Captain America
Starting off as a black and white movie back in the 1940’s, Captain America was first cast by Dick Purcell. Unlike many of the actors who play our favorite superheroes today, Purcell only played the famous American super soldier for one movie. Captain America would make his return over 30 years later with Reb Brown donning red white and blue outfit in the 1979 TV movies, Captain America, and Captain America II: Death Too Soon.
Matt Salinger then took the role for the 1990 Captain America movie, before Chris Evans assumed the role for seven different films so far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with him set to star in a few more in the near future as well.
Hulk
The big green guy has been played by a number of different people throughout the years, too. First starting off as a duo of Bill Bixby playing Bruce Banner, and Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk in the 1977-1982 TV series, The Incredible Hulk, the duo went on to star in three Incredible Hulk movies in 1988, 1989 and 1990. Ferrigno continued on with his role as the Hulk in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, and with a brief appearance in The Avengers in 2012.
Eric Bana also made a one-off appearance as Bruce Banner in the 2003 movie, The Hulk, with Edward Norton playing the same role in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. The big green man is now played by Mark Ruffalo, who has also played Bruce Banner in The Avengers, Iron Man 3 as a cameo, and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Black Widow
The Russian assassin, Black Widow has only ever been played by Scarlett Johansson. Originally trained as a Soviet spy, Natasha Romanova was later rescued by Ivan, Logan, and Captain America and recruited into the Black Widow Program.
Johansson has starred as Black Widow in Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Captain America 2: Winter Soldier, 2015’s Age of Ultron, and Captain America: Civil War.
Iron Man
Just like Black Widow, Iron Man has only ever been played by one actor, and one actor alone. Having starred in arguably eight films as Iron Man (if you include the short film, The Consultant) Robert Downey Jr. has potentially starred as the millionaire philanthropist more than any other actor has starred as their own character respectively.
Hawkeye
Hawkeye continues our streak of single actors taking on the role, with Jeremy Renner assuming the role of the bad-ass archer since 2011’s Thor.
Since then, Renner has assumed the role for 2012’s The Avengers, the 2015 sequel, Age of Ultron, and this year’s blockbuster, Captain America: Civil War.
Thor
The Asgardian God of Thunder has only ever been played by two actors, one of which was for an appearance in the 1988 TV movie, The Incredible Hulk Returns.
Eric Allan Kramer (pictured left), played Thor before Chris Hemsworth was cast to be the sole bearer of Mjolnir in 2011’s Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and in the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok.
Quicksilver
While he didn’t necessarily appear in two films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Quicksilver has been played by two different actors on separate occasions. Cast in both X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse, Evan Peters strapped on his goggles and ran faster than the speed of light.
However, Marvel fans may be more familiar with Aaron Taylor- Johnson, who adopted the role in Captain America: The Winter Solider and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Scarlet Witch
Quicksilver’s twin sister, Scarlet Witch also made her first appearance during Captain America: The Winter Soldier, with Elizabeth Olsen cast in the role of the all-powerful magical witch. Though, during The Winter Soldier she was anything but an Avenger, she soon came round to see the light during 2015’s Age of Ultron and has since starred in Captain America: Civil War, too.
Falcon
A relatively new Avenger in the cinematic universe is Falcon. The smooth-talking high-flyer is portrayed by Anthony Mackie in the 2014 Marvel film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and reprises the role in Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, and Captain America: Civil War.
Black Panther
First appearing in a Fantastic Four comic back in 1966, Black Panther, real name T’Challa, has only recently become a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Debuting in Captain America: Civil War, the formerly Fantastic Four member looks set to join the Avengers as Chadwick Boseman stars as the master of unarmed combat. He’s also set to reprise the role in the 2017 Black Panther movie.
War Machine
War Machine’s four appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been played by two different actors. The first of which, Terrence Howard, took on the role of War Machine in the 2008 Iron Man film, before later being replaced by Don Cheadle.
Since Iron Man 2, whenever War Machine has been around, its been Cheadle who’s been in the shiny suit of armor. His appearances so far include Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron and this year’s Captain America: Civil War.
Ant-Man
This pocket-size hero only recently made his debut into Marvel’s Cinematic Universe last year when Paul Rudd assumed the role of Ant-Man for the movie of the same name.
Rudd has brought a charming sense of humor to the role and as such, helped to make Ant-Man feel wholly unique as a film within the cinematic universe. Rudd reprises the role in this year’s Captain America: Civil War and looks like he could be a pretty light-hearted Avenger.
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is one of Marvel’s biggest names and has been for quite some time. Starting off in 1974 as part of a children’s TV show, Spider-Man was originally played by Danny Seagren, who later passed on the torch to Nicholas Hammond in 1977-1979 to assume the role for The Amazing Spider-Man TV series. A Toei TV series for Spider-Man was also in production between 1978-1979, which saw Hirofumi Koga assume the role of Spider-Man, with Shinji Todō playing Takuya Yamashiro.
Heading into more recent and familiar ground, Tobey Maguire hopped into the Spidey Suit for 2002’s Spider-Man, the 2004 sequel, and the 2007 Spider-Man 3. Andrew Garfield then briefly adopted the role for The Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2 in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Finally, Tom Holland has donned a shiny new Spidey Suit for Spider-Man’s return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Captain America: Civil War, and Spider-Man: Homecoming due out next year.
Vision
Rounding off our list is the incredibly powerful Vision. Debuting in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, before reprising the role for this year’s Captain America: Civil War, Paul Bettany plays the face behind all of that CGI and fancy makeup.
For those of you who have yet to watch Age of Ultron, Bettany previously voiced Iron Man’s personal assistant/ A.I., JARVIS. However, certain events within the film lead to this switch and extend the Avenger’s roster with a pretty powerful addition.
Which Avenger is your favorite and which actor did you think played them best? Let us know in the comments below.
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