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Which MCU actor was the most wasted as a villain?

Which MCU actor has been most wasted as a villain?

  • Jeff Bridges

    Votes: 58 4.2%

  • Mickey Rourke

    Votes: 48 3.5%

  • Christopher Eccleston

    Votes: 252 18.3%

  • Lee Pace

    Votes: 69 5.0%

  • James Spader

    Votes: 153 11.1%

  • Mads Mikkelsen

    Votes: 758 55.0%

  • Other...

    Votes: 40 2.9%
  • Total voters
    1,378
ReginaldXIV

ReginaldXIV

Member
Nov 4, 2017
7,802
Minnesota
Lee Pace and then Mads. Ronan was such a non-character and they made no effort of ever fleshing him out. Especially since he's Kree, and the Kree are most likely going to be a huge deal in phase 4. They could retroactively flesh him out later like they have been with a certain villain in WandaVision.

Tuorom said:
Wait what movie was Coon in? lol
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She was Proxima Midnight in Infinity War. Also a waste of a cool character. At least she had dialogue though.
 
MadLaughter

MadLaughter

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
13,098
They wasted Carrie Coon and Chris Eccleston

Which means that Justin Theroux is 100% gonna wade bare-ass naked out of the ocean as Namor the Sub-Mariner
 
Rendering...

Rendering...

Member
Oct 30, 2017
19,089
Definitely Mads. Imagine wasting the definitive Hannibal on some magical mook who gets flushed in one movie. The dude crafted one of the all time greatest villains across three seasons of brilliant performance -- inviting direct comparison with Anthony Hopkins' Oscar winning version, and still absolutely killing the role -- and he was cast as a character that any C-list actor could have handled just as well.

He did fine enough with what he got, but he wasn't given much.
 
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PaulloDEC

PaulloDEC

Visited by Knack
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,423
Australia
Coyote Starrk said:
I get what you were trying to say but I feel like Kingsley was the absolute perfect person for that character. He turned a throwaway villain into one of the funniest scenes in the history of the MCU. I don't think anyone else could have done that.
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Agree with this, Kingsley was absolute gold in that role. Iron Man 3 would be so much poorer for not having him in it.
 
Soj

Soj

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,707
Walton Goggins

No one else even comes close. He's perfect for any number of Marvel villains but let's have him be a throwaway arms dealer.
 

gerg

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,346
I'd vote for Care Blanchett in Thor: Ragnarok. She's an incredible actress but that role is so flat and boring.
 
Tuorom

Tuorom

Member
Oct 30, 2017
10,915
MadLaughter said:
Which means that Justin Theroux is 100% gonna wade bare-ass naked out of the ocean as Namor the Sub-Mariner
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the-leftovers-penis-length.gif
 

lupinko

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,154
Dr. Zoidberg said:
Hugo Weaving would be my personal vote, since I really enjoyed his turn as Red Skull. I seem to recall reading he did not want to do more than one movie though.
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Nah, he later said he passed on it because Marvel changed the role on him. His Red Skull was originally supposed to be the overarching enemy for all three Captain America movies. But during development Feige and the writing staff changed their minds, you can tell Red Skull was probably a part of Winter Soldier originally given the involvement of Alexander Pierce in the movie. To go from supposedly headlining as the lead villain in a trilogy to be reduced to two short cameos in Avengers 3&4 is quite depressing.
 
MadLaughter

MadLaughter

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
13,098
lupinko said:
Nah, he later said he passed on it because Marvel changed the role on him. His Red Skull was originally supposed to be the overarching enemy for all three Captain America movies. But during development Feige and the writing staff changed their minds, you can tell Red Skull was probably a part of Winter Soldier originally given the involvement of Alexander Pierce in the movie. To go from supposedly headlining as the lead villain in a trilogy to be reduced to two short cameos in Avengers 3&4 is quite depressing.
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He's changed his story since 2012

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Deleted member 64609

Banned
Mar 18, 2020
2,434
Spader was my immediate thought so I voted him, but man that's a tough list. MCU Ultron was horribly written.

I don't remember who Eccleston played tbh
 
Blackthorn

Blackthorn

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,318
London
I had to look up who Eccleston even was, so yeah, he gets my vote.

Mads was wasted for sure but at least he had presence when he was there and got to star in one of my MCU faves.
 
matrix-cat

matrix-cat

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,284
Mads Mikkelsen holds the dubious honour of having been wasted in both the MCU and Star Wars. Ben Mendelsohn, too, come to think of it.
 

Deleted member 8468

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
9,109
Definitely Mads.

I wonder if the character was always written that way, or if things were cut/changed along the way. It's not as if he's an unknown, felt very weird to see such a great (and somewhat selective) actor in an almost entirely throwaway role.
 
Goat Mimicry

Goat Mimicry

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,920
Eccleston. A lot of the others were definitely wasted, but his voice was deepened to the point of being unrecognizable and he sounded fantastic in the trailers.
 

Shroki

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,911
I don't really care what you thought of Iron Man 2, 3 or Age of Ultron. They absolutely did not waste Rockwell, Kingsley or Spader. Their performances were pretty much the highlights of those movies.

matrix-cat said:
Mads Mikkelsen holds the dubious honour of having been wasted in both the MCU and Star Wars. Ben Mendelsohn, too, come to think of it.
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Ben was great in Captain Marvel and has a future in other MCU projects, including opposite Sam Jackson in Secret Wars.
 
IMCaprica

IMCaprica

Member
Aug 1, 2019
9,433
I voted Lee Pace only because Marvel had the audacity to bring him back, get him dressed up in all that makeup and costume again, only to do even less than the first movie he was in.
 
Weltall Zero

Weltall Zero

Game Developer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
19,343
Madrid
Mads is a waste in that he plays a character without much screen time, but he's pretty great in that little time.
Eccleston is a waste in that he plays the most painfully unremarkable character in the entire MCU.
 
Weltall Zero

Weltall Zero

Game Developer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
19,343
Madrid
Shroki said:
I don't really care what you thought of Iron Man 2, 3 or Age of Ultron. They absolutely did not waste Rockwell, Kingsley or Spader. Their performances were pretty much the highlights of those movies.
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Kingsley and Pearce are both amazing in Iron Man 3; definitely the highlight of a movie that's already top tier MCU. The synergy and contrast between both of their characters is simply amazing considering how little time they are even simultaneously onscreen.
 
J-Skee

J-Skee

The Wise Ones
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,109
Ronan is so much more in the books. That would have been fun to explore in the films. But Eccleston just got done wrong.
 
Trike

Trike

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Nov 6, 2017
2,394
Christopher Eccleston is absolutely the wrong choice. Dark World being a bad movie doesn't mean he was wasted. Eccleston could give zero fucks about the MCU no matter what role he was given. Mads Mikkelsen is the obvious choice.
 
HotHamBoy

HotHamBoy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
16,423
Mikkelsen in terms of who i wanted to see get more meat, but to be honest Pace and Eccleston had it far worse.

everyone else in the poll was given a lot more. pretty weird to even put Bridges and Spader in there.

you know who really got a raw deal? The great Carrie Coon!

Avengers-actress-asked-to-appear-in-Endgame-despite-being-killed-off-in-Infinity-War-c8b0.jpg


crazy waste of talent. I think she gets three softly muttered lines in the film.
 
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Chasing

Chasing

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
10,719
Mads and Eccleston for sure.

Eccleston might get a bit of an edge because of how nothing a role Malekith was. At least Mads had a couple of cool fighting scenes to himself.
 
Kinketsu

Kinketsu

Member
Nov 17, 2017
1,976
Mads by a mile, he's fantastic but I had to pause for a second when I saw his name to think what movie he was in! He would have been so good as so many different iconic characters. As for bringing people back a la Gemma Chan, I think you could bring back James Spader and Christopher Eccleston. You could probably do Lee Pace too but I dont know if he was "wasted" as such.
 
Rodney McKay

Rodney McKay

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,205
As much as introducing and killing off Ulteon in one movie sucked, Mads is the correct choice.

I've just been rewatching Hannibal and he's just so incredible as a villain like that (smart, calculated, patient, etc.), in the MCU he's just a random doomsday cult leader type guy who isn't really even the main villain and who's death is almost an afterthought.

Ultron at least got lasered by everyone and had his heart ripped out.
The Dark Elf dude at least got to grow real big before he died.
Lee Pace got to be in that dance-off scene.
Mads's character barely knew what was happening and Doctor Strange just offhandedly had him sucked into another dimension while making a cringey one-liner about it.
 
Charred Knight

Charred Knight

Member
Oct 8, 2019
9,144
I honestly forgot Mads was in a Marvel film, and I couldnt even tell Chris Eccleston was the Dark Elf guy because that film was such crap.

Honorable mention is Sam Rockwell whose entire character is a complete dumbass that makes you wonder how he got as far as he did.
 
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