The Marvel Cinematic Universe is no stranger to recasts. Over 37 films and counting, there have been several characters who have seen their actors shuffled and while it’s usually the bigger swaps that come to mind — Mark Ruffalo taking on the role of the Hulk from Edward Norton, Don Cheadle taking over James “Rhodey” Rhodes from Terrence Howard — there have been other recasts as well. In the case of actors playing Tony Stark’s father, however, the recast happened twice, with John Slattery and Dominic Cooper both playing the character in different films. Now, Cooper says he was surprised about the swap because he had been told about a future Avengers opportunity.
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Speaking with ComicBook, Cooper, who is currently starring in Apple TV’s The Last Frontier, teased that he wants to “arm wrestle” Slattery about the Howard Stark swap, though he makes it clear that he has nothing but admiration for his fellow father of Iron Man, who also just so happens to star in The Last Frontier.
“It’s funny. I do really want to talk to him,” Cooper said. “I love him in Mad Men, I used to just be obsessed with, and annoyingly, when I was doing the end of Captain America, I was told about being in an Avengers in the future. It didn’t end up being me. It was him. So, I kind of either want to arm wrestle him or discuss why. Why? Who gets to choose? That should have been me, shouldn’t it because that’s my era, isn’t it? Wasn’t it meant to be… and so they made him look younger. Why didn’t they make me look older? But he’s a better actor, so that’s… and wasn’t he originally him? He’s the original, isn’t he? Now I don’t know who’s the original!”
Howard Stark Has Actually Been Played By Three Actors (And Two Are Open to Return)
Cooper’s friendly confusion over who was the first Howard Stark in the MCU is understandable as there have been three actors to portray Tony Stark’s father. Gerard Sanders briefly appeared in Iron Man, appearing as Howard in a slideshow summarizing Tony Stark’s life and highlighting the death of his parents. However, it was Slattery that first played Howard in a substantial role, appearing in Iron Man 2 in a recorded message for Tony. Cooper picked up the role for a World War 2-era Howard in Captain America: The First Avenger and also appeared in Agent Carter. When fans saw Howard Stark again, this time in a flashback scene in Ant-Man, Slattery was back in the role and has portrayed him ever since.
It’s also not impossible that we won’t see Slattery’s Howard Stark again. The actor has indicated that he would gladly return to the MCU back in 2022. Cooper himself has also previously indicated that he wouldn’t mind another crack at the MCU, explaining back in 2019 that he didn’t know why he wasn’t asked to be in Endgame, but joked that he’s “trying to get employed by them again, please.”
The first two episodes of The Last Frontier are now streaming on Apple TV.
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Image courtesy of Stage 6 Films -
Image courtesy of Lucasfilm
