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Chris Evans portrayed the MCU Captain America and the non-MCU Human Torch. Jon Favreau portrayed the MCU Happy Hogan and the non-MCU Foggy Nelson.

Are there any other MCU actors who've portrayed Marvel characters different from their MCU characters? I'm including the extended MCU (MTVU?) in this.

Stan Lee's cameos don't count. Also, I'm not asking about characters portrayed by multiple actors (cough Spider-Man cough).

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    FYI: there's no special name for the TV or Netflix parts of the MCU, they're all (nominally) just part of the MCU.
    – KutuluMike
    Aug 28, 2016 at 5:12
  • @KutuluMike Thanks! I hesitated to call it the "Extended MCU" but couldn't think of anything better.
    – miltonaut
    Aug 28, 2016 at 5:30
  • The Netflix MCU is easily defined as the The Defenders.
    – cde
    Aug 28, 2016 at 5:47
  • Why the downvote? What can I do to make it a better question?
    – miltonaut
    Aug 28, 2016 at 12:08
  • Isn't this a trivia question? Also the [character] tag doesn't fit here, the question more about actors than the characters they played.
    – Luciano
    Aug 1, 2019 at 10:47

3 Answers 3

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Photos and information are sourced from here.

Actors who portrayed MCU and non-MCU, Marvel Universe characters:

Ray Stevenson

"Volstagg" from the Thor films (MCU) vs. "Frank Castle" from The Punisher: War Zone

Volstagg and Frank Castle

Colm Feore

"Laufey" from Thor (MCU) vs. "Donald Mencken" from The Amazing Spiderman 2

LaufeyMencken

Kate Mara

"Unnamed US Marshall" from Iron Man 2 (MCU) vs. "Sue Storm" Fantastic Four (2016)

https://www.phactual.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/kate-mara-iron-man-2-fantastic-four.jpg

Tim Blake Nelson

"Samuel Sterns" from The Incredible Hulk (MCU) vs. "Harvey Elder" from Fantastic Four (2016)

enter image description here

Actors who portrayed MCU and non-Marvel Universe, Marvel-published characters:

Vincent D’Onofrio

"Wilson Fisk / Kingpin" from Daredevil (MCU via Netflix) vs. "Edgar the meatsack" from Men In Black (reversed in image)

enter image description here

Actors who portrayed multiple non-MCU Marvel Comics published characters:

Nicolas Cage

"Johnny Blaze" from the Ghost Rider films vs. "Big Daddy" from Kickass

enter image description here

Peter Dinklage

"Bolivar Trask" from the X-Men - Days of Future Past vs. "Eitri the Dwarf King" from Infinity Wars enter image description here enter image description here

Rebecca Romijn

"Mystique" from the X-Men films vs. "Joan" from The Punisher (2004)

enter image description here

Ryan Reynolds

"Hannibal King" from Blade: Trinity vs. both versions of "Deadpool" from Deadpool and X-Men Origins: Wolverine

enter image description here

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    Ryan Reynolds, Rebecca Romijn and Nicolas Cage have nothing to do with MCU
    – Ankit Sharma ♦
    Aug 29, 2016 at 6:41
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    "Men in Black" was published by Marvel subsidiary but was not a Marvel comic; however, D'onofrio did portray "Thor" in "Adventures in Babysitting" if we are "going there". Likewise, "Kickass" was a Marvel publication, but it does not take place in the Marvel Universe (though it is considered an alternate dimension if it shares the same Earth as Mark Millar's "Marvel 1985" mini-series, which did crossover into the Marvel 616 universe).
    – JoshDM
    Sep 9, 2016 at 20:42
  • I'm personally very excited about Disney's acquisition of Fox movie rights to X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool. They will be retroactively folded into the MCU, I suppose
    – m1gp0z
    Oct 2, 2018 at 20:32
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    You have Peter Dinklage listed under actors who played multiple non-MCU characters, but Infinity War is MCU.
    – sanpaco
    Aug 1, 2019 at 8:51
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Since Marvel Studios' formation, character rights have been a tricky aspect of negotiation. Infact, according to recently published studies, IP management, lease and loan has for a long time been an active part of Marvel's brand identity; despite claims to the contrary, it was not solely due to bankruptcy that Marvel pursued a strategy of franchising their characters out to other interests.

Whilst there will be multiple incarnations of characters, actors are typically locked in to studio deals meaning once they are on the MCU roster, it's unlikely they'll appear in a non-MCU marvel property. This is an implicit element of control Marvel possess over their competition, and typically means any non-MCU appearances by MCU actors are almost always before an MCU appearance.

You've mentioned Chris Evans already, but also:

IDRIS ELBA

enter image description here

The actor portrayed the character Moreau in Ghost Rider: Spirit of vengeance (non MCU) before Heimdall in Thor (MCU).

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  • This is a much better answer to a question that probably doesn't deserve it. ;-)
    – Napoleon Wilson ♦
    Aug 29, 2016 at 9:16
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With the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home, we now have an actor who has played a character in the MCU, and played that same character in a non-MCU movie: J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson.

While it takes on a different form than all of the other listed examples, J.K. Simmons still counts as an actor who was both in an MCU movie and a non-MCU Marvel movie.

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