Every Character Mike Myers Plays In The Austin Powers Movies

Mike Myers has played several characters in the Austin Powers movie franchise – here’s every role. While he’s semi-retired from acting these days, Myers has portrayed multiple characters who have become pop culture icons. He first rose to fame during his years on Saturday Night Live, where he played Wayne’s World host Wayne Campbell alongside Dana Carvey’s Garth Algar. In the animated realm, Myers has voiced the titular ogre in the Shrek franchise. Still, perhaps no Myers franchise is more famous than Austin Powers.

Doubling as both a masterful parody of the older James Bond movies and a broadly funny wacky comedy, the three Austin Powers movies have raked in nearly $700 million worldwide, which is even more impressive than it sounds. The first film, 1997’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, was only a mild box office success, earning most of its audience on home video. While opinions on the two Austin Powers sequels vary, it’s a testament to Myers’ work in the franchise that many still hope for an Austin Powers 4, even though it’s been nearly 20 years since the third entry.

Of course, Myers’ contributions to the Austin Powers movies go far beyond simply starring in them as Austin himself. Myers wrote or co-wrote all three films, in addition to co-producing them. Beyond that, Myers has played multiple roles in all three, so far bringing four different characters to life. Here’s every Mike Myers character in the Austin Powers franchise.

Austin Powers

As introduced in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Austin “Danger” Powers is the quintessential James Bond-esque secret agent, albeit much more flamboyant and colorful. He has a license to kill, gadgets to help him do so, is quick with a one-liner, and has an almost supernatural ability to get women into his bed. At least in his home time of the 1960s. He finds things a bit hard to adjust to after being frozen for 30 years, then unfrozen in 1997 upon the return of his arch-nemesis Dr. Evil.

Austin grew as a character as the movies went on, although never to the point where his behavior wasn’t at least somewhat inappropriate. Still, it was always clear he had a good heart under his sexually charged exterior. Like Bond, Austin also always has a new girl on his arm in each movie, those being International Man of Mystery‘s Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley), The Spy Who Shagged Me‘s Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham), and Goldmember‘s Foxy Cleopatra (Beyonce). It was revealed in Goldmember that Austin inherited most of his traits from father Nigel Powers (Michael Caine), a previous gentleman spy.

Dr. Evil

As the lead villain of the Austin Powers franchise, Dr. Evil is quite adamant he not be called Mr. Evil, which is fair considering that he did indeed attend an evil medical school. Dr. Evil is a parody of James Bond villains in general, but he’s most clearly based on Ernst Stavro Blofeld, a recurring Bond antagonist. Dr. Evil takes aspects of many Bond villains, such as placing his foe in convoluted death traps instead of just shooting them, launching into monologues at inappropriate times, and overconfidence in his own abilities – to the nth degree.

Dr. Evil has one biological son, the relatively normal Scott Evil, played by Seth Green. He also has a tiny clone of himself, dubbed Mini-Me, played by the late Vern Troyer, as well as a beloved cat named Mr. Bigglesworth. His trademark is demanding outrageous sums of money to not destroy the world. It was revealed that Dr. Evil was actually Austin’s long-lost brother Douglas in Goldmember, much to the chagrin of many fans who had no desire to see them as anything but rivals. Most recently, Dr. Evil, along with some of his Austin Powers co-stars, appeared in a General Motors commercial during the Super Bowl.

Fat Bastard

By the time Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me released in 1999, Mike Myers was no stranger to playing characters under heavy make-up, and the arguable apex of that was his role as Fat Bastard. Through a 2020s lens, many would argue that Fat Bastard is a wildly offensive depiction of an obese person, but at the same time, the character is so cartoonish and over-the-top that it’s clear Myers never intended him to be taken at all seriously.

Fat Bastard is introduced as a Scottish henchman for Dr. Evil, and he even beds Austin’s love Felicity Shagwell at one point as part of an attempt to plant a tracking device on him. In both The Spy Who Shagged Me and Goldmember, Fat Bastard appears to have a change of heart and turns good. The first time it doesn’t stick, but the second time seems to, with him even losing weight thanks to the Subway diet, a moment now rendered horrifying by the fact that former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle is now a convicted sex offender.

Goldmember

Goldmember, real name Johann van der Smut, is the titular Dutch villain of Austin Powers in Goldmember, and is most directly inspired by Auric Goldfinger from the classic James Bond film Goldfinger, although the characters differ in many ways. Goldmember is definitely the most divisive of Mike Myers’ Austin Powers characters, if only because people tend to find him either hilarious or obnoxious, with little middle ground. His distinctive accent and mannerisms can be grating to some, as can be his disgusting habit of peeling off pieces of his own skin and eating them.

Still, Goldmember is generally regarded as the weakest film in the trilogy, so the titular character’s struggles may just be a side effect. He’s certainly a uniquely weird comic creation, and he fits with Myers’ history of crafting strange characters with exaggerated tendencies. Should an Austin Powers 4 ever happen – which doesn’t seem too likely at this point – Goldmember could possibly get a shot at redemption though, as he managed to survive Austin’s third adventure. Still, while Myers may be willing to get back into Dr. Evil mode for a Super Bowl commercial, he’s mostly stopped appearing in movies since The Love Guru famously bombed in 2008. Whether he’ll ever decide to end his big screen semi-retirement remains to be seen.

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