45 Under 45: The New Class Of Action Stars
Bruce Willis, Angelina Jolie, and Jackie Chan showed the world what a badass action film star is capable of, albeit over the past 30 years or so. With the average age of the industry's greatest action heroes on a steep uptick, who are the up-and-coming action film stars destined to take the place of the Fast and Furious crew when the franchise starts following Dom's ability to get around with a walker? Rising action film stars such as Maisie Williams, Tom Hardy, and Donald Glover look poised to take over as the premier heroes of Hollywood's coming action flicks. When your favorite action franchises start reaching the double-digit installments, these young action stars will be the ones taking the reins. As much as viewers love Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan, they can't be action stars forever.
- 1Age: 39
- Birthplace: Melbourne, Australia
Chris Hemsworth is best known for his role as Thor in the MCU. He's arguably become a more interesting actor since Taika Waititi gave the God of Thunder some comedy chops in Ragnarok.
- 2Age: 38
- Birthplace: New York City, New York, United States of America
She's Black Widow in Iron Man 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and all of the subsequent Avengers films, which is probably a safer bet than trying to revive Motoko Kusanagi as a white woman in 2017's Ghost in the Shell remake.
- 3Age: 41
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Captain America himself, Evans can withstand the cold in Snowpiercer and the heat of playing an Israeli Mossad agent in the thriller The Red Sea Diving Resort.
- 4Age: 43
- Birthplace: Virginia, Minnesota, USA
The formerly chunky Parks and Recreation alum now serves as the hero of a few major action franchises. He's Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy and Owen Grady, the Raptor Whisper, in Jurassic World.
- 5Age: 26
- Birthplace: Kingston upon Thames, London, United Kingdom
Best known as Spider-Man, the young Brit can also be seen in Doug Liman's 20199 dystopian thriller Chaos Walking. As an added bonus, he's a trained gymnast, meaning Holland really can do all his own stunts.
- 6Age: 35
- Birthplace: Santa Ana, California, USA
Fahrenheit 451 was met with mixed reviews, but it does serve as a reminder that Wallace from The Wire can imbue even the silliest of roles with drama. A double-dipper in the MCU, Jordan's played both the Human Torch in Fantastic Four and the villainous N'Jadaka (AKA Erik "Killmonger" Stevens) in Black Panther.
