Bryan Cranston has had a diverse acting careeer over the decades, from his antics as Hal on Malcolm in the Middle to assisting Ben Affleck in Argo to voicing two monsters on Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers (yes, he really did that). However, one genre he hasn’t dipped his toes much into is the comic book realm. Although he voiced James Gordon in the animated Batman: Year One movie, he has yet to join a live action superhero flick. Now Cranston is saying he would be open to appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but with one strict condition.
In an interview with Metro, Cranston mentioned that would eventually like to play a villain in a Marvel movie. There’s just one catch: it would have to be an original character. The actor said:
Create one from scratch… I don’t know what I would do but it would be nasty.
There’s no doubt that Cranston would excel at playing a bad guy. Anyone who’s seen Breaking Bad, the Total Recall remake, and various other projects know he can bring the villainy. The problem is that aside from henchmen and side baddies, so far the MCU hasn’t created any major antagonists to pit against the heroes. All of them originated from the comics, even ones as obscure as Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s Alexander Pierce or Ant-Man’s Darren Cross. Heck, aside from Erik Selvig, Darcy, Luis and a few others, there aren’t many original characters in the franchise.
Since Marvel is focused on adapting established comic book adversaries, it’s hard to imagine what type of evildoer Cranston could play that’s both original and prominent. The first choices that come to mind are a corrupt government official or some kind of leading figure in the criminal underworld. As long as they didn’t do something akin to Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery in Iron Man 3, then we’ll be fine. Like Cranston said, he needs to play someone “nasty,” not an oblivious idiot. If he really wanted to take things to the next level, maybe Cranston could play a character that requires heavy makeup, like an alien in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 or a heavily transformed Inhuman in Inhumans.
While there’s no guarantee as of yet that Cranston will ever appear in a Marvel movie, moviegoers can look forward to seeing a lot of the actor in the near future. Among his many upcoming projects are playing screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in Trumbo, Li-Shang in Kung Fu Panda 3, and President Lyndon Johnson in HBO’s All the Way. In the meantime, make sure you’re caught up on the latest shakeups in Marvel’s Phase Three film slate by clicking here.
