What is the name of the villain in The Stand?

The villain in Stephen King’s The Stand is Randall Flagg. Also known as the Dark Man, the Walkin’ Dude, and the Man with No Face, Flagg emerges after the plague known as Captain Trips devastates the United States. He gathers survivors in Las Vegas and builds an authoritarian society based on fear, punishment, and obedience.

Flagg is more than an ordinary human antagonist. The novel presents him as a supernatural embodiment of destruction, opposed to Mother Abagail and the community that forms around her in Boulder. His powers and origins remain deliberately uncertain, which makes him feel like an ancient force that repeatedly appears under different identities.

Readers sometimes confuse Flagg with characters from other King works, such as Leland Gaunt from Needful Things or Kurt Barlow from 'Salem’s Lot. Pennywise is also one of King’s famous villains, but he belongs to It. Randall Flagg is the canonical villain of The Stand and later becomes a recurring figure in King’s wider fictional universe.