Action movie legend Jean-Claude Van Damme has only reprised the same role in different movies three times. Van Damme's talent for martial arts and passion for acting brought him to fame in 1986 with his role as Ivan 'The Russian' Kraschinsky in No Retreat No Surrender, which opened the doors for the actor's lengthy career in the action/martial arts genre. Iconic movies such as Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Double Impact, and Universal Soldier continued cementing his name as one of the main action legends of the 1980s and 1990s.
Jean-Claude Van Damme has revived his career with the crime drama JCVD where he played a semi-fictional version of himself, the ensemble film The Expendables 2, where he played the main villain to Sylvester Stallone's army of action stars, and more recently, The Last Mercenary, where he pays homage to some of his most famous roles. Regardless of which era of Van Damme is being discussed, the actor's signature physicality and intimidating presence have remained the same.
It comes as something of a surprise that Van Damme has played the same character in only three different franchises. Although this puts him behind other action contemporaries such as and Arnold Schwarzenegger—who reprised the same role perhaps too many times in the Terminator franchise—and Rocky/Rambo legend Sylvester Stallone, Van Damme's varied performances are proof of his skills in bringing different characters to life with each original story he stars in. Here are Jean-Claude Van Damme's three franchise roles, ranked.
Kung Fu Panda
The Kung Fu Panda franchise featured several actors known for their roles in action movies. For instance, Jackie Chan played Monkey, Lucy Liu portrayed Viper, and Angelina Jolie voiced Tigress. Kung Fu Panda 2 introduced Jean-Claude Van Damme's Master Croc, the former leader of a criminal gang known as the Wool Stealing Crocodile Bandits of Crocodile Island. Master Croc was Van Damme's first-ever voice acting role—ahead of his upcoming role as Jean Clawed in the upcoming Minions: The Rise of Gru—and he played it like he had plenty of voice acting experience under his belt.
Even though Master Croc is a surprisingly complex character who shifts between villain and hero, the crocodile doesn't have a considerable impact on the plot of Kung Fu Panda 2 or Kung Fu Panda 3. The former references Van Damme's signature split during one of his fight scenes, but the adult audience may not recognize Van Damme's voice, and the younger audience may not be aware of Van Damme's body of work. The Kung Fu Panda trilogy is quite consistent for an animation franchise, but if Van Damme had had the possibility of showing off his skills in person, his role as Master Croc would probably be higher on the list.
Kickboxer
The first Kickboxer movie, released in 1989, was one of Jean-Claude Van Damme's earliest hits. It told the story of Kurt Sloane, a man who witnesses his kickboxing champion brother Eric get paralyzed in the ring by his opponent, Tong Po. Seeking revenge, Kurt travels to Thailand and trains to become a kickboxer himself. Kickboxer packs an intense punch with a simple premise and allows Van Damme's skills to shine as a martial artist. Kurt is often seen dripping in sweat and blood while pushing his mind and body to the limit, and even has the chance to show off excellent dance moves, which he referenced in The Last Mercenary. What Van Damme lacks in subtle acting he makes up in the sheer brutality of his fights and the intensity of his training.
While Kickboxer belongs among the classics when it comes to Hollywood's martial arts genre, the seven sequels the franchise produced barely held a candle to its legacy. The first 3 sequels focus on Kurt Sloane's younger brother David, who lacks the same passion as Van Damme's original protagonist. These sequels focus less on the one-on-one, combat-oriented action scenes and turn the franchise into more a conventional action series; Kickboxer 3: The Art Of War ends with the villain being stabbed with a knife, and David being saved from being shot. Kickboxer: Vengeance and Kickboxer: Retaliation attempt to take the franchise back to its origins, but although they manage to capture a tinge of the original's spirit with the return of Jean-Claude Van Damme after his 1990s glory days, the decision to cast him as the trainer of a new Kurt Sloane distances the glory of the original Kickboxer even further.
Universal Soldier
Just like Jean-Claude Van Damme placed Kickboxer among the best of the 1980s martial arts classics, his iconic performance in Universal Soldier did the same for a whole new decade. Roland Emmerich's 1992 sci-fi movie tells the story of Van Damme's Luc Deveraux and Dolph Lundgren's Andrew Scott—two soldiers who are resuscitated as super-soldiers after they kill each other in the Vietnam War. Although silly by nature, Universal Soldier is unapologetically fast-paced and action-packed, with an ideal degree of levity and a believable retro-futuristic atmosphere that still holds up to this day.
Again, the original Universal Soldier left the bar too high for future sequels. The second and third installments, Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms and Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business, replace Van Damme with Matt Battaglia and place the story right after the events of the original, but the decrease in storytelling and visual quality is evident. Universal Soldier: The Return brings back Van Damme, but gets immediately retconned by Universal Soldier: Regeneration, where Dolph Lundgren also returns.
However, it's only until 2012's Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning that the franchise takes an innovative turn, as it couples a more psychological tone with the realistic kind of fight scenes that characterize Van Damme. Part of the last installment's heightened quality is due to Van Damme's chemistry with Scott Adkins, who imbued the movie with much-needed seriousness. Considering the similar issues the Kickboxer and Universal Soldier franchises suffered, it's up to Jean-Claude Van Damme fans to decide whether martial arts or sci-fi make one film series preferable over the other, but what favors the Universal Soldier sequels is that they at least attempted to follow the story of Luc Deveraux, albeit with lots of mind-boggling retcons and overcomplicated plots.