Superstars or Superheroes? The UK actors who took iconic movie roles 

Consider, for example, David Jonsson, who was announced in July as the new Black Panther to riotous applause. Jonsson broke through in the deeply charming rom-com Rye Lane and showed he could handle action in Alien: Romulus. If you want proof of his dramatic ability to follow in the impressive footsteps of the late Chadwick Boseman, you can see early promise in the cutthroat banking drama Industry or the recent festival favourite Wasteman, a prison drama where he’s in a situation just as tough as any that T’Challa II will face – if sadly less fantastical. 

Staying with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you can see a great spider-web of connections. Holland’s Spider-Man shares the screen this year with Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, aka Black Widow. Pugh made her name with Lady Macbeth and showed she had the comic chops for Yelena in work like Fighting With My Family as well as the tragic-comic We Live In Time – opposite Andrew Garfield (Never Let Me Go, Breathe), aka Holland’s predecessor and sometime collaborator as Spider-Man. Garfield’s Breathe was directed by Andy Serkis, who appeared in the first Black Panther opposite Daniel Kaluuya, of Skins and The Kitchen, and Letitia Wright as Shuri. Wright has since gone on to star in Small Axe and Death on the Nile, which featured Thor director Kenneth Branagh.  

Branagh, of course, hired his stage co-star Tom Hiddleston to play Loki in that film, sending the young actor straight onto the A-List. Hiddleston has played Loki for over 15 years since, while also finding time to make acclaimed TV like The Hollow Crown and The Night Manager, and star in films including Exhibition and High Rise. The Hollow Crown featured another future Marvel hero: Dr Strange, the doctor-turned-magician played by Benedict Cumberbatch; you can see him in 1917, Sherlock or The Imitation Game. 

One of last year’s big Marvel hits was Fantastic Four, starring Joseph Quinn (Hoard, Gladiator II) as Johnny Storm and Vanessa Kirby as his older and wiser sister Sue. You may know her better from Napoleon or The Son, where she appeared opposite Anthony “Odin in Thor” Hopkins; seek Hopkins out in Howard’s End, Freud’s Last Session or The Son. In the latter, he appears alongside Marvel’s Secret Invasion star Olivia Colman, an Oscar-winner for The Favourite (does it count if she’s not technically super-powered? She’s still formidable!). And we haven’t even mentioned Odin’s right-hand man, Heimdall, played by Idris Elba. See him at work in Luther and Hijack, or try his directorial effort Yardie. 

They fight the good fight alongside Vision, aka Paul Bettany, who you can see in The Young Victoria or recent TV hit Amadeus. Vision is an android, which puts him in similar territory to Karen Gillen’s alien hero Nebula – but then she’s comfortable with aliens, as we saw in Doctor Who. And it’s worth noting that even Marvel bad guys go British: Doctor Strange locks horns with Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mordo. Ejiofor can be seen in Children of Men or, more recently, romancing the leading lady in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. And Gemma Chan, famed for her portrayal of a robot in Humans, has played good and bad for Marvel, playing an antagonist to Captain Marvel and a hero in The Eternals. As the latter, she was in a relationship with Richard Madden (Rocketman, Game of Thrones). 

Of course this is not only an MCU trend. All the way back in the early 2000s, Christian Bale (Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle) took the role of Batman in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, and one of his successors in the role of the Caped Crusader is Robert Pattinson (The King, The Odyssey, The Childhood of a Leader). Even Superman, one of the first and most iconic superheroes, was played by the British Henry Cavill in Zach Synder’s films; you can see his work since in the likes of Argylle, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and In the Grey.  

That’s still not everyone. Sony’s Spider-spin-offs included Venom, starring Tom Hardy (Dunkirk, Legend, Havoc) as Eddie Brock and also as his alien parasite Venom (this sort of thing happens a lot in superhero movies). In his first film he faced off against Riz Ahmed’s Hamlet, Relay) billionaire scientist, while in the second one of his enemies was Naomie Harris’ (28 Days Later, Our Kind of Traitor) Shriek. There, at least, he had help from a detective played by Stephen Graham (Boiling Point, Adolescence). 

Finally, mutants. Kaluuya’s Skins co-star Nicholas Hoult played Beast in the not-yet-MCU Marvel film X-Men: First Class, but you can see his other work in About a Boy or – if you can take him playing utterly terrifying – The Order. He was, of course, joined by Professor X and Magneto in those films, with James McAvoy (Atonement, Filth) playing the former. In the final film of that series, Sophie Turner took the role of Jean Grey, a super-powerful psychic. Catch her other work in the likes of Steal, Joan and, of course, Game of Thrones. 

It's a trend that shows no signs of slowing down. Just in the last few days, Warfare and Heartstoppers’ Kit Connor has been rumoured to play Cyclops in the new X-Men movies that Marvel is planning. His co-star in that show and its film finale, Heartstopper Forever, Joe Locke, is already in the MCU thanks to the TV show Agatha All Along, so the line-up of younger Avengers and new X-Men is already Brit-tinged.