Captain Canucks: 5 Canadian actors starring in Marvel and DC superhero films
It's been another big year for Hollywood's barrage of superhero films. Earlier this spring, Marvel blew the doors off theatres with the release of Avengers: Endgame, and did it again this summer with Spider-Man: Far From Home this summer. Marvel Studios will also release The New Mutants in August, and announced more to come in cinemas and on Disney's forthcoming digital streaming service. Not to be outdone, DC had a big hit with Aquaman, and are gearing up for a new take on The Joker, which will premiere at this year's Toronto International Film Festival next month.
And did you know that there are many Canadians making their way into these Hollywood mega-budget spectacles, including several familiar faces to us here at CBC. Below are some of the Canadian actors that you can watch right now on CBC Gem who have appeared (or will appear!) in the Marvel and DC Universes.
Simu Liu
Simu Liu was recently announced to be the playing the lead role in a new Marvel Cinematic Universe movie based on the comic-book character, Shang-Chi. This Kim's Convenience regular was plucked from his Canadian comfort zone and cast as Marvel's first Asian-American superhero on the big screen.
Serinda Swan
Serinda Swan appeared in Marvel's The Inhumans as Medusa in 2017 and has since gone on to play the lead role in the CBC series, Coroner. While she doesn't play a superhero in this series, she is still a hero in our books as her character, Jenny Cooper, is a badass coroner that solves crimes using her investigative chops.
See More Serinda Swan on Coroner: CBC Gem
Dillon Casey
Dillon Casey did a short stint as Will Daniels on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. There, he played an astronaut who was stranded while studying "The Monolith" on a distant planet. But, where was Dillon before he joined the Marvel ranks? You can see hime years before he entered the MCU, on CBC's Being Erica, where he played plucky time-traveller Erica's ex-boyfriend.
See Dillon Casey as Ryan on Being Erica: CBC Gem
Stephen Amell
Before Stephen Amell took up the mantle of Oliver Queen/Green Arrow on a bunch of DC TV series, including Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and Vixen), he played a champion horse jumper on several episodes of CBC's popular family series, Heartland.
See Stephen Amell's first appearance on Heartland: CBC Gem
Victor Garber
Victor Garber's role in the DC universe has been anything but small. You don't want to mess with his nuclear physicist character, Dr. Martin Stein — half of the Dr. Martin Stein/Firestorm character on The Flash, and more substantially on DCs Legends of Tomorrow, with additional appearances on Supergirl, Arrow and Vixen.
You can see some of Victor's earlier work on several episodes of CBC's Republic of Doyle, where he played Garrison Steele, a writer tasked by his publisher to write "QLCF" or quaint location crime fiction. We love that name… Garrison Steele.