O-T Fagbenle, who played the character of Rick Mason in the recent Black Widow film, could be coming back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe — although in what capacity, he isn’t saying (or maybe doesn’t know). In a newly-released interview, actor said that his contract negotiations with Marvel Studios were not just “a one-and-done conversation,” which suggests that the character — dubbed “The Agent” in the comics, and created by writer James Hudnall and artist John Ridgway — could have a bigger role to play in Marvel’s sprawling TV and film universe going forward.
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That said, don’t necessarily expect a 1:1 translation of that character. According to Fagbenle, this version of Mason is a “creation” of Black Widow writer Eric Pearson. In fact, he admits that his character is so different from the comics version that he did not feel like he needed to do much in the way of research.
“With Marvel, I’m never sure how much they can say about stuff, but I’ll just say that it wasn’t a one-and-done conversation,” Fagbenle told /Film.
“To be honest, I did start to [research the comics],” the actor added. “I had conversations with Eric [Pearson], who wrote Black Widow, who’s become a friend of mine, he’s a genius and a beautiful person. In our conversations, in some ways I feel like this incarnation of Mason is an Eric creation … So although I did have a little peek at the original, I very soon just became focused on what Eric created for Black Widow.”
Given the fact that Black Widow wasn’t a Spider-Man: No Way Home-level mega-hit, that might seems like it doesn’t bode well for Mason. Still, the mythology of Black Widow has already expanded out in Hawkeye, and it’s likely it will have ramifications around the MCU for a while to come. Don’t be too surprised to see a character like Mason in something like Armor Wars or something similarly grounded, where his services as “the guy who can get you stuff” could make him either a hero (if he’s helping Rhodey or Daredevil) or a villain (if he’s helping Skrulls or Kingpin). In the scheme of things, his character was given a degree or moral flexibility that could put him on either side of a number of conflicts.
