The Most Recast Marvel Movie Characters

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, the franchise that started in 2008 with "Iron Man" and is still going all these years later, hasn't recast that many characters. But Marvel as a whole, which includes movies from before the MCU existed and those from companies that weren't collaborating with Disney's Marvel Studios after the MCU debut, has had quite a few. Even the MCU has some noteworthy ones. 

For example, Terrence Howard played Rhodey in the first "Iron Man," but subsequently, Don Cheadle took over the role and has been going strong from "Iron Man 2" in 2010 onward. Similarly, Fandral was originally played by Joshua Dallas in the first "Thor" but was replaced by Zachary Levi in "Thor: The Dark World." And although Josh Brolin is known for playing Thanos in the MCU, he was originally played by stuntman Damion Poitier in 2012's "The Avengers."

We're not talking about a character who was recast a single time here though. In this list, we're only considering times when three or more actors played the character, whether they're all from the MCU, all from other Marvel forays onto the big screen, or a combination. Either way, these are the most recast Marvel movie characters in cinema history.

The 2000 movie "X-Men" was one of the first big-screen movies to establish the power of superheroes at the box office. It's a forefather of the genre and established some amazing characters. However, Tyler Mane's Sabretooth was not one of them. With a performance that mostly consisted of growls and grunts, his character wasn't even identified as Logan's brother in the movie. While he was a convincing henchman to Ian McKellen's Magneto, he didn't bring a lot of subtlety to the role.

When it came time to cast "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," Sabretooth was played not by Mane, but rather by Liev Schreiber, who brought a considerable amount of nuance to a movie that centered on him and Wolverine as two brothers who were on opposite sides of a great battle. Unfortunately, Schreiber was a standout in a bad movie, and therefore, didn't get a chance to continue the role in subsequent films.

Instead, in "Deadpool & Wolverine," Mane returned to play Sabretooth. This time, everyone was in agreement that he was Wolverine's brother; he was just discarded in the Void, the place where unwanted Marvel characters go. It was a funny cameo, but we would still love to see Schreiber back in Sabretooth form to finish up the character's arc, especially now that Wolverine is back in the Marvel saddle.

Like "X-Men," the first "Spider-Man" movie, which came out in 2002, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, was a precursor to today's all-superheroes, all-the-time cinema experience. It showed that superhero movies could be great, ultimately spawning two sequels. But while the first such movie, "Spider-Man 2," was a fantastic piece of filmmaking that still endures today, "Spider-Man 3," was ... not so much. In fact, while it had the typical examples of Spidey derring-do, it also showed a dancing, prancing Spider-Man that was very much not what viewers signed on for. As a result, the franchise starring Tobey Maguire was effectively dead, but that doesn't mean Sony was unwilling to reboot it.

"The Amazing Spider-Man" came out in 2012 with Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker in the lead role and Marc Webb directing. It wowed with its cast and seemed like the start of something that could be a hopeful follow-up to the first trilogy. However, "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" was overstuffed with plotlines and villains, making it unfocused and confusing to follow. At that point, Sony decided to go another way.

The studio made a deal with Marvel to make Spider-Man part of the MCU. Tom Holland took over the role of Peter Parker and has been going strong in it since 2017. He's not only starred in a trio of "Spider-Man" films with another on the way, but he's appeared in "Captain America: Civil War," "Avengers: Infinity War," and "Avengers: Endgame." Holland's unique boyish charms help him really sell the role of a young Spidey, one who hasn't even graduated from high school yet. But the MCU also hasn't forgotten where Spider-Man came from, as Maguire and Garfield teamed up with Holland in the third film in the MCU's series, "Spider-Man: No Way Home." Still, it's Holland's role as of this writing, and will likely be his until he decides to walk away.

The Thing is also known as Ben Grimm, one of the Fantastic Four. But despite the beloved comic source material, the films have left something to be desired. That said, the first actor to play him in live-action in 2005's "Fantastic Four" and 2007's "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" was Michael Chiklis, and he was perfectly cast as the man whose skin turns into what looks like a pile of rocks. Despite Chiklis' brilliant performance, the franchise ended up being canceled when the sequel underperformed at the box office.

Fox attempted to reboot the franchise in 2015 with "Fantastic Four," starring Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm. But that movie was an even bigger disaster. With only a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes, it was by far the most poorly reviewed of the Fantastic Four movies. The question was, how did such a great cast mess up such adored source material? It could have had something to do with the lack of action, silly dialogue, and downbeat story. Regardless, this one wasn't going to get a sequel. This was fine because Disney then acquired Fox and set about making its own Fantastic Four movie, "Fantastic Four: First Steps," which is set to come out in 2025 with Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm. Let's hope it fares better than the others did.

One character whose entire run was in the MCU is Cassie Lang. The daughter of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), she has been a secondary character across all the "Ant-Man" films and in "Avengers: Endgame," but despite her secondary status, she has been recast twice. In the first two "Ant-Man" movies, 2015's "Ant-Man" and 2018's "Ant-Man and the Wasp," she was played as a little girl by Abby Ryder Fortson. Fortson was adorable in the role and performed particularly well opposite Rudd. However, for "Avengers: Endgame," Cassie had to be aged up in a hurry. In fact, "Ant-Man and the Wasp" came out in 2018, and "Avengers: Endgame" came out in 2019. But while they were only one year apart for us, for the people in the movie, it was a five-year time jump. So when Cassie appeared in "Endgame," she was played by Emma Fuhrmann as a teenager.

While Fuhrmann was fine in the role, she was played by someone else — the far more famous Kathryn Newton — when Ant-Man and Cassie came back in 2023 in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania." Newton was perhaps more suited for the bigger and more dynamic role. Either way, the third installment was considered a box office bomb, so it's doubtful we'll be seeing more "Ant-Man" movies anytime soon.

Howard Stark is pivotal to Tony Stark's story, and Steve Rogers' too. So pivotal, in fact, he plays large roles in both of their first movies in the MCU — and Tony's second one. But they aren't played by the same people. In "Iron Man," Gerard Sanders plays Howard Stark, but at that point, he's only seen in photographs.

Then in "Iron Man 2," Tony looked to his father's work for inspiration, and the person playing him was John Slattery. Because Howard had only been previously seen in photos no one thought much of this change. Slattery captured all the dignity and quiet energy of an older Howard Stark, which is why he's been playing him ever since ... except in the "Captain America" universe.

In "Captain America: The First Avenger" and then in the TV series "Peggy Carter," which both take place many years before the first "Iron Man," Marvel needed someone a little younger to play Howard, and the studio went with Dominic Cooper. He matched the spirit of discovery that Slattery had but added a skirt-chasing element that brought him closer to Tony Stark, making the continuity from father to son more obvious, even though, at that point in the story's timeline, Tony wasn't even an idea for Howard.

The Invisible Woman, also known as Sue Storm, is another member of the Fantastic Four that has been recast multiple times. Like her compatriot Ben Grimm, she's been played by multiple people across several films. This includes Jessica Alba in 2005's "Fantastic Four" and 2007's "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," Kate Mara in the 2015 reboot, "Fantastic Four," and Vanessa Kirby in the upcoming "Fantastic Four: First Steps." And that doesn't even include another Sue. Rebecca Staab played the character in the unreleased 1994 movie (and forgotten Marvel failure) "The Fantastic Four." That movie was executive produced by Roger Corman and apparently, he and the cast were blindsided when it was decided that the movie wouldn't come out despite its low budget. Today the movie lives on in bootleg copies and unofficial downloads.

Despite the lack of a release of the 1994 movie — and the critical drubbing of the other films featuring Marvel's First Family — we still have high hopes for "Fantastic Four: First Steps." Vanessa Kirby is well cast as Sue Storm and hopefully the MCU's "Fantastic Four" will be the first to get a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross is a key character in the Hulk's story. He's the father of Betty Ross, Bruce Banner's love interest, and the one who tries to hunt the scientist down when he goes green. This is the basic template that both Sam Elliott and William Hurt follow in 2003's "Hulk" and 2008's "The Incredible Hulk," respectively. Except "Hulk" was a standalone story directed by Ang Lee and "The Incredible Hulk" was the second MCU entry after "Iron Man." But while "Iron Man" was a massive hit, "The Incredible Hulk," like "Hulk" before it, was a box office dud.

So it was a surprise when William Hurt showed up again as Ross in 2016's "Captain America: Civil War," and continued to play Ross until his death in 2022. But while Hurt was no longer around to contribute to the MCU, Ross was still a necessity to the franchise, so he was recast with Harrison Ford for "Captain America: Brave New World," the first "Captain America" movie with Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson as the titular hero instead of Chris Evans' Steve Rogers. Ford seems like a worthy successor to Hurt, but the bar is high. Not only will Ross be the President of the United States in the movie, but he'll also be the powerful Red Hulk, a perfect bookend to his character's first foray into the franchise as the original Hulk's nemesis. Hopefully, Ford can play all aspects of this increasingly complex character.

Nowadays when most people think of "The Punisher," they think of Jon Bernthal in the second season of "Daredevil" and in his own self-titled show on Netflix. In fact, Bernthal is so beloved as Frank Castle that he'll appear as the character in the upcoming MCU show "Daredevil: Born Again," alongside Charlie Cox's Daredevil and Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. But never has Bernthal appeared in a movie inspired by the character. That honor instead goes to a trio of other actors.

First, Dolph Lundgren starred in 1989's "The Punisher." Then in 2004, the franchise was rebooted. This time, "The Punisher" starred Thomas Jane in the title role. And in 2008, Ray Stevenson took on the role in "Punisher: War Zone," yet another reboot telling roughly the same story of a man whose family has been killed going after the mob who wronged him. According to Rotten Tomatoes, all three of these movies were lambasted by critics and not especially beloved by audiences. In fact, all of them seem to suffer from the same issue: The action is so over-the-top that there isn't much room for things like character development or emotional depth. Ultimately, people may be better off with Bernthal as the Punisher. At least he has enough time to give the character adequate nuance and moral depth.

Before Chris Evans played Captain America in the MCU, he played none other than Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch in "Fantastic Four" and "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer." Johnny is a very different character from Steve Rogers. While Johnny is brash, bold, and a womanizer, Steve is upright, strong, and level-headed. But despite his better-known role as Captain America, Evans also managed to shine as Johnny. Still, he seemed to be done with the Fantastic Four when he donned Captain Rogers' supersuit in 2011's "Captain America: The First Avenger."

Michael B. Jordan took over the role of Johnny Storm in 2015's "Fantastic Four" and although he's been great in other roles, including as Erik Killmonger in 2018's "Black Panther," he wasn't so great in this. In fact, the cast and the movie as a whole were a giant disappointment. Because of this and the fact that Disney acquired Fox and can use its intellectual property, including the Fantastic Four, Joseph Quinn is now going to play the Human Torch in the MCU's "Fantastic Four: First Steps." 

Additionally, Evans made a cameo as his "Fantastic Four" character in the MCU's "Deadpool & Wolverine." Though at first Deadpool thinks he's Captain America, he quickly learns from his potty mouth that this is Johnny Storm, the superhero from the 2005 and 2007 movies. Though Johnny meets his end in spectacular fashion in that movie, Quinn will hopefully make a worthy replacement.

Hulk is the character that perhaps goes back the longest in the history of live-action Marvel television and movies. The character originally appeared in a 1978 television series and then a series of made-for-TV films in the 1980s and 1990s. The best way to portray the two halves of the Hulk at that point was to have him be depicted by one actor when he was human and another when he was the Hulk so in this case, he was played by Bill Bixby as mild-mannered David Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the big green monster. Of course, when it came to subsequent iterations, he was played by only one actor, with the Hulk emerging via CGI or motion capture.

In 2003's "Hulk," Bruce Banner was played by Eric Bana. The Ang Lee movie was respected by many but ultimately was underseen. Also underseen, especially for an MCU movie, was 2008's "The Incredible Hulk," in which Bruce Banner was played by Edward Norton. While the Hulk would continue in the MCU despite the movie's underwhelming box office,  the behind-the-scenes bickering between Norton and the studio caused Marvel to recast the role with Mark Ruffalo. 

Ruffalo has been playing the Hulk since 2012's "The Avengers." While he doesn't appear to want another stand-alone "Hulk" movie, he's had plenty of screen time, including in "Thor: Ragnarok," "Avengers: Infinity War," and "Avengers: Endgame." But although his Banner is supposed to be a continuation of the character that Norton originated, they act nothing alike, so it feels as if this is a totally different Hulk. It's hard not to wonder, however, how Hulk will react if and when he sees Liv Tyler's Betty Ross since she is now confirmed to be reprising her role in "Captain America: Brave New World."

Mister Fantastic, otherwise known as Reed Richards, is the final member of the Fantastic Four and the team's leader. Despite that distinction, the first person to play him, Ioan Gruffudd in the 2005's "Fantastic Four" and 2007's "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" is more of a character actor than a leading man. So in the 2015 reboot, the far more famous Miles Teller was hired to play Mister Fantastic. But Teller didn't do a great job in the role and the movie around him was a mess anyway, so that didn't work out.

After that, Disney acquired the Fantastic Four's original studio, Fox, and while it hadn't announced a new "Fantastic Four" movie by 2022, fan-castings were flying, so the studio decided to give people what they wanted. It cast John Krasinski as Mister Fantastic in one of the alternative worlds that Doctor Strange traveled to in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." 

Despite fans enjoying this cameo, Scarlet Witch kills Mister Fantastic in the movie. Besides, Krasinski wasn't interested in turning the gig into a full-time thing. Instead, that honor went to Pedro Pascal. Though the man has been in everything lately, including the TV shows "The Mandalorian" and "The Last of Us," he will also play Reed Richards in the MCU's upcoming retro-futuristic "Fantastic Four: First Steps." Hopefully, he'll manage to capture something the other Reed Richards actors lacked.