User blog comment:RRabbit42/X, later Y antagonists/@comment-26884760-20170115182704

with very few exceptions an author will have a set villain in mind when they make any media, they often add a "secret" villain for audience enjoyment and to try and avoid spoilers / leaked info that could ruin the media for others but the "secret" villain has always been designated as such by the author.

it's like how "spoilers" only apply to media for us, no author can "spoil" their own work and any company working with said author will also know all the "spoilers", if they didn't then they could not make nor approve a solid story.

the only exceptions I can see to these rules is surreal works or media that has no real "set" villain and we have to make our minds up ourselves ( V is an example of such a character, no one knows if he is a hero or a villain and his creator deliberately made him that way).