8 actors who played the same character decades apart - see Tom Cruise's unbelievable then and now photos

Miles Teller might have stolen Tom Cruise's status as Top Gun's resident heartthrob in the 2022 sequel but fans of the original 1986 feature were surely overjoyed to see Tom still rocking a green jumpsuit.

Tom reprised his role 36 years after first playing Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in the original Top Gun movie, this time working as an instructor to prepare a team of top flyers for a high-profile mission, all while battling his own residual trauma.

Harrison Ford is something of a regular role repeater, reprising his part as Indiana Jones and Han Solo for sequels decades later. Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981, and 42 years later, Harrison gathered his hat and whip for another action-packed feature, starring as Indy himself in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

As for his sci-fi fame, the first Star Wars movie, Episode IV – A New Hope, was released in 1977 and Harrison's final performance as Han Solo dates 52 years later with a post-death cameo in The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

He'll always be back. In 1984, Arnold Schwarzenegger gave us some of cinema's most memorable quotes as the unstoppable robotic killing machine. But he wasn't ready to leave the franchise there and has returned to the role several times.

Arnold most recently appeared in the part in 2019 feature Terminator: Dark Fate, 35 years after he first stepped onto screen and changed action cinema forever.

Renée Zellweger was v v good as Helen Fielding's loveably chaotic heroine Bridget Jones, complete with her iconic red diary. The book was released in 1996, followed by the first film in 2001, headed by Renée, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. 

In 2025, she returned for a final instalment of the franchise, following Bridget's journey after the death of her husband Mark. Twenty-four years after she first stirred up a pot of blue soup, Bridget is just as much fun as she always was. 

Jamie Lee Curtis has brought her star power to several franchise projects after a decades-long break, from co-starring with Lindsay Lohan to her stint as a scream queen in 1978's Halloween. 

Twenty-two years after 2003 hit Freaky Friday brought body-swapping fun to the screen, Jaime returned as Tess Coleman. There was an even longer stretch between her first and last role with the Halloween franchise: 44 years lapsed between her iconic horror casting and Halloween Kills in 2022.

Sylvester Stallone's role as boxing underdog Rocky is one of cinema's finest feats, and the actor wasn't afraid to reprise his most iconic role several times over.

He first appeared as Rocky Balboa on screen in 1976, returning to the franchise for the sixth and final time in 2006's Rocky Balboa, three decades after the character made his debut.

Gordon Gekko is the embodiment of cold, hungry corporate greed – a terrifying figure for most, and the scariest of businessmen's fictional hero. He first appeared in 1987 classic Wall Street, played by Michael Douglas, who won an Academy Award for his performance.

Michael returned to the character, and the fictional stock market, in the 2010 sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, 23 years after he first sent a chill down viewers' spines declaring that "greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

Magazine interns still shudder at the thought of a boss like Miranda Priestly. Based on the 2003 novel by Lauren Weisberger, The Devil Wears Prada brought Meryl Streep's most intimidating role to the silver screen in 2006.

Twenty years later, fans were delighted to see Miranda return to the office as editor-in-chief of Runway magazine, this time with Andy Sachs returning as the magazine's new features editor.