Marvel Star Mark Ruffalo Reportedly Eyed for a Lead Role in Parasite Television Series

Avengers star Mark Ruffalo is reportedly being eyed to star in the HBO limited series based on Parasite, the foreign film favorite awarded four Oscars during Sunday’s 92nd Academy Awards, including Best International Feature Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director for Bong Joon-Ho and Best Picture. Ruffalo’s possible involvement comes one month after it was reported HBO is developing the limited series with Bong and Academy Award winner Adam McKay, writer-director behind past awards season favorites The Big Short and Vice. According to scooper Jeff Sneider (via Collider), “multiple sources” say the Parasite series is aiming for Ruffalo to star.

Sneider reports Bong reached out to Ruffalo and there is “interest on both sides,” but notes the camps have yet to enter into official negotiations. Asked for comment, HBO said in a statement, “The HBO limited series inspired by Parasite is in the early stages of development, and to speculate on any characters or casting is wildly premature.”

The Parasite television series comes from CJ Entertainment, who backed the film that has grossed nearly $170 million worldwide, and McKay’s Hyperobject Industries and Dooho Choi’s Kate Street Picture Company (Okja). According to Deadline, the limited series was “hotly pursued” by Netflix and other top streamers.

“I had all these key ideas accumulated from when I started writing the script,” the now three-time Oscar-winning Bong previously told TheWrap of the script he wrote with Han Jin Won. “I just couldn’t include all those ideas in the two-hour running time of the film, so they’re all stored in my iPad and my goal with this limited series is to create a six-hour-long film.”

In Parasite, a newly formed symbiotic relationship between wealthy and destitute families is threatened by greed and class discrimination.

“For example when the original housekeeper Mun Gwang (Lee Jung Eun) comes back in the late-night, something happened to her face. Even her husband asked about it but she never answered,” Bong said of the film. “I know why she had the bruises on her face. I have a story for that and aside from that why does she know the existence of this bunker? What relationship does she have with that architect to know of this bunker? So I have all these hidden stories that I have stored.”

Three-time Oscar-nominated actor Ruffalo next appears in HBO’s upcoming limited series I Know This Much Is True, also starring Imogen Poots, Juliette Lewis, Kathryn Hahn, Michael Greyeyes and Melissa Leo.

Photo credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez for Disney / Getty Images