Vanity Fair’s New Hollywood Leading Men REACTION! Weird List!!!
Vanity Fair put out their latest Hollywood issue discussing who they believe to be the new leading men in Hollywood. I found this list to be absolutely bizarre and I wanted to share my thoughts on it!
The List: ASAP Rocky, Jonathan Bailey, Glen Powell, Andrew Garfield, Callum Turner, Lakeith Stanfield, Austin Butler, Jeremy Allen White, Michael B. Jordan, Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, and Riz Ahmed.
General Thoughts: First things first I find this list to be absolutely bizarre because I don’t think most of these names should be on this list. I feel like the definition of “new” is completely lost here and they’re being very loose with it. What’s weird about this list is both the people they included and the people they didn’t include.
Who Doesn’t Belong: I’m going to be honest here, everybody besides Bailey, Butler, Mescal, and Powell should not be on this list. There’s a few different reasons as to why I believe that.
First up, on this list are Andrew Garfield and Michael B. Jordan should not be on this list. They are not “new” leading men, they’ve been leading men for years now. Garfield’s breakout role was in David Fincher’s The Social Network which came out 15 years ago. The Amazing Spider-Man was released 13 years ago. He’s been a big movie star leading man for the last 15 years, he’s not new. He’s gotten multiple Oscar nominations and has worked with multiple top tier legendary directors from Daivd Fincher to Martin Scorsese. The same applies to Michael B. Jordan, which this month is the 10 years anniversary of Creed. That’s the film that launched him to being a big movie star and he’s been there ever since that movie came out. He was a Best Picture nominee, Black Panther as a very memorable villain in Killmonger. He’s directed a couple of things. Even this year he was the lead of maybe the most celebrated wide release film of 2025 with Sinners, that’ll likely get a lot of Oscar love including him for Best Actor. Those two are some of the ones that I just think are weird inclusion because they’re not new, both of them are years older than most of these people.
Second, I think Lakeith Stanfeild and Riz Ahmed kind of fit into the same category as Garfield and Jordan, but not quite. Stanfield has been in a number of high profile projects that have been Oscar nominees with Get Out, Knives Out, and Judas and the Black Messiah, he did an Oscar nomination for the latter but he’s not a household name. If you tell people about Lakeith Stanfield they don’t know who you’re talking about, they’ll recognize the movies that he’s in but not him specifically. I’m curious if he’s going to be a character actor that takes smaller parts in more interesting films and not lead big $100 million blockbusters. Riz Ahmed has been in a number of high profile things, he’s another Oscar nominated actor. But he’s not a familiar face. He has joined three big franchises with Jason Bourne, Star Wars, and Marvel but in all of those you kind of forget that he’s in them. He’s a side tech bro in Jason Bourne a movie that’s not very good and not a lot of people remember it, he’s in Rogue One that does have good reviews but the biggest criticism of the film is that none of the characters are super memorable, and third he’s the main villain in Venom and is often viewed as one of the low points of that film. They’ve both been around for a while but they don’t have that project that pushes them into the A-list leading man status.
Third, ASAP Rocky is such a bizarre inclusion on this list and is definitely the outlier. I’m not super familiar with ASAP Rocky, but what I do know about him is that he’s a rapper and not a movie star. I guess he was in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You which was a smaller indie film that was released in October with Rose Bryne. A side role in a small movie that made no cultural impact doesn’t shout that he’s going to have a big career. I haven’t seen the movie, maybe he’s really good in the movie but the fact that I haven’t heard much chatter about him or the movie doesn’t strike me that he should be on this list.
Fourth, I think Callum Turner and Jeremy Allen White need to do more to better establish themselves as movie stars. Jeremy is of course well celebrated for being on The Bear, he’s taken home multiple awards for that show across multiple different seasons but he hasn’t transitioned into a movie star. He recently played Bruce Springsteen in a biopic and it bombed. Audiences didn’t care enough to go and see it, so it only made about $42 million which isn’t good. Had that movie gotten better reviews and done better at the box office and then maybe he’ll be in the conversation, but right now he can’t be. Turner has been in a number of high profile movies, he was in the Fantastic Beasts movies. I don’t really remember him in those movies, since those casts were so big he was like 8th or 9th billed so he wasn’t given much room to stand out. He’s in a movie called Eternity that releases next with Elizabeth Olsen and Miles Teller that I dug. But I don’t see that movie making much of a splash. He needs a big movie where he’s the star front and center that makes people go “this guy is a real actor, he can do a lot.” So far, I don’t think he has that star power. He hasn't had the leading role to push him into that category.
Finally, Harris Dickinson kind of fits into the Turner and White category but not quite. He’s not as established, he’s been in a number of things but they’re all smaller films. They’re all small indies that get some chatter when they come out but aren’t films that have longevity that people are talking about months after release. He has been in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and The King’s Man, which are sequels/prequels to more popular movies, but those aren’t underperformed and didn’t get the best reviews. Once again, I think he needs a leading role in either an Oscar darling or a bigger $100 million film to get his name out there.
Who Should Be Here?
By process of elimination and by who I told you earlier, I think there’s only four names on this list that deserve to be on this list. Those names are Jonathan Bailey, Austin Butler, Paul Mescal, and Glen Powell. I think all of them have showcased over the last couple of years that they’re very talented and have that movie star potential. Let’s go down the list.
First up is Jonathan Bailey who I think was put on everybody’s radar from Wicked last year. I really dug him in Wicked, I thought he did a good job. He got a role in Jurassic World: Rebirth. I liked that movie more than most people. What I think he’s doing a really good job of is being in big budgeted movies that print money so he’s getting his name out there. He’s starring in movies that people are seeing and keeping an eye on. Those are ensemble films, maybe he needs to be leading movies and not be 3rd or 4th billed. He’s done television with Bridgerton, which I haven’t really seen any of it so I can’t comment on his acting. But it seems like a very different project from his big movies. I’m curious now that he has more freedom and he’s probably being offered a lot of things that he decides to do with his career. I think depending on what he does with his career in the future depends on whether or not he should stick being on this list. As of right now, I think he should but I think he needs more leading roles and more versatility
Second, Austin Butler is one of the rising stars of the last few years. What I think he’s doing really well is picking interesting projects from top tier directors. His first big role in a movie was in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt directed by Quentin Tarantino. His first big acting role was with one of the most celebrated and popular directors of the last 30 years. His big breakout role was a few years later with Elvis that really established him as a leading man and that he’s very talented. Him playing such a complicated figure in Elvis so well that earned him multiple awards I think showed the world that he’s the real deal and here to stay. He was the villain in Dune: Part II, another Best Picture nominee and he’s playing a very memorable character. Some of the other projects that he’s led with The Bikeriders and Caught Stealing haven’t made big splashes at the box office. But they’re still interesting movies that are smaller indie films and he’s building out a rich filmography with top tier directors and I think he’ll continue to do that, probably get another Oscar nomination by the end of the decade.
Third, we have Paul Mescal who I’m not super familiar with but he’s doing a lot of very interesting things. The first time I heard about him was when he was getting awards love for his role in Aftersun. I haven’t seen that movie. I’ve heard nothing but great things about him in it and the movie itself. After that right when that movie was getting awards love, he gets cast in Gladiator II. Ridley Scott trusts him to lead his $250 million sequel to one of his most iconic films. Gladiator II is a big movie that’s more accessible to a broader audience so people knew who he was based on that movie. This year he’s in Hamnet which opens wide in a couple of weeks and that is a front runner for Best Picture. That’s the film that right now is a lock for a nomination which is a big deal. There’s talk of him getting in for supporting actor. If he’s able to get two Oscar nominations with a matter of years and star in a big $250 million blockbuster. He’s also playing Paul McCartney in the four part Beatles biopic that should start filming soon. If those movies work and are a big hit then it’s just another reason to take him seriously as one of the faces of Hollywood and truly deserves to be on this list.
Finally, we have Glen Powell who I did a blog post about him a few days back. He 100% deserves to be on this list. There’s been some talk about Glen being a failed movie star because The Running Man flopped opening weekend. I don’t blame that movie flopping on him, there’s a lot of reasons why it opened soft. I don’t think you can blame him because nobody is selling tickets purely based on their name and face. I think he’s very talented, he’s very charismatic and is a movie star. He’s very entertaining and can lead big movies from Anyone But You to Twisters to The Running Man. He was a scene stealer in Top Gun: Maverick and was one of the characters that people were talking about leaving the theater. He’s written some movies with Richard Linklater like Hit Man which is a very different type of role from his more profile theatrical movies. I do think he needs to be careful and not get type cast as the loveable douchebag. His character in Top Gun: Maverick and Twisters are very similar in that they’re the cocky guy that’s still likable and charming. His character in Anyone But You is similar to that and he has a little bit of that in The Running Man.
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