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The Cast of The Bikeriders Explained: Everything to Know About Tom Hardy & Austin Butler Thriller
Meet The Vandals, an outlaw biker gang from 1960s Chicago.
Writer and director Jeff Nichols (Mud) is taking viewers on a two-wheeled thrill ride in the upcoming action drama The Bikeriders, in theaters July 21, 2024. It tells the high-octane and high-violence story of Benny (Austin Butler) and Kathy (Jodie Comer), and a fictional biker gang known as The Vandals, all set against the backdrop of Chicago in the 1960s.
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Johnny (Tom Hardy) is the leader of the gang, a fictionalized version of the Outlaws MC, the oldest outlaw motorcycle club in the world. What begins as a story about a found family of social outcasts descends into a cycle of violent crime loosely based on Danny Lyon’s black and white documentary photo book of the same name. The heyday of biker gangs has come and gone, but it’s alive and well on the big screen in The Bikeriders.
Who's Who in the Cast of The Bikeriders
TOM HARDY
Before he was the man of many voices, Tom Hardy made his feature film debut in Black Hawk Down in 2001, followed quickly by a turn as a clone of Jean-Luc Picard in 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis. Over the last couple of decades, Hardy has emerged as one of the biggest names in Hollywood.
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His filmography includes noteworthy performances as Charles Bronson in Bronson and as the reimagined Max Rockatansky in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road. Hardy created an iconic and memorable version of Batman's nemesis Bane in the final chapter of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, and played Eames in Nolan’s dream-hopping sci-fi adventure Inception. More recently, he’s appeared as an alien symbiote’s hapless human half, Eddie Brock, in Sony’s Venom films. Now Hardy is bringing his talents to Johnny, the loyal but ruthless leader of The Vandals in The Bikeriders.
AUSTIN BUTLER
Born and raised in Anaheim, under the bright lights of the Disney logo, Austin Butler caught the acting bug young. Like many folks who got an early start in Hollywood, Butler has lived many lives. He picked up early roles on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon shows including Hannah Montana, iCarly, and most notably, the role of James Garrett in Zoey 101.
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Early film roles include Aliens in the Attic and Kevin Smith’s Canadian convenience store horror-comedy, Yoga Hosers. Over the last five years or so, Butler’s star has continued to rise with performances as Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, the King of Rock and Roll in Elvis, and Feyd-Rautha in Dune: Part Two. The Bikeriders sees him as Benny, a man torn between his love for Kathy (Comer) and loyalty to the club.
NORMAN REEDUS
For a while, Norman Reedus was most known for gracing the walls of college dorm rooms, portraying the character of Murphy MacManus in posters for The Boondock Saints. Outside that demographic, he was mostly a character actor showing up in a couple episodes of the original Charmed series or as Scud, Blade’s assistant and weapons expert in Blade II. Then he traded in vampires for zombies, and everything changed.
Reedus became a household name playing the beloved antihero Daryl Dixon on The Walking Dead. He later lent his visage and a performance to Sam Porter Bridges, the primary protagonist of the 2019 video game, Death Stranding.
No stranger to motorcycles in real life, Reedus hosts the travel series Ride with Norman Reedus, which follows Reedus and a guest riding on bikes. He’s lending his biker sensibilities to the role of Funny Sonny in The Bikeriders.
JODIE COMER
Born in Liverpool England, Jodie Comer has risen to become a highly regarded English actor. She made a name as Chloe on My Mad Fat Diary and playing the Russian assassin Villanelle opposite Sandra Oh in Killing Eve.
Star Wars fans got a brief glimpse of Comer as Rey’s mother during flashback scenes in Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker. Then she went toe-to-toe with Ryan Reynolds in Free Guy, playing the dual roles of game designer Millie and the in-game character Molotov Girl. She’s also slated to appear in the upcoming and highly anticipated zombie sequel 28 Years Later. She plays Kathy in The Bikeriders, Benny’s love interest and apparent moral compass.
MICHAEL SHANNON
Few filmographies are as full of absolute cinematic bangers as Michael Shannon’s. He made his feature film debut as Fred in Groundhog Day, a little Bill Murray comedy you might have heard of. Later, he played veteran pilot Lt. Gooz Wood in Pearl Harbor, and baddies in everything from 8 Mile to the Joseph Gordon-Levitt bike messenger movie Premium Rush.
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You’ve also seen him playing (mostly) villains like General Zod in the DC Extended Universe films; Colonel Richard Strickland, discoverer of the aquatic creature and primary villain of The Shape of Water; the White Death in Bullet Train; and the less flashy but still crummy Walt Thrombey in Knives Out. He plays Zipco in The Bikeriders.
BOYD HOLBROOK
Boyd Holbrook got his start in the entertainment industry as a model and photographer before transitioning to film. One of his first meaty roles was as Willam “Cap” Hatfield in Hatfields & McCoys, a TV miniseries detailing one of the deadliest feuds in American history.
Holbrook rose to prominence playing DEA agent Steve Murphy, searching for Pablo Escobar across 20 episodes of Narcos. He later played two comic book characters in Donald Pierce, leader of the Reavers in the near-future X-Men movie Logan, and the nightmarish Corinthian in the Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. Holbrook brings his mix of charm and chills to Cal in The Bikeriders.
DAMON HERRIMAN
A working actor since he was a child, Damon Herriman has been in more movies and TV shows than we could mention, but we’ll give it a go. Horror fans might recognize him as Lester Sinclair, also affectionately known as Roadkill Boy, from the 2005 body horror flick House of Wax.
Television aficionados will know him from brief appearances in Wilfred and Breaking Bad, but mostly from bringing the perfect blend of grimy incompetence as Dewey Cox in 22 episodes of Justified. He also has the dubious distinction of having played Charles Manson twice, once in the series Mindhunter and once in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. He’s certain to turn in a killer if unsettling performance as Brucie in The Bikeriders.
Catch the whole Vandals gang in Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders, in theaters July 21, 2024.
