Joseph Quinn

Joseph Quinn spent years working reliably in British television before anyone outside the UK noticed. He came out of drama school into the BBC costume production line, with Arthur Havisham in Dickensian, Leonard Bast in Howards End and Enjolras in Les Miserables, then crossed to Sky for the Tsarevich in Catherine the Great. Bast is the one to note, because playing the clerk whose life is dismantled by other people's carelessness needs an actor who can be pitied without turning pathetic.

Then came Eddie Munson in the fourth season of Stranger Things in 2022, a part written to be adopted: the metalhead outcast the town decides to blame. Quinn played him loud, fast and frightened, and the response was large enough to restructure his career inside a year.

What followed is one of the steepest ascents in recent casting. A Quiet Place: Day One put him in a film that limits how much anyone can say, and he was the most interesting thing in it. Gladiator II gave him Emperor Geta, a powdered, giggling villain he plays with obvious enjoyment and no subtlety at all, which is what the part wants. Warfare in 2025 is the corrective, a stripped-down military piece with nowhere to hide. He is now Johnny Storm across The Fantastic 4: First Steps and the Avengers films that follow, and he is down to play George Harrison in the coming run of Beatles pictures. Very few careers move this fast, and almost none survive it intact.