The 2025 Twinomenon
Get it hot like Papa John because in 2025 we are having quite the twinomenon. Don’t worry, I’ll explain this made up word I just threw at you. There’s been a lot of examples through the history of film of performers playing more than one role in a film, with performers sometimes playing twins, siblings, or just two straight up unrelated characters, with an article you can read HERE. Not an uncommon practice in theater, it is a strange occurrence when it happens in modern film but in 2025 it has happened a ton. So we’re going to go through and take a look at the examples that have happened this year. As to what has caused this strange phenomenon… you’d have to ask someone smarter than me. But I blame (or rather, I credit) Lindsay Lohan in ‘The Parent Trap.’
Before we get into the films, I’ll mention a few TV occurrences of this same thing. In the final season of ‘You’ Anna Camp played twin sisters, Maddie & Raegan Lockwood and actually gives a very impressive performance when one of the twin takes the place of the other twin, meaning she was playing Maddie pretending to be Raegan. Twinception. Another minor example of this occurs in ‘Peacemaker’ season 2, in which John Cena’s titular characters encounters & fights an alternate version of himself through the multiverse. I’ll leave it at that since the show is currently still being released & I don’t want to spoil it. A movie example that has a similar effect of a character fighting themself happens with both Florence Pugh & Lewis Pullman in ‘Thunderbolts*,’ but those are both brief so I’ll exclude them from the main list. And the last one (that I’m aware of) is Steven Yeun voicing a whole host of Mark Grayson/Invincible variants in ‘Invincible.’ It’s a big plot point in the most recent season and I’m not entirely sure how many variants Yeun actually voices, but it’s a lot.
‘Invincible’ brings up the very compelling point of animation. Voicing multiple characters is not at all uncommon in animation, (think Seth MacFarlane voicing over half the main characters on ‘Family Guy’ or the fact that almost all the ‘Looney Tunes’ character were voiced by Mel Blanc) and has occurred in several films this year. For example, Eric Bauza voices both Daffy Duck & Porky Pig, who serve as the main characters in ‘The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie.’ I don’t think I’d count that for the purposes of this list, but there are also a handful of example in animation of actors voicing twins, siblings, or clones, with J.P. Karliak voicing both Gargamel & Razamel in ‘Smurfs,’ Louis Ozawa voicing twin brothers, Kenji & Kiyoshi Kamakami in ‘Predator: Killer of Killers,’ & both Yonas Kibreab & Remy Edgerley voicing clones of their characters, Elio & Glordon, respectively, in ‘Elio.’ Now onto the actual list. I guess this should’ve been under ‘Lists’ not ‘Other Stuff,’ but I already dropped it here so oh well.
Robert Pattinson as Mickey 17 & Mickey 18, ‘Mickey 17’ - Going into the year I’d say this was the most talked about example of an actor playing multiple roles with Pattinson playing the titular main characters who is the 17th version of Mickey Barnes. When 17 accidentally survives an accident, he collides with his replacement, Mickey 18, and chaos ensues. My main gripe with this film was that there wasn’t enough shenanigans between 17 & 18 and I think there should have been a little more of a montage about the other 16 variants and their deaths. However, my high is Rob Pat and how he seamlessly plays the two versions very differently.
Michael B. Jordan as Smoke & Stack Moore, ‘Sinners’ - Now that the films have been released, this is hands down the most prevalent version mostly due to Jordan’s different personalities that he brings to The Smokestack Twins while still making them both incredibly cool & charismatic. There are several shots in this film that Ryan Coogler pulled off that are just absolute feats of filmmaking. This one is a little funny to me because I think it’s pretty obvious one of the roles was intended for someone else (Jordan’s ‘Creed III’ co-star), but when they had to replace him do to outside circumstances, they decided the best course of action was to have Jordan pull double duty. They were right, that was absolutely the correct choice.
Theo James & Christian Convery as Hal & Bill Shelburn, ‘The Monkey’ - First let me clear something up because I just put two names there. Convery plays the two characters when they’re younger and I think actually spends more time onscreen with his twin counterpart, also giving a more impressive dual performance, at least in my opinion. While Theo James plays the two very different twins in this horror comedy. James’ performance as Hal is super solid, and while he’s still very good with Bill, we just don’t get to spend a ton of screen time with that twin.
Robert De Niro as Frank Costello & Vito Genovese, ‘The Alto Knights’ - Insert that TikTok sound of that guy yelling ‘Boring! Boring! Boring!’ Yeah this movie was so boring. The most interesting part was the extremely questionable decision to cast De Niro in the two leads. The characters aren’t twins, aren’t siblings, aren’t even related, and this is played incredibly straight. My working theory is that Robert Duvall was envisioned for one of them (likely Genovese), but passed on the film.
Dylan O’Brien as Rocky & Roman, ‘Twinless’ - I haven’t actually gotten the opportunity to check out this film yet, but I do know the general plot follows O’Brien’s Roman as he navigates the loss of his twin brother. O’Brien is confirmed to play both roles, I assume through flashbacks, but since I haven’t gotten the chance to watch, that’s all I got on this one. I should note that the photo above is O’Brien with his co-star, James Sweeney, because I couldn’t find a double Dylan pic.
Elle Fanning, ‘Predator Badlands’ - So this is the one I have the least information on because the film hasn’t been released. Elle Fanning is going to be playing a Weyland-Yutani android (the androids we see in the ‘Alien’ films) and will reportedly also play ‘numerous other synthetics.’
Mia Goth as Elizabeth Lavenza & Caroline Beaufort, ‘Frankenstein’ - This film has seen a festival release, but hasn’t seen it’s wide release yet. One thing we’ve learned is that Goth is going to be playing two roles (originally she was going to be playing three). The two roles are Victor & William Frankenstein’s mother & the woman they are both in love with. Hm. Awkward.
Antonio Banderas as Hunter Cabot & Ancestors, ‘Paddington in Peru’ - I haven’t really seen anyone talking about this as a case of this, but I’ll mention it. In the film Banderas plays the gold-crazed Hunter Cabot, but he also plays the ghosts (or I think they’re really more figments of Hunter’s imagination) of his ancestors who help fuel his gold lust.
Blake Lively as Emily Nelson/Hope McLanden & Charity McLanden, ‘Another Simple Favor’ - You probably haven’t watched this movie. Don’t. It was garbo. The first film features the classic evil twin soap opera plot twist. And this movie features the exact same thing with a secret triplet. Boooooo. And this introduces what I refer to as ‘Twincest,’ I’ll let you come to your own conclusion on that portmanteau.
David Corenswet as Superman & Ultraman, ‘Superman’ - I would argue that Corenswet pulls off one of the best dual performances here. In my opinion he plays 5 different personalities in this film. First you got Superman. Duh. Then you got Ultraman, a Superman clone made by Lex Luthor. Supes is hopeful, punk rock, and the ultimate hero. Ultraman doesn’t really have a personality, basically being a brainless avatar for Lex. Ultraman masquerades as The Hammer of Boravia, who is also voiced by Corenswet and is loud & brash, with a thick Eastern European accent. Then you have Clark Kent. Yes that’s the same character as Superman, but it’s incredibly important for the two to feel distinctly different, just like how Christopher Reeve does. And lastly you’ll have who I call Kal-El, who is who the character really is. We really only see Kal-El when he’s with Lois, his parents, or at the Fortress of Solitude, and I think finding that figure is what is needed for a perfect Superman performance. You can agree or disagree with the rest of that, but Superman & Ultraman is what earns this spot in the article.
