Moving from the big screen to television is usually a one-way street for characters. Most film roles stay in the film, and a series either recasts them or invents new faces. A handful of actors have carried the same role across both formats.
Here are five of the clearest examples, all drawn from well-known franchises. Each shows a different way a movie performance can continue on the small screen.
Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
Clark Gregg first played Agent Phil Coulson in Iron Man in 2008. He kept returning in Marvel films such as Thor and The Avengers. In The Avengers, released in 2012, the character was killed off.
Coulson came back anyway. Gregg led the cast of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which premiered on ABC in 2013 and ran for seven seasons. Gregg also appeared as a younger Coulson in Captain Marvel in 2019, so the role ran through both formats for more than a decade.
Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter
Hayley Atwell played Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011. She was Steve Rogers’ love interest and a military officer in the World War II setting. She then returned briefly in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
That performance led to Agent Carter, an ABC series that ran for two seasons in 2015 and 2016. It followed Peggy as she worked for the Strategic Scientific Reserve after the war. Atwell later returned to the film side in Avengers: Endgame and voiced an alternate version of the character in the Disney+ animated series What If…?
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Samuel L. Jackson appeared as Nick Fury in a post credits scene of Iron Man in 2008. From there he became a recurring presence across the Marvel films, including The Avengers. Few actors have been tied so closely to the shared universe’s start.
Jackson also brought Fury to television. He appeared in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., most notably in its early episodes, and later headlined the Disney+ series Secret Invasion in 2023. The character’s long film history meant the series could build directly on what viewers already knew.
Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi
Ewan McGregor took over the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, which ran from 1999 to 2005. He played the Jedi Master from the early days of the Republic through the fall of the Jedi Order. His version of the character became a fan favorite.
He returned to the role in Obi-Wan Kenobi, a limited series that arrived on Disney+ in 2022. It spans six episodes and is set about ten years after Revenge of the Sith. Hayden Christensen also came back as Darth Vader, which gave the series a direct link to the films.
Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff
Elizabeth Olsen first played Wanda Maximoff in a mid credits scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 2014. She then took on a major role in Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015. She went on to appear in Captain America: Civil War, Infinity War and Endgame.
WandaVision, which debuted on Disney+ in January 2021, put Wanda at the center of her own series. It was one of the first Marvel Studios shows made for streaming, and it continued the character’s story after Endgame. Olsen then carried that arc back to cinemas in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in 2022.
