Avatar: The Way of Water Star Stephen Lang Isn't Fighting for Marvel Roles Anymore After Failed Cable Bid

Like a lot of big Hollywood stars, Avatar: The Way of Water's Stephen Lang was in the conversation about who should play Cable in Deadpool 2 -- but after years of answering the same questions over and over, the actor says he is done talking to fans and reporters about whether he will ever get a Marvel role. In an interview with ComicBook.com's Chris Killian, Lang declined to address fan-casting that pitted him against Harrison Ford for the role of "Thunderbolt" Ross, a character previously played by the late William Hurt in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He cited one half-hearted "yeah, sure" kind of tweet about whether he would like to play Cable as the impetus.

It isn't that Lang would not be interested in playing a Marvel character, you see. It's that he knows the downsides of expressing that willingness publicly, and having a narrative built up around the idea that you're "in talks" or at least "campaigning" for the gig.

"No, and I've learned to keep my mouth shut about stuff like that. As you well know, I put out one tweet years ago about saying, 'Sure, I'll play Cable,' and it became all of a sudden, 'Lang is campaigning for the role' and everything. So all I can say is that I think Harrison Ford is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful actor, you know? I can't think of anybody better in that role -- except for maybe one or two people -- but I have nothing to say upon those lines. I await the call from the ghost of Stan Lee, that's all I can say."

The actor is also aware that there's a character with a phonetically-similar name in the existing Marvel canon -- but he had no idea who Steven Lang, who runs the mutant-hunting Sentinels program, actually was before Killian explained it.

"I am distantly aware of it but I have no idea what he does," Lang admitted. When Killian explained it, he said diplomatically, "That sounds like something that I could play."

Old Man, a new film in which Lang plays a dangerous man living in the woods, who is visited by a lost hiker, is coming on October 14.

Are you excited to return to the world of Avatar? And do you have any more fancasting ideas to make Stephen Lang's internet life a little more interesting? Sound off below.

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