Charlize Theron can do any style—she has an Oscar for enjoying a serial killer, and she or he gave a standout comedic efficiency on Arrested Growth. She’s additionally a gifted motion star, as seen in her appearances in Atomic Blonde and the Quick & Livid films, a collection which skirts the sting of sci-fi.
However you don’t must qualify something with regards to Theron’s fondness for sci-fi and fantasy. With The Outdated Guard 2 coming to Netflix in July, and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey due subsequent summer season, she’s nonetheless going robust—however listed below are Theron’s most memorable sci-fi and fantasy roles up to now, plus just a few notable cameos too.
The Satan’s Advocate (1997) and The Astronaut’s Spouse (1999)
Theron broke out within the late Nineties and was virtually immediately enjoying main roles—together with a pair of wives pressured to take care of supernaturally compromised spouses. In The Satan’s Advocate (1997) she will get gaslit when she catches on that her legal professional husband’s new boss is, nicely, the last word dangerous man; in The Astronaut’s Spouse (1999), she should take care of the equally alarming revelation that her husband has returned from an area voyage with an alien lurking inside him.
Each of these films are centered across the male characters—Al Pacino’s campy Devil in The Satan’s Advocate is especially legendary—however Theron nonetheless makes an impression whereas offering a sympathetic entry level for the viewers.
The Outdated Guard (2020)
A couple of years after the letdown of 2005’s Æon Flux, Theron made one other go at superpowers in 2008’s Hancock, enjoying a girl who’s been secretly hiding her skills till her long-lost accomplice, performed by Will Smith, instantly begins wrecking Los Angeles. It’s entertaining however Theron is unquestionably the second banana. That’s not the case in The Outdated Guard, whose ensemble solid may be very a lot led by Theron as an historic warrior tasked with commonly saving the world whereas grappling with the sudden lack of her immortality.
Mad Max: Fury Street (2015)

Clearly. If this listing was ranked, Theron’s fierce portrayal of Imperator Furiosa could be primary. It was good to get a prequel filling within the character’s backstory, performed in a youthful incarnation by Anya Taylor-Pleasure, however honestly we didn’t want it. Fury Street stands alone, and Theron is the primary purpose why.
The Orville (2017)

We love the Alien films, even the often impenetrable Prometheus (2012). But when we wish to watch Theron in house, we’re going straight to the season-one Orville episode “Pria,” during which Theron guest-stars as a captain rescued from her floundering vessel. She’s so distractingly beautiful it takes everybody awhile to comprehend she’s secretly received some very sinister designs on the titular ship.
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Casting Theron as the paranormal evil queen in a rough-and-tumble retelling of the Snow White story is a superb concept; bringing her again for a sequel that leaves out Snow White (2015’s The Huntsman: Winter’s Struggle) remains to be a good suggestion, even when the second film wasn’t pretty much as good. In 2022, she tapped again into that “evil fantasy queen” vibe, with a little bit extra arch humor, to play the Dean of the College for Evil in Netflix’s The College for Good and Evil.
Bonus cameos
In 2009, Theron had a short however searing function in The Street, enjoying a girl who chooses to finish all of it reasonably than face life within the post-apocalypse (you possibly can’t actually blame her after you spend a while in that movie’s explicit post-apocalypse).
In 2022, she had stunning little second in The Boys season three premiere, enjoying “herself” portraying “Nazi bitch” Stormfront within the present’s in-universe blockbuster, Daybreak of the Seven.

However we should give it up for Theron’s “did that basically occur?” look on the finish of Physician Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity, additionally launched in 2022. Within the mid-credits scene, she seems as purple-clad sorceress Clea, a personality solely comic-book readers would instantly acknowledge, and beckons Physician Unusual into the Darkish Dimension, telling him he wants to repair the “incursion” he brought about. Will Clea ever return, or is that this a dangling thread that can stay tucked away in Part 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Even the Sorcerer Supreme in all probability couldn’t let you know at this level.
Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and all the pieces you’ll want to learn about the way forward for Physician Who.