Karl Urban

McCoy sounds as though he has already had enough, and Karl Urban makes that impatience worth listening to. In Star Trek (2009), his doctor gives a busy ensemble a distinct temperament without needing the film to stop for him. We laughed at his irritation because it gives the crew some welcome friction while the introductions are still being made. We rate him most when the gruffness has something funny beneath it.

Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) brought him international recognition as Éomer. Supporting action and science-fiction parts followed. As the assassin Kirill in The Bourne Supremacy (2004), he belongs to a film whose pursuit we found tense and involving. Paul Greengrass keeps Matt Damon’s troubled hero central, with Urban’s assassin among the threats around him. It is worth distinguishing the effectiveness of that company from the more individual impression Urban makes as McCoy.

J.J. Abrams gives him that opportunity in Star Trek, alongside Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto’s central pairing. Urban catches the spirit of DeForest Kelley’s McCoy and gives the doctor a comic temperament of his own. The supporting cast matters here: Zoe Saldaña’s confidence and Bruce Greenwood’s steadiness give Urban’s impatience useful contrasts. The villain is thin and the action sometimes overworked, but these differences between the crew members help make the film worth an evening.

Dredd (2012) gave him the lead as Judge Dredd, with a helmeted performance noted for its physical commitment. Television brought the longer-running lead of Billy Butcher in The Boys (2019). Those larger parts remain within the genre work that has defined much of his career, and they leave the question of what he might do elsewhere largely unanswered. For his humour, we would start with Star Trek.