5 Actors Who Could Totally Play Their Best Animated Characters in Live Action

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While Sackhoff may be one of the first actors in modern memory who’s played their character in both live-action and animation, we hope that she’s not the last. In fact, we’ve compiled a list of actors who would absolutely crush their best animated characters in live-action:

1) Issa Rae as Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman

Issa Rae was the perfect choice to voice a new kick-butt version of Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman in 2023’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Not every superhero can drive a motorcycle and help the Spider Society catch anomalies with a bun in the oven. Rae imbued Jessica with a humor, sincerity, and warmth that provided a much needed counterbalance to Miguel O’Hara’s unwavering intensity in Across the Spider-Verse. Given that Rae is known more for her work in live-action with roles in Insecure, Barbie, and American Fiction, and she’s right around the same age Jessica would be, who better than Rae herself to play Spider-Woman in an upcoming Avengers film, or even Spider-Man: Brand New Day? Unlike co-star Oscar Isaac, Rae doesn’t have another live-action role in the MCU to answer for, and would make a welcome addition as either her Spider-Verse version or another variant of Spider-Woman.

2) Ross Marquand as Charles Xavier/Professor X

Few actors have such thriving careers both as live-action actors and voiceover artists like Ross Marquand. In addition to playing Aaron on The Walking Dead for six seasons, Marquand also boasts a wildly impressive resume of voice-acting credits like Invincible, What If…?, and, of course, Charles Xavier/Professor X in X-Men ’97. As Marvel begins to formally introduce the X-Men into the MCU, we feel like Marquand should be at the top of their list for potential live-action Xaviers. Beyond having the experience of playing Professor X and the critical acclaim for doing it so well on X-Men ’97, with a shaved head, Marquand has the right look for the role and he’s young enough to fully age into it. And before you say he’s already played Red Skull/Stonekeeper in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, we can all agree he looked different enough under the prosthetics to come back as Professor X, right?

3) Jason Isaacs as The Grand Inquisitor

Okay, okay, we’ve already seen the Grand Inquisitor in live actIon. While we adore Rupert Friend, we’re still scratching our heads as to why the actor who originated the character on Star Wars Rebels, Jason Isaacs, wasn’t brought back. Isaacs is a world-class actor who has built quite the career on playing villains like the Grand Inquisitor in live-action. His portrayal as the Grand Inquisitor is so iconic and intimidating, not casting him in Obi-Wan Kenobi felt like a painful missed opportunity, since few actors have the gravitas Isaacs possesses. We’re still holding out hope that Isaacs could in fact play the Grand Inquisitor in a future piece of live-action Star Wars media.

4) Amy Poehler as Joy

The Inside Out films have grossed over $2.5 billion worldwide. Usually with an animated franchise that successful, Disney will green light a live-action adaptation. If Disney is in fact considering a live-action, or perhaps hybrid version of Inside Out, they need not looker any further for Joy than Amy Poehler herself. Poehler carried both films voicing the indefatigable personification of joy, and if you squint, she even resembles the character’s design with her bright eyes and nearly-permanent smile on her face. Outside of the Inside Out films, Poehler is most widely known for playing eternally optimistic civil servant Leslie Knope on the series Parks and Rec. Seeing that Poehler is constantly cracking us up with the physical comedy she honed on Saturday Night Live and wit on her new podcast “Good Hang with Amy Poehler,” she likely wouldn’t break a sweat bringing Joy in live-action.

5) Freddie Prinze Jr. as Kanan

The former ’90s teen idol voiced Order 66 survivor and Padawan Kanan Jarrus (born Caleb Dume) across multiple Star Wars projects (including Star Wars Rebels), and he had a brief, but essential voiceover cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as one of the spirits that encourages Rey to defeat Darth Sidious. No one knows the history and complexities of Kanan like Prinze Jr. does, having lived with the character for the better part of a decade. Now that it seems Prinze Jr. is making a return to the big screen in live-action reprising, his role in the continuation of the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise, we are begging both Lucasfilm and Prinze Jr. himself to find a way to bring Kanan into live-action.

Let us know who else you want to see bring their animated role into live-action in the comments!