Random Actors Would Play Avengers If They Were Cast In '90s (21 items)

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  (#18) David Duchovny

  • Zoolander, Working Girl, The X-Files, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Evolution, Beethoven, Return to Me, Chaplin, The Joneses, Kalifornia, The Rapture, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Trust the Man, Julia Has Two Lovers, Connie and Carla, Playing God, Full Frontal, The TV Set, Bad Influence, House of D, The Secret, Close Encounters: Proof of Alien Contact, Things We Lost in the Fire, Queer Duck: The Movie, Ruby, Goats, Red Shoe Diaries: The Movie: Special Edition, New Year's Day, Phantom, Red Shoe Diaries: Four on the Floor, Red Shoe Diaries: Hotline, Red Shoe Diaries: Temple of Flesh, The Beaufort Diaries, Red Shoe Diaries: Forbidden Zone, Denial, Venice/Venice, Red Shoe Diaries: Girl on a Bike, Red Shoe Diaries 18: The Game, Baby Snatcher, A Discussion About Things We Lost in the Fire, Clair Obscur

  Nobody would look at David Duchovny and think of him as the Hulk, but you could say the exact same thing about Mark Ruffalo. Playing the Hulk isn't about running around in torn purple shorts with green paint on your skin, it's about playing Bruce Banner. Duchovny's charm, sense of humor, and ability to take over a scene would have made him the ideal choice to play Bruce Banner back in the '90s.

  Of course, it wouldn't have been easy to knock out the fantastic CGI used today to render Ruffalo's Hulk on screen, so someone would have had to pretend to be a giant green goliath back in the '90s. Who better to play the part than the original Hulk himself, Lou Ferrigno? Seeing Ferrigno and Duchovny team up to play the Incredible Hulk on screen is definitely something that would have cemented the MCU as a classic set of films far before 2008.
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  (#8) Winona Ryder

  • Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Star Trek, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Heathers, Black Swan, Being John Malkovich, Zoolander, Little Women, Alien: Resurrection, Reality Bites, Girl, Interrupted, The Age of Innocence, Lucas, Mr Deeds, A Scanner Darkly, The Crucible, Frankenweenie, The Iceman, The House of the Spirits, Night on Earth, The Dilemma, Mermaids, How to Make an American Quilt, Great Balls of Fire!, Sex and Death 101, Simone, Looking for Richard, Lost Souls, Square Dance, Boys, Celebrity, The Ten, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Homefront, Autumn in New York, 1969, Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael, Stay Cool, The Informers, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, The Darwin Awards, The Last Word, Ben Lee: Catch My Disease, When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story, The Letter, Water Pills, Turks & Caicos, Experimenter

  Mantis has definitely come in handy during some chaotic situations in the MCU. She was able to thwart Ego for some time during the final battle in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and she almost stopped Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. She is played remarkably well by Pom Klementieff in the MCU, but looking back at the 1990s, there is only one actress who comes to mind for the role: Winona Ryder.

  Ryder's career has regained momentum with her portrayal of Joyce Byers on Stranger Things, and she has done some great work in the intervening years, but she was at the height of her popularity in the '90s. During the decade, she starred in some huge films including Edward Scissorhands, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Reality Bites, Little Women, Alien: Resurrection, and Girl, Interrupted. Ryder can play a small role or a large one, but no matter who she is playing, she will gain critical acclaim for her work.
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  (#9) Gary Oldman

  • The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight Rises, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Fifth Element, JFK, True Romance, Air Force One, Léon: The Professional, Hannibal, The Book of Eli, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Red Riding Hood, Kung Fu Panda 2, Lost in Space, A Christmas Carol, Sid and Nancy, State of Grace, Basquiat, Lawless, The Unborn, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Quest for Camelot, Immortal Beloved, The Contender, The Scarlet Letter, Planet 51, RoboCop, Murder in the First, Henry & June, Prick Up Your Ears, Paranoia, Tiptoes, Romeo Is Bleeding, Interstate 60, Jesus, Child 44, We Think the World of You, Sin, Criminal Law, Guns, Girls and Gambling, Dead Fish, Chattahoochee, Rain Fall, Meantime, The Firm, Honest, Decent and True, Arthur & Lancelot, Nobody's Baby, Track 29, BackWoods, Monster Butler, Criminal Empire for Dummies, Touch of Evil

  Loki is a difficult character to cast. After being exposed to Tom Hiddleston's performance across five Marvel films, it's difficult to picture anyone else portraying him. Of course, if the role had to be cast back in the '90s, there isn't another person who could play the charming villain quite like Gary Oldman.

  Back in the '90s, Oldman hopped from one role to another playing so many different characters, it's difficult to summarize his acting abilities other than to simply say they're astonishing. He played a pimp in True Romance, Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, and Ludwig van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved. He also played the imitable Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element, but the role that points directly to how devious and dastardly he could be was his performance as Norman Stansfield in Léon: The Professional.
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  (#10) Eddie Murphy

  • Shrek, Mulan, Beverly Hills Cop, Shrek 2, Trading Places, Coming to America, The Nutty Professor, Shrek the Third, Life, Shrek Forever After, Beverly Hills Cop II, Harlem Nights, The Golden Child, 48 Hrs., Dreamgirls, Beverly Hills Cop III, Norbit, A Thousand Words, Boomerang, Dr. Dolittle, Bowfinger, Vampire in Brooklyn, The Distinguished Gentleman, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Shrek the Halls, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Daddy Day Care, Tower Heist, Eddie Murphy: Delirious, The Haunted Mansion, I Spy, Dr. Dolittle 2, Meet Dave, Another 48 Hrs., Holy Man, Showtime, Best Defense, Metro, Imagine That, Shrek 4-D, 100 Years of Comedy, Fall Of Chances, Donkey's Christmas Shrektacular, A Century of Black Cinema, Beverly Hills Cop IV, B.B. King "Into the Night", Dangerous: The Short Films, Beverly Hills Cop, Triplets

  Back in the '90s, Eddie Murphy was an A-list star. He started the decade with a few duds, but came back in a big way with The Nutty Professor and continued to cement his fame with performances in Doctor Doolittle and Mulan.

  Murphy's career never put him in something skin-tight where he could play an action superhero, but he did work in the action genre with the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy and you can't argue that Donkey from Shrek wasn't a hero in his own right. He isn't the first guy you would think of today to strap on some mechanical wings and soar through the air as an action star, but back in the '90s, he would likely have been Hollywood's first choice in casting Sam Wilson, AKA the Falcon.
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  (#2) Brendan Fraser

  • Crash, The Mummy, George of the Jungle, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, School Ties, The Mummy Returns, Bedazzled, Airheads, Blast from the Past, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, In the Army Now, Gods and Monsters, Inkheart, The Quiet American, Now and Then, Encino Man, The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The Nut Job, Escape from Planet Earth, The Air I Breathe, Son in Law, The Scout, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Extraordinary Measures, Dudley Do-Right, With Honors, Monkeybone, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Dogfight, Still Breathing, Twenty Bucks, Mrs. Winterbourne, Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, A Case of You, Gimme Shelter, Furry Vengeance, 33 Postcards, Glory Daze, The Passion of Darkly Noon, The Twilight of the Golds, Journey to the End of the Night, Younger and Younger, Whole Lotta Sole, Presumed Guilty, The Last Time, Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists, Pawnshop Chronicles, Seconds of Pleasure, William Tell: The Legend, Big Bug Man, Breakout, Texas Rising

  These days, it seems Brendan Fraser has been all but forgotten by Hollywood, but back in the '90s, he was a mega-star. He starred in 22 films in that decade alone, with breakout performances in School Ties, George of the Jungle, and Blast from the Past. His biggest role came in 1999 with Universal Studios's The Mummy, a movie that spawned two sequels.

  Fraser's boyish good looks and carefree attitude would have been the perfect fit for a '90s version of Peter Quill/Star Lord. While Chris Pratt has cemented himself in superhero history as the character in the 21st century, Fraser would have absolutely owned the role in the '90s.
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  (#16) Tom Cruise

  • Top Gun, Rain Man, Jerry Maguire, The Outsiders, A Few Good Men, Mission: Impossible, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, Eyes Wide Shut, Tropic Thunder, Minority Report, Risky Business, Magnolia, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Vanilla Sky, The Last Samurai, Austin Powers: Goldmember, The Color of Money, Collateral, The Firm, Legend, Days of Thunder, Oblivion, Valkyrie, All the Right Moves, Mission: Impossible II, H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, Rock of Ages, Cocktail, Far and Away, Lions for Lambs, Born on the Fourth of July, Losin' It, Knight and Day, Endless Love, Taps, Jack Reacher, Edge of Tomorrow, Celebrity News Reels: Hollywood's Most Infamous Couples and Ugliest Breakups, Mission: Impossible 5, The Hardy Men, Northern Lights, Van Helsing, Top Gun 2

  It's basically inarguable that Iron Man is the center of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU only exists due to the success of 2008's Iron Man, helmed by director Jon Favreau and led by Robert Downey Jr. If the film needed to be cast sometime during the previous decade, RDJ wouldn't have made the cut due to some personal issues he was going through. Hollywood would have turned to the one man capable of launching the franchise: Tom Cruise.

  Cruise is essentially Hollywood royalty and fans know if his name is attached to a project, odds are, it's going to be successful. Cruise's work in the '90s includes blockbuster hits like A Few Good Men, The Firm, Days of Thunder, and the first Mission: Impossible film (which was followed by five sequels). Looking back, it's almost impossible to picture anybody else playing Tony Stark/Iron Man in the '90s.

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