Twins have long been a favorite Hollywood plot device, and now Hudson Williams is getting his own double-role mystery. The Heated Rivalry breakout is headed to Crave’s upcoming mystery thriller Yaga, where he will play two characters, Henry and Logan. Crave revealed the news on social media with a teasing message that raises considerably more questions than it answers.
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“Seeing double? You should be,” the streamer wrote. “Hudson Williams takes on TWO roles in #YAGA. Meet Henry and Logan.”
Notice that Crave did not say Henry and Logan are twins. So until Yaga tells us otherwise, we are not going to do the investigative-journalism equivalent of writing “identical twins” in permanent marker and hoping nobody notices.
Instead, Williams’ double casting gives us a perfectly good excuse to revisit one of television and film’s most entertaining traditions: putting one very attractive man in two roles and making audiences figure out who is who. And yes, we have thoughts.
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Hudson Williams Is About to Make Yaga a Double Take
Williams playing Henry and Logan immediately puts him in a rather fun acting tradition.
Playing two characters is one thing. Making those characters look similar enough that the audience has to stop, stare and mentally compare cheekbones is another. And mystery thrillers are particularly well suited to the trick, because the less we know about the characters, the more suspicious we become.
Is Henry connected to Logan? Are they related? Are they twins? Are they simply look-alikes? Is one of them hiding something? For now, Yaga is keeping those answers to itself.
What we do know is that Williams is getting the chance to play two different characters in the same project, which means viewers will presumably be spending a considerable amount of time trying to keep track of which handsome face belongs to which mysterious man. Honestly, difficult work. Somebody has to do it.
Mark Ruffalo Went Full Twin Mode
Before Williams, Mark Ruffalo tackled one of the more demanding versions of the double-role assignment in HBO’s I Know This Much Is True.
Ruffalo played identical twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey in the 2020 HBO drama, portraying both characters throughout the series.
The challenge was not simply making the brothers look alike. Ruffalo had to give Dominick and Thomas distinct personalities and mannerisms while appearing opposite himself.
Ruffalo had a particularly complicated twin relationship to navigate — with the added challenge of making two brothers feel like completely different people. And yes, watching one extremely handsome man argue with himself is exactly the sort of television technology we can get behind.
Paul Rudd Also Knows a Thing or Two About Seeing Double
Paul Rudd took the double-role concept into stranger territory with Netflix’s Living With Yourself.
Rudd played Miles Elliott and another version of Miles after the original undergoes an unusual treatment. They aren’t twins, so this isn’t technically a twin story, but it absolutely belongs in the same family of “wait, why are there two Paul Rudds?” television experiences.
And if Hollywood ever needs a reminder that audiences are perfectly happy to watch the same handsome man twice, Rudd has already provided the evidence.
Jeremy Irons Played Twins, and It Got Very Weird
Jeremy Irons went considerably darker with Dead Ringers, David Cronenberg’s 1988 psychological thriller.
Irons played identical twin gynecologists Beverly and Elliot Mantle, two brothers whose professional and personal lives become increasingly tangled.
The role required Irons to distinguish two characters who look exactly alike while making their relationship feel increasingly unsettling.
Armie Hammer Literally Played Both Winklevoss Twins
Armie Hammer took on one of the most recognizable examples of an actor playing identical twins in The Social Network.
Hammer portrayed Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the real-life twins involved in the story surrounding Facebook’s early history. Visual effects and a body double were used to create the appearance of Hammer interacting with himself on screen.
Which means that, technically, there were two Hammer performances occupying the same scenes. Hollywood really does know how to create problems we didn’t know we needed.
Charlie and Max Carver Are the Real Deal
Now we get to the pair who deserve special attention because, unlike most actors on this list, Charlie and Max Carver are actually identical twins in real life.
The brothers became familiar faces on Desperate Housewives, where they played twin brothers Porter and Preston Scavo. They later appeared together on Teen Wolf as twin werewolves Ethan and Aiden.
They’ve also appeared together as twin brothers in HBO’s The Leftovers, making the Carvers particularly well acquainted with the whole “two identical guys, one screen” situation.
For gay viewers, there’s another reason Charlie Carver’s career has particular significance. Charlie publicly came out as gay in 2016, writing openly about his sexuality and the fears he had once had about how being gay might affect his acting career.
So yes, this particular double act comes with an LGBTQ+ connection that goes beyond the casting.
Meanwhile, Max and Charlie have continued their acting careers separately as well as together, proving that being an identical twin does not mean having to share every role.
James and Oliver Phelps Didn’t Need Hollywood Magic Either
If we’re talking about real-life twins who became famous for playing fictional twins, James and Oliver Phelps obviously belong in the conversation.
The brothers played Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter films, turning identical-twin mischief into one of the franchise’s most recognizable sibling dynamics.
Unlike Williams, who has to portray two characters himself, the Phelps brothers had the considerably easier arrangement of simply being two separate people who already looked alike.
A useful reminder that sometimes the best special effect is having a twin.
Elliott and Luke Tittensor Took the Twin Thing to House of the Dragon
The Tittensor brothers offer another real-life twin pairing who have played twins on screen. Elliott and Luke Tittensor are real-life twins who appeared together in HBO’s House of the Dragon, playing the twin knights Erryk and Arryk Cargyll.
Unlike Williams, they didn’t have to create two characters from a single performance. They simply had to bring their own sibling resemblance to the roles — although the fact that House of the Dragon gave them a twin-versus-twin storyline certainly made their casting especially fitting.
And because House of the Dragon is a show that already contains enough family drama to fill several therapy waiting rooms, adding identical twins to the mix felt almost inevitable.
So, Is Hudson Williams Playing Twins?
Not so fast. At least based on Crave’s announcement, we know Williams is playing Henry and Logan in Yaga. We don’t yet have confirmation that the characters are twins. And frankly, that mystery is more fun.
Williams’ double casting gives Yaga an intriguing hook while putting him in a long tradition of actors who have taken on two roles in the same production.
Whether Henry and Logan turn out to be brothers, look-alikes, secret identities, or something considerably stranger, Williams has officially entered the double-role club.
And if the end result involves two Hudson Williamses on screen at once? Well, suddenly the mystery thriller has our full attention.
There, of course are so many more. Michael B Jordan and Dylan O’Brien and others. Who was your favorite twinning actor? Leave a photo comment on Facebook to let us know.
Oh, and one more for the road from The Time Traveler’s Wife. Image is linked to the video.
The Flashback: The series utilizes a flashback sequence featuring a teenage version of Henry (Brian Altemus) encountering a time-displaced version of himself, which leads to his father unexpectedly walking in and discovering the anomaly.
