanna Zatara (DC Universe)
In the Marvel universe, everyone is born with the ability to use magic, they only need to learn how to master it, usually from a teacher. This also happens to be what is defined as a sorcerer. She is a magician and she is the daughter of Zatara. She is Homo Magi, which means she was born with her powers. She is also a member of the Justice League, as well as its supernatural team, the Justice League Dark.
The purple hair superhero uses a term called “Backward Magic”. Zatanna says things backward to cast a spell. But, on many occasions, she has cast spells without speaking at all. She mostly just speaks backward to channel her spells better.
As a magic user, Zatanna possesses various types of abilities, including turning massive tidal waves into ice, magic involving blasts/attacks of energy, healing, Invisibility, and spells that involve stopping, freezing, and moving people/objects.
11. Harry Potter (Harry Potter Movie Series)
The obvious pick is of course! The chosen boy is good at spells, or rather one spell. That’s right! But he always produces a Patronus Charm stronger than Hermione’s. Other than that, he is merely mediocre at spells, even though he runs the DA. However, he makes up for a lot of that with his teleportation skills.
Potter’s go-to attack is always “Expelliarmus”, as the wand is FAR more important in “Potter-magic”. Harry Potter, (Daniel Radcliffe) has powerful magic inside him, and most of this power is wasted ’cause he didn’t dedicate himself to studies so more skilled wizards or witches would be able to defeat and outrank him.
10. Morgan Le Fay (Marvel)
Morgan Le Fay from the Arthurian romance is without a doubt one of the most fascinating and diverse figures in the history of pop culture. From a repulsive and disgusting personality to a symbol of wonder and awe, from an old witch to one of nine fairies in Irish mythology, King Arthur’s sworn enemy to his caretaker on the mysterious island of Avalon.
Morgan piqued the curiosity of the French and English romances and was revived by Marvel. She is Insanely powerful and also taught Doctor Doom mystical dark arts.
9. Gellert Grindelwald (Harry Potter)
Grindelwald is a cruel magician with many powers similar to Lord Voldemort. During his school days, he demonstrated the use of evil forces, but unlike Voldemort (then named Tom Riddle) who managed to hide his traces, Grindelwald, who studied at Dormstrang (an institution that tends to turn a blind eye to dark spells) did not even bother to try. He was expelled from school for his experiments.
Charismatic, sweeping, leader. These are words that describe both Grindelwald. Although he had not the purest agenda, he still managed to attract groups of believers who were willing to serve his desires. Grindelwald was also very manipulative and knew how to exploit people’s weaknesses to his advantage Fun fact: Grindelwald is the name of a village in Switzerland, who knew? Well, now you know.
8. Palpatine (Star Wars, Movie Series)
Okay, we understand he is a Star Wars Jedi and not a wizard, but some might argue Palpatine, one of the strongest Sith Lords (Ian McDiarmid) is also a master manipulator wizard. He uses what is known as Sith Sorcery and alchemy. Some Sith who weren’t gifted with powerful physicals would instead use their minds as their weapons and they could be potent weapons indeed.
He can probe people’s minds for information, create illusions, see into the future, and create and control several force storms, with enough power to destroy entire fleets. In addition, he can act as wormholes, all from the other side of the galaxy. Yet, The best power Palpatine has in his arsenal is his charisma/politician prowess.
7. Shazam The Wizard (DC Comics)
The wizard is an ancient Egyptian sorcerer, who chose the red superhero, Billy Batson, aka Shazam. He gifts his powers to deserving mortals over the centuries. He is near-godly in his powers.
Shazam shares the same power as other thunder gods. It grants him the ability to form perfect storms of rain, lightning, and thunder. He has the “wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the courage of Achilles, the power of Zeus, the stamina of Atlas, and the speed of Mercury.”
6. Dr. Strange (Dr. Strange 2016 Movie)
Member of the Avengers Doctor Strange, (Benedict Cumberbatch) serves as the Sorcerer Supreme. He is the most skilled and most powerful wizard in Marvel, the god of magic. Dr. Strange summoned a group of cosmic entities known as the Vishanti. The Vishanti are a trio of supernatural, god-like beings.
In addition, he uses a wide range of supernatural abilities including The Eye of Agamotto and Cloak of Levitation to perform magic and Time stone as a power source to manipulate Time. That includes telepathy, invisible and intangible powers, telepathy, energy blasts, and time manipulation. The Wand of Watoomb increases his powers and allows him to absorb mystical energy.
5. Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter, Movie Series)
In the world of Harry Potter, Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is a supreme villain and a dark lord who had built several Horcruxes to cheat death. He is a dark wizard with an unparalleled range of spells and powers too great to list. He can withstand fire, his wand spun lightning and is capable of causing weather turbulences on a grand scale. Lord Voldemort knows a wide range of spells. Yet, he was struck down by two swordsmen.
Voldemort is too arrogant and is always portrayed as having an almost desperate need to finish all his duels as directly and quickly as possible to prove his superiority. While this makes for impressive displays of dominance against lower-tiered wizards it becomes a huge weakness against wizards in the same tier as himself.
4. Sauron (The Lord of the Rings, Movie Series)
Sauron, like Gandalf, is a Maia (divine being). However, he is in a higher order than Maiar, higher than Gandalf. Saruman and two blue wizards were sent to Middle-earth by the Valar to give advice and assist the people of Middle-Earth.
Thus, they were severely limited in power and we’re given the bodies of old men because they were not meant to take action, but merely assist. Sauron is not human, nor a mortal. He is not limited, like a wizard. Sauron is the embodiment of the industrial evil and dangerous Maia.
3. Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter, Movie Series)
Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) is pretty much one of the most powerful wizards in all of history. He knows that there is a lot more to magic than wand-waving. Dumbledore fought and won against some of the darkest and most powerful wizards including Voldemort, Kingsley, and Percy Weasley. He has experienced failures throughout his life, but the total of his work is overwhelmingly positive.
How magically powerful Albus Dumbledore is? Dumbledore has access to a vast array of spells and magical devices that do all kinds of useful things. Rowling’s magic is indistinguishable from advanced technology and is used with the same ease and facility as technology. Albus Dumbledore gets a very high score for magical power.
2. Glossaryck (Star VS The Forces of Evil, Disney)
Star’s guide in magical matters is AN unstoppable force of nature and an all-knowing god-like creature. He is a multi-dimensional being who can be in multiple places at once and travel through time with no restriction, therefore he can go to any time and see whether or not Magic is good or not.
Glossaryck can access extremely powerful magic with no restrictions, everything about the all-knowing powerful god of chaos is weird and nonsensical. Magic for Glossaryck is just a weird, grand social experiment.
1. Gandalf (Lord Of The Rings, Movie Series)
In The Lord of the Rings universe, magic is far more subtle than in traditional fairy tales. He is wise, composed, and fierce. Gandalf, (Ian McKellen) is known as a wizard, but in fact, was not. Gandalf is a Maiar, essentially made of magic. He is the avatar of an angelic being who is sent to earth to help mankind.
He has limits but seemingly no personal weaknesses apart from a short temper. In terms of powers, he is still immensely a powerful wizard, his spells summon storms, light, and flame, control the weather, read minds, and is a master strategist and planner.
