Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off in February with “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and now continues with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which hit theaters May 5. The 32nd film in the MCU, it marks the final entry in James Gunn‘s trilogy and will conclude the arc of our favorite band of misfits as we know them with a plot centered on Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper). With each passing movie and TV show, the MCU only adds to its already insane level of talent and the number of actors who’ve both appeared in the MCU and been nominated for an Oscar at least once in their career increases as well. The “Guardians” franchise has had nine-time nominee Cooper from the start (he had just two nominations when the first “Guardians” was released in 2014) and has featured former nominees like Glenn Close, Djimon Hounsou, Sylvester Stallone and winner Benicio del Toro. The third entry adds yet another Oscar nominee: Maria Bakalova, who was up for Best Supporting Actress for 2020’s “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and voices Cosmo the Spacedog in the threequel. Here is the list of actors who’ve appeared in the MCU and who also have at least one Oscar nomination to their name in any category. It’s a long list, and it could grow longer any second, as we’ve seen already.
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F. Murray Abraham
Image Credit: MJ Photos/Deadline; Marvel Studios If you missed F. Murray Abraham in the six-part Disney+ series “Moon Knight,” it’s not because you weren’t paying attention (though it might have been, we don’t know your life). It’s likely because he lent only his voice to the Egyptian god Khonshu, who used Oscar Isaac’s leading man as his avatar on Earth. On the big screen, he was much more obvious when he portrayed composer Antonio Salieri in “Amadeus” (1984), a performance that earned him the Oscar for Best Actor.
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Mahershala Ali
Image Credit: Izumi Hasegawa / HollywoodNewsWi/Hollywood News Wire Inc./Newscom/The Mega Agency According to Kevin Feige, after winning his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar, for “Green Book” (2018), Mahershala Ali asked for a meeting with the Marvel Studios president at which he stated that he wanted to play the titular vampire hunter in the “Blade” reboot. Just a massive flex all around — and not unlike Shelley Winters plopping down her two Oscars on a casting director’s desk after she was asked to audition. “Blade” will be part of Phase 5 of the MCU, but Ali has already made a voice cameo in Phase 4 in a post-credits scene in 2021’s “Eternals.” The actor is no stranger to Marvel fare, having played Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes on Netflix’s “Luke Cage,” which is not part of MCU proper. One of seven performers with a two-for-two Oscar record, Ali won his first supporting statuette for “Moonlight” (2016), which, like “Green Book,” won Best Picture.
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Maria Bakalova
Image Credit: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages Maria Bakalova, who received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her breakout role in 2020’s “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” voices Cosmo the Spacedog in 2022’s “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” and 2023’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” Cosmo has appeared in the first two “Guardians” films and “What If…?”, but this is the first time the pup has dialogue.
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Christian Bale
Image Credit: Marvel Studios Christian Bale is the second former big-screen Batman to join the MCU after the one and only Michael Keaton. And just like Harvey Dent prophesied, Bale became the villain — Gorr the God Butcher, who seeks the extinction of the gods — in 2022’s “Thor: Love and Thunder.” Despite some memorable and iconic turns (hi, Patrick Bateman), Bale didn’t receive his first Oscar nomination until 2010’s “The Fighter”; he won Best Supporting Actor over a lineup that included Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). He’s since garnered three more bids: Best Actor for “American Hustle” (2013) and “Vice” (2018), and Best Supporting Actor for “The Big Short” (2015).
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Adriana Barraza
Image Credit: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures Most of Adriana Barraza’s scenes in “Thor” (2011), in which she played diner owner Isabella Alvarez, was left on the cutting room floor, so we wound up with just one in the final cut. Barraza was Oscar-nominated for her supporting performance in “Babel” (2006), which starred future “Thor” player Cate Blanchett.
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Angela Bassett
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Angela Bassett was the first choice to play Storm in the original “X-Men” trilogy, but her pay rate was too high. Nearly two decades later, she starred in a Marvel film, playing Queen Mother Ramonda in “Black Panther” (2018) before briefly reprising the role in “Avengers: Endgame” (2019). But it took the 2022 sequel “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” for Bassett to make MCU history: She received a Best Supporting Actress nomination, becoming the first actor to be nominated for an MCU film. Bassett was a previous Best Actress nomee for her performance as Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do with It” (1993), which also earned a bid for her co-star and fellow MCU star Laurence Fishburne.
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Annette Bening
Image Credit: Courtesy Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Annette Bening played the Supreme Intelligence, the AI that manifested itself as Carol Danvers’ earthbound mentor Dr. Wendy Lawson/Mar-Vell in 2019’s “Captain Marvel”. A four-time nominee, Bening received her first Oscar nomination in Best Supporting Actress for “The Grifters” (1990). She has three Best Actress bids for “American Beauty” (1999), “Being Julia” (2004) and “The Kids Are All Right” (2010), losing twice to Hilary Swank (1999’s “Boys Don’t Cry,” 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby”) and the other time to fellow MCU star Natalie Portman (2010’s “Black Swan”).
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Cate Blanchett
Image Credit: Courtesy Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Cate Blanchett has won two Oscars but neither was for “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017). Shocking, we know. She, as the kids say, ate that film with her delightfully campy turn as Hela, Thor and Loki’s sister. The Aussie star won her first Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for “The Aviator” (2004) and then added a Best Actress statuette for “Blue Jasmine” (2013), making her one of seven women who have won both categories. Blanchett’s other bids were for “Elizabeth” (Best Actress, 1998), “Notes on a Scandal” (Best Supporting Actress, 2006), “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (Best Actress, 2007), “I’m Not There” (Best Supporting Actress, 2007), “Carol” (Best Actress, 2015) and “TÁR” (Best Actress, 2022). One of 12 people to earn two acting nominations in one year, Blanchett is also in the even more exclusive club of six performers who’ve been nominated twice for playing the same character (Queen Elizabeth I in her case) in two different films.
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Chadwick Boseman
Image Credit: Courtesy Image The late Chadwick Boseman made his Marvel debut as T’Challa, aka Black Panther, in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War” before starring in the character’s breathtaking standalone film “Black Panther” (2018), which became the first (and so far only) MCU movie to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Boseman would again reprise the role for “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019). Following his shocking death from colon cancer in 2020, the actor received a posthumous nom for Best Actor for his performance in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (2020).
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Jeff Bridges
Image Credit: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures Jeff Bridges, sadly, did not win a Best Actor Oscar for The Dude, but he did for “Crazy Heart” (2009), which was released just a year after he played the very first villain in the MCU, Obadiah Stone, aka Iron Monger, in 2008’s “Iron Man.” Bridges has accrued seven nominations altogether, his others for “The Last Picture Show” (Best Supporting Actor, 1971), “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” (Best Supporting Actor, 1974), “Starman” (Best Actor, 1984), “The Contender (Best Supporting Actor, 2000), “True Grit” (Best Actor, 2010) and “Hell or High Water” (Best Supporting Actor, 2016).
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Josh Brolin
Image Credit: Courtesy Image The MCU is not the first place Josh Brolin has battled Robert Downey Jr. Brolin was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for “Milk” (2008) in a field that included RDJ; they lost to the late Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in “The Dark Knight.” As Thanos, the giant purple alien who snapped half the universe into dust and doesn’t even know who Wanda Maximoff is, Brolin has appeared in “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014), “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015), “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019). He also played another Marvel character concurrently, starring in “Deadpool 2” (2018) as Cable, prior to Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox.
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Don Cheadle
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Don Cheadle is to Terrence Howard what Mark Ruffalo is to Edward Norton. That is to say the actor took over the role of James “Rhodey” Rhodes, aka War Machine, aka Tony Stark’s best friend, after Howard departed the role in the wake of 2008’s “Iron Man.” Cheadle, who has a Best Actor nomination for his performance in “Hotel Rwanda” (2004), made his MCU debut in “Iron Man 2” (2010), and has since appeared in “Iron Man 3” (2013), “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015), “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), “Avengers: Infinity War,” (2018) “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) and the Disney+ series “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.” He’s also set to star in the upcoming film “Armor Wars,” which was originally conceived as a series.
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Thomas Haden Church
Image Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Variety; Sony Thomas Haden Church was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “Sideways” (2004) opposite his future MCU co-star Jamie Foxx. Three years later, he portrayed Flint Marko, aka Sandman, in Tobey Maguire’s third and final Spider-Man film. He eventually reprised the role in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021) opposite Maguire and Foxx, as well as Spider-Men Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland, when Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) performed a spell that pulled characters from other Spider-Man films into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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Glenn Close
Image Credit: Courtesy of Marvel Glenn Close was already a six-time nominee by the time she played Nova Prime, the leader of the Nova Corps, in “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014). She earned three consecutive supporting bids for her first three films: “The World According to Garp” (1982), “The Big Chill” (1983) and “The Natural” (1984). She then scored lead nominations for “Fatal Attraction” (1987), “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988) and “Albert Nobbs” (2011). Since the first “Guardians,” she’s earned two more nominations, including Best Actress for “The Wife” (2018), which she was widely expected to win, but she was overruled by the queen, Olivia Colman (“The Favourite”). The overdue legend was then up for Best Supporting Actress for “Hillbilly Elegy” (2020), overcoming absolutely savage reviews for the Netflix film, and again faced Colman. The loss tied her with the late Peter O’Toole as the most nominated actors without a win at 0-8.
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Olivia Colman
Image Credit: Marvel Studios In 2016, Olivia Colman made it crystal clear that she wanted to be in the MCU, preferably as a “Marvel baddie.” Now, she’s part of “Secret Invasion,” the upcoming Disney+ series centered on Samuel L. Jackson‘s Nick Fury, Ben Mendelsohn‘s Talos and a group of Skrulls who’ve infiltrated Earth. Colman will play Agent Sonya Falsworth, an old ally of Fury’s. The Brit won Best Actress for “The Favourite” (2018) in a big upset over fellow MCU performer Glenn Close, against whom she faced again in the supporting category for her performance in “The Father” (2020) opposite another MCU star, Anthony Hopkins. She most recently earned a Best Actress nomination for “The Lost Daughter” (2021).
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Kerry Condon
Image Credit: Gilbert Flores for Variety; Marvel Studios You have not seen Kerry Condon in the MCU, but you’ve definitely heard her. The Irish actress voiced F.R.I.D.A.Y., Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) user interface in his Iron Man suit, in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015), “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017), “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019). She received her first Oscar nomination for her supporting turn in 2022’s “The Banshees of Inisherin.”
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Jennifer Connelly
Image Credit: MEGA In the Connelly-Bettany household, they voice AIs in the MCU. Jennifer Connelly lent her vocal talents to Karen, aka Suit Lady, in “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017), nearly a decade after her husband Paul Bettany first voiced J.A.R.V.I.S. in “Iron Man” (2008) before becoming Vision in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015). Connelly was MIA in “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018), “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) and “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (2019), but let’s hope we hear from Suit Lady again (pun fully intended) in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which is scheduled for release in December 2021. Connelly took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “A Beautiful Mind” (2001), on the set of which she met her future hubby.
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Bradley Cooper
Image Credit: Russell EInhorn/CelebrityArchaeology/Newscom/The Mega Agency and Courtesy Image When he wasn’t voicing Rocket Racoon in “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014), “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” (2017), “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), Bradley Cooper spent the 2010s making everyone feel like a failure, having amassed nine Oscar nominations in nine years across three disciplines. He received three acting bids in a row for Best Actor for “Silver Linings Playbook” (2012), Best Supporting Actor for “American Hustle” (2013) and Best Actor for “American Sniper” (2014), the last of which also earned him a Best Picture nomination as a producer. Cooper, who reprised Rocket in 2022’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” and will do so again in the third “Guardians” film, slated for 2023, then nabbed a hat trick of nominations for his directorial debut, 2018’s “A Star Is Born”: Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. He added two more Best Picture nominations as a producer on “Joker” (2019) and “Nightmare Alley” (2021).
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Russell Crowe
Image Credit: Marvel Studios The turn of the century was really Russell Crowe’s time. He scored three consecutive Best Actor nominations for “The Insider” (1999), “Gladiator” (2000) and “A Beautiful Mind” (2001), winning for the second film, which also grabbed Best Picture. He looked on track to win back-to-back Oscars the following year with the John Nash biopic, another Best Picture champ, but he lost to Denzel Washington for “Training Day” (an attack on a BAFTA producer may or may not have affected that result). After playing Superman’s dad Jor-El in “Man of Steel” (2013), the New Zealand-born Aussie made his MCU debut in 2022’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” as the king of the gods himself, Zeus.
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Benedict Cumberbatch
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Benedict Cumberbatch already had a Best Actor nomination for “The Imitation Game” (2014) by the time he made his first appearance in the MCU in “Doctor Strange.” The 2016 film finds the “Sherlock” star portraying an egotistical surgeon who becomes a sorcerer after he crashes his car and messes up his hands. Don’t ask. The character then popped up in “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017) before playing a major role in the events of “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018), in the final battle of “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) and in the general plot of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021). Although he did not appear in Disney+’s limited series “WandaVision” like many had hoped, he reunited Elizabeth Olsen for 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” Cumberbatch earned his second Best Actor nomination for 2021’s “The Power of the Dog” in a category that included his “No Way Home” co-star Andrew Garfield.
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Willem Dafoe
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety; Sony Willem Dafoe played one of the most memorable villains in superhero movie history — Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin — in all three Spider-Man movies of the Tobey Maguire era. He reprised the role in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021) opposite Maguire, Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield, as Osborn and several other villains from the Maguire and Garfield films were pulled into the Marvel Cinematic Universe when a spell cast by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) went awry. But Dafoe’s tenure playing a baddie in Spider-Man films is but a small part of his career, which is filled with extraordinary work and four Oscar nominations. Three bids came in Best Supporting Actor — 1986’s “Platoon,” 2000’s “Shadow of the Vampire” and 2017’s “The Florida Project” — while the fourth and most recent was for Best Actor for his performance in “At Eternity’s Gate” (2018).
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Matt Damon
Image Credit: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Yes, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have been BFFs since childhood, but Chris Hemsworth is giving Affleck a run for his money. Damon and the muscled man they call Hemmy have been friends since the latter’s early days in the biz, which is how Damon wound up making a cameo as Actor Loki in “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017), a role he reprised in 2022’s “Thor: Love and Thunder.” A five-time nominee, Damon famously won Best Original Screenplay for “Good Will Hunting” (1997) with Affleck. He was also up for Best Actor for the film and has two more acting bids for 2009’s “Invictus” in Best Supporting Actor and 2015’s “The Martian” in Best Actor (no, he was not nominated for “The Departed,” which was very rude). Damon earned his first Best Picture nomination as a producer on “Manchester by the Sea” (2016), in which he was originally supposed to star but gave up the role to another childhood pal, Casey Affleck, who won Best Actor.
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Benicio del Toro
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Everything we know about the Infinity Stones, we learned from Benicio del Toro’s Taneleer Tivan/The Collector in “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014). Del Toro, who also appeared in “Thor: The Dark World” (2013) and “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018), won Best Supporting Actor for “Traffic” (2000), becoming one of five people to win an Oscar for a primarily non-English language performance (he spoke Spanish). He scored a second nomination in the same category for “21 Grams” (2003).
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Julie Delpy
Image Credit: PGpg68/©2012 RAMEY PHOTO 310-828 We have Julie Delpy to thank for Natasha Romanoff — or rather Madame B., the character Delpy played in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015) who trained future Black Widows in the Red Room program. It remains to be seen if she’ll reprise the role in the long-awaited “Black Widow” film, out in July. Delpy snagged two Best Adapted Screenplay nominations for the two sequels in the “Before” trilogy, 2004’s “Before Sunset” and 2013’s “Before Midnight.” She shared the former with co-star and fellow MCU actor Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan, and the latter with Hawke and Linklater.
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Michael Douglas
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Michael Douglas has played Dr. Hank Pym in four MCU films so far — “Ant-Man” (2015), “Ant-Man and the Wasp” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) and 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which kicked off Phase Five of the MCU. A two-time champ, Douglas won his first Oscar as a producer on Best Picture winner “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975). His second came in Best Actor for “Wall Street” (1987), and believe it or not, that is to date his only acting nomination. Douglas and his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, who won Best Supporting Actress for “Chicago” (2002), are one of four married couples to have won acting Oscars. When can we get CZJ into the MCU?
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Robert Downey Jr.
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Marvel as we know it would not exist without Robert Downey Jr., whose Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, was so popular and charismatic that he jump-started the MCU with “Iron Man” (2008) and then carried it on his back for the next 11 years. In addition to the two “Iron Man” sequels and four “Avengers” films, Downey also portrayed the character in “The Incredible Hulk” (2008), “Captain America: Civil War” (2016) and “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017). A two-time Oscar nominee, he received his first nomination for Best Actor for “Chaplin” (1992) and then earned a Best Supporting Actor nom for “Tropic Thunder” (2008). In the latter film, RDJ was nominated alongside Josh Brolin (“Milk”), who would go on to portray Thanos in the MCU, and lost to another comic book character, the Joker (the late Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight”).
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Chiwetel Ejiofor
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Chiwetel Ejiofor earned a Best Actor nomination for “12 Years a Slave” (2013), in which he starred opposite Oscar winner and fellow MCU star Lupita Nyong’o. Luckily, he didn’t have to wait too long to join the MCU. He co-starred in “Doctor Strange” (2016) as Karl Mordo, a master of the mystic arts who mentors Stephen Strange only to one day become disillusioned with sorcery, and returned in 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
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Vera Farmiga
Image Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios Vera Farmiga’s Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress is sadly not for her performance in “The Departed” (2006) but “Up in the Air” (2009). She joined MCU as a member of the cast of the Disney+ series “Hawkeye,” which also stars Oscar nominees Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld and Florence Pugh. She portrays Eleanor Bishop, the mother of Steinfeld’s character, Kate.
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Laurence Fishburne
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Laurence Fishburne, who received a Best Actor nomination for his performance as Ike Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do with It” (1993) opposite “Black Panther” star and fellow Oscar nominee Angela Bassett, has appeared in both DC and Marvel movies and somehow lived to tell the tale. He dipped his toes into DC first, portraying Perry White in “Man of Steel” (2013) and “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016), but he fulfilled his dream when he landed the role of Dr. Bill Foster in the Marvel movie “Ant-Man and the Wasp” (2018).
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Harrison Ford
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety No stranger to wildly successful franchises, Harrison Ford will add another one to his resume when he makes his MCU debut in 2024’s “Captain America: New World Order” as Thaddeus Ross, replacing William Hurt, who died in March 2022. Ross is now the president of the United States. Ford has one Oscar nomination to his name, Best Actor for 1985’s “Witness.” Who beat him? None other than Hurt, who won for “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”
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Jamie Foxx
Image Credit: Sony Like fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe stars Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johansson, Jamie Foxx also received two Oscar nominations in the same year. He was recognized for his supporting performance in the 2004 crime drama “Collateral” as well as his portrayal of musician Ray Charles in “Ray,” winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for the latter. Ten years later, he portrayed Max Dillon, aka the villain Electro, in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” (2014) opposite Andrew Garfield. He reprised the role in 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” after Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) broke the universe and pulled villains from other Spider-Man films into the MCU.
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Andrew Garfield
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Andrew Garfield first portrayed Peter Parker/Spider-Man in two Sony-produced Marvel films: “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012) and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” (2014). He was denied the full trilogy treatment when Sony made a deal in 2015 for the character to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, Garfield eventually joined the MCU himself, reprising his version of Peter in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021) opposite Tom Holland, who portrays the MCU version of Peter Parker, and Tobey Maguire, who portrayed the character in three films in the 2000s. In between his Spidey stints, Garfield was nominated for his first Oscar, for Best Actor for his performance in “Hacksaw Ridge” (2016). And in the same year he reprised Spidey, he was nominated for Best Actor for his turn as the late Jonathan Larson in “Tick, Tick… Boom!” opposite his “No Way Home” co-star Benedict Cumberbatch.
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Jeff Goldblum
Image Credit: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Jeff Goldblum has never received an Oscar nomination for acting, which is unfortunate, as his portrayal of the Grandmaster, the hedonistic ruler of Sakaar who takes great pleasure in forcing prisoners to compete in gladiatorial battles in “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017), is an astonishingly good performance. However, while the academy has yet to honor him with the recognition his acting chops deserve, he did receive an Oscar nomination for Best Live Action Short Film for “Little Surprises” (1995), which he directed.
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Richard E. Grant
Image Credit: Marvel Studios You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who enjoyed awards season more than Richard E. Grant did when he was up for Best Supporting Actor for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (2018). Not only did the longtime character actor, whose filmography includes the cult favorite “Withnail and I” (1987) and the equally iconic “Spice World” (1997), get some global recognition, but he also met his idol and hall pass Barbra Streisand. Grant recurred on the Disney+ series “Loki” as Classic Loki, old-school costume and all.
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Graham Greene
Image Credit: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney Best known for his Oscar-nominated supporting performance as Kicking Bird in “Dances with Wolves” (1990), Graham Greene will make his MCU debut in the upcoming Disney+ series “Echo.” The “Hawkeye” spin-off follows Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) as she reconnects with her Native American roots and confronts her past.
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Jake Gyllenhaal
Image Credit: Jay Maidment/Columbia Pictures If there were an Oscar for best bromance between “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (2019) co-stars, it would probably go to Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Holland. The former, who received an Oscar nom for Best Supporting Actor for “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), portrayed the Marvel film’s villain, Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio, who befriended and then betrayed Holland’s Peter Parker like a total jerk.
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Tom Hardy
Image Credit: Chelsea Lauren/Variety Tom Hardy, who was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting turn in 2015’s “The Revenant,” is an interesting case of an actor joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He portrayed Eddie Brock, a journalist who became a host for Venom, an alien symbiote, in two Sony-produced Marvel films: 2018’s “Venom” and 2021’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.” At the end of the latter, Brock was transported to an alternate universe, aka the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where he saw Tom Holland’s Peter Parker unmasked as Spider-Man. Hardy then appeared in the mid-credits scene of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021) as Brock got the rundown on the MCU from a bartender. He was then transported back to his own world, but not before leaving behind some of the alien symbiote. It’s unclear why he was pulled into the MCU alongside the Spider-Man villains since this version of Brock presumably didn’t know who Peter Parker was (Topher Grace’s Brock from the Tobey Maguire films would have been another story). But technically there might now be a version of Venom that will exist in the MCU as well.
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Ethan Hawke
Image Credit: Marvel Studios Ethan Hawke once called superhero movies “overrated,” but he’s now part of the MCU as he plays Arthur Harrow, a David Koresh-esque cult leader, in the Disney+ series “Moon Knight” opposite Oscar Isaac (in his defense, a TV show is not a movie, no matter how many times people call TV shows an “X-hour movie”). A four-time nominee, Hawke has two nominations for writing and two for acting: He contended for Best Adapted Screenplay for 2004’s “Before Sunset” (shared with co-star and fellow MCU actor Julie Delpy, Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan) and for 2013’s “Before Midnight” (shared with Delpy and Linklater), and for Best Supporting Actor for 2001’s “Training Day” and 2014’s” Boyhood.” Little did we know then that the 2014 supporting actor race would now feature four MCU actors: Hawke, Edward Norton, Mark Ruffalo and J.K. Simmons, who won.
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Salma Hayek
Image Credit: Marvel Studios Salma Hayek became the first Mexican Best Actress nominee (one of two total) when she was recognized for her performance as Frida Kahlo in “Frida” (2002). She joined the MCU as Ajak in “Eternals” (2021), which also stars Oscar winner Angelina Jolie and Oscar nominee Kumail Nanjiani.
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Brian Tyree Henry
Image Credit: Marvel Studios After garnering Emmy and Tony nominations, Brian Tyree Henry snagged his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for “Causeway” (2022). He joined the MCU in 2021’s “Eternals” as Phastos and the nomination served as a reunion of sorts as his “Eternals” co-star Barry Keoghan was nominated alongside him, as was fellow MCU star Ke Huy Quan.
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Anthony Hopkins
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Sir Anthony Hopkins, who played Odin, father of Thor and (adopted father of) Loki, in the first three “Thor” films, won the little gold man his first time out, taking home Best Actor honors for one of the most indelible performances in history: Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991). He nabbed three more nominations in the ’90s — for “The Remains of the Day” (Best Actor, 1993), “Nixon” (Best Actor, 1995) and “Amistad” (Best Supporting Actor, 1998) — before going on a 21-year dry spell. Now in his 80s, he’s snagged back-to-back bids, in supporting for “The Two Popes” (2019), becoming, at 82, the seventh oldest nominee in the category’s history, and in Best Actor for “The Father” (2020), for which he won over late MCU star Chadwick Boseman. At 83, he became the oldest acting winner ever, surpassing the late Christopher Plummer, who was 82 when he triumphed for “Beginners” (2011). Hopkins is not expected to return for the upcoming “Thor: Love and Thunder,” which is a shame because we feel like Odin would definitely get along with Korg.
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Djimon Hounsou
Image Credit: Courtesy Image You might have thought you saw the last of Djimon Hounsou’s cybernetically enhanced Korath when he was killed by Drax the Destroyer in “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014), but the actor later reprised the role, playing a younger version of the Kree warrior and Starforce member in the ’90s-set “Captain Marvel” (2019). He’s received two Oscar nominations during his career for his supporting performances in the films “In America” (2003) and “Blood Diamond” (2006).
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Terrence Howard
Image Credit: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures Before Edward Norton was replaced by Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, there was Terrence Howard. The “Empire” star, who was nominated for Best Actor for “Hustle & Flow” (2005), originated the role of Tony Stark’s friend James “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine, in “Iron Man” (2008). Originally signed for three films, Howard departed the MCU after he claims Marvel told him he was only going to be paid one-eighth of what was contractually stipulated for “Iron Man 2” (2010). Fellow Oscar nominee Don Cheadle replaced him for the sequel and has played the role since.
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Stephanie Hsu
Image Credit: Marvel Studios Stephanie Hsu earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her turn in 2022’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” in which she played Michelle Yeoh‘s daughter. This was not the first film credit the two have shared: They were both in 2021’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” Hsu had a brief role as Soo, a friend of Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Katy (Awkwafina).
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William Hurt
Image Credit: Courtesy Image A four-time nominee, William Hurt won Best Actor for his turn in 1985’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” The late actor was nominated in the category the next two years for “Children of a Lesser God” (1986) and “Broadcast News” (1987) before getting his first Best Supporting Actor bid for 2005’s “A History of Violence.” As Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, the secretary of state pre-Blip, Hurt has appeared in “The Incredible Hulk” (2008), “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) and “Black Widow” (2021).
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Hugh Jackman
Image Credit: Nina Westervelt for Variety A Best Actor nominee for 2012’s “Les Miserables,” Hugh Jackman needs an Oscar to complete his EGOT. The actor, of course, became a star playing Logan/Wolverine in Fox’s “X-Men” (2000), eight years before the birth of the MCU. It seemed like his Wolverine would never cross into the MCU after he ostensibly bid adieu to the role in 2017’s “Logan,” his ninth appearance as the character, prior to Disney’s acquistion of 21st Century Fox. But now that Disney has the rights to the X-Men, among other characters, Jackman will, in fact, claw his way into the MCU as he’s set to reprise the role in 2024’s “Deadpool 3,” the first Phase Six entry, opposite his pal Ryan Reynolds, who will also be making his MCU debut then.
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Samuel L. Jackson
Image Credit: Jay Maidment/Columbia Pictures Samuel L. Jackson may have once been known for his Oscar-nominated performance in 1994’s “Pulp Fiction” (Best Supporting Actor), but now he is best known, at least to a certain crowd, as the glue that holds the MCU together. As the eye patch-wearing Nick Fury, the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and an all-around badass, Jackson has appeared in more Marvel films than any other actor. His first appearance was in 2008’s “Iron Man” and he has gone on to appear, at least in some form, in the films “Iron Man 2” (2010), “Thor” (2011), “Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011), “The Avengers” (2012), “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014), “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015), “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018), “Captain Marvel” (2019), “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) and “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (2019). Next, he’ll lead the Disney+ series “Secret Invasion.”
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Scarlett Johansson
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Scarlett Johansson became the 12th performer in Oscar history, and the first since fellow MCU cast member Cate Blanchett, to earn double nominations in a single year when she snagged two acting noms for two of her three projects in 2019. She received a Best Actress bid for her performance in Netflix’s “Marriage Story” and a Best Supporting Actress one for “Jojo Rabbit,” which was written and directed by another MCU alum, Taika Waititi. And although she ultimately went home with nothing more than the Oscars swag bag, it was still more than she received after being overlooked entirely for her breakout performance in 2003’s “Lost in Translation.” In the years in between, Johansson kept busy, though, appearing in approximately 100 different Marvel movies. She portrayed Natasha Romanoff in “Iron Man 2” (2010), “The Avengers” (2012), “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014), “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015), “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018), “Captain Marvel” (2019) in a cameo and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019). A long-awaited solo film, “Black Widow,” which is set after the events of “Civil War,” hit theaters in July 2021 after being delayed more than a year because of the pandemic.
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Angelina Jolie
Image Credit: Marvel Studios Angelina Jolie has infrequently acted over the last decade as she’s focused on directing and her humanitarian efforts, so it was a pretty big deal when she signed on to “Eternals” (2021), in which she plays Thena. Jolie won Best Supporting Actress for “Girl, Interrupted” (1999) and was nominated for Best Actress for “Changeling” (2008). She also received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian in 2013.
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Tommy Lee Jones
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Tommy Lee Jones’ stint in the MCU was relatively brief; he only appeared in one film, 2011’s World War II-set “Captain America: The First Avenger,” in which he played Colonel Chester Phillips. And although he has been nominated for an Oscar four times throughout his lengthy career, he’s only won once: for Best Supporting Actor for 1993’s “The Fugitive.” His other nominated performances came in “JFK” (Best Supporting Actor, 1991), “In the Valley of Elah” (Best Actor, 2007) and “Lincoln” (Best Supporting Actor, 2012).
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Daniel Kaluuya
Image Credit: Courtesy of Matt Kennedy/Marvel Studios/Disney February is definitely Daniel Kaluuya’s month. Not only was he born during the shortest month, but his breakthrough film “Get Out” was released in February 2017, for which he earned a Best Actor nomination. The following February, he played T’Challa’s BFF W’Kabi in “Black Panther,” which, like “Get Out,” was nominated for Best Picture. In February 2021, “Judas and the Black Messiah” was released and earned six nominations the following month, including Best Picture and double Best Supporting Actor bids for Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield (there are no leads in this two-hander, apparently). Kaluuya won the Oscar, making the then-32-year-old the seventh youngest winner in the category.
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Michael Keaton
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Michael Keaton is known for two things ’round these parts: his excellent comedy skills and being the best Batman. But the versatile actor, who took on the role of sympathetic villain Adrian Toomes, aka Vulture, in “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017), really showed everyone what he was made of when he starred in “Birdman” (2014) and received a nomination for Best Actor in return (he lost to Eddie Redmayne, which we don’t talk about).
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Barry Keoghan
Image Credit: Marvel Studios Barry Keoghan, who played Druig in “Eternals” (2021), received his first Oscar nomination for his supporting performance in 2022’s “The Banshees of Inisherin.” His fellow nominees included his “Eternals” co-star Brian Tyree Henry and MCU star Ke Huy Quan.
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Ben Kingsley
Image Credit: Courtesy Image In “Iron Man 3” (2013), Sir Ben Kingsley played Trevor Slattery/Mandarin, who wasn’t actually Mandarin. We’re not gonna get into it here, but it all paid off when he reprised the role in 2021’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” in which his primary scene partner was a faceless winged creature named Morris (he’s adorable, trust us). Kingsley won Best Actor for “Gandhi” (1982) and has three more nominations for “Bugsy” (Best Supporting Actor, 1991), “Sexy Beast” (Best Supporting Actor, 2000) and “House of Sand and Fog” (Best Actor, 2003). To date, he is the only performer of Asian descent with multiple Oscar nominations.
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Brie Larson
Image Credit: Walt Disney After being snubbed for her performance in the movie “Short Term 12” (2013), Brie Larson took home the Best Actress Oscar two years later for her emotional turn in “Room” (2015). The actress then showed off her heroic side when she took on the role of part-human, part-Kree warrior Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, in Marvel’s first female-led film, “Captain Marvel” (2019). She reprised the role for “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) and in the post-credits scene of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (2021). She will suit up again for “The Marvels,” the sequel to “Captain Marvel,” which is currently scheduled to be released in 2023.
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Jude Law
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Before joining the MCU, Jude Law took a cue from Chris Evans and consulted Robert Downey Jr., with whom he starred in “Sherlock Holmes” (2009), about taking on a role in the ’90s-set “Captain Marvel” (2019). Whatever Downey told him seemed to do the trick, as the actor signed on to play Carol Danvers’ mentor in the film. A two-time Oscar nominee, Law earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his breakthrough performance in “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1999) before following it up a few years later with a Best Actor nom for “Cold Mountain” (2003). Now that Law is a Marvel man, it also means that four Oscar-nominated or -winning “Mr. Ripley” stars have appeared in the MCU, following Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett and Matt Damon.
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Rachel McAdams
Image Credit: Courtesy Image While she’s not the first Oscar nominee in the MCU, Rachel McAdams did make Oscar history as the first of two Mean Girls to get a nomination, which she did in Best Supporting Actress for “Spotlight” (2015), a Best Picture champ that also starred fellow Marvel actors and Oscar nominees Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Stanley Tucci. McAdams played Dr. Christine Palmer, a surgeon and Dr. Strange’s ex, in 2016’s “Doctor Strange” and will reprised the role in the 2022 sequel, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
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Melissa McCarthy
Image Credit: Jen Lowery / MEGA Santa Claus (or Taika Waititi) was good to Melissa McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone. On Christmas Day 2020, the couple shared their “audition tape” for “Thor: Love and Thunder,” a film they were “desperate” to be in. Next thing you know, they’re on set filming in March 2021. Falcone played a stage manager, while McCarthy played Actor Hela in another Asgardian production of Asgardian events. McCarthy was nominated for Best Supporting Actress” for “Bridesmaids” (2011) and Best Actress for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (2018).
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Bill Murray
Image Credit: Marvel Studios Bill Murray earned his first and thus far only Oscar nomination for 2003’s “Lost in Translation,” in which he starred opposite future MCU staple and Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson. He lost Best Actor to Sean Penn (“Mystic River”). The comedian entered the MCU in 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” playing Lord Krylar, the governor of the Axia community in the Quantum Realm who has a history with Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), much to the dismay of Hank Pym (Michael Douglas).
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Kumail Nanjiani
Image Credit: Marvel Studios Every few months it seems like people discover (and then make a big deal out of) the physical transformation Kumail Nanjiani, a stand-up comedian and actor, went through to get super buff for his role as Kingo in Marvel’s “Eternals” (2021). But that isn’t even close to being the coolest or most impressive thing on Nanjiani’s resume. No, that would be his nomination for Best Original Screenplay for writing “The Big Sick” (2017), a film he starred in and wrote with his wife, Emily V. Gordon.
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Edward Norton
Image Credit: Michael Gibson If you forgot that Edward Norton was ever in the MCU, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler reminded you in their 2015 Golden Globes monologue. Norton originated the role of Bruce Banner/Hulk, in 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk,” aka the MCU film no one talks about, but he and Marvel soon parted ways, and he was replaced by another Oscar nominee, Mark Ruffalo, who took over the role starting with the first “Avengers” film. Norton has three Oscar nominations to his name: Best Supporting Actor for “Primal Fear” (1996), Best Actor for “American History X” (1998) and Best Supporting Actor for “Birdman” (2014), in which he starred opposite fellow Marvel actor and Oscar nominee Michael Keaton. For the last nomination, Norton was up against Ruffalo and new MCU member Ethan Hawke (of the Disney+ series “Moon Knight”), but they lost to another recent MCU addition, J.K. Simmons, for “Whiplash.”
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Lupita Nyong’o
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Shortly after she graduated from the Yale School of Drama, Lupita Nyong’o booked her very first movie, “12 Years a Slave” (2013), for which she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. She is the most recent of nine people to win that category for their feature film debut. Nyong’o joined the MCU in “Black Panther” (2018) as Nakia, T’Challa’s former flame and a War Dog who’s globe-trotting on undercover missions.
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Gwyneth Paltrow
Image Credit: Courtesy Image If you ask her, Gwyneth Paltrow will probably tell you that she’s never been in a Marvel movie, but she’s actually appeared in seven of them as Pepper Potts, the better half of Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark. Originating the role in “Iron Man” (2008), Paltrow reprised the character in “Iron Man 2” (2010), “The Avengers” (2012), “Iron Man 3” (2013), “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017), “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019). On the Oscars front, Paltrow defeated fellow MCU star Cate Blanchett (“Elizabeth”) to take home the award for Best Actress for “Shakespeare in Love” (1998).
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Michelle Pfeiffer
Image Credit: Marvel Studios Michelle Pfeiffer should’ve gotten a Best Supporting Actress nomination for “Batman Returns” (1992), and no, we will not hear arguments otherwise. The erstwhile Catwoman has collected three Oscar nominations during her career: Best Supporting Actress for “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988) and two Best Actress bids for “The Fabulous Baker Boys” (1989) and “Love Field” (1992). Since her return to the big screen in 2017, she has portrayed Janet van Dyne in “Ant-Man and the Wasp” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) and 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”
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Natalie Portman
Image Credit: Zade Rosenthal / Marvel Studios Natalie Portman starred in the first two “Thor” films but sat out the best one, 2017’s “Thor: Ragnarok.” She returned in 2022’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” as her character Jane Foster took up the mantle of Mighty Thor and gains similar powers to that of the hunky Asgardian. Portman won Best Actress for her turn in “Black Swan” (2010) and has been nominated two more times, in Best Supporting Actress for “Closer” (2004) and Best Actress for “Jackie” (2016).
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Florence Pugh
Image Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Marvel actresses Florence Pugh and Scarlett Johansson first faced off in the race for Best Supporting Actress for their performances in the 2019 films “Little Women” and “Jojo Rabbit,” respectively. (They lost to Laura Dern for “Marriage Story.”) They faced off again in 2021’s “Black Widow,” which was delayed from its original May 2020 release by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the film, Pugh plays Yelena Belova, one of the other Black Widows who’s like a sister to Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff. She made her second MCU appearance on the Disney+ series “Hawkeye” after Yelena was dispatched by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) to take out Clint (Jeremy Renner) in the “Black Widow” post-credits scene.
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Ke Huy Quan
Image Credit: Gilbert Flores for Variety After stepping away from acting for two decades following his childhood breakthrough roles in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984) and “Goonies” (1985), Ke Huy Quan made his comeback in 2022’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” for which he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige personally called Quan following “Everything Everywhere’s” release to invite him to join the MCU. Quan plays an undisclosed role in Season 2 of “Loki.”
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Jim Rash
Image Credit: Marvel Studios Jim Rash should probably send a nice fruit basket to Joe and Anthony Russo to thank them for including him in the MCU. The “Community” actor, who worked with the duo when they were producers and directors on the cult comedy series, had a tiny role as the dean at MIT in “Captain America: Civil War” (2016). Rash won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing “The Descendants” (2011) alongside Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon.
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Robert Redford
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Robert Redford brought major elder statesmen energy when he graced “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014), otherwise known as the best MCU film, with his presence as S.H.I.E.L.D. honcho Alexander Pierce. He made a cameo in “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), which is now his last onscreen appearance as he retired from acting after shooting “The Old Man & the Gun” (2018). Although he’s one of the silver screen’s biggest and prettiest stars of all time, Redford only netted one acting nomination throughout his career, for Best Actor for “The Sting” (1973). He found greater Oscar success behind the camera, winning Best Director for his directorial debut “Ordinary People” (1980) and later receiving Best Picture and Best Director bids for “Quiz Show” (1994).
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John C. Reilly
Image Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Despite a resume that is chock full of memorable roles, like his Oscar-nominated performance in “Chicago” (2002), for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, John C. Reilly is best remembered by Marvel fans for tangling with Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord in “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014). He portrayed Rhomann Dey, a loyal member of the Nova Corps on Xandar.
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Jeremy Renner
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Some might consider Jeremy Renner’s greatest contribution to society his short-lived app (2017-19), but the truth is the Clint Barton/Hawkeye actor is also a two-time Oscar nominee. He earned a Best Actor nom for his performance in Best Picture champ “The Hurt Locker” (2009), which also starred MCU star Anthony Mackie, and then quickly followed it up with a Best Supporting Actor bid for his performance in one of Ben Affleck‘s many Boston-set movies, “The Town” (2010). Maybe one day he’ll receive an Emmy nomination for “Hawkeye,” his Disney+ series. Only time will tell.
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Sam Rockwell
Image Credit: Industrial Light and Magic Sam Rockwell is one of those actors who should’ve gotten an Oscar nomination way before he actually did, which was for 2017’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” in Best Supporting Actor. He won the award and was nominated in the same category the very next year for “Vice” (2018), losing to fellow MCU actor Mahershala Ali. Rockwell was considered for the role of Tony Stark back when Robert Downey Jr. was thought to be a liability, but he got to face off against him in “Iron Man 2” (2010) as Stark’s weapons rival Justin Hammer.
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Tim Roth
Image Credit: Courtesy Image If you don’t recall seeing Tim Roth, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for “Rob Roy” (1995), in a Marvel movie, it’s probably because he has only been in one (1). He portrayed Emil Blonsky, a former special-ops commando tasked with capturing Edward Norton‘s Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk, in “The Incredible Hulk” (2008). Blonsky was eventually injected with the super-soldier serum, turning him into the creature known as the Abomination. After a 14-year MCU hiatus, Roth will reprise the role in the Disney+ series “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” which premieres Aug. 17.
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Mickey Rourke
Image Credit: Courtesy Image We’re not sure Mickey Rourke, who received a Best Actor nomination for his performance in “The Wrestler” (2008), expected “Iron Man 2” (2010) to be as bad as it was when he signed on to play the role of Ivan Vanko, aka Whiplash, but you can’t win ’em all.
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Mark Ruffalo
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Mark Ruffalo took over the vital role of Dr. Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk, from Edward Norton beginning with the very first “Avengers” film in 2012 (sorry, Ed). Since then, he’s shown us a number of different sides to the character (hello, Professor Hulk!), but his versatility and strength as an actor has been obvious onscreen for a while now. Ruffalo, who will appear in the upcoming Disney+ series “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” received his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in “The Kids Are All Right” (2010) before following it up a few years later with back-to-back nominations for Best Supporting Actor in “Foxcatcher” (2014) — in a category that included Norton and new MCU members J.K. Simmons and Ethan Hawke — and “Spotlight” (2015).
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J.K. Simmons
Image Credit: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing J.K. Simmons took home the award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in “Whiplash” (2014) and received his second bid in the same category for 2021’s “Being the Ricardos.” But to Marvel fans, he is much, much more. In fact, he arguably had the most exciting debut in the MCU when he appeared in the mid-credits sequence of “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (2019) as J. Jonah Jameson, the same character he played in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy that starred Tobey Maguire. Traditionally, Jameson was the editor of the tabloid The Daily Bugle who famously demanded photos of Spider-Man, but in the MCU, The Daily Bugle is now a digital news outlet that has a much more dubious reputation. Simmons reprised the fan-favorite role in 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which also saw Maguire return as Peter Parker when Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) botched a spell and accidentally pulled multiple characters from other Spider-Man movies into the MCU.
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Sylvester Stallone
Image Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Sylvester Stallone played Stakar Ogord, a Ravager who had some unresolved issues with Yondu, in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” (2017) and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (2023). For his most iconic role and film, Best Picture champ “Rocky” (1976), Stallone earned two Oscar nominations, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor. He reprised Rocky in multiple sequels, but Oscar didn’t shortlist him again until 2015’s “Creed,” this time in Best Supporting Actor. With the bid, he became one of six people to garner multiple nominations for playing the same character in different films, a group that includes fellow MCU star Cate Blanchett.
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Hailee Steinfeld
Image Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios Hailee Steinfeld was just a young girl (14, to be exact) when she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her breakthrough performance as Mattie Ross in the Joel and Ethan Coen’s adaptation of “True Grit” (2010), which also starred fellow MCU actors and Oscar nominees/winners Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin. She has now suit up as the archer Kate Bishop on the Disney+ series “Hawkeye” opposite fellow Oscar nominees Jeremy Renner (they were nominated in the same year), Vera Farmiga and Florence Pugh. She’s expected to take up the mantle of Hawkeye after Renner’s Clint Barton retires (for real this time).
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Tilda Swinton
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Marvel got blowback for changing the mystic Ancient One from a Tibetan man in the comics to a Celtic woman for “Doctor Strange” (2016). File that under “Things They’ll Never Do Again.” But Tilda Swinton crushed it in the film and in “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), in which she was tasked with explaining how the Infinity Stones affect the flow of time, which we’re still not sure we understand. Swinton won Best Supporting Actress for “Michael Clayton” (2007) and snuck in a good roasting of a former superhero in her speech.
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Charlize Theron
Image Credit: Michael Buckner No stranger to long-running movie franchises, Charlize Theron finally joined the MCU when she appeared in the mid-credits scene of “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (2022). She portrays Clea, who in the comics is from the Dark Dimension. In the MCU, she tracks Strange down after he creates an incusion after all his own multiverse-hopping. While it’s unlikely this performance will earn her an Oscar nomination (voters haven’t been keen on most of Marvel), Theron already has three to her name and one win under her belt. For her performance as Aileen Wuornos in “Monster” (2003), Theron took home the Academy Award for Best Actress. She followed it up with two additional nominations in the same category, for “North Country” (2005) and “Bombshell” (2019).
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Marisa Tomei
Image Credit: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing Clearly the prerequisite for playing Aunt May on the big screen is that you need to be at least an Oscar nominee. Rosemary Harris, who played Aunt May to Tobey Maguire‘s Peter Parker in the original trilogy, and Lily Tomlin, who voiced Aunt May in “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (2018), were both nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The academy liked Sally Field, Andrew Garfield‘s Aunt May, enough to give her two Best Actress statuettes and a Best Supporting Actress nomination. And Marisa Tomei, Tom Holland‘s Aunt May in “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017), “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (2019) and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021), won Best Supporting Actress for “My Cousin Vinny” (1992). Tomei, who earned two more supporting bids for “In the Bedroom” (2001) and “The Wrestler” (2008), prevailed in a huge upset that spawned a conspiracy theory alleging that presenter Jack Palance read the wrong name and was not corrected. But she has finally been vindicated thanks to Envelopegate.
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Stanely Tucci
Image Credit: Courtesy Image When he’s not eating his way through Italy or showing us how to make cocktails on Instagram, Stanley Tucci is an accomplished actor. Nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his turn in “The Lovely Bones” (2009), he had a small but vital role in the MCU as Dr. Abraham Erskine, the German scientist who created the super-soldier serum that gave Chris Evans bulging biceps as Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, in “Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011). It’s a shame Erskine died because we’re of the belief that every film can be improved with a little Tucci.
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Taika Waititi
Image Credit: Kris Lori/imageSPACE / MEGA and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Before you knew him as the man who single-handedly reinvigorated the “Thor” franchise with the hilarious, wacky and hilariously wacky “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017), Taika Waititi was Oscar-nominated for Best Live-Action Short Film for “Two Cars, One Night” (2004) and pretended to be asleep when his name was read at the ceremony. He was definitely awake when he won Best Adapted Screenplay for “Jojo Rabbit” (2019), becoming the first indigenous winner of the category. He was also up for Best Picture for the film, a bid that he shared with his ex-wife Chelsea Winstanley. Waititi has played Korg via motion capture in “Ragnarok” and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), and reprised the “Fortnite”-loving fan favorite in 2022’s “Thor: Love and Thunder,” which he wrote and directed.
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Rachel Weisz
Image Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures After being delayed for more than a year due to the pandemic, “Black Widow” solo film hit theaters in July 2021, which means we finally got to see more than five seconds of Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff, a fellow Black Widow trained in the Red Room program. Weisz won Best Supporting Actress for “The Constant Gardener” (2005) and waited 13 years to get her sophomore bid, also in supporting with “The Favourite” (2018). If she had won, Weisz would’ve tied the category record at two wins, shared by Shelley Winters and Dianne Wiest, and she would’ve been one of eight actors with a perfect two-for-two record.
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Forest Whitaker
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Not only is Forest Whitaker a Best Actor winner for “The Last King of Scotland” (2006), but he is the most recent of five men who have won that category as their film’s sole nomination. The one who did it right before him? Fellow MCU star Michael Douglas for 1987’s “Wall Street.” Whitaker played Zuri, the only person who knew anything and everything about that heart-shaped herb, in “Black Panther” (2018).
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Owen Wilson
Image Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures You might not have had Owen Wilson pegged for a role in the MCU, but Mobius M. Mobius, the member of the Time Variance Authority he plays on the Disney+ series “Loki” opposite Tom Hiddleston’s fan-favorite God of Mischief, is an excellent addition to the Marvel world. Wilson also appeared in the post-credits scene of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” teeing up Season 2 of “Loki.” The role is a fun line to add to Wilson’s resume, which also includes a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination for co-writing “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001) alongside Wes Anderson.
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Alfre Woodard
Image Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures If you blinked, you might have missed Alfre Woodard in “Captain America: Civil War” (2016). The actress, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in “Cross Creek” (1983), portrayed Miriam Sharpe, the grieving mother of a young man who was killed during the Battle of Sokovia. She confronted Tony about it and the role the Avengers played in the disaster, and it was this encounter that led to Tony signing the Sokovia Accords, pitting himself against Cap in the movie. (It should be noted that while this was Woodard’s only appearance in a Marvel feature film, she also starred in the Netflix TV series “Luke Cage” as Mariah Dillard. While the Netflix Marvel shows exist within the same universe as the movies, they are not directly part of the MCU.)
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Michelle Yeoh
Image Credit: Marvel Studios Michelle Yeoh made Oscar history as the first Asian Best Actress winner after prevailing for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2022). And because no one can have enough of Yeoh, she has appeared in the MCU as two different characters: Aleta Ogord in 2017’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” and Ying Nan in 2021’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”
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Steven Yeun
Image Credit: Gilbert Flores for Variety Steven Yeun became the first Asian American Best Actor nominee when he was shortlisted for 2020’s “Minari.” He’ll make his MCU debut in 2024’s “Thunderbolts” in an undisclosed role that will be a big factor in future films. The film will reunite him with his “Beef” creator Lee Jung Sin, who’s rewriting the “Thunderbolts” script, and director Jake Schreier, who’s helming it.
