10 Actors You Didn't Know Played The Same Character In Different Movies - Commenter Edition

7. Danny Trejo - Machete (Spy Kids & Machete)

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Dimension Films & Fox

Badass federale Machete is undeniably the role of Danny Trejo's career, a part that was seemingly introduced to viewers via a fake trailer in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse project.

Rodriguez of course went on to make two Trejo-starring Machete movies for real, but the character actually got his start many years earlier than you might think.

Trejo first played a more approachable version of Machete - or rather, "Uncle Machete" - in Rodriguez's 2001 family film Spy Kids, and reprised the role in two additional sequels before the character was announced to the R-rated crowd in Grindhouse.

Post-Machete, Trejo also rejoined the Spy Kids franchise for its fourth and final entry, All the Time in the World.

This is an especially amusing example given that the Spy Kids and Machete franchises couldn't be more polar tonal opposites - Spy Kids is harmless, frothy fun, while Machete is brutally R-rated and has little time for political correctness.

And with that in mind, you really can't blame fans of the Machete movies for having no idea the character originated in a series of squeaky-clean family films. The fact that Rodriguez directed them all, though, remains totally bizarre.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.