This one is a little hard to understand so as an example I’ll give you who I think is the leader with four roles he reprised in a sequel.
Harrison Ford: Han Solo, Jack Ryan, Indiana Jones, and Bob Falfa (American Graffiti and its sequel)
I know Christopher Lee has at least three: Dracula, Count Dooku, and Saruman.
Ben Stiller has three separate franchises going: Alex the Lion (Madagascar series), Greg Focker (Meet the Parents series), Larry Daley (Night at the Museum series). And arguably Derek Zoolander but I don’t know if you can count two movies as a series.
He also played Fu Manchu in five movies and Count Rochefort in three movies.
Eddie Murphy:
*Axel Foley - Beverly Hills Cop/Beverly Hills Cop II/Beverly Hills Cop III
*Donkey - Shrek/Shrek 2/Shrek the Third/Shrek Forever After
*John Dolittle - Dr. Dolittle/Dr. Dolittle 2
*Reggie Hammond - 48 Hrs./Another 48 Hrs.
*Sherman Klump - The Nutty Professor/Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (he actually played several roles in these movies but I only counted one)
I was also thinking about Mushu but he was only in Mulan and didn’t do the sequel.
Nice.
Bruce Willis:
Look Who’s Talking, Look Who’s Talking Too
Die Hard series
Expendables series
Red and Red 2
Whole Nine Yards, Whole Ten Yards
Sin City 1 and 2
I assume we are limiting this to full-length feature films. Otherwise, Mel Blanc probably has it hands-down.
Bruce Willis
Look who’s talking and Look who’s talking too
Die Hard 1 though 5
The Expendables 1 2 and not 3
RED 1 and RED 2
Sin City 1 and 2
GrindHouse / Planet Terror
so a 15/6 film / franchise ratio
ok 17/7 with Wolf33
Here’s an interesting one. Bill Murray has played himself in four different feature films: She’s Having a Baby, Space Jam, Coffee and Cigarettes, and Zombieland.
Buster Crabbe played Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Captain Gallant, Billy Carson and Billy the Kid, all many, many times. Most of these were serials, though.
I think Fess Parker should get some mention for playing Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, both in the same costume. But that’s TV.
Natalie Portman: Padme, and Jane Foster
Jennifer Lawrance: The younger Mystique and Katniss.
Mark Hamill: Luke Skywalker and the Joker
Samuel L Jackson: Mace Windu and Nick Fury
Chris Evans: The Human Torch and Capt (Retd) America
If its current consideration rather than career, Zoe Saldana has this hands down with major recurring character roles in three ongoing blockbuster franchises: Star Trek, Avatar, and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Sorta. Jenn Lawrence has two blockbuster franchises AND Oscar material!
Sam Jackson was also in the two XXX movies.
Michael Caine has TWO Oscars – and reprised as Alfred in the Batman movies after reprising as Harry Palmer before being tapped to reprise his Now You See Me role.
It took me a second you realize that you were referring to the xXx series.
Please pass the brain bleach…
Hugo Weaving: Elrond (5 movies), Agent Smith (3 movies), Rex the Sheepdog (Babe 1 and 2), Megatron (3 movies), Noah the Elder (Happy Feet 1 and 2)
Anybody got the time to add all of Frank Oz’s outings as Yoda to all the movies where he played Miss Piggy – and all the movies where he played Cookie Monster, and all the movies where he played Fozzie Bear, and all the movies where he played Bert, and all the movies where he played Animal, and all the movies where he played Grover, and all the movies where he played Sam The Eagle – plus maybe we throw in him reprising his role from Blues Brothers in Blues Brothers 2000?
As per IMDB, Jackie Chan – who of course played Chon Wang in both Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights – apparently has Karate Kid 2 and Kung Fu Panda 3 and Rush Hour 4 in the works. And he reprised his role as Chan Ka Kui in Police Story 2 and Police Story 3, and reprised his role as Wong Fei-Hung from Drunken Master in The Legend of Drunken Master, and reprised his role as Ma Yue Lung from Project A in Project A 2 – and reprised his role from Armour of God in Armour of God 2, and reprised his role from My Lucky Stars in My Lucky Stars 2, and even if we don’t count his roles in Cannonball Run and Cannonball Run 2 we’ve still got a ways to go.
Are there sesame street movies?