7 Actors We Want To See In A Comic Book Movie

There are few things more fun than fan-casting your favorite comics into movies. For years, Casting Call was one of the most popular features in Wizard: The Comics Magazine, and just try to deny that you’ve spent some trime trying to figure out what superhero Nathan Fillion would be best at.

You can’t do it, can you? Yeah, we thought not.

For years, fans have been waiting with bated breath for the day Joe Manganiello would finally be announced as a cast member in a comic book movie…and when it finally happened, it was as Deathstroke the Terminator, one of DC’s most badass (and beloved) villains.

You know fans, though: we’re never fully satisfied. So now that we’ve had one of our years-long fan-casting fantasies spring to life just in time for Batman’s next solo film, we’ve got to think about who else deserves a shot at a comic book movie and hasn’t had one yet.

Not all of these characters are going to be lead-superhero material, but we did come up with what we think is a pretty good list of performers whose skills would enhance any cinematic universe they chose to grace with them.

Like who, you ask? Well, read on…!

GIANCARLO ESPOSITO

We want to see Giancarlo Esposito take on a supervillain role in a big, bad way.

In fact, we’re so desperate to see the Bob Roberts and Breaking Bad actor join the Marvel Cinematic Universe or DC Extended Universe that when we had an opportunity to talk with him about The Jungle Book, we asked him whether he would have liked to be a part of Suicide Squad, the then-new release from Warner Bros.

Esposito, after all, had provided the voice for one of the characters in the animated Batman: Assault on Arkham, the first feature-length film to feature the Squad.

“I know the Marvel world exists on the Disney lot. I love those guys at Marvel. We’ve been trying to figure out how to collaborate on something,” Esposito told us at the time. “I’m hoping that it is something. They came to me with something for their television department, then I realized if I did that, I’d never be able to have that same character be in that film department. Once you’re in a Marvel character in the television version, you have to stay in the particular character. They can’t carry that over to film.”

So it looks like the ball is in Marvel’s court at this point…!

EMMA WATSON

The Harry Potter star is not only a fantastic actor, but she’s got good relationships with both Warner Bros. (producers of the Harry Potter franchise) and Disney (whose Beauty and the Beast she’s starring in).

Heck, she’s even got an existing relationship with The Flash star Ezra Miller, who appeared alongside Watson in Perks of Being a Wallflower. (Ant-Man‘s Paul Rudd also appeared in that film.)

With huge range, experience working with major franchises that would help to blunt some of the shellshock that comes along with blockbuster culture, and an army of devoted fans, she would be an asset to any major motion picture…but it’s hard not to want her to join up with your movieverse of choice, isn’t it?

DANIEL RADCLIFFE

For many of the same reasons you’d want Emma Watson around, how about Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe?

The actor has spent his post-Potter career making movies that he finds interesting, and they’ve ranged from popcorn hits to indie fare. The biggest obstacle to locking him down might be the multi-picture deal and the lack of assurance that he would have script approval on all the sequels.

But if they could get him involved, it would be worth it. He’s a great actor and a box office draw, much like Watson, and the PR about his return to spectacle filmmaking would write itself.

Our wish, if we could make one? Cast him as Ted Kord in the forthcoming Booster Gold movie. He’s got the comedic chops, the look, and the film is apparently being told in its own little corner of the world where it might or might not even exist in DC’s Extended Universe, so Radcliffe’s exposure would be minimum. Also, if you gave him a role similar to what Kord is doing in the current Blue Beetle ongoing, it wouldn’t be Radcliffe but whoever was cast as Jaime Reyes who would be indispensible for future movies.

SANDRA BULLOCK

One of the most bankable female movie stars on the planet, Sandra Bullock isn’t a stranger to genre fare.

Even before she was in the Oscar mix for Gravity, Bullock appeared in cult-favorite Demolition Man, and has since been hounded by questions about how the “three seashells” work.

She’s got that great mix of talent and likability, making her a potentially potent franchise lead — something we’ve seen before with the Speed and Miss Congeniality movies, and will see again soon with her Ocean’s Eight.

Of course, she’s technically already played a supervillain in the form of Scarlett Overkill from Minions…!

ETHAN HAWKE

Ethan Hawke is the kind of actor who feels perfctly suited to play the villain in a Marvel movie.

He’s hugely talented, unlikely to be locked down to a multi-picture deal, but seems to take a wide variety of roles, including some genre stuff that ranges from good (Gattaca) to forgettable (Predestination).

Another actor with a big franchise just about to launch, you can next see Hawke in The Magnificent Seven this weekend. And, yeah, expect just a few more years before he does the next Before… movie. The last one was in 2013, and it seems they’re on an “ever-nine-years” schedule. 

(Oh! And speaking of people with ties to existing comics-movie stars: Hawke’s Before Sunrise co-star Julie Delpy appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron and of course you all know his Magnificent Seven co-star Chris Pratt as Star-Lord.)

RACHAEL LEIGH COOK

Sure, she’s already starred in one comic book movie, having played the title role in Josie and the Pussycats, one of our seven most underrated comic book flicks. 

Still, it’s been fifteen years since then, and she’s no longer Hollywood’s it-girl. But anybody who’s watched her in Psych, Perception, or The Big Empty in those intervening years knows that she’s a spectacularly entertaining performer who can command the screen even when she’s up against some pretty impressive co-stars.

(And, like Esposito, she knows Iron Man director Jon Favreau thanks to the aforementioned The Big Empty. She’s also got an in with Daredevil‘s Rosario Dawson, as seen above.)

Cook is one of those actors in the vein of a John Travolta or Jared Leto. Early in her career, she was so commercial and so touted as the next big thing, that when she finally lands that role that makes everyone stand up and realize “holy crap, she can act,” it’s going to be a game-changer.

And it’s going to happen, because she’s good. So why not make it happen in a comic book movie, where a big audience can see it and the people who go out on a limb for her can benefit from locking her into a three-picture deal while she’s still cheap?

DAVID STRATHAIRN

One of the best actors of the last 30 years, David Strathairn has blockbuster experience in the form of his time on the Bourne Identity franchise, and has worked with a number of the finest directors in Hollywood, including John Sayles (in basically everything) to the late Curtis Hanson (in LA Confidential and The River Wild).

Strathairn seems like a perfect fit to be a Marvel Cinematic Universe villain. Like Robert Redford, he’s almost universally recognized as a great actor but typically prefers to keep his profile relatively low, unless a really great script grabs him and pushes him into the blockbuster world.