Which Films Portray The Wizard As An Antihero Protagonist?

There’s something delicious about watching a magic user who’s not trying to be a shining paragon — they bend rules, lie to get what they want, and sometimes hurt people for a cause they believe in. If you’re hunting films where the wizard (or sorcerer/sorceress/occultist) sits squarely in antihero territory, a few movies pop up for me again and again: 'Howl's Moving Castle', 'John Constantine', 'Doctor Strange' (especially 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'), 'The Covenant', and the slow-burn ambiguity of 'The Ninth Gate'. Each of these treats their magical lead with moral messiness instead of pure heroism, and I find that griping, stubborn majesty oddly reassuring — like meeting someone who admits their flaws up front.
'Howl's Moving Castle' is such a sweet, weird example: Howl is vain, cowardly at times, and prone to run away from responsibility — yet he’s the protagonist and very clearly not a traditional pure-hearted wizard. His selfish streak and careworn glamor make him feel like an antihero in the best Studio Ghibli way. Meanwhile, 'John Constantine' (the 2005 movie) plays the antihero angle more bluntly: Constantine is cynical, world-weary, and willing to trade his soul or skirt moral lines to keep demons at bay. He’s the kind of magical lead who curses in the rain and makes compromises you’d hate to have to make yourself.
The Marvel take gets complicated: the first 'Doctor Strange' (2016) introduces an arrogant surgeon turned sorcerer who matures into a hero, but across the films — notably in 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' — Strange’s choices become ethically fraught. He’s protective to the point of selfishness, using reality-altering power in ways that feel very antiheroic. 'The Covenant' offers a different flavor: teenage warlocks who inherit power and use it for revenge, manipulation and adolescent moral failures — protagonists who aren’t saints. For something slower and creepier, 'The Ninth Gate' follows a rare-book dealer who traffics in the demonic and ends the film morally ambiguous; he isn’t a classical spell-casting wizard, but his relationship with dark ritual and the way he slips into complicity reads like antiheroism on camera.
If you like this kind of morally gray magic, try pairing 'Howl's Moving Castle' (to savor the romantic, flawed wizard) with 'John Constantine' (gritty, street-level dark magic) and then finish with 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' to see how blockbuster sorcerers wrestle with doing harm for a perceived greater good. I’ll always pick the morally complicated leads over spotless ones — they feel closer to real people, even when they’re bending reality — and they spark the best conversations at 2 a.m. movie nights.

I tend to binge morally twisted magic stories on weekends, so here’s a more compact list of films where the wizard or sorcerer sits in antihero territory, with quick takes from someone who’s watched them on late-night loops.
'Howl's Moving Castle' — Howl is charismatic and selfish, he hides behind style and shirks duty, yet remains the central, sympathetic figure; he’s an antihero who grows. 'John Constantine' — the whole movie is built around a protagonist who trades favours with heaven and hell, uses questionable methods, and is haunted by past compromises. 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' (and to a lesser extent the first 'Doctor Strange') shows a powerful sorcerer making ethically dubious choices under the banner of protection — very antiheroic energy. 'The Covenant' gives a modern take: teenage warlocks whose rivalry and entitlement lead them into dark territory while still being the film’s leads. 'The Ninth Gate' is quieter and colder, with a protagonist who becomes complicit in occult horror rather than fighting it.
If you want a weekend viewing order, I’d start with 'Howl's Moving Castle' to ease in, then jump to 'Doctor Strange', and finish on 'John Constantine' or 'The Ninth Gate' for grimmer, morally complex tones — they feel like good bookends to a night of morally questionable magic.