9 Actors Who Have Played Multiple Superheroes

Playing a superhero must be a lot of fun. Sure, those tight costumes are probably a pain to wear in real life and the roles often require rigorous physical training, but if you play a superhero in a movie, you're instantly an icon and will garner a legions of fans. It’s also likely that you’ve found the definitive - and quite possibly the highest-paid - role of your career. With all those positives, it's not really a surprise that several actors love playing superheroes so much that they've portrayed not one, but two separate cape-wearing crusaders. You know that childhood friend who would always claim the best roles when you were playing? That's these guys. Here, you'll find 9 actors who've fought the good fight on more than one occasion. We’re not including people who've played one superhero on film and another on TV though, so someone like Brandon Routh, who starred in both Superman Returns and on Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow, won't show up here. With that in mind, check out our list on the next page and be sure to leave us a comment letting us know which of these actors you think did the best job with their role. 9) Channing Tatum Channing Tatum is an odd one on this list because, as of 2016, he has actually yet to play any superhero in a live-action movie. Nonetheless, he has voiced one and is signed onto play another, so we think he deserves a mention here. Firstly, Tatum provided a cameo in 2014’s smash hit The LEGO Movie. He played Superman himself alongside The Avengers’ Cobie Smulders as Wonder Woman and his 22 Jump Street co-star Jonah Hill as Green Lantern. It's a role he is bound to reprise in next year’s The LEGO Batman Movie as well, and we can't wait to hear him pop up again. His second superhero role will be as Remy LeBeau in Fox’s X-Men spinoff Gambit… if that one ever actually gets off the ground. The movie has already burned through two directors though and has still yet to film anything, so there's a very good chance that it will ultimately fail to come to fruition. 8) Doug Jones Doug Jones has played two supporting superheroes in his time, but you would be forgiven for not recognizing his face. He played both parts with his own face obscured - due to either prosthetics or CGI enhancement. Hollywood’s go-to guy for masked rules, Jones first appeared in a comic book film as one of the Penguin’s clown henchmen in 1992’s Batman Returns. However, his first actual superhero role was as Hellboy’s piscine best bud Abe Sapien in the Hellboy films. In the first movie, the character was voiced by David Hyde Pierce. However, after being impressed with Jones’ physical performance, Pierce bowed out of the sequel and Jones got to voice Abe himself. In 2007, he supplied the on-set performance as the titular chrome crusader in sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Laurence Fishburne, meanwhile, provided the voice on this occasion. 7) Ellen Page Juno star Ellen Page isn’t primarily known for her superhero roles, but nonetheless she's notched up two of them in her career. First of all, she joined the X-Men universe in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand as Kitty Pryde. Despite playing one of the most popular X-Men characters in the comics, Page was basically reduced to being part of an anaemic love triangle with Iceman and Rogue. She later reprised the role in 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, where she was a plot device – developing the handy new power to send Wolverine back into the past. Meanwhile, in future Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn’s Super, Page played comic book obsessive Libby who takes on the identity of Boltie – the slightly psychotic sidekick of vigilante the Crimson Bolt. 6) Nicolas Cage A lifelong fan of comic books, Nicolas Cage (whose stage name comes from Marvel hero Luke Cage) nearly played the biggest superhero of them all in mooted 1990s movie Superman Lives, but unfortunately for him the film never got out of development hell. Instead, he had to wait until 2007 to play cursed stunt driver Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider and its 2012 sequel Spirit of Vengeance. Sadly, they are both pretty awful films with Cage himself being miscast. On the upside, in between those two, Cage featured in 2010’s Kick-Ass, as the Batman-parodying Big Daddy. Unlike Ghost Rider, Cage was on fine form as Hit Girl’s demanding yet weirdly sweet father. In fact, one of the things its subpar sequel lacked was more from the actor. 5) Aaron Taylor-Johnson Speaking of Kick-Ass, Dave Lizewski might be a geeky superhero wannabe, but the man behind him, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, has also found himself playing a member of the Avengers. After starring in the irreverent superhero spoof and its 2013 sequel, Taylor-Johnson bulked up to play Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron (plus, a cameo in Captain America: The Winter Soldier). Given the character’s prominence in the comics, he was expected to stay around for more films but - spoiler alert - was shockingly killed off (as you can see in the clip above). Funnily enough, his Kick-Ass co-star Evan Peters plays another version of Quicksilver in the X-Men movies. Peters' Kick-Ass character became a superhero himself in the sequel, but Augustus Prew had taken over the role. Otherwise, Peters would be on this list too. 4) Halle Berry It's unfortunate that neither of one-time Oscar winner Halle Berry’s superhero roles are too well fond of with fans, but at least one of them is part of a successful franchise. Since 2000’s X-Men, Berry has played Ororo ‘Storm’ Munroe, one of Professor X’s students with the power to control the weather. Unfortunately, that’s about all Storm did in the movies, never giving Berry much of a character to work with. Her most recent appearance in the role came in Days of Future Past. Presumably that will be her last, as Alexandra Shipp took over the role in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse. In 2004, meanwhile, Berry played the lead in the regrettable Catwoman solo film, widely regarded as one of the worst superhero movies of all-time. 3) Ryan Reynolds Ryan Reynolds' first brush with the superhero genre came in 2004’s Blade: Trinity, when he played supernatural detective Hannibal King. Next came X-Men: The Last Stand, which cast him as a decent version of Wade Wilson and then a very bad version of Deadpool. In 2011, he donned a CGI green suit to play Hal Jordan in DC’s depressingly awful Green Lantern. You might be noticing a theme here. Despite Reynolds giving it his all, none of those three movies were received very well. Finally, Reynolds’ commitment to the genre was repaid when he starred in this year’s Deadpool, which was phenomenally successful. Even with all the competition, there is little doubt that the Merc with the Mouth will go down as Reynolds’ best superhero role. 2) Ben Affleck After taking the lead in the, let’s say, less than revered 2003 Daredevil movie, the world – and we can assume the actor himself – thought Ben Affleck was done with the superhero genre. 13 years later, however, he played another rooftop-stalking vigilante. Except this time, he swapped his red cowl for a black one. Yes, Affleck was at the centre of an internet storm when it was first revealed that he would play Batman in the DC Extended Universe. Upon the release of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, though, it became evident that he was one of the best things about the film and his gritty performance was miles away from his misguided take on Matt Murdock. As such, expect lots more of Batfleck in the future. 1) Chris Evans Chris Evans has the distinction of starring in one of the least acclaimed superhero franchises and one of the most, in the Fantastic Four films and the Captain America movies, respectively. In the 2005 Fantastic Four movie and its aforementioned sequel, Evans plays cocky womanizer Johnny Storm/Human Torch. From 2011’s The First Avenger onward, he has become much more widely known as the very different Steve Rogers - leader of the Avengers and star of one of the most consistently great superhero trilogies of all-time. But it doesn’t stop with those two roles. Evans has also appeared in Push, Snowpiercer, The Losers, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and TMNT, which are either superhero-related or based on comic books. I guess you can’t blame the guy. He’s found his niche and he’s sticking to it.