Marvel Movie Casting – Thoughts from IMDb

Recently I gave you my thoughts about a Doctor Strange movie – a movie which just doesn’t fit in with the current Marvel cosmology. Then again, there are things that I wouldn’t expect that seem to be working their way into the movies now, so who knows!

I’ve been looking at the Marvel movies on IMDb, which might be a bad idea, and might be a whole lot of spoilers. However, this also paints an interesting picture of the upcoming films, specifically of the characters that are going to be in them.

Found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agents_of_S.H.I.E.L.D.

Also, it leaves a number of characters on the table to – like Doctor Strange – maybe end up in Agents of SHIELD one day? A number of characters, like the Guardians of the Galaxy, need a large budget for the CG to make them. Some characters, however, are more human or exist on Earth, and could make it easily onto the show. After all, Coulson’s mission is to find heroes, so Whedon shouldn’t have to invent all of the heroes new, right?

So, spoilers to follow, some of which I probably don’t even understand for what they are myself!

Vin Diesel in Marvel

Found on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2015381/

One of the things that I heard before we knew what role he would be playing. I didn’t pull together my thoughts in time to do a blog post about it. In case you haven’t heard, Vin Diesel will be playing… well, perhaps motion-capturing and voicing – Groot. Groot, who is kind of a tree guy. Thing. In Guardians of the Galaxy.

I really don’t know what I think of this casting, because in part I don’t really know Groot. Vin Diesel has an incredibly distinct voice, so that is interesting for voice acting, as well. In Guardians, I wonder if there wouldn’t be a better role for Vin Diesel – the role of Drax the Destroyer. We have a wrestler in this role, however, which I suppose will work.

And hey, the two were together in Riddick, and that worked out well.

However, in looking a little further, I found that there is an X-Force movie in the early stages, slated for 2016. Is this the next X-Men movie, after Days of Future Past? Or will it stand alone as a new production? Too soon to tell, but I’m pretty sure it’s not part of Marvel Phase 3.

But okay, I’m getting somewhere: if I were working on casting Vin Diesel in the Marvel Universe somewhere, it would be as Cable in an X-Force movie. It’s possible he could be cast, I suppose, since it’s likely a different production company (and, after all, Chris Evans is Captain America AND Human Torch…), but I don’t know if we’ll see that.

But I would totally watch a Vin Diesel as Cable, Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine kind of X-Force movie, right?

How Many Villains are we Squeezing Into Guardians of the Galaxy?

The big reveal recently that Avengers 2 was not going to be a battle against Thaons – but instead is the Age of Ultron – and so the thought is that Thanos is going to end up the Big Bad in Guardians of the Galaxy. Okay, so solidly cosmic setting and enemy, that should work, right?

Except, looking at the cast, there’s all kinds of threats from throughout the Marvel Universe hidden away in Guardians – The Collector (also appearing in Thor: The Dark World it looks like), Ronan the Accuser… and of course Nebula. The Doctor Who fans out there are excited that this is Karen Gillan as Nebula – and the biggest news for the movie so far, really, is Karen Gillan shaving her head to play Nebula.

Found on http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2013/07/karen-gillan-shaved-head-why-guardians-of-the-galaxy-made-her-go-bald.html

There are many others, although effectively it is the Kree Empire they’re up against, it seems. Where does Thanos fit in with this? Who knows. There’s a different character that’s related to the Kree Empire that has been talked about lately, though…

Katee Sackhoff as Captain Marvel.

I read a good blog post on this the other day, so I don’t have much to add to it. Except that I think this would be a great casting. Plus a great character to add to the movie Universe, and one that could work directly into the Avengers. And the most fun is that if Katee Sackhoff ended up in Guardians of the Galaxy, it would almost be like a Riddick reunion…

Quicksilver Everywhere! Wait, He Can Do That, Can’t He?

Found on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/

So, I had not known this before I was looking over IMDb for this post. But there are more Avengers being added to Age of Ultron than just the Falcon, who’s been known for a while (and is going to be in Captain America: The Winter Soldier). Very traditional Avengers.

Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.

A couple of mutants.

So this means a couple of things potentially. One is that they’re going to work mutants into the Avengers movie universe… without being able to make X-Men movies. I find this unlikely. Another is that they’re going to just be people with powers – something that, given Agents of SHIELD, is going to be increasingly happening, it seems.

And Wanda uses magic, so does that leave the door open for Doctor Strange?

Anyway, one of the things that worked with The Avengers was that basically all of the cast had been introduced already, so rather than having to do any origins, or character introductions, we got to start from a known place – and they could do character interaction, and character development, instead of introductions. Adding new characters, and a possible new villain, to Age of Ultron, might take away something from that winning formula. I’m not seeing these characters in the other films, at least not listed yet…

Except, they have one other engine to deliver characters to us. And that is Agents of SHIELD. And it would make sense for these seemingly human characters to show up in Agents of SHIELD, and for the villainous Ultron to be created by SHIELD. How much is the movie universe going to be leaning on the show? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. They do have two years to get us there – and having a climactic season 2 ending that leads right into Avengers 2 could be fun.

I have more to say on the topic of Quicksilver, however. Because, as a long-time Avenger, it would make sense for Marvel Studios to have the rights to be able to use him in the movie, as opposed to one of the other studios (I’m thinking Fox, making the X-Men movies). However, as both mutants and children of Magneto, it would also make sense for them to be in the X-Men movies, right?

Found on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1877832/

Oh, whoops, that happened. Looking at the cast list for Days of Future Past, there’s Quicksilver! So all of a sudden, we’re going to have two Quicksilvers in the two franchises, with two different actors. I guess both ended up with the rights to him, as over time he has served two very different functions – as a mutant and as an Avenger.

But then, I looked at the casting choices a bit harder for a moment. Both Quicksilvers were in Kick-Ass. But whereas one was his friend, who wanted to be Kick-Ass… the other was Kick-Ass. So it’s like one studio got the real Quicksilver, and one got the second-rate Quicksilver. I would personally not want to cast quite that way… except I imagine they were cast in the same order I mention: first for X-Men, and then for Avengers. So I guess for Avengers, they just upgraded.

This leaves a lot of characters still on the table for Agents of SHIELD – who would you like to see make an appearance on the show?