33 actors who have played 'Star Wars' and Marvel characters

Samuel L. Jackson not only played Mace Windu in the "Star Wars" prequels, but he was also the man who brought together the Avengers.

Jackson famously requested a purple lightsaber to play Mace Windu in "Star Wars." You can watch Jackson ask "Star Wars" creator George Lucas about it here. Jackson's voice can be heard in "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker."

In recent years, Jackson became known for his role as Nick Fury, the man who assembled Tony Stark, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and the Hulk to form the Avengers.

Most recently, Jackson reprised his role as Fury in Marvel's "Secret Invasion" series which follows a group of shape-shifting aliens called Skrulls, who have secretly infiltrated Earth for years and are planning to take it over as their own.

Natalie Portman played Padmé Amidala in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy and Jane Foster in the "Thor" movies.

After playing Anakin Skywalker's love interest in the "Star Wars" films, Portman headed to another galaxy far, far away as Thor's romantic interest in the character's first two Marvel movies. 

Portman reprised her role in "Thor: Love and Thunder" where she gained the powers of Thor.

After his turn as a "Rogue One" villain, Ben Mendelsohn showed up in "Captain Marvel" as a Skrull named Talos.

Mendelsohn was ruthless as "Star Wars" villain Orson Krennic.

He usually plays a lot of villains, so it was a nice surprise to see his Skrull character, Talos, turn out to be one of the good guys in "Captain Marvel."

The actor reprised his Skrull role briefly in "Spider-Man: Far From Home" and showed up in "Secret Invasion."

"Game of Thrones" star Emilia Clarke appeared in "Solo: A Star Wars Story" and plays Talos' daughter in the MCU.

During her tenure as Daenerys Targaryen, Clarke played Qi'ra, Han Solo's early love interest, in "Solo: A Star Wars Story."

In Marvel's "Secret Invasion," Clarke plays Talos' estranged daughter, G'iah, who's currently aligned with a radical group of Skrulls who want to conquer Earth.

Paul Bettany played a villain in "Solo" and dual roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Jarvis and the Vision.

After playing Tony Stark's artificial intelligence for years, Bettany thought he was done with the MCU after a producer told him he'd never work in Hollywood again. Then he received a call asking if he wanted to play Vision.

Though he "died" in "Avengers: Infinity War," Bettany reprised his role as Vision on Disney+' "WandaVision" series.

After his MCU roles, Bettany was cast in 2016's "Solo: A Star Wars Story" as villain Dryden Vos after director Ron Howard took over the movie. "Solo" was originally supposed to have a different villain, but Michael K. Williams couldn't return for reshoots. 

Rosario Dawson played a live-action version of "Star Wars" favorite Ahsoka Tano. She previously appeared as the connecting tissue between every Netflix Marvel show.

In the second season of "The Mandalorian," Dawson played a live-action version of Ahsoka Tano. The character first appeared in "Star Wars: Clone Wars" and "Star Wars: Rebels." 

Dawson played nurse Claire Temple on "Daredevil" and "Luke Cage."

Dawson returned to play Ahsoka Tano in the Disney+ standalone series "Ahsoka."

Ariana Greenblatt played young Gamora in "Avengers: Infinity War" before appearing as a younger Ahsoka in Disney+'s live-action series.

Greenblatt made a surprise appearance on episode five of the "Ahsoka" series.

Stellan Skarsgård played Jane's colleague Professor Erik Selvig in the "Thor" franchise and appeared in "Andor."

The character actor played the astrophysicist working with Jane Forster in the first "Thor" movie when they stumbled across the God of Thunder's existence.

Selvig briefly appeared in 2022's fourth "Thor" movie to consult Jane on her cancer treatments. 

In the "Rogue One" prequel series "Andor," Skarsgård plays Luthen Rael, an antique dealer whose secretly a member of the Rebel Alliance.

Cailey Fleming played a young Rey in "The Force Awakens" and played young Sylvie on Marvel's "Loki" show.

You may not have realized "The Walking Dead" actor played the young version of Rey in "The Force Awakens." 

A big Marvel fan, Fleming told Insider in 2021 she was thrilled to join the "Loki" series. She had no idea she was playing a young version of Sylvie until she watched the episode.

"Whenever I was filming, I only got my scenes," Fleming said of her time on the Marvel show. "I didn't get the script for the episode or anything. I had no idea what was going on."

Richard E. Grant appeared in "The Rise of Skywalker" and appeared in "Loki" as a variant of the God of Mischief.

Grant played General Enric Pryde in "The Rise of Skywalker."

He then played a variant of Loki, Classic Loki, in the first season of the Disney+ series.

Ming-Na Wen appeared on the first season of "The Mandalorian" and starred on ABC's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

The actor appeared briefly on the first season of "The Mandalorian" as Fennec Shand. Wen played Agent Melinda May on Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. from its 2013 debut until its 2020 end.

Wen is one of the few actors to have roles in "Star Wars," the MCU, and be a Disney princess. She voiced Mulan in the 1998 animated movie.

Oscar Isaac was a resistance hero in the new "Star Wars" trilogy and an "X-Men" villain. Most recently, he played Moon Knight in his own Disney+ series.

Isaac became a "Star Wars" fan favorite as debonair pilot Poe Dameron. It probably made most forget that he also played 2016 "X-Men" villain Apocalypse, a role in which he was pretty unrecognizable.

In 2022, he played antihero Moon Knight in the Disney+ Marvel series. 

Hannah John-Kamen upgraded from a minor role in "The Force Awakens" to playing the "Ant-Man and the Wasp" villain.

You can spot John-Kamen as a First Order bridge officer briefly in "The Force Awakens." She later played Ava/Ghost in 2018's "Ant-Man" sequel.

John-Kamen will be back as Ghost in Marvel's "Thunderbolts*" movie.

Donald Glover played a young Lando Calrissian and also played an important minor role in "Spider-Man: Homecoming."

Glover's version of Lando in "Solo: A Star Wars Story" showed off the character's array of fabulous capes and costumes.

Before that role, he briefly appeared in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" as Aaron Davis, the uncle of Miles Morales. In the comics, Aaron goes on to become The Prowler and also a character named Iron Spider.

Glover's briefly seen in 2023's "Across the Spider-Verse" animated film in human form as his "Homecoming" character who has since become the Prowler.

Before Felicity Jones played Jyn Erso in "Rogue One," she was in a "Spider-Man" movie.

You may have forgotten that Jones appeared in the "Spider-Man" films with Andrew Garfield. Jones played Felicia Hardy in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," who goes on to become a thief named Black Cat.

You likely remember Jones in "Rogue One," where her Jyn character leads a rag-tag group in search of the plans to destroy the Death Star.

Mads Mikkelsen played Jyn Erso's father in "Rogue One" and the "Doctor Strange" villain, Kaecillus, in the same year.

Mikkelsen's Galen Erso turned out to be the reason why the Death Star had a major design flaw.

Andy Serkis was a villain in the new "Star Wars" trilogy and in the MCU.

Serkis played the mysterious Snoke character in "The Last Jedi" and the vibranium-obsessed Ulysses Klaue in both "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and, later, "Black Panther."

Lupita Nyong'o played the mysterious Maz Kanata in the latest "Star Wars" trilogy before starring in "Black Panther."

You may not have realized that Nyong'o was the voice behind the wise smuggler, who performed motion capture for her performance.

Nyong'o later appeared in "Black Panther" as Nakia, a member of Wakanda's intelligence agency and a former flame of T'Challa/Black Panther. She reprised her role in 2022's sequel, "Wakanda Forever."

Forest Whitaker was in "Rogue One," a "Star Wars" cartoon, and "Black Panther."

Whitaker played resistance fighter Saw Gerrera in "Rogue One," "Star Wars: Rebels," and also voiced the character in the video game "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order."

In 2019, he appeared in "Black Panther" as Zuri, council to the king of Wakanda.

Benicio del Toro played quirky characters in the "Star Wars" and Marvel universes.

Benicio del Toro played the mysterious thief in "The Last Jedi," who betrayed Finn and Rose.

The actor previously appeared in the MCU as Taneleer Tivan (The Collector), a man obsessed with collecting rare objects and species in the galaxy.

The director of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, James Gunn, confirmed that Tivan survived an attack from Thanos in "Avengers: Infinity War" and sold Knowhere to the Guardians to make their HQ in the third film.

Rose Byrne was a handmaiden in "The Phantom Menace." Years later, Byrne was in the "X-Men" franchise.

You may not have realized the "Neighbors" star was a handmaiden to Padmé Amidala in "The Phantom Menace" named Dormé. Bryne also appeared in "X-Men: First Class" and "X-Men: Apocalypse" as CIA agent Moira MacTaggert.

Woody Harrelson played a mentor to Han Solo and played an iconic Spider-Man villain in the "Venom" sequel.

Tobias Beckett gave Han Solo his iconic blaster in the 2018 movie, "Solo."

Harrelson showed up at the end of "Venom" teasing his role as Cletus Kasady. In "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," he played the symbiote villain, Carnage, an arch nemesis of Venom. 

Jon Favreau has been a huge part of both the "Star Wars" and Marvel universes.

Not only did Favreau create and executive produce "The Mandalorian," he also voiced the character Rio Durant in "Solo."

Favreau also directed "Iron Man" and has played Tony Stark's trusted chauffeur and friend Happy Hogan since the 2008 film. Most recently, Hogan appeared in "Deadpool & Wolverine."

Ray Park is well known as playing Darth Maul in "The Phantom Menace." He also played Toad in the first "X-Men" movie.

Darth Maul's moves are made possible on-screen because of Park. He returned to perform motion capture for Maul's fight scenes in 2020's animated "Clone Wars" Disney Plus series.

Right before he was Maul, Park could be seen alongside the other X-Men.

Peter Serafinowicz voiced Darth Maul in "The Phantom Menace" and was briefly seen in "Guardians of the Galaxy."

While Park played the physical embodiment of the character on-screen, behind the scenes, Serafinowicz spoke the character's few words of dialogue in "The Phantom Menace." Serafinowicz recorded lines for Maul in "Solo," but Lucasfilm wound up using actor Sam Witwer, who voiced Maul in the animated series.

You can also spot Serafinowicz as Garthan Saal, a high-ranking member of the Nova Corps, in "GotG." He's the character who memorably states that the Guardians are a bunch of "a-holes."

Jessica Henwick appeared in "The Force Awakens" and Marvel's "Iron Fist" Netflix series.

Henwick played a Resistance pilot named Jess Pava in "The Force Awakens." She later played martial arts expert Colleen Wing who helped train Danny Rand in Netflix's "Iron Fist" series.

Donnie Yen was a vampire in "Blade II" years before he was a warrior in "Rogue One."

Yen made everyone believe in the power of the Force as Chirrut Îmwe. Previously, he was Snowman, a vampire who initially was trained to hunt down Blade before becoming one of his allies.

Ken Leung appeared briefly in "The Force Awakens" and ABC's "Inhumans" show.

The "Lost" actor appeared in the latest "Star Wars" trilogy as Admiral Statura. He was also in ABC's short-lived "Inhumans" series as Karnak.

Terence Stamp appeared in "The Phantom Menace" before he trained Elektra in the 2005 film.

Stamp had a minor role in the "Star Wars" prequel as Chancellor Valorum, who held authority before Chancellor Palpatine rose to power. He later played Stick in "Elektra," training Jennifer Garner's character.

You may not recognize Spencer Wilding by name, but he was Darth Vader in "Rogue One" and a memorable "Guardians of the Galaxy" character.

Although James Earl Jones reprised his role as Darth Vader's voice in "Rogue One," Wilding played the character on screen as he cut down the rebels.

Two years earlier, he played the "mean guard" (the actual name in the film's credits) who took Peter Quill's Walkman and started listening to it.

Richard Armitage had a small role in "The Phantom Menace" before appearing as a Hydra assassin in the first "Captain America" movie.

You may not have recognized the "Hobbit" actor in "The Phantom Menace." He appeared briefly as a pilot. He later played Heinz Kruger in 2011's "Captain America: The First Avenger."

Ben Schwartz helped bring BB-8's voice to life with Bill Hader and was a stormtrooper in "The Force Awakens." He appears in an animated Marvel show.

Schwartz told GQ "The Force Awakens" director J.J. Abrams asked him to help find a voice for BB-8. The "Parks and Rec" actor also shared a photo of himself as a Stormtrooper on Twitter in 2018.

Before voicing the loveable Sonic in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" franchise, the actor voiced 12-year-old Lou on Hulu's Marvel show "M.O.D.O.K." He's the son of the show's main villain, M.O.D.O.K. 

After playing villain Moff Gideon in "The Mandalorian," Giancarlo Esposito is Sidewinder in "Captain America: Brave New World."

The "Breaking Bad" star is no stranger to playing the bad guy in both universes.

In "The Mandalorian" he plays the Darksaber-carrying Moff Gideon. In "Captain America: Brave New World" he's the gun-toting Sidewinder, a mercenary out for Cap along with his crew, The Serpent Society.