Top 10 Dolph Lundgren Roles

One of Dolph Lundgren’s first roles remains one of the most memorable of his career. Of course, we’re talking about the one and only Ivan Drago, the primary antagonist in the 1985 movie Rocky IV. His climactic fight against Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa is one to be remembered, and fans of the film still quote some of the character’s lines to this day, such as, “If he dies, he dies,” and “I must break you.”

After first portraying the character in 1985, Lundgren more recently had the chance to reprise the role of Ivan Drago in the 2018 sequel Creed II. In the film, Ivan trains his son Viktor to take on Rocky’s protégé Adonis Creed, whose father Ivan had killed in the ring during Rocky IV.

Dolph Lundgren would land his first lead role in 1987 when he was cast as He-Man in the live-action adaptation of the Masters of the Universe cartoon series and toy line. Starring opposite Frank Langella as Skeletor, the movie gave Lundgren a chance to show what he could do as a mighty hero. He has since made his name synonymous with the He-Man character and comes up most times anyone speaks about Masters of the Universe.

Like many cult classics from the ’80s, Masters of the Universe did not set the box office on fire at the time of its release but has since developed a fan following in subsequent years.

RELATED: ‘Class of 1984’ Retro: We Are the Future!

In 2019, it was announced that Noah Centineo would play He-Man in a reboot of the film, which once again rekindled interest in the 1987 version and Lundgren’s performance.

Many years before Jon Bernthal was doling out deadly vigilantism on Netflix, Dolph Lundgren was doing the same on the big screen as the first live-action version of The Punisher. Released in 1989, the movie follows Lundgren as Frank Castle, a vigilante who has taken to executing criminals after the heinous murders of his family.

Certainly, it’s awesome looking back to see Lundgren taking on an iconic Marvel character role many years before the MCU made it trendy. Bernthal and Thomas Jane have also both done very well with their own unique portrayals of Frank Castle, but for many old-school fans of the classic anti-hero, Lundgren’s version will always be the best.

Directed by Roland Emmerich, the first Universal Soldier movie was released in theaters in 1992. Jean Claude Van-Damme starred in the sci-fi action flick as a Vietnam veteran named Luc whose past as a part of a top-secret military program comes back to haunt him. Lundgren co-stars as the movie’s antagonist, Sgt. Andrew Scott, Luc’s former commanding officer who had lost his mind in the war and has since developed into a murderous megalomaniac.

Though Sgt. Scott meets his violent end in the climax of Universal Soldier, this wouldn’t be the last we’d see of Lundgren in the role. In the 2009 sequel, Universal Soldier: Regeneration, Lundgren is back as a cloned and upgraded version of the character. Lundgren plays yet another clone of the character for the final time in the 2012 follow-up Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning.

These days, Keanu Reeves may be best known for playing the titular antihero in the John Wick movie trilogy, but longtime fans of the actor may remember him as the star of the 1995 cyberpunk thriller Johnny Mnemonic. Set in a dystopian future, the film stars Reeves as a “mnemonic courier” whose brain serves as a data storage device, allowing him to discreetly deliver information. This brings trouble for Johnny when the Yakuza begin to pursue him to retrieve the valuable data stored in his head.

To track down Johnny, the Yakuza hires a man named Karl to recover his head. Also known as the “Street Preacher,” Karl has a very religious side to him and provides sermons to his congregation when he’s not trying to remove the heads of data couriers. He also has superhuman abilities due to cybernetic enhancements, making him one freaky foe for Johnny.

In 2010, Lundgren reunited with Rocky IV co-star Sylvester Stallone as a part of the ensemble cast for the action movie The Expendables. Also directed by Stallone, the film is known for featuring a variety of famous action stars from years gone by, all finally appearing on the big screen together in the same film.

In addition to Stallone and Lundgren, the film also starred Jason Statham, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, and Mickey Rourke.

In The Expendables, Lundgren plays military veteran Gunner Jensen. Although he’s volatile, Gunner redeems himself by the end of the movie and becomes one of the franchise’s fan favorites. The character would later return, with Lundgren reprising the role for The Expendables 2 in 2012 and The Expendables 3 in 2014.

Also, in 2014, Lundgren would lead another action movie, joined by many other notable action stars in the cast. Called Skin Trade, Lundgren had also co-written the screenplay with Gabriel Dowrick and Steven Elder in addition to starring in the film. Co-starring with Lundgren are fellow Hollywood legends Tony Jaa, Michael Jai White, Ron Perlman, and Peter Weller.

Reminiscent of his role as Frank Castle, Skin Trade stars Lundgren as Nick Cassidy, a detective pursuing a human trafficking ring run by a Serbian war criminal (Perlman). When this gets his own family killed, Nick travels to Asia to hunt down the man responsible for delivering his own brand of justice first-hand. It’s a fun film, and Lundgren is a total badass in the role.

Following in the footsteps of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren had the chance to star in the sequel Kindergarten Cop 2 in 2016. Released directly to DVD, the film stars Lundgren as FBI agent Zack Reed, whose newest mission proves to be his most challenging yet. When Reed is assigned to work undercover as a teacher at an elementary school, he quickly learns the liberal and politically correct environment may be too much for him to handle.

RELATED: ‘Vampire’s Kiss’ (1988) Blu-Ray Review: Nicolas Cage at His Most Outlandish

On its surface, Kindergarten Cop 2 is essentially a retread of the original movie from 1990. Still, because Lundgren is very entertaining in the role, it’s definitely worth a watch.

After playing a Marvel character in the late ’80s, Dolph Lundgren had the chance to play a DC-based character in The CW’s popular superhero series Arrow. Starring Stephen Amell as the Green Arrow, the series has since spawned an expanding “ArrowVerse” with multiple spin-offs and a wide world of characters. Lundgren snagged a recurring role in the series, which he played for six episodes.

On Arrow, Lundgren played Konstantin Kovar, a member of the Russian government who appeared in flashback sequences before the titular superhero killed him. In DC Comics lore, the character is also the father of the Russian superhero Star Fire. Lundgren was awesome in the part, and it’d have been nice to have seen more of the character in the series.

Moving on from the ArrowVerse to the DCEU, Dolph Lundgren snagged one of his biggest roles in James Wan’s 2018 superhero movie Aquaman. The film stars Jason Momoa as the watery superhero and is notable for being among the most successful DC-based movies of recent years. Lundgren plays King Nereus in the movie, the ruler of Xebel and the father of Amber Heard’s character, Mera.

As always, Lundgren does an awesome job and proves himself to be a perfect casting choice for the character. A sequel to Aquaman is currently in the works, and Lundgren is expected to reprise the role.