For anyone who doesn’t follow or enjoy superhero movies, this is not a good time to be alive. Over the next five years alone, moviegoers will be subjected to at least 30 films based on comic book properties. And that’s strictly Marvel and DC. For lovers and haters alike, though, this plethora of comic book movies creates the confusion of not knowing which actors are playing which superheroes anymore. So we figured we’d clear things up by pointing out some of the most famous actors who’ve donned multiple capes and cowls, and whether or not they’re wearing one currently. (Note: We are excluding voice acting work. Gotta draw the line somewhere.)
It’s no secret that many a fanboy was displeased by the decision to cast Ben Affleck in one of the title roles of the upcoming “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Could this be because the previous actor behind the Batman mantle, Christian Bale, did such an amazing job that simply no one could top him? Perhaps. But more than anything else, it was because Affleck had already played a superhero in the form of the much-maligned “Daredevil” back in 2003 (not to be confused with the upcoming Netflix series starring Charlie Cox). But like him or not, he is your new Caped Crusader going forward, so we’re hoping he’s learned a thing or two from his past superhero shortcomings since then.
Fun sidenote: Affleck also played George Reeves, the actor who portrayed the 1950s television Superman, in “Hollywoodland” in 2006.
Whatever you think of Ryan Reynolds, he arguably has more to live up to than even Mr. Affleck after bombing hard as the titular DC superhero “Green Lantern” in 2011. Fortunately he’s all set to jump into the shoes of Deadpool, a much less popular Marvel antihero that people have been clamoring for him to play for years. Literally no one but Reynolds has played the character on the big screen before, and if his previous attempt in the abysmal “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” in 2009 is currently the gold standard, he’s got a pretty good shot of knocking it out of the park. Especially if the test footage is any indication.
OK, maybe not literally half, as the amount of star power in the upcoming “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is staggering, but so are the number of cast members who’ve played multiple superhero/villain roles by comparison. Let’s check them off as we go, shall we? Chris Evans plays Captain America, but has also played the Human Torch in “Fantastic Four” (2005) / “Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer” and Nick Gant in “Push” (as well as Jensen in “The Losers,” and Curtis in “Snowpiercer,” but they weren’t technically superheroes). Samuel L. Jackson absolutely kills it as Nick Fury, but has also done well as Mr. Glass in “Unbreakable” and the villainous Octopus in “The Spirit.” Coincidentally, his partner in crime in that film was Silken Floss, played by none other than the lovely Scarlett Johansson. Finally, newcomer Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who will play Quicksilver, is also known as Kick-Ass.
Fun sidenote #2: The character of Quicksilver was in “X-Men: Days of Future Past” but played by Evan Peters. Peters had previously played Todd, Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s best friend in “Kick-Ass.”
Speaking of “Kick-Ass,” anyone unfamiliar with Nicolas Cage’s role as Big Daddy in that film would still probably recognize him as the Marvel antihero “Ghost Rider,” whom he played in two truly terrible films. As luck would have it, we were all spared his rendition of the Man of Steel back in the late ’90s after the success of Tim Burton’s “Batman” prompted the studio to let him take a crack at DC’s other top dog superhero. If you’d like an idea of how that would have played out, see for yourself (hint: pure garbage).
Speaking of pure garbage, the 2004 film “Catwoman” based on the popular DC Comics character (kind of) wasn’t Halle Berry’s first foray into the comic book world, but it was certainly her most unfortunate. Don’t get us wrong, we’re all for seeing the Oscar-winner decked out in leather and latex prancing around with a bullwhip pretending she isn’t almost 40 years old, but that’s not the issue. The issue is that the movie was a complete mess, and sometimes you should just stick to a superhero with a more solid franchise around them. In this case, playing Storm from the “X-Men” series for nearly 15 years is the better, less embarrassing way to go.
While we’re on a role with these “speaking of” transitions, speaking of Storm, she was the character who electrocuted the supervillain known as Toad, played by Ray Park, with a lightning bolt near the end of the original “X-Men” film. Even though he may not be the most recognizable actor on this list by far, his name is certainly synonymous with playing well-disguised superheroes and villains. Case in point: he was cast as one of the G.I. Joe brand’s most popular characters Snake Eyes in “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” in 2009. The movie didn’t resonate with fans much, but the sequel/soft reboot “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” in 2013 fared much better, and still had Park behind the Snake Eyes mask.
Fun sidenote #3: Park is probably most famous for his first major role as the badass on the wrong side of the Force Darth Maul in “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.” We weren’t sure where Sith abilities fit into the technicalities of being qualified as a superhero, though.
Doug Jones is a lot like Ray Park in that you might not instantly recognize him for being an actor, but you would certainly be able to identify him with one of his characters. In this specific instance, Jones has played both the Marvel superhero the Silver Surfer in 2007’s “Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer” and Hellboy sidekick Abe Sapien in both the original “Hellboy” and its sequel “Hellboy II: The Golden Army.” Ironically, his voice was replaced by other actors in both the “Fantastic Four” sequel and “Hellboy.” However, in the “Hellboy” sequel, he was finally given the opportunity to voice Abe Sapien himself.
We’ve finally come to an actor that is arguably more famous for a villain role. Although we’d have to say that V in “V for Vendetta” had much more screen presence than the Red Skull did in “Captain America: The First Avenger,” due to how popular the Marvel cinematic universe has become, the Red Skull is still the far more recognized character. Heck, people are even destroying their faces with cosmetic surgery to look like him. But of the two roles, it would seem the Red Skull is more likely to never be performed by Weaving again, as he expressed reluctance in doing so after his initial appearance, regardless of contractual obligations.
So far Will Smith has only played one superhero on the big screen, and that was the titular character in the 2008 film “Hancock.” Interestingly, Hancock is the only character on this list to not be based on a previous superhero property or comic book. Regardless, that’s all about to change in 2016, as the former “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” star has signed on to play DC assassin and supervillain Deadshot in the upcoming “Suicide Squad.” Even though we said that Weaving was the only actor on this list to be more famous as a villain, we reckon Smith plans to give the fellow thespian a run for his money, as he recently said that he hopes to create the definitive version of Deadshot with his performance.
Fun sidenote #4: “Men in Black” was technically based on a comic book series titled “The Men in Black” by Lowell Cunningham, but if we included them as superheroes then we would have had to add Tommy Lee Jones to this list. Along with accompanying Will Smith as Agent K in “Men in Black,” he also played Two-Face in “Batman Forever.”
Who would have thought that, of all actors, Jim Carrey would be among the few to have played three or more superheroes or villains on film? As the picture above shows, he most recently gave the character of Colonel Stars and Stripes from “Kick-Ass 2” his best effort (well, if renouncing the film after the fact counts as best effort). Prior to this, he hammed it up with gusto as Batman villain The Riddler in “Batman Forever.” To top that off, Carrey essentially kickstarted his career with his portrayal as the title character in “The Mask” in 1994. Perhaps more supernatural than superhuman, “The Mask” was based on a comic book by the same name and centered around a mask which grants its wearer magical reality-altering powers. If that doesn’t qualify as a superhero or villain in the right hands, we don’t know what does.
