The Avengers cast: Then and now

by Andy Scott

Ever wondered what the cast of The Avengers looked like before they became Earth's mightiest superheroes? If you pictured bowl cuts, braces and, in one unfortunate case, mullets, you wouldn't be too far off. We're bringing you a special S.H.I.E.L.D. dossier about their origins, back when they were fighting acne, '80s fashion trends, and bad haircuts.


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Robert Downey Jr. - Iron Man

Then: Way back in the day, Robert Downey Jr. moved with his father to California, where he enrolled in Santa Monica High School. Among his classmates: oh, you know, Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn, and Rob Lowe.

Now: Robert Downey Jr. dropped out of high school before graduation, moving to New York to pursue acting. Despite a number of battles with addiction and run-ins with the law along the way, he has ultimately become one of the most successful and profitable actors in the business. In 2013, Downey Jr. confirmed that playing Iron Man has earned him about $50 million since 2008. His net worth today: an estimated $220 million.


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Chris Evans - Captain America

Then: Before he was one of Hollywood's most handsome men, Chris Evans was just a dorky middle school kid like the rest of us. Proof of this came on a 2011 episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, during which Fallon surprised Evans with a bunch of his old yearbook photos. "It's so unacceptable," he said of his seventh grade photo. "I blame my parents completely. They knew every day this kid was walking out the door and they said, 'Good luck!'"

Now: Evans, of course, grew out of his braces and bowl cut to become the super-beefed-up Captain America. Incidentally, Evans told Jimmy Kimmel he actually turned down the role a few times before accepting, mostly out of fear for signing a multi-picture contract. He eventually changed his mind after talking to family and friends which, millions of dollars later, was clearly the right thing to do.

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Scarlett Johansson - Black Widow

Then: Scarlett Johansson has been in the Hollywood biz since she was a child. Long before she became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., she made her feature film debut in the critically maligned comedy North and followed with roles in Home Alone 3 and The Horse Whisperer.

Now: ScarJo has enjoyed critical acclaim and box office success in the lead up to playing Black Widow, thanks to films like Lost in Translation. In recent years, however, Black Widow has been subjected to numerous criticisms on the Internet, many of which felt that her story arc in Avengers: Age of Ultron was sexist. "Everything that I've done with the Widow, to me makes sense," Johansson said to Entertainment Weekly in response to her character's critics. "It's in line with active decisions that I've made for the character."

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Mark Ruffalo - Hulk

Then: The son of a construction painter (and a wrestling champion), Mark Ruffalo actually competed in wrestling tournaments throughout high school. He eventually gave it up to pursue acting his senior year in high school.

Now: After starring in critically acclaimed movies for years, Ruffalo entered the Avengers universe in 2010 when he was cast to play The Hulk. Fans have been hoping for a stand-alone Hulk movie ever since. However, Ruffalo told Yahoo in 2015 we probably won't see one for awhile, mostly because of tense studio relations between Marvel and Universal. "I know for a fact that everyone is holding out hope that one day we can do it. But the nature of the relationship right now, it's a little prohibitive. And I hope that that changes…but right now it doesn't look particularly promising." It's okay, Dr. Banner—your high school pics didn't look promising, and you turned out just fine!     
                          
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Jeremy Renner - Hawkeye

Then: Before Renner dove into acting, the California native was actually considering a career in computer science. "I went to college studying computer science," he said recently in a Reddit AMA. What stopped him? "My personality didn't fit behind a computer or tearing apart a computer…I looked around at everybody I was with and realized I had nothing in common with those people. But I was good at computers." Thank goodness he lost the mullet, got off the computer, and picked up a bow.

Now: Renner rose to fame in the late 2000s thanks to back-to-back Oscar nominations (for The Hurt Locker and The Town, respectively), before landing the role of Hawkeye. Despite his fame on the big screen, Renner admitted that Netflix's success with Daredevil and Jessica Jones actually has him interested in a Hawkeye series. "I think that's actually a really great model, if there's ever a way to explore the character, maybe it's in that world," he said (via EW). "These are things that are really not in my control, but I'd be open to it." We'd love to see a Hawkeye Netflix series starring Jeremy Renner.

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Samuel L. Jackson - Nick Fury

Then: Jackson grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee and went on to study at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Jackson told Parade magazine he fell in with the "radical faction" of the Civil Rights movement while at Morehouse, until the FBI came to his mother's house and allegedly made threats. He ultimately traded politics for acting when he returned to Morehouse in 1971.

Now: Samuel L. Jackson's illustrious career speaks for itself. Jackson currently plays Nick Fury in the Avengers movies. He's also showing no signs of slowing down, with memorable roles in other recent movies such as The Hateful Eight and Kingsman: The Secret Service. Can we get a S.H.I.E.L.D. prequel movie with Nick Fury, Black Widow, Agent Coulson, and Hawkeye please?

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Elizabeth Olsen - Scarlet Witch

Then: As a youngster, Elizabeth Olsen dove right into the acting business by appearing in a few projects starring her insanely famous sisters, Mary-Kate and Ashley. Elizabeth told The Guardian she "retired" from acting at age 10, only to pick it up when she studied the craft at New York University.

Now: Olsen's big breakout came in 2011 when she starred in the cult-family drama Martha Marcy May Marlene. After a brief cameo in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Olsen made her official big Marvel debut as Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Does she have any plans to star in her own solo Avengers movie? Not exactly. "I love my character, I just don't know how that would fit in the whole Marvel universe or if it would even be necessary," she told Business Insider in 2015.

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Paul Rudd - Ant-Man

Then: Long before he became Ant-Man, Paul Rudd was just another long-haired frat boy at the University of Kansas. While in college, Rudd—who pledged to Sigma Nu—actually became friends with Mad Men star Jon Hamm in Kansas City, where they both grew up. Before they became friends, Rudd and Hamm were both feuding over the same girl, according to Vanity Fair.

Now: While promoting Ant-Man in 2015, Rudd said that he'll never lose sight of his roots. "I've lived in New York City twice as long as I ever lived in Kansas. And yet, Kansas was where those formative years of school and high school and college were that registered for me…" he told The Kansas City Star. "Kansas City is a reminder to me of who I am, where I come from, my friends that are my friends way before I ever started doing this as a job. It makes me feel a little sane." Here's to hoping Ant-Man plays a major role going into the future phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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Chris Hemsworth - Thor

Then: Born in Melbourne, Australia, Hemsworth spent his youth moving between the city and the Outback. "My earliest memories were on the cattle stations up in the Outback, and then we moved back to Melbourne and then back out there and then back again," he told Film Festival Traveler. "Certainly most of my childhood was in Melbourne but probably my most vivid memories were up there in Bulman with crocodiles and buffalo. Very different walks of life."

Now: After scoring early roles on the Australian fantasy series Guinevere Jones and the U.K. soap Neighbours, Hemsworth landed a long-running stint on the Australian serial Home and Away. Nearly 200 episodes later, he left to make a break for Hollywood, where he found fast success: a brief appearance in the Star Trek reboot led to a quick series of roles culminating in his coronation as the MCU's mighty Asgardian. Since soaring to superstardom as Thor, Hemsworth has continued to book a variety of roles, from dramas like Rush to comedies like Vacation and the Ghostbusters reboot.

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Paul Bettany - Vision

Then: Bettany took the long road to Hollywood, spending a period subsisting as a street performer after a family tragedy led to him leaving home in his teens. At 19, he enrolled in a drama course at the Drama Centre in London, which led to roles in a series of stage productions—and his screen debut in a 1994 episode of the British crime drama Wycliffe.

Now: Bettany's gifts quickly caught the eye of a number of directors, and after earning acclaim for his work in the 2000 British film Gangster No. 1, he picked up roles in A Knight's Tale, A Beautiful Mind, and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. He made his MCU debut as the voice of Tony Stark's AI assistant J.A.R.V.I.S. in Iron Man before being brought fully online as the Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Surprisingly, Bettany told Business Insider that just moments before getting the call from Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon, he'd been told by a producer that he'd never work in Hollywood again: "I sort of looked up to heaven and thought karma's very quick these days," he recalled, "and [I] flipped the building behind me the finger." Aside from his busy on-camera life, Bettany has branched out behind the scenes, writing and directing the 2014 drama Shelter—starring his Oscar-winning wife, Jennifer Connelly.