Hey guys, leave some superhero roles for the rest of us! There are some actors who have played multiple comic book and superhero characters across films. There are some that have played multiple across a mix of film and TV, and animation. There are even some who have played multiple versions of the same character.
Let’s take a look at who they are and what they’ve done.
Ryan Renolds was Hannibal King in Blade Trinity, then he famously played Green Lantern for DC. He was then in the more obscure comic book movie RIPD and of course two different versions of Deadpool. And he was also the Juggernaut in Deadpool 2, though only as a voice over. His most iconic role of course is Deadpool, although his first stab at it in X-Men Origins Wolverine is arguably also his worst…or at least battling Green Lantern for that unfortunate distinction.
Michael Keaton was Batman in the 1989 Batman movie and then again in Batman Returns. He would then play Birdman in a movie that mirrored Keaton’s journey as an actor most well known for playing a film superhero. Later he could join the MCU in Spider-Man Homecoming where he would play Vulture. This wouldn’t be the end of things for Keaton though as he’d make unusual returns to both Batman and Vulture.
After decades he would return to the role of Batman in The Flash Movie, and then also in the Batgirl movie which was cancelled despite being completely filmed.
He’d also return to the role of Vulture, but cross over from the main Marvel Cinematic Universe into Sony’s Spiderman focussed, but Spider-man-less Venom-verse when he appeared in Morbius…seemingly stuck in that failed universe forever.
Jared Leto played both the Joker in the Snyderverse and Morbius in Sony’s failed Sony Spider-man Venomverse. He would then go on to be Skeletor in the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe movie in 2026.
Nicholas Hoult played both Beast from the semi rebooted X-Men movies and Lex Luthor from James Gunn’s Superman and DCU.
One of the big ones on this list now. Nicholas freaking Cage! Nick Cage was going to play Superman in the 1990s in a movie directed by Tim Buton. That movie got cancelled, but it was far from the end of the road for Cage and comic book movies.
Cage would go on to play Ghost Rider, not once but twice, and technically each movie is seen as a different version of the character…for some reason. He was then Big Daddy in Kick Ass, and eventually went full circle to play Superman…in the Lego Batman franchise.
After this, Cage would play Spider-Man Noir in the animated Spiderverse movies, and then play Spider-Man Noir in live action, but this isn’t considered the same version of Spider-Man Noir. Finally (at the time of writing) Cage would play live action Tim Burton inspired Superman in the Flash movie for all but a few seconds where they then completely replaced Cage with bad CGI.
Ben Affleck was Daredevil and then went on to play Batman in the Snyderverse. Daredevil didn’t return in the MCU, although his side character Elecktra did and referenced Affleck’s version of Daredevil in Deadpool and Wolverine…which didn’t quite bring him into the MCU or the Fox X-Men movies, but almost did.
Christian Bale was Batman in the Dark Knight trilogy for DC and then entered the MCU to play Gorr the God Butcher which was the main villain in Thor Love and Thunder.
Halle Berry played both Storm in the X-Men franchise, and Catwoman in the terrible standalone Catwoman movie.
Chris Evans was Johnny Storm in mid-2000s Fantastic Four movies and quickly then went on to play Captain America in the MCU. He would later return to the MCU as Johnny Storm as a variant Johnny Storm in Deadpool and Wolverine.
Michael B Jordan was The Human Torch in the Fox Fantastic 4 movie from the late 2010s and then he would play Killmonger in the MCU in Black Panther. He was also rumoured to play Superman at one point but didn’t come to fruition.
Aaron Taylor Johnson was Kick-Ass for two movies. Then he played Quicksilver in the MCU for two movies. Finally, he played Kraven the Hunter in the Sony Venomverse for one awful movie.
Djimon Hounsou was the Wizard in Shazan and Korath the Pursuer in Guardians of the Galaxy, meaning he had been both in the MCU and the DCEU.
Michelle Pfeiffer was Catwoman for DC and the original Wasp/Janet Van Dyne in Ant-Man in the MCU.
Tom Hardy was both Bane in the Dark Knight Rises and later Venom in the Sony Venomverse in three movies. This version of the character did make a cameo appearance in the MCU in a pointless post credit scene in Spider-Man No Way Home.
Dwayne The Rock Johnson was both Black Adam in the Snyderverse…which he tried to make the Black Adamverse, and Krypto in the animated Krypto the Superdog movie. Both of these were for DC.
Josh Brolin was both Cable in the Fox X-Men universe in Deadpool 2, and Thanos in the MCU. Interestly he played this main character villains in movies that released within a few months of each other in two separate franchises.
Zachary Levi was both Fandral in Thor as part of the MCU and then Shazam in the DCEU.
Robert Downey Jr was both Iron Man and Doctor Doom in the MCU.
Oscar Isaac played Apocalypse in the Fox X-Men franchise. He then played Moon Knight in the MCU on a Disney Plus show. He also played Spider-Man 2099 in the Sony Spiderverse films.
Mark Hamill was the Joker in the animated Batman the Animated Series show and the Trickster in the Flash TV series from the early 90s and then again for the Flash in the Arrowverse.
Brandon Routh was famously Superman in Superman Returns which was a direct continuation of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. He would later play another version of Superman in the Arrowverse in the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline which was based on the Kingdom Come Superman. In the same franchise he would also regularly play the character the Atom.
Finally, for now, Jason Mamoa was Aqua Man in the Snyderverse and DCEU. Once James Gunn took over and created the DCU, all past superhero actors from the DCEU were let go, but somehow Mamoa stayed on to play Lobo in the DCU, debuting in the Supergirl movie.
What other actors and characters have I missed?
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