All 3 Quicksilver actors ranked from worst to best

It’s wild to think that as of March 2024, Quicksilver has officially turned 60. That’s right, it’s been 60 years since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced Pietro Maximoff in the pages of Marvel Comics. 

When first introduced, Quicksilver was brought in as an antagonist to the X-Men but over the years, he’s evolved into a layered character and has even been a member of the Avengers on more than one occasion. He’s a character that is often compared to DC’s The Flash, as he’s capable of running at the speed of sound and possesses the ability to think at superhuman speed as well. 

In the years since, the character has become beloved by countless readers and has been a mainstay in the comics as well as in other forms of media. Quicksilver has appeared in several animated series as well as in two live-action franchises making the character even more beloved among mainstream fans who love to debate who the best version of the character is. 

Note, while there have been a few additional actors who have voiced Quicksilver, we’re only looking at the actors who played him in a key role. This means we won’t be including the voice actors who played Quicksilver in the likes of X-Men: The Animated Series or Wolverine and the X-Men among other projects in which the character did not play a key role.

3. Richard Ian Cox (X-Men: Evolution) 

Before we got to see Quicksilver make the leap to live-action movies – more on those two actors in literally a few moments – the character’s big feature debut came in X-Men: Evolution. In the series, Quicksilver was more than just a guest character who appeared in just a few episodes but rather a key character in the show’s ensemble. 

X-Men: Evolution’s version of the character was much different than the one we had been used to seeing in the comics. Like the X-Men heroes in the series, this version of Quicksilver was a teen and so he very much acted like one with the character’s key characteristics being that he was arrogant and impulsive. As a result, he was a bit of a one-note character and not nearly as layered as his comic counterpart. 

Still, Cox delivered such an incredible performance in the role and his Quicksilver is iconic and deserves love as he did an amazing job with the materials provided!

2. Evan Peters (X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix, and WandaVision) 

This might be a controversial take given that Evan Peters is the actor who has played Quicksilver in the most live-action titles and is perhaps best known for playing the character. 

While Peters has indeed played Quicksilver the most in the movies, he hasn’t exactly been given the most meaty of storylines. Instead, he’s been mostly relegated to the background and given a few flashy action sequences rather than exhibiting real character development. I won’t in any way discount the Quicksilver Kitchen or “Sweet Dreams” scenes as they were some of the best scenes 20th Century Fox’s X-Men movies produced; however, if you take away those scenes there really isn’t much to the character which is a bit of a shame. 

Even when Marvel brought Peters officially into the MCU with his cameos in WandaVision, the character was used more as the butt of the joke than given the chance to become a layered character. Still, we’d happily welcome more of Peter within the MCU in hopes that he might finally get a more meaty storyline that would make better use of Peters’ insane acting abilities.

1. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

While Aaron Taylor-Johnson might have only had the chance to play Quicksilver in one film (yes, I know he was also in Captain America: The Winter Soldier; however, we’re not talking about cameos), his performance was by far the most impactful and memorable of all we’ve seen before for many reasons. 

Despite limited screen time, Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver by far was the most effective portrayal of the character’s journey from villain to hero and actually gave us a layered character. Taylor-Johnson’s performance was so complex. We got to see the character’s signature cocky confidence, but also his vulnerable side with Taylor-Johnson perfecting the character’s wit, charm, and humanity which set his performance apart from the rest. 

People love to speak about the impact of Tony Stark’s death, but it’s often understated just how much of an impact the death of Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver had within the MCU. Quicksilver’s heroic sacrifice in Avengers: Age of Ultron was such a pivotal moment in the film and within the narrative of the MCU, leaving a lasting impact on the audience as well as the Avengers – specifically his sister Wanda, whose journey was largely shaped by the loss of her brother. 

One can only hope that perhaps through the Multiverse we might one day get to see Taylor-Johnson suit up as Quicksilver again as it’s criminal that his time as the character was as brief as it was.