“With Great Force Comes Great…” Wait, Let Me Try That Line Again.

21 Actors With Roles in Both a Star Wars Production and a Property Based on Marvel Comics

  
1. Natalie Portman
For Star Wars: Padmé Amidala (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith)
For Marvel: Jane Foster/Thor (Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Love and Thunder)
As the recent “ultimate Disney fan event” known as D23 confirmed with its line-up of future Disney projects, it really is just a matter of time before all of Hollywood is sucked into a quantum singularity where only Marvel and Star Wars films are allowed to escape back into our reality. But before we get to that point, let’s salute the actors who saw the writing on the wall early and got in on the crossover action, starting with Natalie Portman. After turning heads in such films as Heat and Beautiful Girls, she shot to international stardom playing Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars universe, starting with 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. In 2011, the same year she picked up a Best Actress Academy Award for Black Swan, she showed up in another “far, far away” place — this time New Mexico — to play love interest Jane Foster to Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, a role she reprised in 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder.

 
2. Oscar Isaac
For Star Wars: Poe Dameron (The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker)
For Marvel: Apocalypse (X-Men: Apocalypse), Marc Spector/Steven Grant (Moon Knight)
Isaac has the rare distinction of being an actor who can claim both a Star Wars role (dashing fighter pilot Poe Dameron in Episodes 7-9 of the Star Wars saga) and more than one character in a project based on a Marvel property. He was almost unrecognizable under the makeup and prosthetics used to turn him into a major X-Men baddie in the 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, and then he took on the title role (well, roles) in the 2022 streaming series Moon Knight… though he almost passed on the chance to be in the MCU. “I had so much hesitation,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “I was like, ‘I just finally got out of a long time of being a part of the Star Wars universe,’ which I loved doing, but it definitely took up a lot of my time. So I was excited to get back to more character studies and smaller films. But this came my way, and my instinct at first was like, ‘This is probably not the right thing to do.’ But there was just something about the Steven character that was speaking to me a little bit.” On behalf of the rest of us: thanks for speaking up, Steven-with-a-V.

  
3. Samuel L. Jackson
For Star Wars: Mace Windu (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith)
For Marvel: Nick Fury (The Avengers, Captain Marvel, numerous other MCU roles and cameos)
Technically, Stan Lee currently holds the title of highest-grossing actor thanks to his cameos in all those Marvel films that earned a collective $30.6 billion at the box office. That puts him a few billion dollars ahead of Jackson (about $27 billion so far), the former title-holder who earned his spot on the list thanks to his long time in the movie business (his first film credit was in 1972) and savvy career decisions like signing on with such blockbusters as Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, The Incredibles… and a certain pair of movie franchises that both saw him play ass-kicking authority figures. How kick-ass? This is how he once described the story of why Mace Windu has a purple lightsaber: “We had this big arena, this fight scene with all these Jedi and they’re fightin’ or whatever. And I was like, well shit, I wanna be able to find myself in this big ol’ scene. So I said to George, ‘You think maybe I can get a purple lightsaber?'” When Lucas pointed out lightsabers only came in red or green, Jackson hit back with some irrefutable logic: “Yeah, but I want a purple one. I’m like the second-baddest Jedi in the universe next to Yoda.” Can’t argue with that.

 
4. Paul Bettany
For Star Wars: Dryden Vos (Solo)
For Marvel: Vision (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, WandaVision)
Was WandaVision truly Bettany’s swan song as the Avengers’ resident lovelorn android? It doesn’t take a comic book fan familiar with the impermanence of death among superheroes to believe it isn’t. “At the end of WandaVision, you see Vision fly off and that’s a loose end,” Bettany once said to an interviewer. “And [Marvel Studios head] Kevin Feige is a man who doesn’t really allow loose ends. So I assume at some point I will be putting on my tights and cloak for another outing, but I don’t know when that might be.” That’s certainly a safer bet than assuming his villainous crime boss from Solo will make a triumphant return to the big screen in the near future. Spoiler alert: never bet against Han Solo.

  
5. Lupita Nyong’o
For Star Wars: Maz Kanata (The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker)
For Marvel: Nakia (Black Panther)
Shortly after winning an Academy Award for her role as a 19th-century slave in 12 Years a Slave, Nyong’o signed up to play Maz Kanata, the enigmatic proprietor of a bar full of galactic misfits that resembles another famous cantina in the Star Wars universe. Though not much is revealed about her past, we learn that Kanata is very old, very wise, and very aware of disturbances in the Force — such as the one that happens when she meets one of the movie’s key characters for the first time. “The reason I took on this role was because I wanted the challenge,” Nyong’o said of her motion-capture CGI role. “I wanted a complete departure from Patsey that I played in 12 Years A Slave. I would love to have a career in which I have to stretch myself and make myself grow with each role that I take on. So this was definitely a step in that direction.” Nyong’o stretched herself again in 2018’s Black Panther, this time playing T’Challa’s former lover and an undercover operative for Wakanda. She returns to the role later this year in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — though with the death of lead actor Chadwick Boseman it’s anyone guess what that will mean for Nakia, who was last seen being open to resuming her relationship with T’Challa.

 
6. Terence Stamp
For Star Wars: Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum (The Phantom Menace)
For Marvel: Stick (Elektra)
The Star Wars films have hired their share of distinguished British actors, so it was probably just a matter of time before Stamp got his call for a costume fitting. Though the way he tells the story, he might have let that call go to voicemail if he had known what the experience would be like. “We [George Lucas and I] didn’t get on at all,” he told Empire magazine in 2013. “I didn’t feel he was a director of actors, he was more interested in stuff and effects.” So why did he stick it out? Well, apparently he took the job because he was a fan of Natalie Portman, but when he arrived on set the young actress was absent and Stamp had to instead act against a piece of paper stuck on the wall. “It was just pretty boring,” he said. Stamp had nicer things to say about his time as Stick, the mysterious blind mentor who shows up to help Jennifer Garner’s Elektra when she’s in a tough spot. “I would be happy to do it again,” he said. “Because in fact, he’s a rather interesting character. Apart from the extra-sensory perception that he has, he’s a guy that’s looked over the edge for a long time.”

  
7. Forest Whitaker
For Star Wars: Saw Gerrera (Rogue One, Star Wars: Rebels)
For Marvel: Zuri (Black Panther)
Whitaker is no stranger to playing flamboyant or significant figures from real life, from Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland to Archbishop Desmond Tutu in The Forgiven. And when the chance came to play larger-than-life authority figures in both the Stars Wars and Marvel universes, you can bet he was all over that. “When they talked to me about doing it, I was like, ‘Are you serious, Star Wars?'” he said in 2020. “I really enjoyed getting a chance to do it actually. I’m a sci-fi fan, too. I remember in high school, when Star Wars first came out, the first ones, going to see it and being amazed at what was going on.” Not long after playing the leader of a band of resistance fighters, he suited up for Black Panther to play a character that director director Ryan Coogler described as “Black Panther’s version of Obi-Wan Kenobi.” One message Whitaker hoped viewers took away from the film and his performance in it was that “we are our brothers’ keepers… that we have to, even in our own comfort, be able to reach out and help others.” Saw Gerrera would approve.

 
8. Benicio del Toro
For Star Wars: DJ (The Last Jedi)
For Marvel: The Collector (Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War)
With a trophy case full of accolades and acclaimed performances in films like Traffic, 21 Grams, and The Ususal Suspects, it’s not as if del Toro needed to play DJ, an amoral thief whose name (an abbreviation for “don’t join”) comes from his approach towards the Rebellion and life in general. But as he explained it, when Star Wars comes knocking on your door looking for you, it’s hard to turn it away. “Once you are on the set is when the magnitude of all this hits you,” he said shortly before The Last Jedi came out. “Prince William and Prince Harry visited us and they aren’t just anyone.” That happy-to-be-part-of-the-team attitude might appall DJ, but it helps explain why he didn’t turn down a chance to play the Collector, another amoral scoundrel who also happens be one of the powerful Elders of the Universe in Marvel lore.

  
9. Kumail Nanjiani
For Star Wars: Haja Estree (Obi-Wan Kenobi)
For Marvel: Kingo (Eternals)
To use a technical term, the internet went stark raving bonkers when Nanjiani shared images of his ripped muscles on Instagram while preparing for his role as the immortal Kingo in Eternals. “I found out a year ago I was going to be in Marvel’s Eternals and decided I wanted to transform how I looked,” he told his fans, adding “I would not have been able to do this if I didn’t have a full year with the best trainers and nutritionists paid for by the biggest studio in the world.” With all the hoopla caused by the actor/comedian’s transformation, you can understand why some fans might have been disappointed the film couldn’t have worked at least one shirtless scene into his big Bollywood dance number. If taking advantage of the chance to hire the best trainers money can buy was a no-brainer for him, imagine how he felt when the Star Wars people approached him about playing a con artist in the streaming series Obi-Wan Kenobi. “I had a Zoom with Deb [director Deborah Chow], and she was kind of trying to pitch it to me to convince me why I should do it,” he said. “I was like, ‘Deb, I’m going to do it. It’s Star Wars. You don’t need to, like, talk me into doing Star Wars.'”

  
10. Mads Mikkelsen
For Star Wars: Galen Erso (Rogue One)
For Marvel: Kaecilius (Doctor Strange)
Given his show-stealing performances as charismatic villains in Casino Royale and the TV series Hannibal, it’s no surprise that Marvel was mad about Mads for the role of Kaecilius, a rogue master of the mystic arts, in 2016’s Doctor Strange. “Writers need to step into villain’s shoes and make them go on a path where they believe they are doing right,” he said in 2016. “Once you find the key to that, it’s easy to write a good villain. But that goes for a hero, I don’t think they are that different.” That must have been why it was so easy for him to switch to the side of good in Rogue One, a brilliant scientist pressed into service by the Empire who helps the rebels at great cost. “He’s definitely not a villain, but he’s a scientist,” he said. “Scientists have a curiosity and sometimes they get tunnel vision. Sometimes they don’t listen, they don’t see clear. They just keep going because they’re curious. I think he’s one of those characters. Brilliant man who’s not seeing the writing on the wall, where this is taking us.”

   
11. Ben Mendelsohn
For Star Wars: Orson Krennic (Rogue One)
For Marvel: Talos (Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far From Home)
I’m betting that Mikkelsen could find a sympathetic ear in Ben Mendelsohn the next time he feels glum about being typecast as heavies in Hollywood films; despite the versatility he displays in his native Australia, Hollywood loves casting Mendelsohn as a baddie, as evidenced by such films as Robin Hood, Ready Player One, The Dark Knight Rises… and Rogue One, where he plays an ambitious Imperial officer overseeing the construction of the Empire’s new superweapon. “I think it’s nice to provide the counterweight that people have got to get over, you know?” he said about his propensity for playing bad guys. “It’s a job of honor. It’s not for everyone. But I do take it as an honor. I do.” Even so, I’m guessing he was happy for the change of pace that came with his casting as Talos, a Skrull refugee who starts out scary but (spoilers) turns out not to be not such a bad guy after all. It probably helped that Captain Marvel is a reunion for Mendelsohn and directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who had worked with him on the 2015 indie hit Mississippi Grind: “They asked me aboard the good ship, and no one blocked it.”

 
12. Rosario Dawson
For Star Wars: Ahsoka Tano (The Mandalorian and the upcoming Ahsoka)
For Marvel: Claire Temple (Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, The Defenders)
First appearing in the 2008 animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Ahsoka was introduced as the Jedi Padawan (or student) of Anakin Skywalker before his dalliance with the Dark Side. As one of the stronger female characters in the Star Wars universe, she grew to become a fan favorite, and so it was only a matter of time before she showed up in the one of the franchise’s live-action offerings. That happened in the acclaimed series The Mandalorian, where our titular hero helps her liberate a city from Imperial forces. Dawson had expressed interest in taking on the role after her casting was suggested by a fan in 2017, and concept art of her as Ahsoka made it clear she was the perfect choice. She wasn’t quite as sure about her role in the Marvel universe as the “night nurse” who patches up Matt Murdock and the other vigilantes running around New York City — “I remember when I first took on this character, I was like, ‘I don’t know, I really wanted to have a radioactive spider situation. I’m just a nurse? Really?! Okay.'” — but she said she grew to appreciate the importance of her character. “It’s grounding to remind people that we all have the opportunity and skills to be heroes or heroines in our real life,” she said. “It’s not just these heroes that have special powers that we get to fantasize about.”

  
13. Ming-Na Wen
For Star Wars: Fennec Shand (The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett)
For Marvel: Melinda May (Agents of SHIELD)
Wen is the rare triple crown winner in the Disney universe; not only can she claim sizable roles as name-taking badasses in both the Marvel and Star Wars universes, she’s also a bona fide Disney princess thanks to her voicing of the lead character in 1998’s Mulan. When asked in 2020 if she was more like Mulan or the tough-as-nails Agent May, Wen had an easy answer: “Oh, definitely Mulan! Someone who has big dreams of what she wants in her life and not being able to be given permission to do it and then just ends up saving China. May is really like the antithesis of who I am, completely. My daughter and I were just laughing today because I was coming out of the kitchen and she was coming out of her room and we scared each other. We always scare each other. Definitely not very May-like.”

  
14. Donald Glover
For Star Wars: Lando Calrissian (Solo)
For Marvel: Aaron David (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Ultimate Spider-Man)
In 2010, Glover went viral on social media by campaigning to play Spider-Man. Fans clamored for the Community star to put on the web-slinger’s iconic suit as the first Spider-Man of color, and  Glover joined the campaign by helping the hashtag #Donald4Spiderman trend on Twitter. Alas, he never got that call from Sony and the role went to Andrew Garfield instead. He did eventually voice Spider-Man by playing Miles Morales in the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, but the fans never forgot the promise of #Donald4Spiderman. As it so happens, Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts was one of those fans, and so when he grabbed the reins of Spider-Man’s big MCU debut one of his goals was to ensure Glover got to be in it — which is how Glover became Aaron Davis, a low-level criminal involved in a high-tech weapons deal who ends up helping Tom Holland’s awkward alter ego. While Glover might have missed out on the chance to wear a snazzy superhero outfit, there’s no question who’s the best-dressed gambler in that other galaxy.  “Lando’s always the best dressed person on that set,” he told EW in 2018. “His clothing is another slice of life. He takes pride in the clothing. It makes things easier. When people see you and you’re debonair, they tend to want to give you stuff easier.”

  
15. Ray Park
For Star Wars: Darth Maul (The Phantom Menace, TV’s The Clone Wars)
For Marvel: Toad (X-Men)
As Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, the Glasgow-born Park is pure malevolence as he sets out to destroy the likes of Jedi Knights Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor in one fell swoop. But being the embodiment of ass-kicking evil didn’t spare him from being teased on set for his home-packed lunches. “Everyone thought it was really funny that I brought my own food in every day,” he said. “They’d ask what mummy had packed me for lunch. But I refused to eat the canteen food because I’m on a strict diet.” He got the last laugh, though, when his performance in the film turned the stuntman into an overnight sensation: “People are starting to notice me now that the film’s opened in America, but I’m trying to keep calm and enjoy it all,” he said in 1999. “I’m ready to be a sex symbol, though. If that’s the way it turns out, who am I to argue?” The very next year, he stepped into a role that tested the limits of his sex appeal, though it’s possible there are plenty of people out there who get turned on by leaping mutants with prehensile tongues and the ability to spit an acidic mucus into peoples’ faces. No judgment here.

  
16. Woody Harrelson
For Star Wars: Tobias Beckett (Solo)
For Marvel: Cletus Kasady/Carnage (Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage)
Even though you wouldn’t want to turn your back on either of them, there is a world of difference between the thief and gunslinger that Harrelson played in the film detailing the origin story of Han Solo and the maniacal serial killer/symbiote host he played in 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage. But one thing they both have in common is their all-vegan wardrobe, something that Harrelson insists on for all his roles. “Of course, she [Venom costume designer Joanna Eawell] made everything vegan, which a guy like me does appreciate. I haven’t worn leather in many, many years, so a lot of really cool costume people have helped accommodate my, uh, fetish,” he said while promoting Let There Be Carnage. “But she’s great and I love the look.”

  
17. Riz Ahmed
For Star Wars: Bodhi Rook (Rogue One)
For Marvel: Carlton Drake/Riot (Venom)
Another Star Wars alum on the Venom set was Ahmed, the British-Pakistani actor who crossed the pond in the 2010s to appear in films like Nightcrawler and Jason Bourne before landing the role of an Imperial pilot who defects to the Rebel Alliance in 2016’s Rogue One. “To be honest, when you’re in the middle of it, it doesn’t really sink in,” he said about getting cast for a Star Wars film. “There’s the initial fanboy moment when you’re told you’re going to be in a Star Wars film, and then when you first turn up on set. But then you kind of get lost in it, like you get lost in anything else.” By the time he landed the role of an eeeee-vil billionaire out to save the world (give or take a few murdered homeless people) in Venom, he was asked if it finally felt like he had broken into Hollywood. “Well, I’ve broken in but I haven’t stolen anything yet,” he said. “I’m locked in a mansion and I’m yet to locate any of the valuables or the exit route. Without any gloves to safeguard my prints. That’s it for that metaphor.”

   
18. Andy Serkis
For Star Wars: Supreme Leader Snoke (The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi)
For Marvel: Ulysses Klaue (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Panther)
Between Snoke, Gollum, Baloo, King Kong, and Planet of the Apes’ Caesar, it might be easier to list all the roles Serkis hasn’t performed in a motion-capture suit. But even some of the roles where we get to see him in the literal flesh, like his turn as the gleefully vicious Klaue in the MCU, came out of his expertise with performance-capture technology. “The way that all happened was, they were working with The Imaginarium, which is my performance-capture studio,” Serkis told an interviewer in 2018. “We were all working and consulting back on Ultron, working with James Spader and Mark Ruffalo and initiating them into the process of motion-capture because they were both using performance-capture. We were providing services for that. Then [director] Joss Whedon said, ‘Hey, this is crazy, why don’t you come and be in the show?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, all right, that’d be fun.'” He must have had fun playing Snoke, too, considering his reaction to Snoke’s unceremonious end in The Last Jedi. “I was devastated when I read that script because it was all going so well. I was like, ‘Man, this is a boss character. I’m going to love playing… What!? You’re kidding me, what?’ I was like, ‘Okay, is [it] a good idea?’ I supposed it is. I was slightly mortified, pardon the pun. It was all in the right, I think.”

  
19. Nick Nolte
For Star Wars: Kuiil (The Mandalorian)
For Marvel: Dr. David Banner (Hulk)
To be clear, the veteran actor of 48 Hours, Lorenzo’s Oil, and The Prince of Tides wasn’t hurting for cash when he was hired to provide the voice of Kuiil on The Mandalorian, a former indentured servant of the Empire who helps the Mandalorian with his quest in his own quiet and determined way (“I have spoken”). True to the character he played, Nolte didn’t have much to say about why he took the gig, but he was a little more talkative back when he signed on to play Eric Bana’s absentee father in Ang Lee’s Hulk, Nolte’s first big studio movie in years after several years of focusing on independent work. In an interview, Nolte said he was attracted to the project because the script read more like a Greek tragedy or Shakespearean drama than a comic-book movie: “He [my character] thinks he’s like King Lear, more sinned against than the sinner. He made the original genetic alterations [that create the Hulk] to himself. He didn’t really think about the consequences of having a baby [and passing them on].”

  
20. Stellan Skarsgård
For Star Wars: Luthen (Andor)
For Marvel: Eric Selvig (Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers)
Born in Sweden, Skarsgård’s first American film was 1985’s Noon Wine, in which he played a mentally disturbed immigrant farmhand being chased by a bounty hunter. He followed that up with roles in The Hunt for Red October, Good Will Hunting, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and other films where he tended to play professorial types or mentor figures. Small wonder he was a natural choice to play Eric Selvig, the astrophysicist who works with Jane Foster when they meet Thor and is later recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. to study a powerful alien artifact. He also appears in this year’s Andor as a man who plays a pivotal role in the title character’s path to the Rebellion, but even that bit of information was too hush-hush for him to share before the streaming series debuted. “I can’t even get a proper script,” he laughed while talking about his foray into the Star Wars universe. “It’s printed on red paper so I can’t make any copies of it, it’s ridiculous!”

  
21. Felicity Jones
For Star Wars: Jyn Erso (Rogue One)
For Marvel: Felicia Hardy (The Amazing Spider-Man 2)
The British-born Jones was just coming off her Oscar-nominated turn as Jane Hawking in The Theory of Everything when she stepped into the Star Wars galaxy as the lead in the franchise’s first standalone film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in 2015. “The scale of it was incredible — the number of extras, the amount of crew, the size of the sets. I’d never experienced anything like it,” she said. “It was like being on another planet… I loved all those aspects of Jyn — her leadership qualities and her instinct for survival, and also a sort of inner peace that made her feel what happens, happens.” While her character in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 didn’t have a chance to take centre stage like Jyn did in Rogue One, Jones said she would be up for anything if the studios decided to bring Felicia (also known as the Black Cat to comic fans, though she didn’t assume that identity in the Sony film) into the MCU. “What I always liked about that character was the physicality,” she said in 2021. “Black Cat has that incredible way of moving and that’s what made me really excited about it. I mean, I think it’s a fab role and, yeah, it would be amazing to do.”