5 Actors Have Played 4 Or More Comic Book Characters

When you think of actors playing comic book characters, your mind tends to instantly jump to the ones that played the same role for a number of years that have become inextricably linked with the part, like Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine or Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man. However, more than a few names have dabbled in the genre multiple times, and it isn’t exactly surprising that the results were more than a little hit-or-miss.

Brandon Routh is still best known for playing the title hero in Superman Returns, which he would eventually reprise in the Arrowverse’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” despite already having starred as Legends of Tomorrow’s Ray Palmer. Outside of the world of DC though, he also played a supporting role in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and took the lead in 2011’s forgotten box office bomb Dylan Dog: Dead of Night.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s first comic book movie, meanwhile, saw him suit up as The Comedian in Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, before leading the titular team in 2010’s underrated The Losers. Of course, the 54 year-old can also currently be seen playing Negan on The Walking Dead, and went uncredited in infamous dud Jonah Hex and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, and his cameo in the latter might yet still lead to a return as the Flashpoint version of the character.

Unfortunately for Josh Brolin, he didn’t get off as easily as Morgan did with Jonah Hex, where his name was on the poster as the title hero, but since then the Goonies star has gone on to murder half of the universe as the MCU’s Thanos, travel through time as Deadpool 2’s Cable, and step in as both Clive Owen’s Dwight in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and Tommy Lee Jones’ Agent K in Men in Black 3.

Elsewhere, Chris Evans had already played Johnny Storm in two Fantastic Four movies before he eventually accepted what would become his career-defining role as Captain America after the third time of Marvel asking. Interestingly, he also starred alongside Brandon Routh in Scott Pilgrim and Jeffrey Dean Morgan in The Losers, proving that it really is a small world when it comes to starring in multiple comic book movies.

Most famously, Ryan Reynolds had featured in four terrible comic book adaptations in a row before finally striking gold with Deadpool. He might have stolen every scene he was in as Blade: Trinity’s Hannibal King, but that wouldn’t be hard given Wesley Snipes’ level of interest in the Daywalker’s threequel. His first outing as Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, meanwhile, consigned Deadpool to nearly a decade in development hell, while RIPD tanked spectacularly at the box office. Elsewhere, though a lot of people would want you to forget that they headlined Green Lantern, Reynolds has made sure that nobody ever forgets he was in it by savaging the movie at every turn.

Clearly, there’s been a surprising amount of cross-pollination between these actors that have starred in four or more comic book movies, and it just goes to show that one or two critical and commercial disasters on your resume isn’t enough to banish you from the genre for all eternity.