7. Getting Respected Actors Into the Superhero Genre
The number of highly respected and award-winning actors that have appeared in the Dark Knight trilogy and in the MCU has been unbelievable. The Dark Knight trilogy has seen the likes of Christian Bale (obviously), Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Rutger Hauer, Eric Roberts and Anne Hathaway take to the screen. In the space of the three movies, that's an impressive array of top talent. The MCU has an even more impressive array of actors (having spawned more movies, this is to be expected), with the likes of Robert Downey Jr, Tom Hiddleston, Edward Norton, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Renee Russo, Natalie Portman, Jeremy Renner, Guy Pearce, Jeff Bridges, Mickey Rourke, Hugo Weaving, Tommy Lee Jones, Tim Roth, Stanley Tucci,, Paul Bettany, Terrence Howard, Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell, Ben Kingsley, William Hurt, Ty Burrell, Tim Blake Nelson, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Alexis Denisof, Powers Boothe and Jenny Agutter. Other actors that are set to appear in future MCU movies include Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Benicio del Toro, John C. Reilly, Bradley Cooper, Glenn Close, Vin Diesel, Peter Serafinowicz, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Zachary Levi and Chris O'Dowd. The sheer amount of talent willing to appear in comic book movies shows how far they've come - and it's in no small part thanks to these two mighty franchises.