The best Theo James movies and TV shows feature a mix of everything from coming-of-age dramas to sci-fi dystopian thrillers. While he turned 40 in 2024, Theo James is still looked at as a Hollywood newcomer. That is likely because he didn’t earn his first major mainstream acceptance until he starred in The Divergent Series around his 30th birthday. Those movies made him a star, and he has since begun developing a strong mix of roles.
The Divergent Series wasn’t Theo James’ first main Hollywood part though, as he also took on the major supporting role of David in Underworld: Awakening and even followed that up with the next movie in the series four years later. However, since Divergent, he has found his place as both a voice actor in shows like Castlevania and X-Men ’97 and more dramatic live-action roles in The Gentlemen and The White Lotus.
10 The Time Traveler's Wife (2022)
Henry DeTamble
Based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife is a sci-fi drama series created for HBO by Steven Moffat. The show tells the tale of time-traveling Henry DeTamble, a man born with an affliction that causes him to travel through time inadvertently, and the woman that eventually becomes his wife after meeting him at different points in their lives.
Release Date May 15, 2022
Cast Rose Leslie , Theo James , Natasha Lopez , Desmin Borges , Peter Graham , Michael Park , Jaime Ray Newman
Seasons 1
Showrunner Steven Moffat
The Time Traveler's Wife is a 2003 novel by Audrey Niffenegger that was adapted into a movie starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams in 2009. In 2022, HBO remade it again, this time as a streaming series. The science-fiction story follows Henry DeTamble, played by Theo James, a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to inadvertently travel through time for short stints. Rose Leslie plays Clare, a woman who meets an older version of Henry and is told they will get married in the future.
The HBO series didn’t receive the best reviews, although most critics praised both Leslie and James’s performances in the lead roles. However, it did pick up a loyal viewership, although it wasn’t big enough to stop HBO from canceling the series after just one season. Fans started a petition to save the series, but Max stuck with the cancelation.
9 Underworld: Awakening (2012)
David
Underworld: Awakening is the fourth entry in the Underworld series, taking place years after the second film's events. Kate Beckinsale returns as the part of vampire hunter Selene, who is captured and frozen for twelve years, awakening to a world where most of her kind has been wiped out. Fighting for the right to exist, Selene strikes back against humanity to protect the beings of the underworld.
Release Date January 20, 2012
Runtime 88 minutes
Cast Theo James , Kate Beckinsale , India Eisley , Michael Ealy , Charles Dance
The Underworld franchise continued on with Kate Beckinsale starring as Selene even after her romantic interest Michael (Scott Speedman) left the series. To deal with the loss of Michael, the franchise introduced a new male lead in David (Theo James), a vampire who had been looking for Selene and ends up helping her find a young hybrid vampire/Lycan girl that turned out to be Selene and Michael’s daughter, born while Selene was imprisoned in cryogenic suspension.
The Underworld franchise is filled with flashbacks and time jumps. Here's a comprehensive breakdown of the series' entire timeline.
Underworld: Awakeningmoved things forward. Where the vampires and Lycans once lived mostly in private, by this time the public knows they exist and have almost hunted them to extinction. The girl (Eve) is the one chance for survival of the species, but there is also a war coming against humans. This movie and the one that follows didn’t receive as much acclaim as earlier releases in the franchise, but this one still delivered the action that franchise fans had come to expect.
8 Golden Boy (2012-2013)
Walter William Clark Jr.
Golden Boy is an American crime drama series created by Nicholas Wootton, produced by Berlanti Television and Warner Bros. Television. It aired on CBS in 2013, following the professional journey of an ambitious young detective navigating the challenges of law enforcement in a fast-paced environment.
Release Date February 26, 2013
Cast Anastasia Barzee , Chi McBride , Deep Katdare , Holt McCallany , James Naughton , Jim R. Coleman , John Finn , Nora Armani , Odette Annable , Polly Draper , Robert John Burke , Ron Yuan , Timothy Adams , Trieste Kelly Dunn , Alesandra Assante , Jason Furlani , Joey Auzenne , Kevin Alejandro , McCaleb Burnett , Amanda Setton , Brian Avers , Stephanie Brait , Elizabeth Alderfer , Nicolette Pierini , Roe Hartrampf
Creator(s) Nicholas Wootton
Golden Boy is an early Theo James television series that aired on CBS for one season in 2012. The crime drama featured the rise of Walter Clark from a young 27-year-old police officer to the role of the youngest Police Commissioner in New York City history. James stars as Clark in this lead role, the first such of his career. The first episode starts with his promotion to homicide detective, but the flash forwards show him as Police Commissioner in just seven years, although he walks with a limp.
The series is then set up to show his rise through the ranks of other detectives and how that led to his rise to the top. The episodes were set up with moments from his work as a detective and moments in the future, as the flash forwards hint at plot points to come in the flashbacks. Sadly, the series would not show how he made it to the role of Police Commissioner as CBS canceled it after just one season, despite mostly favorable reviews.
7 The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance (2019)
Rek’yr
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is the long-awaited prequel to the 1982 film The Dark Crystal. In the Netflix original series, audiences return to Thra and follow three Gelfing, Rian, Deet, and Brea, who attempt to save their world after discovering the truth behind Skeksis' power. Despite fans' love for the franchise, Netflix canceled the series after one season.
Released 37 years after the Jim Henson dark fantasy film, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance serves as a prequel series to that tale. The story here follows three Gelflings (Rian, Deet, and Brea), as they journey on a quest to unite the Gelfling clans to rise against the Skeksis and save their planet from the Darkening. It seemed interesting to create a new prequel series to a movie almost four decades after its release, but it worked out well and received almost universal acclaim.
As for Theo James, he served in a supporting voice role as the Gelfling character, Rek’yr, a Dousan Clan and Sandmaster of the Southern Xeric.
The voice cast was top-notch, with names like Taron Egerton, Anya Taylor-Joy, Helena Bonham Carter, Jason Isaacs, Simon Pegg, Mark Hammil, and more. As for Theo James, he served in a supporting voice role as the Gelfling character, Rek’yr, a Dousan Clan and Sandmaster of the Southern Xeric. Despite the critical praise, Netflix canceled The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance after only one season.
6 The Gentlemen (2024)
Eddie Horniman
Based on the film of the same name, the Gentlemen is a crime drama series created for Netflix by Guy Ritchie. The series follows Eddie Horniman, who inherits his father's estate, only to discover he has inherited a vast cannabis empire - and all of the rivals that come with it.
Release Date March 7, 2024
Seasons 1
In 2019, Guy Ritchie directed the gangster movie The Gentlemen, starring Matthew McConaughey as Mikey Pearson, a marijuana grower and distributor in London who decides to retire and finds several people gunning to take over his top spot. In 2024, Ritchie brought the story to Netflix as a streaming series telling the same story. In this version, Theo James takes over the lead role.
The Gentlemen
also earned three Primetime Emmy nominations.
This series is set in the same world as the movie, but none of the characters are connected to the film. Instead, James’ Eddie Horniman takes over a cannabis empire after his father’s death. He then faces off with several unsavory individuals as he tries to keep his family’s estate profitable. The series received mostly positive reviews and the viewing numbers were high enough for Netflix to greenlit it for a second season. The Gentlemen also earned three Primetime Emmy nominations.
5 Divergent (2014)
Tobias “Four” Eaton
Based on the young adult "The Divergent Series" novels, Divergent is the first film in the franchise that follows a girl named Beatrice Prior, who lives on the fringes of society in a dystopian world. Set to join one of the five factions humans are separated into based on their virtues, Beatrice learns that she is considered a "Divergent," an independent thinker that she fits into none of the factions. Forced to conceal the truth, Beatrice joins the thrill-seeking Dauntless faction in secret, setting her on a path that will change the world.
Release Date March 21, 2014
Runtime 139 Minutes
Director Neil Burger
Distributor(s) Lionsgate
Theo James actually starred as one of the leads in all three of the Divergent Saga movies, and he was supposed to star in four before Summit Entertainment canceled the franchise before finishing its story. The premise involves a dystopian society where most people were not born when a nuclear war made most of the country, and possibly the planet, uninhabitable. Many people don’t even know what an airport is since they have lived in an enclosed society for so long.
Year
Movie
2014
The Divergent Series
2015
The Divergent Series: Insurgent
2016
The Divergent Series: Allegiant
However, as with many other young adult stories of this sort, a revolution is brewing, and several young adults are tasked with either fighting against authority or fighting to keep order. Based on the novels by Veronica Roth, James stars as “Four,” one of the people the government brings in as a soldier, but someone who eventually helps heroine Tris (Shailene Woodley) fight back for their survival and a future for their people. James won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor: Action, showing his popularity in the role.
4 Castlevania (2018-2022)
Hector
Based on the video game franchise, Castlevania is a Netflix original animated action series that follows the never-ending battle of the monster-slaying Belmont clan as they continue to face off against the hordes of the night. When Count Dracula's human wife is murdered, his grief leads him to doom the world to eternal darkness. To stop him, it'll take a team of three unlikely heroes banding together: the last remaining Belmont, Trevor, a magic-wielding seeker named Sypha Belnades, and the tortured half-human, half-vampire son of the count himself, Alucard.
Release Date July 7, 2017
Cast Lance Reddick , Jaime Murray , Emily Swallow , Adetokumboh M'Cormack , Bill Nighy , Graham McTavish , Tony Amendola , Jason Isaacs , Jessica Brown Findlay , Matt Frewer , Toru Uchikado , Richard Armitage , Rila Fukushima , Alejandra Reynoso , Theo James , Ivana Miličević , Peter Stormare , James Callis
Seasons 4
Showrunner Warren Ellis
Theo James took on one of the main voice roles in the incredibly successful Netflix animated series Castlevania. Based on the old video games of the same name, and created for screen by comic book writer Warren Ellis, Castlevania follows three heroes (Trevor Belmont, Alucard, and Sypha Belnades) as they go into battle with Count Dracula, who is on a rampage because his beloved wife was murdered years before.
Theo James joined the cast in the second season as Hector, a Devil Forgemaster called upon to serve Dracula in his war against humanity. He was one of two human generals in Dracula’s army and could bring humans and animals back from the dead and call demons from Hell into Corpses – new monsters who would fight for Dracula. Hector’s story is one of the show’s best and his relationship with Lenore was one of the most tragic. Every season received critical acclaim.
3 The Witcher: Nightmare Of The Wolf (2021)
Vesemir
This animated spinoff of Netflix's successful Witcher series follows the story of Geralt's mentor Vesemir and the events in his life shortly after he himself became a Witcher.
Release Date August 23, 2021
Runtime 83 minutes
Cast Theo James , Lara Pulver , Mary McDonnell , Graham McTavish , Kari Wahlgren
Director Kwang Il Han
Distributor(s) Netflix
The Witcher was a live-action fantasy series with Henry Cavill starring as a Witcher – an enhanced monster hunter who lives to protect society. However, Netflix also produced an animated spinoff series that focused on a story about Geralt’s mentor and fellow witcher, Vesemir. Theo James took on the lead role in this series as Vesemir in a story that took place almost 70 years before the events in the live-action Witcher series.
Critics gave
The Witcher: Nightmare of The Wolf
universal acclaim, with a perfect 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
This is Vesemir’s origin story, as he rises from poverty to become a witcher. However, when a new enemy attacks, he has to face demons from his own past in order to defeat it. The series ends with him taking on new recruits, including a young Geralt, which ties the movie to the series. Critics gave The Witcher: Nightmare of The Wolf universal acclaim, with a perfect 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It also received an Annie Award nomination.
2 The White Lotus (2022)
Cameron Sullivan
The White Lotus is a sharp social satire following the exploits of various employees and guests at an exclusive Hawaiian resort over the span of one highly transformative week. As darker dynamics emerge each day, this series gradually reveals the complex truths of the seemingly picture-perfect travelers, cheerful hotel employees, and idyllic locale itself. Each season follows a new cast of characters with a greater mystery lying at the center of each new location.
The best live-action TV role of Theo James’ career came in 2022 when he joined the cast of The White Lotus in the show’s second season. James played Cameron Sullivan, a cocky and scheming investments manager. He is married to Daphne (Meghann Fahy), a manipulative stay-at-home wife and is a college friend of Ethan (Will Sharpe), a newly wealthy tech entrepreneur. The second season has more relationship drama and betrayals than season 1 on top of a mysterious dead body.
The White Lotus season 2 features a talented cast of newcomers and some returning faces. Here's every cast member and where you know them from.
The series received high critical praise for the second season, with a 94% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was also nominated for 23 Primetime Emmy nominations. Theo James earned three nominations at various awards ceremonies, including one for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series at the Primetime Emmys. While he didn’t win that, he was part of the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Award win at the SAG Awards.
1 X-Men ‘97 (2024)
Bastion
X-Men '97 is the direct continuation of the popular 1990s animated series X-Men: The Animated Series. Taking up where the third season left off, Marvel's revival brings back famous mutants such as Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Cyclops, Beast, Magneto, and Nightcrawler, who fight villains like Mr. Sinister, the Sentinels, and the Hellfire Club.
Release Date March 20, 2024
CastJennifer Hale , Chris Potter , Alison Sealy-Smith , Lenore Zann , Cal Dodd , Catherine Disher , Adrian Hough , Ray Chase , Chris Britton , George Buza
Creator(s) Beau DeMayo
Seasons 1
The best series that Theo James ever appeared in was an animated television series set in the world of the Marvel Comics Universe. In 2024, Disney+ released the animated series X-Men ’97, which was a sequel to the original X-Men: The Animated Series from the 1990s. That series was canceled in 1997, hence the name of this series showing how it picked up immediately following that classic beloved cartoon. The series also continued on Stan Lee’s goal of making the X-Men a team fighting social injustice.
Theo James had one of the most important roles in the series as he voiced the character Bastion, one of the main villains of the first season. The primary villain was Nimrod, a mutant-hunting killing machine, and Nimrod created Bastion, the anti-mutant leader of OZT. As the main villain, this gave Theo James a lot to do in the series, and the story and characters proved to be some of the best in the MCU in the last few years. X-Men ’97 has a 99% positive Rotten Tomatoes score.
Original SR Image by Shawn Lealos.
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