Actors Who Were Injured Filming Marvel Movies

Not everyone thinks actors deserve the extremely high paychecks they receive. But when considering that movies sometimes permanently damage an actor's body, it becomes a little easier to justify those salaries. Even with stunt performers and an increasing reliance on green screen and digital effects, actors who do action films still risk injury on set. This seems particularly true for actors who play the heroes and villains of Marvel films.

Though some of these injuries ruined the take, and — unfortunately for the actors — had to be redone, others actually ended up in the movie. Either way, these are just a few of the many actors who have been in Marvel movies over the years, be it the Marvel Cinematic Universe or a non-MCU Marvel project, who found out that playing comic book characters can sometimes be almost as dangerous as actually being comic book characters. Unfortunately, healing powers and vibranium armor aren't available in real life. 

It wasn't a foregone conclusion that Tom Holland was going to play Spider-Man again after "Spider-Man: No Way Home," and he had some conditions that had to be met before he'd put on the blue and red tights again. Primarily, he wanted to ensure that more Spidey movies weren't being made just for the sake of profits, and that there was a creatively justified reason to continue on with the series. The fact that Tobey Maguire's third film outing as Spider-Man, as well as Garfield's second, are so widely maligned and ended their respective franchises on a sour note surely played into Holland's fears of his own Spidey movies taking a nosedive in quality. 

Clearly those conditions were met, given that Holland is currently shooting his fourth solo Spider-Man movie, "Spider-Man: Brand New Day." But seeing as how an unfortunate incident occurred during the production of the movie in September 2025, he might be rethinking things a bit. It was reported that the actor was rushed to the hospital to treat a head injury that resulted in a concussion while filming "Brand New Day." Fortunately, the injury was reported to be minor and only resulted in a few days of recovery for Holland. 

HIlariously contradicting the facts about Hugh Jackman's tenure as Wolverine, the actor was absolutely convinced he had no chance of scoring the role — yet he was cast as the iconic X-Man after an audition that only lasted 20 seconds. He's since become forever linked to the character, and doesn't seem to mind that one bit. However, just because playing Wolverine helped Jackman's career reach new heights, and it's a character he can't ever seem to fully retire from playing, doesn't mean it's been smooth sailing for the actor.

Jackman has suffered numerous injuries over the years — and also injured a stuntman or two — playing Wolverine, particularly with the character's claws. While he eventually got things a bit more under control as he got more experience wielding them on set, it wasn't until after a few mishaps. The worst came while filming the first "X-Men" sequel, "X2," where Jackman very nearly poked his left eye out with his claws. Luckily, he missed his eyeball, but he still left a visible one-inch scar on the spot near his eye where he did stab himself. As time went on and technology improved, Wolverine's claws were reworked to eventually become almost entirely digital rather than physical – making things safer for everyone involved. 

It's easy to assume that Robert Downey Jr. has never been in any real danger during his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it's simple enough for Iron Man to be either an entirely digital element or be a stunt person in the physical suit. But RDJ has definitely still performed some of his own stunt work while playing the longtime MCU anchor character, as proven by the fact that he suffered an ankle injury during the production of "Iron Man 3" so severe that he was sidelined for over a month. 

While MCU release date delays have become increasingly common over the years, the schedule used to be much tighter and had far less wiggle room in that regard. Case in point, when Robert Downey Jr.'s injury meant he would have to be off set for a whopping six weeks, a CGI version of the actor was created to help get an important scene finished without him, rather than possibly delaying the release of "Iron Man 3." 

After one of his first big breakout roles was in a comic book movie — "The Dark Knight Rises," where he played villain Bane — Tom Hardy took some time before joining another superhero movie franchise. When he finally did so, it was as longtime Spider-Man frenemy Eddie Brock/Venom, who got his own trilogy of movies by way of "Venom," "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," and "Venom: The Last Dance." And when you learn what happened to Hardy while filming the first of those three movies in 2018, you'll be surprised that he didn't immediately walk away from the character and the franchise.

In an interview with Esquire, Hardy explains that he needed an operation on both of his knees after an occurrence on the set of "Venom." He doesn't go into any detail about which scene it was or what exactly went wrong, only that it was obviously a very serious injury. But Hardy, ever the workhorse, only allowed himself two months to recuperate from double knee surgery before he was right back on another movie set — the second "Venom" film, in fact. But it seems that such mistreatment of his body is starting to catch up with the actor, as he told Men's Health in May 2025 about his body, "It's all falling to bits now, and it's not going to get better." 

One of the criticisms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that a lot of the films seem to follow a predictable formula, making them feel way too similar to one another. But movies like "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" prove that the MCU is capable of branching out and going in fresh new directions. It is still one of the highest-rated MCU movies to date, with critics impressed by its perfect mix of mystical effects with practical stunts and fight scenes.

But as Simu Liu, who plays the titular hero of "Shang-Chi," pointed out in an Instagram post in which he shared behind-the-scenes footage from the film, "When you insist on practical effects, you pay the human price." As memorable as the movie's bus fight was, it was also a dangerous scene that injured Liu. He wrote that he not only racked up "bumps and scrapes" while shooting the scene, but his knee swelled up to twice its size as a result of the punishment he put his body through filming that set piece. To hear him tell it, however, the crew had to basically drag him off the set to rest since he was having too much fun to attend to his mounting injuries. 

While Tobey Maguire's "Spider-Man" movies and the Fox "X-Men" movies get the bulk of the credit for igniting the modern superhero movie landscape as we know it, 1998's "Blade" predated them both as an early Marvel box office success story. And that's to say nothing of it being a big earner in spite of its R rating, bringing Marvel movies into adult territory long before "Deadpool" was praised for being a pioneer in that regard.

"Blade" star Wesley Snipes ultimately had the last laugh after years of not getting the flowers he deserved for his role in comic book movie history, becoming the new world record holder for the longest amount of time any single actor spent playing the same comic book character after his "Deadpool and Wolverine" cameo. 

Snipes was also a superhero movie trailblazer in another way — by suffering serious injuries in the service of bring a comic book character to the big screen. For just "Blade II" alone, Snipes says he tore cartilage in his knee, took a slice to his nose, and was even stabbed through his hand. An actor who plays a half-vampire vampire hunter literally getting impaled? You can't make something like that up.

Between "Deadpool" being the first solo movie to star the merc with a mouth and "Deadpool and Wolverine" becoming a box office record-breaking fan service extravaganza, "Deadpool 2" has gotten a bit overshadowed within that trilogy. And that's a shame for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it is thus far the sole outing of Zazie Beetz as Domino — quite literally the luckiest character in comic book movie history. Less lucky was Beetz herself, who wrapped up production on the film with a scar-producing injury.

During a gunfight, Beetz was struck in the chest with an expelled ammo shell casing. The piping hot casing gave her a burn so severe that it permanently scarred the actor. It was a tough shoot all around for Beetz, who also passed out during another scene out of pure exhaustion. Sadly, it's impossible to discuss "Deadpool 2" injuries without also addressing the fact that stuntperson Joi "SJ" Harris was killed while performing a motorcycle stunt for the movie. Beetz paid tribute to Harris on her Instagram account with a photo of a handwritten note, expressing her sorrow over Harris's death and condolences for Harris's friends and family. 

Even if Chris Evans does indeed stay retired from playing Steve Rogers/Captain America, as he has continually insisted, his place in the pantheon of Marvel movie actors is well secured. Evans embodied the role from the character's Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in "Captain America: The First Avenger," all the way to an elderly Steve bidding farewell at the end of "Avengers: Endgame." Very few comic book movie superheroes are afforded such a beautiful, non-tragic sendoff, and Evans surely feels honored getting to be a part of that.

However, just as Captain America's arc didn't pan out without a few questionable moments, Evans's portrayal of the character also wasn't free of incident. In a moment so impressive that it was heavily featured in the marketing for the movie, "Captain America: Civil War" had Cap attempting to stop a helicopter from taking off using nothing but his own physical strength. As Evans told Entertainment Tonight, "It's a fake helicopter, obviously, but it was drifting beyond the ability of control. I tweaked a little something. To this day, I'm still messed up." Robert Downey Jr. even revealed in a joint 2016 interview with Evans that he predicted before it happened that his co-star would get injured in the shot. 

When it was first reported that actor Letitia Wright suffered a stunt-related accident on the set of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," the messaging from Marvel Studios suggested a minor injury and a brief hospital stay that would barely disrupt production. But a couple of months later, the severity of the incident became more clear, with the production needing to shut down for an extended period while Wright recovered. As it turned out, there was nothing minor about what happened to Wright.

A month after the release of the film, Wright finally revealed what happened and how it truly affected her. A rig that was designed to allow for filming a motorcycle chase scene collided with a median, which caused a serious wreck. Her initial injuries included a concussion and a fractured shoulder, but Wright also spoke of the emotional trauma the accident caused her that forced her to seek therapy just to work through it.

But Wright doesn't hold any ill will against the production or the studio, saying that accidents happen and that she was eager to get well so she could get back on set and finish the film that she and her co-stars were so proud of — especially since "Wakanda Forever" was to double as a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman. 

Although there is now an entire "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy plus a Christmas special and various other multimedia properties, the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" film back in 2014 was seen as something of a dicey bet from Marvel Studios. It was an entire movie built around a team of oddball characters who were not only making their big screen debut, but were unknown to all but the most avid of longtime Marvel Comics readers. Clearly, it was a bet that paid off just fine — thanks in no small part to an expertly-cast ensemble that understood the assignment and knew how to play these offbeat anti-heroes.

Leading that ensemble was Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord. Pratt had done some small movie roles at that point but was largely known for portraying lovable doofus Andy Dwyer on the sitcom "Parks and Recreation." But Pratt quickly proved that he was A-list material and deserved his place among his fellow MCU heroes. In fact, it would only take his second outing as the character, "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2," for Pratt to join the club of MCU actors who got injured on set. During a stunt that involved him and his co-stars falling down onto safety mats, the speed and angle of Pratt's fall weren't what they should have been and he hit the mat face first, instantly knocking him unconscious. 

Nothing that ever happened to Jeremy Renner on the set of a Marvel movie, or any movie for that matter, comes close to what he endured in 2023 when a freak snow plow accident almost cost him his life. After that event and the long road to recovery that Renner faced, even some of his more serious on-set incidents pale in comparison. Nevertheless, he was among the first MCU actors to suffer a serious injury during the production of an Marvel film when he got hurt while filming 2012's "The Avengers."

While filming a scene for the much-anticipated team-up movie, Renner found that the human body can be an unpredictable machine that is prone to breaking down at the slightest wrong move. As the movie's writer-director Joss Whedon told The Hollywood Reporter of Renner's injury, "One day he just turned wrong and his whole body shut down ... He was in enormous pain, and we had to shut that sequence down and shoot it a couple of weeks later." Renner then explained what actually happened to his body during the incident, explaining, "I tore the muscle from my back to my shoulder. I got chewed up pretty good."

Tom Holland isn't the first actor to portray Peter Parker/Spider-Man on the big screen, nor is he the first actor to suffer an injury while doing so. Andrew Garfield, who became the second movie Spidey with his two "The Amazing Spider-Man" films, also hurt himself in the service of playing Marvel's legendary web slinger. But interestingly enough, it didn't happen during those movies — it actually occurred when Garfield teamed up with Holland and original movie Spidey Tobey Maguire for the multiverse-focused "Spider-Man: No Way Home."

Garfield told GQ that while he did multiple stunts on his previous two Spider-Man films without incident, it was the very first take on the very first stunt he did for his big return in "No Way Home" that brought his first major Marvel movie injury. "I threw my back out entirely on the first take, and I didn't do it right," he explained. "So I kept on doing it. I did it like three or four [times]. I had thrown my back out and it took like six or seven months to recover. It's time to stretch. It's time to start stretching before you do things."