12 Best Jensen Ackles Movies & TV Shows, Ranked

Be they a comic book antihero, supernatural vigilante, troubled teen, or male ingenue in a daytime soap, nobody plays these characters quite like actor Jensen Ackles. The television star has enjoyed a career at the forefront of some of the most popular genre projects in TV history, thanks in large part to his hard-earned professional relationships with The CW and producer Eric Kripke.

Following 15 seasons of the fantasy adventure series “Supernatural” and a lauded season-long arc on the Amazon Prime Video comic book romp “The Boys,” Ackles is on the precipice of yet another exciting chapter in his career. Before the upcoming releases of the fifth and final season of “The Boys,” its highly-anticipated spin-off series, or the Derek Haas crime drama “Countdown,” we’re taking a look back at his most memorable films and television shows thus far — ranking them by quality, impact on Ackles’ career, and overall showcasing of his talent.

The first and deepest cut on our trip through Jensen Ackles’ career is the short-lived late ’90s NBC sitcom “Mr. Rhodes.” Created as a vehicle for comedian Tom Rhodes, it’s a fairly paint-by-numbers situational comedy that paints Rhodes as a failed novelist looking for love while trying to navigate his new life as a prep-school teacher.

Though there isn’t much to say about “Mr. Rhodes” as a series (it was taken off-air by NBC after only 19 episodes), it’s worth noting as a major milestone in Ackles’ path. Playing Malcolm (a student at Rhodes’ school) was the 18-year-old actor’s first recurring role in a television series, which helped prepare him for his next major role the following year.

Like sand through the hourglass, so are the Jensens of our Ackles. The soap opera to end all soap operas, “Days of Our Lives” is a daunting series to even contemplate getting into now. As of writing, the drama series is still running and has been since 1965 for a grand total of 15,000 episodes as of late 2024.

Jensen Ackles joined the cast in 1997 as Eric Brady, the son of Roman Brady (Josh Taylor) and Marlene Evans (Deidre Hall) and the twin brother of Sami Brady (Alison Sweeney). Though Ackles was 19 years old and stepping into a role that was being played by a nine-year-old, “Days of Our Lives” already had an accepted reputation for giving its characters “soap opera rapid aging syndrome,” or SORAS — incredibly, the show once had a doctor working side-by-side with his own great-great-grandfather.

The role of Eric Brady earned Ackles three consecutive Daytime Emmy nominations for outstanding performance by a younger actor in a drama series, and eventually led to a development deal with ABC. Unfortunately for fans of “Days of Our Lives,” this meant Ackles had to depart the show for good, leaving an Eric-shaped void in the cast for over a decade afterward.

While his future co-star Jared Padalecki was busy playing heartthrob in Stars Hollow (and ironically portraying a character named Dean), Jensen Ackles was playing a similar role on the WB series “Dawson’s Creek.” The teen romantic drama followed the lives of a group of high schoolers living in a small Massachusetts town, loosely revolving around the dreamy world of aspiring filmmaker Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek).

Admittedly, though “Dawson’s Creek” is a fine series with a firm place in the hearts of many who grew up watching TV during the late ’90s and early 2000s, Ackles isn’t in very much of it. His character C.J. Braxton (a rough-around-the-edges recovering teen alcoholic who gets wrapped up in a messy love triangle) is only a significant recurring player in the show’s sixth and final season. He does have some meaty scenes with stars Michelle Williams and Busy Phillips that showcase the kind of actor he was toward the beginning of his career, and the series is overall worth watching as a highpoint of a specific genre. But if teen dramas aren’t your thing, there may not be enough of Ackles in the final season to warrant watching all 120-plus episodes.

Not to be confused with the messy 2022 Marilyn Monroe biopic of the same name, 2001’s “Blonde” was a television film produced by CBS and adapted from the same fictional biography written by Joyce Carol Oates. It tells an imagined version of Monroe’s life, concocting a psychology of the impenetrable and arguably unknowable American icon.

Oates’ book and the films it inspired track her journey from stardom to death through a timeline of complicated and often troubling relationships with real historical figures, including legendary center fielder Joe DiMaggio (referred to in the film only as “The Baseball Player,” and played by Titus Welliver), playwright Arthur Miller (Griffin Dunne), and the actor Edward G. Robinson Jr. Jensen Ackles featured prominently as the latter role, referred to by Monroe (Poppy Montgomery) as “Eddie G.” He plays opposite Montgomery’s Monroe and Patrick Dempsey’s “Cass Bulut” (Charles Chaplin Jr.), as this story invents a bohemian throuple between the three that never seems to have existed in real life.

Though Ackles is employing his usual charm, the role sees him playing against type, especially in contrast to those he began taking on immediately after. Eddie is less traditionally masculine, with a slyly seductive and perhaps even sinister tone that doesn’t appear in his resume of genre-heavy antiheroes. If you’ve been following Ackles’ career and understandably overlooked this film, it’s absolutely worth finding online.

Jensen Ackles’ acting chops alone make it slightly confusing that he’s not cast in more feature films. This is especially true when taking into account that one of his few leading endeavors not only resulted in a box office hit that made nearly ten times its budget during its theatrical run but also one of the best horror movie remakes of all time.

Released in 2009, “My Bloody Valentine 3D” was part of a string of revivals in the genre seemingly made in large part to test once again whether or not the gimmick of 3D technology could breathe new life into expensive properties that had gone stale. This trend included “Friday the 13th” (2009), “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (2010), “Saw 7” (also known as “Saw 3D”), and “Texas Chainsaw 3D,” none of which were critical hits. What set “My Bloody Valentine” apart from other films of its kind was how imaginatively (and, honestly, shamelessly) director Patrick Lussier used the added dimension to enhance the gory spectacle of his work.

“My Bloody Valentine 3D” is a twisty and stupidly fun slasher flick that asks nothing and gives everything – the perfect date for any horror fan on Valentine’s Day. Ackles is the film’s leading man, though we’ll refrain from revealing much more about the plot so you can enjoy this somewhat hidden gem untainted. If the idea of a melodramatic love triangle being chased by a terrifying killer miner excites you, you’ll have a great time.

With his rugged charm and imposing physique, Jensen Ackles makes total sense within the world of the cop drama. The project that propelled him to TV star status was a “supernatural” cousin to this genre, with Ackles and his co-star serving as roaming lawmen protecting innocent people from a literal underworld of villainy. All this to say, this made it oddly gratifying to see him finally join the cast of a straightforward crime series in the form of ABC’s “Big Sky.”

Based on C.J. Box’s “The Highway” crime novels, “Big Sky” focuses on organized criminal enterprises (such as human trafficking) from the perspective of a Montana police force compelled to meet them head on. Ackles joins the cast only in its third and final season as Sheriff Beau Arlen, a semi-retired officer who takes on this position as a personal favor to the wounded Sheriff Walter Tubb (Patrick Gallagher). For its ambitious narrative targets and seasonal storytelling format, one might find themselves wishing for more complex characters and stories to invest their emotions in. That said, Ackles nails the role of a sheriff, and the (albeit logic-straining) twists and turns the series puts forth at a dizzying pace will likely be enough to keep you engaged until he rides into town.

Serving as a major inspiration for both Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” and Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” “Batman: The Long Halloween” should be at the top of the watch list of any fan of the Caped Crusader. This animated two-part adaptation of the seminal “Batman” story by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale is faithful and gorgeously animated, further elevated by a star-studded voice cast led by Jensen Ackles as Bruce Wayne/Batman.

Tracking a string of holiday-related murders around Gotham City (seeming connected to the Calendar Man, a Hannibal Lecter-esque player in the story voiced by David Dastmalchian), Batman partners with his trusted ally Commissioner Jim Gordon (Billy Burke) and esteemed District Attorney Harvey Dent (Josh Duhamel) — the latter of whom is definitely not going to experience some kind of personal tragedy that turns him into a murderous villain with, say, two faces. This strange case takes all three men into the depths of Gotham’s criminal underworld, replete with vicious gangsters (including Jack Quaid’s Alberto Falcone), duplicitous interlopers (Catwoman, played by the late Naya Rivera), and psychopaths — most dangerous, of course, being the Joker, with Troy Baker returning to voice the role from previous projects.

From start to finish, “The Long Halloween” is a well-paced, cape-draped murder mystery that does justice to all your favorite “Batman” characters. Ackles’ voice sounds tailor-made for Wayne, though he also brings a certain emotional rawness and edge that, while rare for animated iterations of the character, works perfectly for this grim tale.

If you didn’t know James Cameron created a TV series in the early 2000s, now you know. Titled “Dark Angel,” it stars then-newcomer Jessica Alba as Max, a super soldier (called an “X5”) artificially grown and trained in a government facility alongside others of her kind. She and a handful of her “siblings” escape into the dystopian future of 2019, where they attempt to live quiet lives avoiding government agents hunting them down.

In the first season, Ackles guest-starred as Ben, one of the X5s who escaped. Unlike his siblings, his inability to adapt to life outside the facility has led him down the sadistic path of a serial killer. His ritual involves him traveling the country and selecting prey whom he then hunts in the forest to replicate a cathartic killing exercise from his days as a child. This catches the attention of both Max and Colonel Donald Lydecker (John Savage), the major antagonist of the first season charged with recapturing the escaped X5s. The two adversaries are forced to race against the clock to find Ben before he kills again.

Though Ben was only written to appear in one episode, Ackles’ performance made him a standout in “Dark Angel’s” inaugural season. He was thus brought back as a series regular for Season 2, playing the role of Ben’s twin brother Alec. A wandering brawler and conman, Alec eventually becomes one of Max’s closest allies as the scope of her journey widens. Sadly, however, “Dark Angel” was canceled on a cliffhanger ending before we could see where that journey was headed.

From “The Boys” to “Batman,” comic book fans owe a lot to Jensen Ackles. But he actually began his time in the superhero subgenre playing an original supporting character on the hit WB/CW series “Smallville.” The epic of Superman as told through the lens of a sun-soaked teen drama, it follows Clark Kent (Tom Welling) as he attempts to balance his awesome powers with his quiet life in the fictional Kansas town.

“Smallville” takes its time and plenty of liberties in building Clark’s journey to becoming the Big Blue Boy Scout (infamously, he only dons the costume in one of the series’ final shots), with new characters filling out the ensemble of regular people he connects with along the way. By the beginning of Season 4, he had yet to even meet Lois Lane (who was eventually played by Erica Durance) and was instead in an on-and-off relationship with his high school girlfriend Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk). After their relationship ends seemingly for good in the Season 3 finale, she returns for Season 4 with a new boyfriend — the dashing and wealthy Jason Teague, played by Jensen Ackles. Of course, Jason is not all he appears to be, revealing himself over the course of the season to be a danger to both Clark and the Luthors.

Ackles’ casting as Lana’s post-Clark beau was something of a meta choice, given that Ackles was almost cast as Superman himself. Welling has said the two of them were in the final callbacks for the role, with Welling so intimidated by Ackles’ presence that he assumed he’d never have a chance as long as Ackles was in the running.

Long before Jensen Ackles voiced the Dark Knight, he was best known for playing the Boy Wonder gone bad in the animated DC Comics feature “Batman: Under the Red Hood.” In the 2010 film, Ackles voices the eponymous Red Hood, a mysterious murderer who appears in Gotham with the stated goal of taking over its criminal underworld. Of course, as even casual DC fans are aware, he is ultimately revealed to be Jason Todd, the second ward of Bruce Wayne (Bruce Greenwood) who was trained as a Robin, murdered by the Joker (John DiMaggio), and later revived by Ra’s al Ghul (Jason Isaacs).

As we found when we revisited the film in 2020 during our Quarantine Stream series, “Under the Red Hood” is a captivating and surprisingly emotional thrill ride that owes much of its effectiveness to writer Judd Winick, who adapted his own comic book storyline from a few years prior. Equally impactful is its cast, largely anchored by Ackles’ career-best voice work as the anguished, betrayed former sidekick of Batman. While everyone involved delivers solid and distinguished performances as their respective iconic characters, Ackles handles Todd like a practiced thespian taking on Hamlet. He navigates between his character’s multiple identities — the steely, callous cruelty of Red Hood and the ferocity and pain of Todd — with care and nuanced intention. There are few voice performances like this one, and that it exists alone is reason enough to count “Under the Red Hood” as one of the best DC animated movies ever made.

The second collaboration between Jensen Ackles and producer Eric Kripke proved to be every bit as fun and irreverent as the first. Ackles joined the cast of “The Boys” in Season 3 as the superhero Soldier Boy, a pot-smoking relic from World War II who was captured by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The experiments they performed on him during his captivity granted him explosive new powers, in addition to his already impressive superhuman physical abilities. Like most characters on “The Boys,” Soldier Boy is a fairly blatant parody of a popular mainstream comic book character — Marvel’s Captain America. Ackles was so convincing in his embodiment of this nightmare version of Steve Rogers that rumors began to swirl, suggesting he had originally auditioned for the role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

As obvious as it seems to everyone now, however, Ackles was not at all Kripke’s first choice for the character. The actor has since revealed in interviews that he only began discussing the possibility of joining “The Boys” as a joke, which unexpectedly led to Kripke sending him scenes for Soldier Boy. Though Ackles was immediately interested (“Who do I have to kill to get this role?” he recalled thinking to DiscussingFilm), he was also told that the studio already had a shortlist of big-name talent that he’d have to compete with. Fortunately for him, Kripke offered to coach him through the process.

The rest is history. Soldier Boy is easily the show’s best minor antagonist, so embraced by the fans that he was brought back for the spin-off series “Gen V” in the strangest way possible. He has also been given his own spin-off project titled “Vought Rising,” a period murder mystery co-starring Aya Cash as Stormfront.

Nearly 20 years after it premiered on The WB, “Supernatural” remains Jensen Ackles’ most popular work — and for good reason. The fantasy series was created by “The Boys'” Eric Kripke (which explains all the “Supernatural” easter eggs in the Prime Video series), who wanted to tell an urban legend-fueled road trip story about two brother battling demons, creatures of myth, and even deities on a quest to save their lost father. Fresh off his role on “Smallville,” Ackles was tapped to star in the series as the roguish Dean Winchester, one half of the Winchester monster-hunting duo. He played opposite then-recent “Gilmore Girls” breakout Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester.

Kripke served as showrunner for the first five seasons, after which point he passed the torch to Sera Gamble — the same Sera Gamble who co-developed and currently showruns Netflix’s wildly popular thriller “You.” When it came time for her to leave, future “Doom Patrol” architect Jeremy Carver took over. He then was followed by series closers Robert Singer and Andrew Dabb, the former of whom helped shape Ackles’ own directorial style. With so much talent on the creative team, it’s easy to see how every season of “Supernatural” was able to stay mostly consistent in terms of quality.

Especially in its best episodes, the series had a unique ability to balance fantastical elements with comedy and heart that was genuinely effective. It fittingly encapsulates and showcases everything special about Ackles as a performer. He stands in a small but beloved group able to tackle strange characters and wrestle out of them an unusual yet undeniable humanity.