George, Brad, Leo, Denzel, Keanu, Matt, Ben, the Canadian Ryans, all those Chrises and the one and only Tom (with apologies to Hanks). These are the leading men of the last few generations – bankable marquee names. And before that, there were the kings of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, James Stewart, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Sidney Poitier, Gregory Peck – who begat the versatile ’70s icons Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Harrison Ford. Just to name a few.

But it’s often bemoaned that there is no one in line to follow them. Part of it is the fragmented, soulless, IP-obsessed nature of Hollywood today. But there’s also been a drought of stars with the gravitas and mass appeal to open a blockbuster movie on their names alone. Is Tom Cruise, with his Mission Impossible and Top Gun popcorn flicks – the latter grossed $1.5 billion worldwide – the last true movie star?

Maybe not. Thanks to a banner year for youth-driven films and some love from their peers in the Academy, at least four under-40 actors are making the most of their moment – wielding everything from a wooden stake to a playwright’s quill to a ping-pong paddle – and fighting for their own cinematic superstardom.   

THE VANGUARD

Michael B. Jordan, 39

RANGE

From the low-rises of The Wire to the football fields of Friday Night Lights, he’s got the power of Adonis Creed and the panache and passion of Sinners‘ Smokestack twins. Plus, he’s already directed one film, Creed III, and just finished shooting his next, The Thomas Crown Affair, in which he’ll also star.

PERSONA

God-fearing, Mama-respecting, humble, gracious and confident, Jordan has a classic movie-star demeanor, but with a modern take on being a role model: “I encourage therapy. How you communicate your feelings  – especially for men, and Black men at that – and [understand] toxic masculinity and what it looks like. I’m an advocate for talking.” 

FROM ONE LEADING MAN TO ANOTHER

“I don’t think people can appreciate how hard [it] is  [playing twins in Sinners]. The technical degree of difficulty is really spectacular, it’s really something else – it’s just masterful what you did…Keep it going. You’re just making so many great decisions; it’s fun to root for you and your career from afar. You’ve just got it all, and you’re just doing it right. —Matt Damon

BANKABILITY

Jordan’s last film (and you’re only as good as that), Sinners, grossed US$370 million.

FRIEND OF OSCAR

Jordan is one for one after winning this year’s Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual role in Sinners. After an acceptance speech that name-checked the other five Black actors and one Black actress who’ve been given that honour, Jordan left the stage and ended up in the arms of Leonardo DiCaprio for possibly the longest offscreen hug shared by two leading men. As Jordan shed authentic tears onto the shoulders of this affectionate elder statesman (who lost that night to the younger star), it was an iconic passing-of-the-torch moment. 

CRUISE CONTROL

Like Cruise, Jordan has a solid franchise record, including the one he leads, Creed, and as part of the Marvel universe, as both villain Killmonger in Black Panther and Johnny Storm, one of the Fantastic Four. After seeing Sinners, Cruise posted a photo of himself in front of the poster saying it’s a must watch, and has put it out there that they will make a movie together. 

THE GREAT PRETENDER

Timothée Chalamet, 30

RANGE

From a Wonka Supreme to a Dylan of the Dunes, all the Little Women and Ladybirds Call Him By this Name: Beautiful Boy.

PERSONA

Young and hungry, nervous and obnoxious, devoted and reckless, off-screen Chalamet is a work in progress who is still figuring out how to be a Hollywood leading man in a way that mirrors the exceptional brilliance he possesses as an actor. 

FROM ONE LEADING MAN TO ANOTHER

“You are 30 years old and fuck if you haven’t mastered [being an actor]. And it makes me almost enviously think, ‘Oh my god, this guy is going to have the best 30 years of any actor out there.’ You bring the gifts and the ambition to do something great and something interesting and you lay yourself out there and take all the risks and you pick the best partners to do it with. And that’s it, that’s all it takes.” —Ben Affleck

BANKABILITY

His last film, Marty Supreme, grossed US$179 million.

FRIEND OF OSCAR

Chalamet is zero for three in the Academy Awards department and he wasn’t exactly kidding when he said on Saturday Night Live, “It’s a great honour to go to these awards shows, but I just keep losing and each time it gets harder to pretend it doesn’t sting. I’ve had this sad little speech in my pocket for four years that I’ve never gotten a chance to read.” And this was before the losses for A Complete Unknown and Marty Supreme.

CRUISE CONTROL

Chalamet watched Top Gun: Maverick eight times while filming Dune: Part Two and he definitely shares a manic energy – and no-holds-barred attitude for film promotion – with the quintessential action star. But with Chalamet’s whole ballet-opera snafu, he’s also heading into Cruise-like couch-jumping, image-straining territory. Always the chameleon, we’ll see if he can make things right on the Dune: Part Three press tour.

THE NATURAL

Paul Mescal, 30

RANGE

Just one of those Normal People who can play gay or straight, single or married, a father or a son, a bloodthirsty Roman gladiator, the tortured author of Hamlet or “the cute one” in the Fab Four. 

PERSONA

As a naturalistic actor – full of nuance and authenticity – it’s difficult to distinguish this Irish actor from his characters: they’re sad and sexy, he’s sweet and sexy; they’re bookish jocks, he’s a former Gaelic football player who recommends Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. “Paul’s always been really okay in his skin in a really wonderful way,” says his friend and Normal People co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones.

FROM ONE LEADING MAN TO ANOTHER

“It’s easy to work off of him because he’s giving you something,” said Denzel Washington, after they starred together in Gladiator II. “There’s a quiet dignity and a strength and intelligence that he has, even just when he’s standing there.”

BANKABILITY

His last film, Hamnet, grossed US$102 million.

FRIEND OF OSCAR

Mescal is zero for one, having lost the Best Actor award (he was nominated for Aftersun) to Will Smith for King Richard in 2022. And after this year, he’s also got an Oscar snub on the books, when he missed out on a nod for Hamnet. He shrugged it off, but his Oscar-winning co-star, Jessie Buckley, defended his honour: “There’s no part of what I created or what we created in this story which exists without Paul and what he poured into this story. So what is recognized belongs to him, as much as him being recognized in his own category would.”

CRUISE CONTROL

Mescal’s nomination for Aftersun was believed to be the one that pushed Cruise out of the Best Actor category in 2023, as he was expected to be included for Top Gun: Maverick. Coincidentally, Mescal has said that while he has no interest in joining the Star Wars or Marvel universes, “Something like Top Gun: Maverick would be more interesting to me. I love that movie.”

THE TOWERING INFERNO

Jacob Elordi, 28

RANGE

It’s alive! Elordi gives us all kinds of love-me-if-you-dare characters: Frankenstein’s creature, a sadistic Heathcliff, a controlling Elvis – not to mention those toxic Euphoria and Saltburn boys. But he’s also done a dramatic Second World War story, The Narrow Road to the Deep North and has met with Canadian director Denis Villeneuve to discuss Bond.

PERSONA

Classy like Clooney, Elordi sings the praises of everyone around him and always thanks his parents. Director Guillermo del Toro says he possesses an Old Hollywood feel akin to Gary Cooper and Marlon Brando. Then, there’s that effortless Paul Newman and Brad Pitt-level sex appeal – plus he’s six-foot-five. Yet, he’s a modern man in touch with his feminine side (he has a lot of purses) and his emotions: “I watched Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility and I just broke down. I cried all through that movie,” he told W Magazine. “Our hopeless attempts at love, at being in love and feeling it and misunderstanding it – just, like, the hopeless beauty of us all.” 

FROM A LEADING WOMAN TO A LEADING MAN

“You were so fantastic in Frankenstein and I was so impressed by your physicality. It was almost like I was watching a ballet dancer – how you emerged into this creature. It was really beautiful. The dynamic between this incredible tenderness and this violence, and you seem to have such facility with the depths of each direction.” —Gwyneth Paltrow 

BANKABILITY

His last movie, Wuthering Heights, grossed US$234 million.

CRUISE CONTROL

Unlike his fellow leading men, Elordi has never mentioned Cruise or his career as an inspiration. He has, however, dated Cruise’s ex-girlfriend, Ana de Armas, and chatted up his ex-wife Nicole Kidman at this year’s post-Oscar Vanity Fair party. Yes, we’re kind of shipping those Aussie giants – Kidman could wear her heels with Elordi.