Comic Booking Both Sides: Actors Who Have Appeared In Marvel And DC Films

TV & Film

Feb 22

Michelle Pfeiffer reprises her role as Hope Van Dyne, the first Wasp, in Marvel Studios’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which will be released on February 17. Many rejoiced when she was originally cast for 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, as she is still beloved for having played Selina Kyle, Catwoman in 1992’s Batman Returns. However, she is far from the first to have appeared in Marvel and DC films. To explore this, we will focus on live-action films on both sides, as far back as they can go. So if you happened to be looking for Nicolas Cage, Ray Wise, or Michael Rosenbaum, you’re out of luck. But there will be plenty covered regardless.

A (The) Suicide Squad Start

We will start with a string of connections via the same film. The Suicide Squad, directed by James Gunn, brings over several actors he’s worked with before. However, that’s not the case for all of them. Idris Elba, who plays Robert DuBois, aka Bloodsport, in the film, has had two separate Marvel roles. His first was as Moreau in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. He would films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Heimdall, the protector of the Bifrost, most recently in Thor: Love and Thunder. Then there’s David Dastmalchian, who plays Abner Krill/Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad, who played Kurt in the first two Ant-Man films. He is returning for Quantumania as a character named Veb, who still has no character details. Notably, he’s one of the few who have had DC film and TV roles, as he was Abra-Kadabra for several episodes of The Flash.

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As for who Gunn did bring with him, well, there’s Michael Rooker, who played Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy as Savant in the opening of The Suicide Squad. There’s also Sean Gunn, James’s brother, who has been Kraglin and on-set Rocket in the Guardians movies, playing Weasel and Calendar Man. Sylvester Stallone joined the Guardians films in the sequel as Stakar Ogord, leader of the Ravagers, and then voiced King Shark. Nathan Fillion was a prisoner in the first Guardians, and Cory Pitzner, The Detachable Kid (T.D.K.) in The Suicide Squad. Steve Agee was King Shark on-set and portrayed A.R.G.U.S. agent John Economos, who grows prominent in Peacemaker after being Gef in vol. 2. Daniela Melchior, who played the second Ratcatcher here, has a role in Guatdians vol. 3 that as of writing is still unknown. As James Gunn now leads DC Studios, he believes more Guardians actors will follow.

Randall Park: Close-Up Magic

Randall Park began playing Jimmy Woo in Ant-Man and the Wasp, joining the universe exactly when Pfeiffer did. He also became part of the DCEU the very same year, playing Atlantis-obsessed marine biologist Dr. Stephen Shin in Aquaman. And yes, he’s set to return in each role in their respective sequels, with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom set for a Christmas Day release.

Michael Keaton: The Bat And The Bird

Michael Keaton as Batman — Image Source: Marvel Studios/Warner Bros.

Now we can take a look at Michelle Pfeiffer’s co-star Michael Keaton to start off a string of Batmen. He, of course, played Bruce Wayne/Batman in the 1989 film and the Returns sequel. Then, 25 years later, he began playing Adrian Toomes, the Vulture, starting with Spider-Man: Homecoming, continuing in a very confusing post-credits scene in Morbius. He has since returned to the cowl, twice in fact, first for the infamously written-off Batgirl, so we’ll never see that, and the long-delayed, universe-resetting The Flash, which finally releases in June.

Christian Bale: Living Long Enough To Become The Villain

Christian Bale, who starred as Batman in the Dark Knight trilogy from 2005 to 2012, returned to superhero movies last year, playing Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder, in a quest that ultimately brought Love back into the world.

Ben Affleck: The Bats Without Fear

Finally, we have Ben Affleck, who played with Marvel first, having played Matt Murdock, Daredevil, in the 2003 film. He then became Bruce Wayne/Batman for the DCEU explicitly to position himself better in comic book movie history. He began the role with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, continuing with Suicide Squad, both versions of Justice League, and will also be appearing in The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. In between, he portrayed Adventures of Superman actor George Reeves in the 2006 biopic Hollywoodland, allowing him to also bear the Superman costume.

Colin Farrell: Penguinseye

Affleck wasn’t the only actor in Daredevil to do a DC role later. Colin Farrell played Bullseye there, and nearly 20 years later played The Penguin in last year’s The Batman. Funnily enough, in the early part of its lifespan, The Batman was based in the DCEU, to be directed by and starring Affleck as his Batman’s solo film. Eventually starring Robert Pattinson in what’s now considered by DC Studios to be an Elseworld, there’s not only a sequel in the works but a Penguin-starring series with Farrell returning to star in it.

Tom Hardy: Venomenal

Tom Hardy has a very interesting case. His DC role was as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. A wrestler with an addiction to the Venom drug, it would become ironic in hindsight that this version of the character has a mask that instead provides a constant stream of analgesic gas to keep the pain away. Hardy would be cast as Eddie Brock and Venom for the 2018 solo film for the character in Sony’s Universe of Spider-Man Characters, returning for its sequel and Spider-Man: No Way Home. A third Venom film is in the works.

J.K. Simmons: The Daily Batsignal

Oscar winner J.K. Simmons gained universal acclaim for portraying J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy from 2002-2007. After some time away, he joined Justice League as Commissioner Gordon, released in 2017. Then, being spotted at the premiere of Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019, the second film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Tom Holland-led Spider-Man series confirmed what many had hoped for: He was reprising the role of Jameson, or at least the MCU’s more modern-presenting version/variant. He would also return for the third film, No Way Home, and was apparently set to reprise Commissioner Gordon in a major capacity, and probably did… but we’ll never see it because, well, it was for Batgirl.

Shazam: Wizard And Champion Who?

Here’s a fun one: The actor for Shazam the wizard and the actor for Shazam the champion hero vessel (going by “The Captain” for his next comic run) both appeared in Marvel films prior to the 2019 film. Zachary Levi, who plays the champion, appeared as Fandral for Thor: The Dark World and Thor Ragnarok. The wizard’s actor, Djimon Hounsou, appeared as Korath the Pursuer in Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel. This means Hounsou appeared in the films of both Marvel’s Captain Marvel and DC’s Captain Marvel (as the hero was known from 1939 to 2012), which were released four weeks apart. He reprised the wizard Shazam in Black Adam after having voiced King Ricou in Aquaman and, well before that, played Papa Midnite in Constantine. And, of course, both Hounsou and Levi are back for next month’s Fury of the Gods.

Fleeing Lantern Corps.

Finally, we have a bunch from 2011’s Green Lantern. There’s the film’s star, Ryan Reynolds, as the Green Lantern Hal Jordan. Reynolds came from a much-derided portrayal of Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. While he did get his wife from the role, he gleefully his displeasure in both films when he got around to properly adapting Deadpool in the character’s own solo films, which he had been working toward for a while. Ferris Aircraft engineer Thomas Kalmaku was played by Taika Waititi, who would direct Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder. He would also play Korg in both films and Avengers: Endgame and could’ve even been up at The Suicide Squad paragraph as he played the first Ratcatcher, the second’s father, there. He cast Clancy Brown, who voiced Parallax in Green Lantern, as Surtur in Ragnarok. Michael Clarke Duncan voiced Kilowog after having been Kingpin in the Daredevil movie. Angela Bassett is the original live-action Amanda Waller, having portrayed her in Green Lantern. She is now an Oscar nominee for her portrayal of Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, having begun in the role with the first Black Panther film.

This definitely isn’t everyone and barely touches imprints where it applies, but it’s more than a good starting point, and if this is ever followed up on with a new jumping-off point, it probably won’t be at the bottom of the barrel.

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