Eric Bana has had a steady run of movie roles since starring as the revenging Romulan Captain Nero in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek movie.
Summary
- Eric Bana, known for his role as Nero in Star Trek (2009), has had a successful movie career with both leading and supporting roles.
- Since Star Trek (2009), Bana has starred in various films, including The Time Traveler’s Wife, Hanna, The Finest Hours, and The Dry, showcasing his acting range and growth in the industry.
- Bana’s portrayal of Nero in Star Trek established him as one of the franchise’s most intense and vicious villains, with lasting effects on the universe.
Award-winning actor Eric Bana starred as Nero, the revenge-driven Romulan from the future in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009). At the time of casting, Bana was an already-recognizable actor and earned a range of award nominations for his revenging Romulan role. Bana began his career with comedy sketch shows on Australian television, making his 1997 movie debut in The Castle. Establishing his name with roles in Black Hawk Down, Hulk, Troy, Munich, Lucky You, and The Other Boleyn Girl, Bana’s acting was consistently well-received. Following his role as Nero, Eric Bana has gone on to numerous leading and supporting movie roles.
Born Eric Banadinović, Bana was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in QEII’s 2019 Birthday Honours for services to drama. Bana’s performance in the biographical crime movie Chopper (2000) led to his casting in Black Hawk Down (2001). In 2003, he voiced Anchor in Finding Nemo, prefacing later voice-acting roles in Back to the Outback (2021) and Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022). 2003 also saw Bana cast as Dr. Bruce Banner in Ang Lee’s Hulk. Bana directed and starred in Love the Beast (2009), a documentary showcasing his love of cars, and played in Romulus, My Father, before being cast as a Romulan in Star Trek (2009).
Eric Bana Played Nero In J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek
J.J. Abrams’ critically acclaimed reboot movie Star Trek (2009) follows the adventures of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and the crew of the USS Enterprise as they come together to stop the Romulan Nero (Eric Bana) and his dastardly plan for revenge. When Nero, captain of the 24th-century mining vessel Narada, confronts Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) during an unsuccessful attempt in 2387 to save Romulus from its star going supernova, the Narada is pulled into the artificially created black hole, with Spock’s ship following moments after. Sent back in time to 2233, the arrival and subsequent actions of Nero and the Narada spawn an alternate reality dubbed the Kelvin timeline.
Stuck in this new reality, the time-traveling villain Nero formulates a plan for revenge against those he blames for Romulus’ destruction in the Prime Universe and waits. When Ambassador Spock’s Jellyfish ship arrives 25 years later, in 2258, Nero sets his plan to destroy the homeworld of every founding Federation planet in motion. Though traveling back in time was accidental, the severity of Nero’s actions after that definitively cemented him as one of Star Trek‘s most intense and vicious villains. The genocide he visited upon the Vulcans with the destruction of their homeworld and his failed attempt to do the same with Earth would have lasting effects and implications for the universe indefinitely.
What Eric Bana Has Done Since Star Trek 2009
Since starring as the villainous Nero in Star Trek (2009), Eric Bana has had a steady run of leading and supporting movie roles. Overlapping the filming of Star Trek (2009), Bana starred as Henry De Tamble alongside Rachel McAdams in The Time Traveler’s Wife, with Funny People released the same year. He starred in the action thriller Hanna with Cate Blanchett in 2011, with Deadfall, Closed Circuit, Lone Survivor, and Deliver Us From Evil released over the following few years. Bana reunited with Star Trek actor Chris Pine in 2016 to film The Finest Hours, about a 1952 daring rescue attempt by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Of his numerous roles, Eric Bana may be best known for starring as Bruce Banner AKA the Hulk in Ang Lee’s 2003 superhero movie, Hulk.
The same year, Bana starred in Ricky Gervais’ satirical comedy Special Correspondents and The Secret Scripture, adapted from Sebastian Barry’s 2008 novel. He appeared as Uther Pendragon in Guy Ritchie’s 2017 King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Piet Blomfield in The Forgiven before starring as John Meehan in the 2018 TV mini-series Dirty John, based on a true crime podcast. Bana played Aaron Falk in 2021’s The Dry with a sequel, Force of Nature: The Dry 2, due for release in 2024. Eric Bana’s steady and successful movie career demonstrates his grounded acting range and shows how far he has come since his early days of television sketch show comedy.
