The Marvel Cinematic Universe has made great use of quite a few terrific talents. Tom Holland as Spider-Man, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther, the list goes on. But it’s a franchise that doesn’t treat all actors equally. Oftentimes this is due to each individual installments seeming need to connect to everything that came before and will come after. That comes at the cost of fully fleshed-out characters. It’s not exactly rare that a character is involved just to serve the needs of a narrative only to be shuffled off the playing board even before they got a chance to make an impact.
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The following actors were more than capable of delivering great performances in an MCU movie or TV show. They just fell by the wayside at some point in the production.
7) Olivia Colman in Secret Invasion
On the small screen, the MCU has given some excellent actors comparably excellent roles. Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness in WandaVision, Owen Wilson as Mobius M. Mobius in Loki, Oscar Isaac as the title character in Moon Knight, they were all wonderful fits. But Secret Invasion didn’t give its actors anything outside of a jumbled tone and poor dialogue to work with.
Emilia Clarke got the worst of the series’ issues as G’iah, especially once she turns into a thick-armed and literally bright-eyed superbeing for the finale. But at least she got something to do. Olivia Colman, who has never turned anything less than a stellar performance, was given nothing more than a shady bureaucrat-type role.
6) Mickey Rourke in Iron Man 2
Some may disagree, but Mickey Rourke is a lot of fun to watch in Iron Man 2. His Whiplash is a step down from Iron Monger, but it’s clear Rourke was giving it his all.
This makes the Diner star’s anger regarding his character’s trimming fairly understandable. Then again, it’s also understandable that the focus needed to be on Tony Stark just as it’s understandable how more time was warranted Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer. It would be great to see an extended cut of Iron Man 2, but as the theatrical cut stands Rourke’s Whiplash comes across as a casualty of a narrative that was trying to juggle too much in a two-hour runtime.
5) Ray Winstone in Black Widow
Like some others on this list, Ray Winstone didn’t have the best time starring in his MCU adventure: Black Widow. And like with those others, it’s easy to see why.
Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz, and David Harbour all get plenty of chances to shine, but Ray Winstone’s Dreykov basically just sits behind a desk and occasionally presses a button. Winstone does what he can with what he has, but that isn’t much.
4) Benicio del Toro, Glenn Close, and Lee Pace in Guardians of the Galaxy
Perhaps this one isn’t fair. After all, James Gunn had a big task in introducing not one but five new superheroes and, much to his credit, he pulls that off. Rocket, Peter Quill, Groot, Gamora, and Drax all received what it required to make them immediately lovable characters.
However, this still came at the cost of a memorable villain. All Lee Pace gets to do is brood and occasionally yell. Furthermore, Benicio del Toro’s cameo as the Collector is less a starting point for the character and more the best screentime he ever had in the MCU. He was swiftly disposed of in Avengers: Infinity War. Lastly, Glenn Close is always wonderful, but just about anyone could have played Irani Rael. Why get someone as talented as her for such a bland one-off role? At least John C. Reilly, in a similar role, got to have some banter with Quill.
3) Salma Hayek in Eternals
Most cast members of Eternals could be here. The vast majority of them didn’t get a full arc and, when they did, the arc didn’t quite land.
But someone of Salma Hayek’s caliber deserved more screentime. Sure, the death of her character, Ajak, is the film’s gut-punch moment, but it’s so overcrowded she doesn’t get much of a chance to put her stamp on the film and make that gut-punch moment actually feel like a gut-punch.
2) Christian Bale in Thor: Love and Thunder
This could be a controversial entry and a controversial placement of that entry. After all, whenever Christian Bale is on-screen as Gorr the God Butcher Thor: Love and Thunder is much better than when he is not.
But Gorr’s character arc, which is solid, is undermined by just how silly the rest of the movie. It makes it feel like the whole over-arching franchise’s biggest financial jumble. Furthermore, given how great his performance is, Bale isn’t given nearly enough screentime.
1) Christopher Eccleston in Thor: The Dark World
Christopher Eccleston has been clear that he felt slighted by Marvel when it came to playing Malekith and Thor: The Dark World. And fair enough on that one.
Malekith is so hollowly written that it did not take an actor of Eccleston’s talent to inhabit the role. Just look at 28 Days Later to see how terrifying Eccleston can make a villainous role. How he can imbue them with intelligence and menace. Malekith doesn’t come across as either of those things, and that is not on Eccleston’s shoulders. He’s essentially in the same league as Laufey the Frost Giant, who unlike Malekith was not supposed to be the original Thor‘s main villain. He’s a side villain, a pawn in Loki’s plan. When your main villain comes across as bland as a henchman (henchelf?), that’s a problem.
Did we miss any great actors wasted by the MCU? Let us know in the comments.
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