The movies of 2024 have delivered some truly impressive star-studded casts. Challengers starred Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor. Inside Out 2 featured the voice talents of Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, and Ayo Edebiri. Conclave had an all-star line-up of Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and a scene-stealing Isabella Rossellini.
Dune: Part Two added Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, and Christopher Walken to an already stacked cast. Gladiator II brought in Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, and a hilarious Denzel Washington. 2024 has seen some of the world’s biggest movie stars share the screen.
5 Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Tim Burton returned to the world of the macabre this year for the long-awaited sequel to Beetlejuice. The cast of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice brought back most of the screen legends from the first movie, including Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz, Catherine O’Hara as Delia Deetz, and, of course, Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse. But it also added some fresh faces to give the sequel an even more star-studded ensemble.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice brings in one of the biggest up-and-coming stars in Hollywood right now, Jenna Ortega, to play Lydia’s rebellious daughter. It also casts Willem Dafoe as an afterlife P.I., Monica Bellucci as Betelgeuse’s scorned and dismembered ex-wife, Justin Theroux as Lydia’s new boyfriend, and Danny DeVito as a bleach-guzzling janitor. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is jam-packed with icons.
4 Gladiator II
No actor will ever turn down the opportunity to work with Ridley Scott, so when he’s putting together a new movie, he can take his pick of Hollywood’s A-listers. The cast of Gladiator II has a couple of returning screen legends from the first movie — Connie Nielsen as Lucilla and Derek Jacobi as Senator Gracchus — but the ensemble is mostly made up of newcomers. In his first blockbuster leading role, Paul Mescal takes over from Russell Crowe as the slave-turned-champion in this one.
Some of the biggest rising stars in Hollywood took time out of their schedule to work with Scott on Gladiator II. Pedro Pascal plays the film’s unexpectedly sympathetic secondary protagonist, General Acacius, and Joseph Quinn plays the sadistic Emperor Geta. Veteran movie star Denzel Washington steals the show as Macrinus, and Matt Lucas has a hilarious cameo as the Master of Ceremonies.
3 Wicked
The movie adaptation of Wicked took risks with its casting. The producers didn’t go with the obvious choices for any of the roles. All those risks paid off, because every actor in the movie was perfect for their role. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande exude star power in the lead roles of Elphaba and Galinda, perfectly capturing the central relationship of the story, and Jonathan Bailey provides strong support as Fiyero.
From Bowen Yang as Pfannee to Peter Dinklage as the voice of Dr. Dillamond, the supporting players all brought something unique to their roles. Jeff Goldblum makes for a delightfully eccentric Wizard of Oz. Michelle Yeoh nails Madame Morrible’s mustache-twirling villainy with a healthy dose of nuance.
2 Saturday Night
Jason Reitman’s dramatization of the first ever taping of Saturday Night Live, appropriately titled Saturday Night, is bursting at the seams with recognizable actors. The Saturday Night cast is led by Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels and Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster, but they’re surrounded by a who’s-who of supporting players portraying a who’s-who of SNL legends and pop-cultural figures. The SNL cast itself is full of spot-on impressions: Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Matt Wood as John Belushi.
Finn Wolfhard ties the ensemble together with his role as an NBC page. Nicholas Braun pulls double duty playing Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson. Cooper Hoffman plays Dick Ebersol, J.K. Simmons plays Milton Berle, Matthew Rhys plays George Carlin, Willem Dafoe plays David Tebet, Nicholas Podany plays Billy Crystal, and Paul Rust plays Paul Shaffer.
1 Dune: Part Two
After filling his first Dune movie with just about every big name in Hollywood, Denis Villeneuve managed to cram even more A-listers into the cast of Dune: Part Two. The second volume of Villeneuve’s ambitious Frank Herbert adaptation brings back Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Javier Bardem, Charlotte Rampling, and Dave Bautista from the first movie. But it also adds Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Anya Taylor-Joy, Léa Seydoux, and Christopher Walken into the mix.
There are so many great actors jammed into Dune: Part Two that some of them inevitably ended up feeling underutilized. Pugh’s arc as Princess Irulan felt rushed and Taylor-Joy’s role is a cameo teasing future movies. But most of Dune: Part Two’s actors got to shine: Zendaya’s Chani got a much bigger role this time around as the story was framed from her perspective, and Butler’s sinister performance made Feyd-Rautha one of the best movie villains of 2024 with very little screen time.
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