Before They Were Superheroes: A Look Back on the Stars Before They Donned Their Capes
Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) in ‘Clueless’
Does Paul Rudd age? As if! Before he became possibly the most lovable – and certainly smallest – superhero Paul Rudd starred in the 1995 hit coming-of-age comedy Clueless with Alicia Silverstone. (Photo: Paramount/Marvel)
Anthony Mackie (Falcon) in ‘8 Mile’
Before he donned wings as Falcon in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Mackie starred as Eminem’s rap nemesis Papa Doc in the singer’s biopic 8 Mile. (Photo: Universal/Marvel)
Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch) in ‘How the West was Fun’
It’s no surprise that the younger sister to Mary-Kate and Ashley made her acting debut in one of the Olsen twin movies when she was just 5-years old. In Captain America: Civil War Olsen makes her second appearance as the newest Avenger Scarlet Witch. (Photo: ABC/Marvel)
Tom Holland (Spider-Man) in ‘The Impossible’
Holland makes his Marvel debut as the latest Spider-Man in Civil War. The 19-year-old actor made his feature film debut just a few years back in the 2012 disaster drama The Impossible. (Photo: Everett/Getty)
Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) in ‘The Express’
After several small parts on TV, Boseman made his feature film debut in the football biopic The Express. Eight years later, he makes his Marvel debut in Captain America: Civil War as the Wakandan warrior king. (Photo: Universal/Marvel)
Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) in ‘Van Wilder’
After starring in the bomb Green Lantern, Reynolds took his second, more successful turn in a comic book movie in Deadpool this year, a raunchy superhero his Van Wilder character definitely would have loved. (Photo: Everett/20th Century Fox)
Ben Affleck (Batman) in 'School Ties’
He may be a champion for justice as the Dark Knight in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but Affleck had no qualms about dishing out intolerance in the 1992 boarding-school drama. (Photo: Everett/Warner Bros.)
Chris Evans (Captain America) in 'Not Another Teen Movie’
Evans didn’t need any super-serum to portray a bulked-up football stud in this 2001 spoof of high-school romances. (Photo: Everett)
Chris Hemsworth (Thor) in 'Home and Away’
The Mighty Thor may only have eyes for Natalie Portman, but Hemsworth was quite the ladies’ man during his three-year stint during the mid-'00s on Australia’s long-running soap opera. (Photo: Marvel)
Christian Bale (Batman) in 'Empire of the Sun’
Bale’s long road to Batman begins with his breakout performance as the youthful hero of Steven Spielberg’s 1987 World War II drama. (Photo: Everett)
Christopher Reeve (Superman) in 'Gray Lady Down’
Too bad Superman star Reeve wasn’t able to call upon the Man of Steel’s might to save the sunken submarine at center of this 1978 disaster movie. (Photo: REX/Everett)
Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) in 'Fast & Furious’
Introduced as a mere drug dealer liaison in the 2009 sequel, Gadot’s 'F&F’ character was later revealed to be an ex-Mossad agent, which is only one step down from “Amazon warrior” in terms of bad-assery. (Photo: Everett/Warner Bros.)
George Clooney (Batman) in 'The Facts of Life’
Clooney’s two-year stint as a handyman for Mrs. Edna and the girls on the long-running mid-'80s TV series meant that he was probably a wizard when it came to fixing leaks in the Batcave in 1997’s Batman and Robin. (Photo: Everett)
Halle Berry (Storm) in 'Jungle Fever’
Before she played the weather-manipulating mutant in X-Men, Berry experienced some stormy times playing Samuel L. Jackson’s crack-addicted girlfriend in Spike Lee’s 1991 drama. (Photo: Everett)
Henry Cavill (Superman) in 'The Count of Monte Cristo’
If you think that learning you’re the last son of an alien race sounds tough, just imagine how you’d feel after discovering that your “father” had your real dad locked up for your entire childhood as Cavill’s character did in the 2002 adaptation. (Photo: Everett/Warner Bros.)
Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) in 'Oklahoma!’
Jackman cut his claws as a singing, dancing cowboy in an acclaimed stage revival of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical that was later filmed for television in 1999, just before he was cast in Bryan Singer’s first X-Men adventure. (Photo: Everett)
Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) in 'National Lampoon’s Senior Trip’
Best known today for playing tightly-wound Avenger Hawkeye, a younger, floppy-haired Renner cut loose as a perpetually stoned high school troublemaker in the 1995 comedy. (Photo: Everett/Marvel)
Mark Ruffalo (Hulk) in 'You Can Count on Me’
Ruffalo got a taste of the Hulk’s nomadic lifestyle when he played a well-intentioned, but unreliable drifter in Kenneth Lonergan’s much-acclaimd 2000 debut film. (Photo: Everett/Marvel)
Michael Keaton (Batman) in 'Night Shift’
Prior to entering the crime-fighting profession, Keaton believed that operating a brothel out of a morgue was a legitimate career option in the 1982 comedy. (Photo: Everett)
Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) in 'The Pick-Up Artist’
Downey talks a good game as billionaire inventor Tony Stark, but he’s an even slicker salesman in James Toback’s portrait of a serial womanizer from 1987. (Photo: REX/Marvel)
Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) in 'Manny & Lo’
Credit Black Widow’s survival skills to Johansson’s stint as an 11-year-old foster care runaway, trying to make a life with her pregnant older sister in this 1996 drama. (Photo: Everett/Marvel)
Patrick Stewart (Professor X) in 'I Claudius’
Long before he ran the Xavier’s School as the telepathic mastermind in the X-Men movies, Stewart played a Roman soldier (with hair!) in the 1976 BBC swords-and-sandals series. (Photo: Everett)
Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man) in 'Roseanne’
In his one-shot appearance as a snarky teenager on this classic sitcom in 1991, Maguire comes across as one of the twerps that picked on Peter Paker rather than Peter Parker himself. (Photo: Everett)
As the summer of superheroes continues with the opening of Captain America: Civil War on Friday, we thought we’d take a look back at some of the these stars’ humble beginnings. Here’s a glimpse at each of the Avengers, along with other past, present, and future comic book movie stars, before they became big-time superheroes.