PremThere are many actors who went on to become people’s favorite postplaying superheroes. Some of them became successful post-playing these roles and some flopped completely.
There are many superhero movies in the recent times and the public demand seems to be increasing more and more.
The superhero roles that actors take up sometimes take them to the top of their careers, while for some actors their career completely goes for a toss after playing such roles.
There are times that critics write so much of negative reviews about the movies that it never takes off, in turn affecting the actors associated with the movie.
So, let’s see how the superhero movies which at some point were our favorite, created the top 10 A-listers and the 10 flopped actors.
20. A-LISTER: Chris Evans
Chris Evans played the role of the Human Torch in two franchises of Fantastic Four. One released in the year 2005 and the next one Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer in 2007. Both of these movies didn’t help his career to click as these movies were not praised by critics much. However, the wait for him got over when he took on the role of Captain America in Captain America: The First Avenger. Post this role Chris Evans never looked back and became an A-Lister.
19. FLOPPED: January Jones
She appeared as Emma Frost in X-Men prequel X-Men: First Class. Her only success was in the TV series Mad Men as Betty. Her career as an actor has not seen much of light, and the only other role where she could be seen is playing Melissa Chartres on Fox channel’s The Last Man on Earth.
18.A-LISTER: Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds has played roles in superhero movies both in the Marvel and the DC productions. He played the role of Wade Wilson in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine and then in the Green Lantern he also played the role of Hal Jordan. Although both of these roles didn’t bring him success, the leaked trailer of an R-rated movie Deadpool brought much-awaited fame to him. Now since people want more of Ryan as Deadpool, the production has come up with a sequel in May-2018.
17. Flopped: Nicholas Cage
Nicholas Cage is no doubt a legendary actor, with a mix of success and failures throughout his career. He definitely has his line of fans who await his work. In 2007 when he played the role of Johny Blaze in Ghost Rider, he did not meet the expectations of the audience, with the movie’s average performance. This movie had a sequel too in the year 2011 titled Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance which confirmed that Cage is going to have few more bad years to follow. Good thing is that he is still working and has not given up. His new project Mandy and Looking Glass have good expectations. We need to wait and see if it could make a difference.
16. A-LISTER: Gal Gadot
With the role of Gisele in the Fast and Furious Franchise of 2009, Gadot already established herself as a desirable actor. This is why she continued in the next three instalments of Fast and Furious, and she also got some success from the movies Knight and Day & Date Night.
However, her real success came through when she played Wonder Woman for DC. Not only she became a more known face, the movie worked out well for the production house too. Director Patty Jenkins was also credited with the success of this project. Gal Gadot since then in true sense is an A-LISTER.
15. FLOPPED: Topher Grace
Grace became well-known post he played Eddie Brock / Venom in Spider-Man 3. This movie wasn’t well received by the audience as compared with the previous two installments by Sam Raimi. Grace was also a part of movies like Interstellar & American Ultra. These projects went on to become very successful, with one of them even winning an Oscar, however, Grace’s contribution was meager and unappreciated.
14. A-LISTER: Michael B. Jordan
Michael B. Jordan was in a bit different world before he stepped into superhero franchise. He is known for his movies like Chronicle and Fruitvale Station. In 2015 he took on the role of the Human Torch in one of the worst ever superhero movies Fantastic Four, however, he had another project that year, Creed which got nominated for the Academy Awards.
His role as Eric KillMonger in Black Panther placed him at a very respectable place, with the huge success of the movie. This movie reunited him with his old friend and moviemaker Ryan Coogler.
13. FLOPPED: Tom Welling
Who can forget Clark Kent a.k.a Superman from the popular television show Smallville? Tom Welling successfully entertained his fan through this show for a good ten years. The show aired 217 episodes through the decade. However, post the show came to an end, Welling disappeared too. Welling has worked in three movies since the show ended and currently could be seen in the role of Marcus Pierce in the series Lucifer playing in Fox.
12. A-LISTER: Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr. had troubles with alcohol and substance abuse and his career was destined to flop since he did not have a great success from 70’s when he started working. The turnaround came about in 2008 when he decided to take up the character of superhero Iron Man. Since then he hasn’t looked back and in each of the Marvel flicks he kept coming back as Iron Man. This year again he is a part of Avengers: Infinity War. Out of all Avengers, he is known to be the one with great acting skills and comic timing. He is also known to be a real-life Tony Stark alike his character in Iron Man. A billionaire, a playboy, and a philanthropist.
11. FLOPPED: Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Garner who worked in superhero movie Elektra playing the lead and also worked in Daredevil did not shine much after these two projects. She was best known for the series Alias, where she played Sydney Bristow. This series ran for 105 episodes and she played an important character in all. A couple of other of her good projects were Dallas Buyers Club and Love Simon, however, her unsuccessful projects are more in number than the successful ones. Nine lives could not do that well. The other movies which did not do great were Alexander The Terrible, Horrible, Not Good, Very Bad day &The Odd Life of Timothy Green.
10. A-LISTER: Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson is a legendary actor of Hollywood. He became very popular with his role in Iron Man in 2008. In the early years he was popular for the role of Jedi Knight, he played. At the age of 69, his success doesn’t seem to fade and he is worth $200 million. He could be seen in Avengers: Infinity War and the upcoming sequel to The Incredibles.
9. FLOPPED: Jessica Alba
Jessica Alba first became popular for her role as Max Guevera in Dark Angel, which was a James Cameron’s project in 2000. Since then she has worked with some other famed works like Sin City & Fantastic Four. She starred in both the Franchises of Fantastic Four, however, due to the average success of these movies, Alba’s career too did not move much further. Though her priorities have changed over the years and she seems to be doing well, her acting career definitely needs a super-boost to launch again.
8. A-LISTER: Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman is a versatile actor with multiple genres of movies up his sleeve. However, his career sky-rocketed when he took up Wolverine as his new identity in the X-Men series. He worked in 9 more movies of the same franchise until he closed it with Logan last year. He is one of the most desirable A-Listers and doesn’t seem to be satisfied with what he has achieved yet.
7. FLOPPED: Aaron Taylor Johnson
Kick-Ass which was a fresh take on superhero movies, placed Johnson as a noticeable actor. This movie was R-rated and became popular due to its witty side combined with a superhero action movie. The sequel came out a few years later, however, what gave popularity to Johnson was his role as Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Unfortunately, the character was taken off from the future Avenger installments. Since then, Johnson worked in a couple of movies in the following years without much of a success.
6. A-LISTER: Chris Pratt
Chris Pratt is known to come from a very humble background. However, he has made his mark in Hollywood. He started his career with a short movie Cursed Part 3. His other works could be seen in The Extreme Team and Strangers with Candy. His more talked about work would be Peter Quill in Marvel Cinematic Universe and voice-over for the character Emmette Brickowoski in the Lego Movie. He became more popular with the lead role of a dinosaur handler in Jurassic World in 2015.
5. FLOPPED: Burt Ward
This one is from the Classics. In the 60s the popular superhero series on television was Batman. Adam West played Batman and his sidekick Robin was played by Burt Ward. The character was known as Dick Grayson and Ward played it for 120 episodes. Post the series ended in 1968, Burt Ward could not find much of success. He came up with movies like Robot Ninja & Beach Babes from Beyond which were unsuccessful.
4. A-LISTER: Henry Cavill
Cavill shot to fame post-playing Superman in the Man of Steel of Zack Snyder. Though this film received mixed reviews, Cavill was much liked for his role. Post his movie he was invited to don the role of Superman in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice league to follow.
He starred in the popular movie The Man fromU.N.C.L.E recently, which wasn’t a superhero movie. He is also supposed to be cast alongside Tom Cruise in the next installment of Mission Impossible.
3.FLOPPED: Malin Akerman
Akerman starred in the critically acclaimed movie Watchmen. Akerman has been trying her luck in the small screen since 2009, however, has not been very successful at it. There was a more popular show named Trophy Wife, however, it did not contribute much to her career. In a more recent project, she could be seen next to Dwayne Johnson in a movie called Rampage which is an adaptation of a video game.
2. A-LISTED: Michael Keaton
Keaton gained fame with Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice in the 80s. His next project Batman got him such recognition that many think that he was irreplaceable. Val Kilmer replaced him in Batman Returns. He played the prime antagonist in Spider-Man: Homecoming in the role of Vulture. Once he clicked as Batman decades ago, he still holds the key to great performances.
1. FLOPPED: Wesley Snipes
Wesley Snipes was known for his Blade Trilogy. He landed up in legal trouble for evading taxes and was imprisoned for a couple of years. Post the release he got to work in the famous franchise of Expendables. Since then not much has clicked for him, as he had an unsuccessful TV show and a couple of movies which did not do so well.
Anjali Mathur
Aditi Agrawal
