Michelle Pfeifferwill be returning to her role as Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. the original Wasp, in the upcomingAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and based on what we’ve seen so far, it looks like she’ll have a much more significant role than she did in the previous film. She’s far from the first actor to play multiple superheroes (she was, of course, a stunning Catwoman in 1992’sBatman Returns), and she certainly won’t be the last. Here are 17 more actors who have played multiple superheroes or supervillains on the big screen.
Ben Affleck
To the surprise of many, Batfleck was, arguably, the best part ofBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But before he became the Batman, Affleck played a Marvel character, Matt Murdock a.k.a.Daredevil, all the way back in 2003, before the MCU was even a thing.
RELATED:‘Unbreakable’ & 9 More Superhero Movies That Aren’t Actually Action Movies
Christian Bale
Bale is another in the long list of actors who have played the world’s greatest detective, starring inChristopher Nolan’sDark Knight trilogyfrom 2005 to 2012. More recently, he joined the MCU as the god-killing villain Gorr in 2022’sThor: Love and Thunder.
Halle Berry
Berry has had a long and successful run as Ororo Munroe/Storm in the X-Men universe starting with the first film in the franchise, 2000’sX-Men(the only film in which she attempts a Kenyan accent) and most recently in 2014’sX-Men: Days of Future Past. But she also dipped her toes into the DC Universe in 2004 as the title character in the widely pannedCatwoman, whose alter ego is not named Selina Kyle but, inexplicably, Patience Phillips. Despite being headlined by Berry andSharon Stone, the film has an abysmal 8% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Josh Brolin
SinceDeadpool is now officially part of the MCU, we’re free to speculate about what might happen if Thanos ever meets Cable, Brolin’s stone-faced part-cyborg who saved Wade Wilson’s life inDeadpool 2. Although Thanos is dead in the current timeline, Cable is a time-traveler (and we all know death doesn’t really matter in the MCU anyway — after all, the Avengers have already had to kill Thanos twice), so an encounter between the two isn’t out of the question.
Nicolas Cage
Cage is known for taking on a wide range of roles in all kinds of movies, and his career as a superhero is no different. His first super role was as the title character, a.k.a. Johnny Blaze, in 2006’sGhost Riderand its 2011 sequel. In between those films, he played Damon Macready/Big Daddy, a sort of Batman knock-off, in 2010’sKick-Ass, a more grounded and comedic look at superheroes based on the comics series of the same name. And he took a turn as Spider-Man Noir in 2018’sSpider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. In the 1990s Cage was also slated to play Superman inTim Burton’sill-fatedSuperman Lives; he finally got his chance to do so in 2018 inTeen Titans GO! To the Movies, providing the voice of the last son of Krypton.
Jim Carrey
Carrey might not be the first name that comes to mind when you think about superheroes, but believe it or not, he’s had a go at it three times. In 1994, he starred as Stanley Ipkiss inThe Mask, based on the Dark Horse comics series, and the following year he gave us his take on the Riddler, a.k.a. Edward Nygma, a disgruntled Wayne Enterprises employee who becomes obsessed with Bruce Wayne inBatman Forever. Then in 2011 he appeared inKick-Ass 2as former mafioso and current born-again Christian Colonel Stars and Stripes, who teams up with Kick-Ass and other low-budget supes to combat a rising collective of supervillains.
Idris Elba
Elba is a relative newcomer to the superhero world, first playing the Asgardian Heimdall inThorin 2011 and again in five subsequent MCU films. He also made an appearance as the monk Moreau in 2011’sGhost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, though the character isn’t technically a superhero. Most recently, he played Robert DuBois/Bloodsport in James Gunn’s 2021The Suicide Squad.
Chris Evans
Evans' take on Captain America was one of the pillars of Marvel’s Phase 1, but before he became the First Avenger, he had a run in another Marvel property: he first appeared as Johnny Storm a.k.a. the Human Torch in 2005’sFantastic Four, then again in 2007’sFantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. And if we want to get technical, he also briefly played Loki pretending to be Cap inThor: The Dark World, though he wasn’t credited for it.
Hardy’s breakout role came as Eames in 2010’s hitInception, but it was another Nolan film,The Dark Knight Rises, that gave him his first super role as Bane, terrorist revolutionary, ex-member of the League of Shadows, and sidekick to Talia al Ghul. He’s since made the leap from DC to Marvel, appearing as journalist Eddie Brock and alien symbiote Venom in 2018’sVenom, the 2021 sequelVenom: Let There Be Carnage, and an after-credits appearance inSpider-Man: No Way Home.
Oscar Isaac
The most recent superhero role for Isaac came on the small screen in 2022’sMoon Knight, but he’s also appeared in both the X-Men universe and the Spider-Verse. In the former, he plays En Sabah Nur, the eponymous villain in 2016’sX-Men: Apocalypse, and in the latter he voices Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (credited as “Interesting Person #1”).
