Marvel Movie Villains Who Are Gorgeous In Real Life

When it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there have been a lot of good looking villains, from Tom Hiddleston as Loki in "The Avengers" to Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger in "Black Panther" to Hannah-John Kamen as Ghost in "Ant-Man and the Wasp" to Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." Put simply, being bad seems to look really good on even the most awful antagonizers — and those are just the ones whose faces we can actually see in the films.

By peeling back all the masks and makeup of some of the other miscreants of the MCU, it becomes clear that the costume department had to work overtime to conceal much of the eye candy on display with these cast members. Here are some of the Marvel movie villains who are actually pretty stunning once you do away with all those dark disguises.

To become the Mad Titan for "Avengers: Infinity War," Josh Brolin had to sport a motion capture suit while acting out his scenes, and the character's violet visage was added in by the visual effects team during and after production. Although certain parts of the actor's appearance did make it through to the big screen — like the shape of his eyes, nose, and mouth — he does not share in Thanos' gigantic chin, hairless head, purple skin or staggering stature in real life.

Sure, there were a lot of moviegoers who found the existence-snapping alien to be attractive in the films — the phrase "thicc Thanos" even found its way online soon after the flick hit theaters — but Thanos can't hold a candle to the actor who portrays him when it comes to his hunk factor. Brolin, who donned an entirely different look for his other Marvel movie appearance as Cable in "Deadpool 2," has traditionally handsome features and has even starred as the leading man in the romantic film scene as a result of his aesthetic appeal.

As terrible as she was in "Thor: Ragnarok," there was no denying that the Goddess of Death was working it with that goth getup; she even made those giant antlers look good when she strolled into Asgard to claim her place on the throne and destroy anyone who stood in her way. However, Hela has still got nothing on the actress who portrayed her in the film, Cate Blanchett.

The Oscar winner usually sports a blonde bob and has very fair features which, coupled with her strong cheekbones, make her look very striking. Although she has distanced herself from the pursuit of perfection that some of her peers have felt pressured into in showbiz, her beauty has been helpful in landing her brand ambassador gigs. "I just try to look the best I can at whatever age I am," she told The Cut of her approach to beauty. "I always find people attractive when they are comfortable with their own skin and not trying to be someone else, but their best selves."

Fans would be forgiven for not recognizing Lee Pace beneath all the blue and black facial makeup he wore to become Ronan the Accuser for "Guardians of the Galaxy." The Golden Globe-nominated actor's mug was thoroughly concealed by those thick cosmetics, and on top of that, his costume was also fitted with a cloaking head piece and a bulky bodice that allowed him to completely disappear into the Kree character.

It's not the first time the actor has been rendered unrecognizable in a major movie role; in the 2003 film "Soldier's Girl," he suited up in women's clothing to become the eponymous showgirl Calpernia, and he also covered up his signature shaggy brown 'do and ordinary human ears with a white-blonde wig and elf points to become Thranduil in "The Hobbit" trilogy. His turn as Thanos' dubious deputy, however, was arguably the movie that made him look the least like himself on-screen.

Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen had a really big year in 2016. Coming off of his fan-favored TV turn as the kidney-and-fava-bean-slurping Hannibal Lecter, he starred in two franchise films back to back: "Doctor Strange" and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." The latter would allow him to appear mostly true to his real-life form, but to become Kaecilius for the MCU, he had submit to some serious makeup that created a purple and gray raccoon mask effect to signify his allegiance to Dormammu and the dark dimension. If that didn't undermine his naturally rugged good looks quite enough, there was also the matter of his long, faux-silver ponytail that aged him up quite a bit.

In reality, though, Mikkelsen is indelibly easy on the eyes and was even chosen to model for several of MARC O'POLO's fashion campaigns. In other words, while the actor is more than happy to keep suiting up for whatever villainous roles the western world has to offer him, he could just as easily pass for the handsome hero.

Lost fans will no doubt recognize Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as the drug kingpin who survived in the tail section of Flight 815, only to — SPOILER! — succumb to the smoke monster. In "Thor: The Dark World," however, the actor was very hard to make out beneath both of the costumes he wore throughout the film. The first look featured him with a bleached wig and white eyebrows while sporting bright blue contact lenses, and once he transformed into the monster Kurse, at the behest of his dark elf boss Malekith, his countenance was completely concealed beneath a hulking spiky bodice and bony headpiece.

Although the actor does have some serious swoon factor going on in real life, though, "Thor 2" wasn't the last comic-based movie to cover him up entirely; he was just as obscured by the scaly costuming and makeup involved in his turn as the Killer Croc for the DC Universe's "Suicide Squad."

Djimon Hounsou is probably best known for his impressive work in films like "Amistad," "Gladiator," "In America," and "Blood Diamond" — two of which even earned him Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor. Before he became such a renowned actor, though, he got his start as an international model after being discovered in Paris, France by the fashion house Thierry Mugler. Soon after making a splash on runway, the Benin, Africa native moved to America and started landing screen roles that capitalized on his staggering good looks and thespian talents.

For his appearance as Korath the Pursuer in Guardians of the Galaxy, however, contact lenses, a prosthetic headpiece, and some armored costumery took much of the focus away from his magazine-ready image to order for him to look a lot less likable. Even when portraying a good guy in a comic-based pic, though, he's been hidden; for DC's "Aquaman," he has been given a reptilian exterior as the Fisherman King that bears virtually no resemblance to his real-life look.

Another actor whose appearance was completely obscured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Alexis Denisof, who portrayed The Other in "The Avengers" and "Guardians of the Galaxy." To become the servant of Thanos, Denisof was trapped with multiple layers of covering, including a blue and purple makeup regime, covered with a wiry face mask and a hooded cloak. So, it is rather difficult to discern the actor's appearance through all of that covering.

In real life, though, Denisof is definitely a looker. With dishwater blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, and a pearly white smile, the recent Emmy nominee (for his work in the short form comedy I Love Bekka & Lucy) could just as easily have been cast as Captain America's long lost brother as he was The Other. Let's just say that his wife (and costar in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "How I Met Your Mother") Alyson Hannigan is a lucky gal.

Becoming Ayesha the Golden High Priestess of the Sovereign in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" was no easy feat for Elizabeth Debicki. To achieve the look of being completely made of gold, the actress had to submit to a very unusual makeup regimen. She told Comicbook.com, "It was like a car wash. They built a sort of car wash where I sat. There was a lot of paint and a lot of sitting around and drying. It's quite an intimate process."

Although she looked like a living trophy in the flick as a result of this intense transformation process, the actress is more like a runway supermodel in real life. Fans have already gotten to see her in more realistic form in films like "The Great Gatsby," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Everest," and "The Cloverfield Paradox." Her statuesque silhouette and arrestingly beautiful face had audiences especially captivated during her starring role in TV's "The Night Manager" when she got to sport the same kind of red carpet-ready looks on-screen as she might during a big night out in Hollywood.

Another of Thanos' minions whose appearance in "Avengers: Infinity War" did not quite showcase the physical beauty of the actor portraying it was Corvus Glaive, whose real-life counterpart Michael James Shaw is downright dashing, even if you would never know it from looking at the character in the film. When his face is not coated in grey paint and digitally rendered with motion capture technology to give life to the Black Order's resident grim reaper, the up-and-comer has a strong face and sultry expressions that are sure to make fans melt.

Prior to "Infinity War," Shaw might be recognized for his appearances on television shows like "Constantine," "Limitless," and the mini-series "Roots," but even though earning a role in the MCU is a career-maker for many, chances are, fans aren't likely to peg him as the glaive-wielding baddie on any ordinary day. Luckily, Shaw seems to have no trouble commanding a crowd with his small screen turns without all those pesky villain shrouds.

It may go without saying, but British actor Jason Flemyng definitely does not have the same fiery red skin, greasy black mane, sharp-spaded tail, or the poof-and-he's-gone teleportation skills of his on-screen alter ego Azazel from "X-Men: First Class." Instead, the actor has reddish blonde hair, blue eyes, and caucasian skin. Luckily for him, too, his eyebrows don't rise to a menacing point, and he doesn't bear the same facial scars as the character either, but what that meant was that he had to endure a daily makeup regimen that was "a lot of work," as he explained to Movies Ireland.

When he found out he wouldn't be hired on for the film's sequel, "X-Men: Days of Future Past," he was somewhat comforted that he would not have to submit to the intense makeover process again to reprise the role. "Initially I was gutted, but then, I remembered I had to get up at two in the morning, I had to be painted red and be slightly out of focus and posed a lot, and that was sort of it," the actor told MovieWeb. "Now I don't have to do that."

You'd have a hard time picking the actor who portrayed the Black Order's telekinetic baddie Ebony Maw out of a line-up if you didn't already know it was Tom Vaughan-Lawlor beneath all the prosthetics. As Maw, he had a wide, long expanese in place of a nose, with speckled grey skin, wispy white hair, and almost reptilian wrinkles throughout.

In reality, though, Vaughan-Lawlor has brown hair, fair skin, and, of course, an actual nose. The actor has been seen before on the small screen with appearances in shows like "Peaky Blinders," "Love/Hate," and "The Secret Agent," to name a few. However, none of his roles looked quite like this. The actor, who claims to have dressed up as the character while auditioning for the role, filmed his scenes while wearing a CGI suit and said that his son in particular enjoyed the results of his on-screen transformation, telling The Independent, "he thinks [it] is funny because I look so ugly."

Nowadays, Nebula is fighting for the good guys after making peace with her sister Gamora in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2." She started out as a villain, though, so she still counts for purposes of this list. You wouldn't know it to look at Nebula, but the actress portraying her, Karen Gillan, is quite striking in real life.

To become Thanos' least favorite daughter, Gillan donned metallic and blue makeup, shaved off her bright red locks, blacked out her already dark brown eyes, and added a few android body parts for good measure. "It's really intense going through this makeup in the morning, but it's amazing! I think it takes about four and a half hours now. I think it was five originally," she told ScreenRant of her preparatory process. "But also it's so worth it, because I see bits of footage that we've shot and it's just so amazing, it's so worth it." Indeed, the result of all that time investment is that Nebula looks almost nothing like her real-life counterpart, save for her height and leonine frame.

Ryan Reynolds' ruggedly handsome visage was covered up quite a bit for his leading role as Wade Wilson in "Deadpool" — first with severe burn marks and then with his red and black head-to-toe costuming — but he was really unrecognizable as the villain Juggernaut.

The character was digitally rendered with computer-generating imaging, but Reynolds did don some "mocap gear" to act out some of Juggernaut's facial expressions in his scenes, in addition to voicing the character. The director justified Reynolds' double duty as a matter of sheer convenience for everyone. "Ryan did some performance capture for certain dialogue bits. And then he provided the voice, which we altered, which allowed us to, when we we're [sic] in post, we're [sic] doing some alts for Deadpool," he explained to CinemaBlend. "It'd be like, 'Okay, let's just switch into Juggernaut mode, try this.' As opposed to 'Let's bring in somebody, wait for them, call time,' all this. It was a tight unit. Ryan's got another franchise!" 

So, even though Reynolds bears absolutely no resemblance to the hulking and helmeted muscleman, fans might be able to notice a familiar expression or two buried beneath all that might and metal if they look closely enough.

Even before his bad day at the electric eels tank turned him lightning bolt blue from head to toe, Jamie Foxx's good looks were still pretty well concealed in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." In the beginning of the film, he's shown as Max Dillon, a balding, buck-toothed, and bespectacled electrical engineer who carries an air of defeat, and Foxx's visible charisma, head full of hair, and otherwise handsome features are nowhere in sight.

Then, when he transforms into Electro, he's especially unidentifiable beneath all the luminescent skin and eyes. To create the look, the Academy Award-winner was drenched in veiny prosthetics and blue makeup that was later enhanced with digital effects, and Foxx credited the makeover with informing his performance. "Once I got into that blue, even my voice changed," Foxx said in a Sony behind-the-scenes feature. "It was more [huskily] 'You have no idea what it feels like' because his vocal chords had been burned. I would just look in the mirror for hours, just looking at the blue contacts and everything and then finally honing in [and] found him."

In 2000's "X-Men," Ray Park disappeared beneath a lime skin tone, a bright green spike 'do, and a slimy smile, but in reality, the actor doesn't look like he's hungry for any flies and instead has dark blonde hair, grayish blue eyes and a bright white set of teeth. Being the amphibious bad guy with the dangerous tongue might've been a significant enough screen transformation for him to make, but it was hardly Park's most image-obscuring role.

The year before he joined the X-Men universe, he starred as Darth Maul in "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace," for example, although it may be difficult to discern the Scottish actor beneath all those horns and red and black demonic makeup. The same was true when he reprised it for "Solo: A Star Wars Story." He was even less visible in "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" as Snake Eyes, the helmeted ninja who didn't speak. So, while his turn as Toad hid his real-life looks, it was still one of his least disguised franchise runs so far.

Once the X-Men franchise got the requel treatment with treatment with the "X-Men: First Class" films, the character Toad got an overhaul by way of actor Evan Jonigkeit. Instead of sporting green everything, the actor wore some binocular-style spectacles, a sharp mohawk, and a turned-down grimace with scales and warts scattered across his skin. The look was a far cry from the actor's usual image, which includes a full head of brunette hair, bright blue-green eyes, and a smooth-skinned grin.

"It was quite a process," he told Philadelphia of his daily makeover for the film. "They began by sculpting several molds of my head. The mold would be the first thing I would put on in the morning. From there, they would fit in all of the other prosthetic pieces. It took about three-and-a-half hours in the makeup chair." Arduous though it sounds, Jonigkeit said it was over all a "fun" experience for him.

If you didn't care much for Malekith the Accursed in "Thor: The Dark World," don't worry. The actor portraying him, Christopher Eccleston, didn't either. He's since admitted that he took the role as a paycheck gig but that the sheer amount of time he spent in the makeup chair ruined the role for him. As he told The Express, "The first couple of days it was about seven hours, eight hours [in make-up]. I think we got it down to six and a half. It's a day's work before [anything] ... Marvel were dishonest to me. Because they never, ever let me know that there'd be that amount of make-up."

Indeed, you'd be hard-pressed to recognize the celebrated television star beneath all the layers of pale elfin prosthetics, metal armor and headgear, and inhumanly blue eyes. In real life, he's got much more muted blue eyes and salt-and-pepper hair ... when he doesn't have it buzzed off for a moto-dad cool guy look, that is.

It is not traditional for the MCU to feature a titular hero in a face off with himself, but that's what happened in "Doctor Strange." Benedict Cumberbatch played both the time-warping wizard and the Dark Dimensional uberbad Dormammu — although the latter was in voice only, though he did do some facial capture work for the role. Cumberbatch has claimed it was his idea to voice the villain in the movie, saying in a press junket (via CinemaBlend), "I went, 'Look, if this is going to work, rather than being a big ghoulish monster, if it's some kind of reflection of him — if it's something that he's giving that's coming back at him in a really horrific way, that would be fun! ... a lot of the animation is sort of like a mirror reflection, a rippled mirror reflection, of him, of Strange."

Although Cumberbatch is tall, that's about where the comparisons between his appearance and Dormammu's end. On the other hand, it didn't take much of a makeover to ready him for the role of Doctor Strange himself — apart from the grey streaks in his hair and his delightfully odd costuming, he was very recognizable in the film's central part, even if no one realized he was fighting against himself there at the tail end of the pic.

A lot of green goes into making Ben Mendelsohn look like Talos, a Skrull commander in "Captain Marvel" because in real life, the actor is an Aussie hunk through and through. Mendelsohn, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Netflix's "Bloodline," has been working his way onto the A-list in the United States ever since his appearance in 2010's "Animal Kingdom." Before he joined the MCU, you may have also seen his mask-free mug in a number of movies, including "The Dark Knight Rises," "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," and "Ready Player One."

Mendelsohn has been hailed for his performance as Talos, and some Marvel fans even contend his turn in the film might single-handedly help solve the brand's bogus villainy problem. "Captain Marvel" does show a bit of Mendelsohn in his real skin throughout the flick, too, but between those simple spectacle frames and his uptight S.H.I.E.L.D. gear, the actor's rugged handsomeness is still very much concealed in the film.

Shortly before Carrie Coon joined Thanos' goon squad for "Avengers: Infinity War," the actress was riding a career high with back-to-back celebrated small screen roles in HBO's "The Leftovers" and "Fargo's" 3rd season, the latter of which earned her a Primetime Emmy nomination. It was quite a surprise, then, when Coon was chosen to make her MCU debut in the film as Proxima Midnight, a part which largely covered up her increasingly famous (not to mention lovely) face.

Coon's role in the film was shot using voice over and motion capture technology of her facial expressions so that animators could then add in the character's grey skin, navy eye mask effect, blue hair and horns in post. The actress later admitted that completing the work felt "lonelier" than what she was used to doing, but she's since made light of how unidentifiable she is on-screen. "To be fair, my face is in there somewhere," she joked.

While Paul Rudd's journey to Marvel stardom led him to headline as Ant-Man in his own movie, another star of the 2015 film and its 2023 sequel "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" made his own mark on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Fans might have recognized actor Corey Stoll from his roles in "Midnight in Paris" and "House of Cards" prior to portraying Darren Cross aka Yellowjacket.

Although he seemingly [spoiler alert!] was obliterated by Rudd's heroic Scott Lang at the end of the first "Ant-Man" film, many were surprised (and delighted) to see Stoll return in the sequel — albeit as a giant, grotesque human-robot hybrid. In 2023, Stoll appeared in "Quantumania" as M.O.D.O.K., or Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing, after his Yellowjacket remains were discovered and repurposed by big baddie Kang the Conqueror. "He is one of a kind," Stoll quipped about M.O.D.O.K. to Variety. "It's just so over the top, both frightening and hilarious. So [director] Peyton [Reed] didn't have to sell me on the role at all. It was a done deal."

While the actor didn't physically appear on-screen in the second film, he did utilize motion capture to include his presence. The result was an odd, anthropomorphic creature with a giant head atop a tiny body. M.O.D.O.K. even had a scene-stealing moment, memorably showing his rear end during his appearance. "To see your face distorted and superimposed on this little baby body floating on a rocket wheelchair, on a screen 30 feet high — it's an odd experience," Stoll admitted to Variety.

While some have pondered the double life of Christian Bale, he's also shown dual sides in his many acting roles. His portrayal of the terrifying Gorr the God Butcher in 2022's "Thor: Love and Thunder" is no exception, even as it marked his first foray into Marvel territory after famously playing Batman in director Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.

To get into Gorr's frame of mind, the Oscar-winning actor took a literal approach in a sense. "You sort of go, 'I know what he does,'" he shared with Games Radar. "It's right there in the name, isn't it?" But even with all of his butchering, Gorr didn't survive his face-off with Chris Hemsworth's titular titan, meaning he's not slated to appear in another film — at least for now. At least Bale was able to find some levity in the character's harsh reality. "I did make the mistake of Googling [the character] and [thought] 'Oh no! [In the comics] he runs around in a G-string all the time!'" he revealed to Games Radar.

Many know her as "Loki" actor Tom Hiddleston's fiancée, but Zawe Ashton has made waves of her own as the revenge-seeking Dar-Benn in 2023's "The Marvels." Compared to her husband's legendary Loki mischief, Ashton's character was decidedly more anger-facing, seeking justice for the annihilation of her planet after accusing Brie Larson's Captain Marvel of destroying it.

While, yes, Marvel movies are the definition of blockbusters, Ashton has expressed that the process of making "The Marvels" didn't feel like a big-budget cash grab. Instead, the film's overall approach, courtesy of director Nia DaCosta, took inspiration from a completely different aura. "It was like she was offering me an [independent film]," the actor shared with Screen Rant. "It was this fantastic way of approaching a juggernaut, but with this independent spirit and all that that represents, which is just getting to work on the characters, not letting a lot of the noise in."

Even though Dar-Benn's fate results in her being [spoiler!] cosmically obliterated, Ashton still called the experience an incredible one — and never says never to her character's potential return. "To continue the journey somehow would be just incredible," she told Screen Rant. "Saying that, I'm also so happy with the arc and I'm so happy with how things turned out. But ... there's part of me that thinks she's not quite done."

The "Guardians of the Galaxy" films, along with many of its beloved characters, are well-known for their rollicking atmosphere and even more rocking tunes. But with the introduction of the sadistic High Evolutionary in 2023's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" saw the final installment in the series take a decidedly dark turn.

The character — who performed scientific experiments on both children and animals, including the wise-cracking Rocket Raccoon — was played by Nigerian-British actor Chukwudi Iwuji. Iwuji made no qualms about the High Evolutionary's unsettling behavior, but did find ways to bring the villain to life by utilizing his motives. "I don't believe that you have to defend your character," he explained to The Hollywood Reporter. "His way of thinking has led us to some of the most terrible periods in our history and in humanity ... So I cannot defend him, but I can defend playing him, because it was a gift of a role for an actor."

Part of that gift was the costume itself, a dark, sinister robe that highlighted the strict lines of his demeanor. Iwuji revealed that the clothing was the final piece in putting together his journey with the character. "It holds you up in a certain way," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "It flows in a certain way. It sings in a certain way as you move with it."

Even though we've seen what Emma Corrin has in common with Princess Diana, who she portrayed on "The Crown," she showed a darker side of her skills as the powerful mutant Cassandra Nova in 2024's "Deadpool & Wolverine." Facing off against the likes of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in the blockbuster film was a tall order, but Corrin was more than up to the challenge. "She's fun because she's unpredictable, and she's so much more powerful than these two guys who come in, and she can treat them however she wants to," she told Collider.

To complete her villainous transformation, Corrin and the creative team stayed true to the character's comic book appearance, down to the signature bald head and long coat. Combined with her awesome on-set ensemble of actors, she ended up exploring the character in ways she hadn't planned. "We ended up actually finding a lot of Cassandra along the way [during filming] that we didn't think we would, and that was really fun," she revealed to Collider.

Known for his antagonistic characters across multiple galaxies (remember Moff Gideon in "The Mandalorian"?), Giancarlo Esposito pivoted to the MCU as Seth Voelker aka Sidewinder in 2025's "Captain America: Brave New World." To channel his inner baddie, the actor tapped into serpentine sentimentalities, even down to his costume. "Part of the incorporation of Sidewinder's colors I brought into the costume that I'm wearing," he explained to ABC7. "I'm hoping that it gives [Marvel executives] inspiration in movies to come that will allow me to take on more of that serpent persona."

As for his performance, the actor declared that this was the most physical role he's ever taken on. "You've never seen me play a character like this," he shared with the news station. "This guy knows how to use a rifle, a pistol, knives, [he's] very, very physical, active with his physicality, punches, kicks, all that." While the end of "Brave New World" saw Sidewinder [spoiler] arrested and taken away, the ambiguous ending holds potential for future appearances in other Marvel films.

Another baddie in "Brave New World" came in the form of the Red Hulk, originally President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross — portrayed by none other than Harrison Ford. After the tragic death of William Hurt, who originally played Ross in several early MCU films, Ford's star power helped power the punch that was his transformation into Red Hulk.

The legendary actor looks back on filming that sequence as "an amusing day at the office," despite not really knowing much more besides the actual transformation. "Honestly, I don't remember," Ford admitted to Cinema Blend about the logistics of filming his scenes. "I said, 'Okay, great. Where do I go? What do I do?' ... They said, 'You turn into the Red Hulk.' 'Oh, Okay.' I turned into the Red Hulk, and they said, 'Okay' ... 'Could I do it again?'"

But Ford was quick to shut down another take as the larger-than-life character. "'Oh no, that was fine,'" he responded. As for the potential of appearing in any future Marvel films, the notorious quip-heavy actor provided a straightforward answer. "Nope," he told Variety.

In 2025's "Thunderbolts" (later renamed "The New Avengers"), Lewis Pullman stars as the seemingly innocuous Robert "Bob" Reynolds opposite the likes of Florence Pugh and Wyatt Russell. But later it is revealed that "Bob" is actually Sentry, a superbeing that is capable of collapsing into The Void. As The Void, all life is drained from the world, sucking anything and anyone into its path to likely be trapped. The physical intensity of some of the scenes made an impact on the actor, even causing him to resort to specific coping methods post-filming, like cheat days from his movie diet. "After [the scene], I had one of those ice cream Snickers," he admitted to Men's Health. "Maybe three of them. And then I had a milkshake. And a burger, and ice cream, and French fries. Just going all in. It was a serious Last Supper moment."

Pullman is no stranger to acting; his father, Bill, is another famous actor who appeared in Disney Channel movies along with "While You Were Sleeping" and "Independence Day." But when it came to embodying the character, the younger Pullman found strength in consulting with director Jake Schreier about fitting into Sentry's world while holding onto his own reality. "In that massive world, it's hard to remember that you have your own things that you can bring into it," he explained to Men's Health. "Your job is to fit into the world and assimilate into it, but it's also to enhance it and bring any sort of relatability you might have to the character."

Another surprise villain in "Thunderbolts" was Olga Kurylenko's appearance as Taskmaster, who we last saw in 2021's "Black Widow." In the first act of the former, Taskmaster fights against Yelena Belova, John Walker, and others before [spoiler!] being shot by Ghost in the midst of the chaos.

Initially, Taskmaster's demise wasn't in the script, but after the 2023 Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America strikes, Kurylenko returned to set with a new storyline. "In the first script, my character was... there until the end, but it wasn't the same script at all," she revealed to French outlet Diverto. "After the strike... they changed the concept, they changed the story, the places, where it took place. It wasn't the same anymore. It's a pity. It was a cool character."

Even though her character met her end, the actor still loves what Taskmaster meant to others, even the film's creatives. "Even the costume designers said, 'Oh my, she's our favorite character in terms of costumes, because she's the one with the best look,'" she gushed to the outlet. "My costume is the best."

While Taskmaster ultimately got out-tasked in "Thunderbolts," Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost joined the fray for good -– both literally and figuratively. After her first appearance in 2018's "Ant-Man and the Wasp," John-Kamen was glad to return to the MCU and elevate the character beyond a one-note villain. "I think this movie gives us so [much] more depth for our characters and so much more of a journey to go on," she told Forbes.

Clad in an all-white bodysuit, hood, and mask, the villain-turned-victor was an opportunity for the actor to find a new purpose for the emotionally scarred character. Physically, this was embodied in a new costume, which John-Kamen said upped her game even more. She explained that the details and beauty of the clothing underscored its practicality in the MCU, where it was designed to fit Ghost's abilities as a warrior. "It feels like we have different powers," she said of donning the new look. "Your posture changes. Everything you do feels elevated."

While the transformation of Julia Garner has seen the actor grow off-screen, she has also adapted a number of looks on-screen. In 2025's "Fantastic Four: First Steps," the actor slipped on the Silver Surfer suit and board, slicked head to toe in a silky hue that sets the otherworldly messenger apart from the titular heroes in more ways than one. Rather than being painted, filmmakers used motion capture technology to bring the Silver Surfer to life. "Normally, last looks would be hair and makeup, and then all of a sudden, it was just wires," Garner recalled to Entertainment Weekly.

For the Emmy Award winner, joining the MCU was also an opportunity to break from her norm. "She's so different than anyone I've ever played, and that was also another reason why I wanted to do it," she told EW. "I want to branch out to every genre, and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to do Marvel — it's reaching a different kind of audience."

In what is arguably one of the wildest moves that Marvel has ever made, Robert Downey Jr. is set to return to the MCU, not as the iconic Iron Man, but as ultra-villain Doctor Doom. Downey Jr., who is among a number of actors everyone loves working with, recalled initial talks with Marvel boss Kevin Feige about a potential return to the franchise despite his original character's legendary sacrifice in 2019's "Avengers: Endgame." "'How can we not go backwards? How can we not disappoint expectations?'" said the actor on his inner thoughts during the meeting while appearing on "The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter" podcast.

But when Feige brought up Doom, the iconic villain known for antagonizing the Fantastic Four, things shifted into gear for both the actor and the studio head. "I looked into this character," Downey Jr. explained. "Later on, [Feige] goes, 'Let's get Victor Von Doom right.'"

Downey Jr.'s Doom won't make his first official appearance until "Avengers: Doomsday" is released, but fans have already caught a glimpse of the actor in costume in a [spoiler!] post-credits scene in "Fantastic Four: First Steps." As for the initial fan reaction? If the actor's surprise appearance at San Diego Comic Con in 2024 is any indicator, Marvel lovers are clamoring for more detail on Doom and his infamous green ensemble. And Downey's game to get going. "Boy, I tell you, I like playing complicated characters," he quipped to the Comic Con crowd (via The Hollywood Reporter).