Marvel Universe LIVE! Cast Revealed

Marvel and Feld Entertainment today announced the cast for their upcoming stage show Marvel Universe LIVE!, which debuts next month in Tampa.

After scouring the country to find the best of the best in live action performers with an amazing array of disciplines and skills, Feld today revealed the final cast of more than 50 performers.  Debuting in Tampa before having its world premiere at New York City's Barclays Center on Wednesday, August 13, the show will be the most physically demanding in Feld Entertainment's history and will stop in 85 cities nationwide.

Featuring the most Marvel characters ever in one production, Marvel Universe LIVE! will be headlined by a cast trained in everything from martial arts to motocross in order to bring the Marvel Universe to the live action arena. Supported by a unique blend of aerial stunts, pyrotechnics and state-of-the-art special effects, the idea is to bring an epic live action experience right in front of audiences' eyes every time.

After an intensive eight month cross-country casting process that took place in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Orlando and Ellenton, Florida, with hundreds of hopefuls representing the United States, Mexico, Hungary, France, United Kingdom, Russia, and Japan showing off their considerable skills, the final ensemble is set.

When the spotlight finally shines, spectators will see some of the world's most gifted athletes and performers including professional snow-skater and three-time X Games champ Phil Smage (Captain America), WMX Pro National champion and two-time X Games winner Ashley Fiolek (Hydra Agent), and 2012 X Games Silver Medalist Louise Forsley (Black Widow). To depict the superlative athleticism of some of Marvel's most renowned heroes, Feld Entertainment also has signed martial arts expert and AAU Junior Olympics/National Champion Kirk Jenkins (Wolverine) and long-time American Ninja Warriorprofessional course tester Eric Foster (Hawkeye).

"From the beginning we knew that to pull off a show of this magnitude we had to have a cast that was the closest thing we could find to real life Super Heroes," said Shanda Sawyer, director of Marvel Universe LIVE! "These are intense roles that require performers who are experts in their fields with the ability to take those skills and apply them to a number of meticulously crafted sequences, all designed to push the limits of anything the audience has ever seen in an arena show of this caliber – and they need to do this day in and day out."

Marvel Universe LIVE! will feature an original story that brings more than 25 Marvel characters together on one epic quest.  The story is framed around the battle over the Cosmic Cube, the source of ultimate power and one of the most feared and coveted treasures in the Marvel Universe, that has been shattered into pieces by the mighty Thor in order to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. With the pieces scattered across the globe, Thor's villainous brother, Loki, devises a scheme to clone its powers, inciting a threat that could not only decimate Earth but also obliterate the Universe. 

You can take a look at the audition process via a casting diary video embedded below.