It may be a peculiar sight to see one's favourite actor, who has played their favourite protagonist eventually do a 360° and become the face of a notorious foe. And part of this peculiarity is what may pique one's curiosity for a project.
With a household name like Robert Downey Jr, having been announced as the famed Marvel villain Dr. Doom two years ago after playing Iron Man/Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a little over ten years, we realised that this is not the first time a major Hollywood star has taken on this challange.
And what better way to admire the versatility of such artistes than by mapping their fascinating transitions from onscreen good guys to popular villains? Here are 11 actors (other than RDJ, of course) who played popular Hollywood heroes and lived long enough to play their exciting renditions of popular Hollywood villains or vice versa. As this phenomenon is more common than one may think, our list filters out some of the best performances as both such characters.
For many, he has remained one of the best on-screen Batmen. For Hollywood, he has remained an amazing actor with incredible versatility. From playing the caped crusader to taking on Chris Hemsworth's Thor in Thor: Love & Thunder as Gorr the God Butcher, Christian Bale is one of the most promiminent actors who turned heel from hero to villain.
From playing one superhero character inspired by a winged creature to another — Batman to the Vulture (a popular Spider-Man villain), Michael is but the ideal example of a perfect performance among both protagonists and antagonists. As Batman in the Tim Burton films of the 1980s (and more recently reprising his role in 2023's The Flash), brought his unique flavour to the Dark Knight. As the Vulture, Michael was the perfect first foe to set Tom Holland's journey as Spider-Man off to a flyer in the MCU.
As one of the modern OGs of the superhero genre, Chris Evans' name is almost synonymous with Marvel. Having only played one but two Marvel heroes Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Steve Rogers/Captain America, Chris' negative roles honestly introduced us to a mischievous and decievingly cunning side of him in Ransom Drysdale of Knives Out and Lloyd Hansen of The Gray Man.
Speaking of a cunnning and cleverly played cunning role, we cannot rule out Cate Blanchett from this list. Much ahead of playing one of the best (and most ruthlessly) portrayed villains Thor has faced in the MCU — Hela, Cate Blanchett played Galadriel in the The Lord of the Rings & Hobbit trilogies.
As one of the most iconic actors to portray iconic pop-culture characters, Sir Ian McKellen has impacted generations not only as Gandalf in the The Lord of the Rings & Hobbit films but also as the daunting Magneto in the X-Men (and now in the upcoming film Avengers: Doomsday)
Mark Hamill's portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films is nothing short of a pop-culture phenomenon. And his portrayal through voice-acting as Joker across various animated projects of Batman have remained equally iconic.
While discussing iconic roles, no one can opt out of Michelle Pfeiffer's fascinating portrayal of Selina Kyle/Catwoman in the 1992 Batman Returns film. Decades later, Michelle's depiction of the original Wasp/Janet Van Dyne in the MCU feels equally impactful. As a central figure in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Michelle's portayal of Janet seems especially impactful.
Josh Brolin's run as Thanos, the all-powerful Titan in the Marvel lore lent a more powerful ironically human touch to a character who was rather comically portrayed in the comics. What is also fun to note about Josh Brolin's superhero-world stints is that his enigmatic depiction of Cable, the time-travelling and brooding mutant in Deadpool 2 came right in between his projects as Thanos in the MCU. The character of Deadpool interestingly would later come to appear within the MCU in the popular 2024 film Deadpool & Wolverine
No one can ever disassociate Harrison Ford from Han Solo, a role he firmly played to perfection for decades. Post all his Star Wars appearances Harrison's versatility became all the more noticible when he took up the role of Thaddeus Ross/Red Hulk in the recent Captain America film where he lent to this iconic Marvel character a deeply human and emotional shade.
We cannot rule out from this list the iconic actress whose role as the Fairy Godmother in 2015's Cinderella was one of the best things about that movie. But as she transitioned to Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter films, as the audience, we were immensely impacted by her evil chuckles and notorious moves against the protagonists of the film series. Years later, Helena's turn as Eudoria Holmes the matriarch of the Holmes family in the Enola Holmes film series also brought about a breath of fresh air to the film's world.
We'll consider this pointer in the list as a special mention because, it has been rare in the Hollywood space that an actor who plays an important protagonist in Wanda Maximoff/Scarlett Witch so beautifully and humanly tranistions into a scary foe to Doctor Strange in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness playing the same character.