Hats off to Daniel Radcliffe for doing what few actors have managed to accomplish: continuing to have a successful career without living in the shadow of their most famous childhood character. To be fair, he is not the only alum of the Harry Potter movies to claim this achievement, but he is still considered a high-profile star without basking in the spotlight for too long and has a more unique assortment of credits in his filmography than even some celebrities who did break out in the Wizarding World. Of course, a part in the Marvel movies is one such role that Daniel Radcliffe has yet to tackle, not to mention one we would be especially curious to see what he does with.
We actually have tried our hand at choosing what comic book roles the younger members of the Harry Potter cast should play and our choice for the title role star was Moon Knight, since the 31-year-old Londoner had been the number one choice among fans at the time. Well, the chance of Daniel Radcliffe taking the lead of the upcoming Disney+ series about the mercenary turned supernatural vigilante is looking pretty slim lately with reports that Oscar Isaac has been tapped to play the character. While nothing is final by the time I write this, the bitter feeling of having your predictions proven wrong has already sunk in.
On the bright side, it does give us ample opportunity to take a look at other characters from the pages of Marvel Comics who have yet to be cast in the MCU (or even the loosely connected universe that Sony has been brewing with their remaining properties) and see whose profile best matches Daniel Radcliffe. Without needing any help from a spell book, we managed to conjure six characters who best fit the bill in our opinion, starting with one who already has the right accent.
Union Jack
Daniel Radcliffe has actually shown exceptional skill at disguising his natural accent in his many American roles and I think he deserves to relax that muscle for an MCU role. Thus, he can work on the other physical attributes required to play Union Jack - one of the better known Marvel characters based in the United Kingdom and famous for his peak athleticism that makes him a force to break reckoned with. Plus, if he were cast as Joseph Chapman, the current iteration, we could have a chance at a meta Harry Potter reunion as I once recommended Sirius Black actor Gary Oldman to play Chapman’s predecessor, James Montgomery Falsworth.
Kraven The Hunter
On the other hand, it might even be more fun to see what other accents Daniel Radcliffe can master while also challenging the extent of his range with a seemingly unlikely Marvel role. To take a cue from the character I have in mind and hit two birds with one stone, why not cast him as Russia’s notorious predator or an indiscriminate selection of prey, Sergei Kravinoff - otherwise known as Kraven the Hunter. The Spider-Man villain is reportedly getting his own solo movie, so now is the perfect time for Radcliffe to hit the gym and practice his Russian (perhaps at the same time).
Gambit
While he is at it, in case Kraven the Hunter does not pan out for whatever reason, maybe Daniel Radcliffe should also look into trying on a Cajun accent because I actually think he might be even better suited to fill the role of Gambit - a bio-kinetic mutant who has previously fallen victim to some bad timing. He was once portrayed admirably by Taylor Kitsch in the otherwise reviled X-Men Origins: Wolverine before being recast with Channing Tatum in a film that did not survive development hell, but with X-Men now in the hands of Marvel Studios after the Disney/Fox Merger, maybe he can finally be given the best of both worlds. As for why I would choose Radcliffe to play him: the guy is essentially a magician, card tricks and all, and magic was once his specialty.
Agent X
However, the action genre seems to be more of what Daniel Radcliffe is after these days, as one could tell from roles in Jungle, Guns Akimbo, and Escape from Pretoria and, additionally, he has always been open to drastic changes in his appearance, like he did in the Joe Hill novel adaptation Horns and when he played an enchanted corpse in Swiss Army Man. Once again, we have the chance for him to pull double duty with a movie featuring Agent X who, much like his frequent rival Deadpool, is a former mercenary whose morbid sarcasm and superhuman healing came with his badly scarred skin. Not as many people know about this Marvelous badass, which is exactly why I want to see him in Ryan Reynolds’ next outing as the “Merc with a Mouth.”
Wolverine
Of course, I am even more excited at the chance of Deadpool actually crossing paths with his more friendly rival, Wolverine, in an MCU installment - especially for all the jokes he could make about recasting the character. You know, Daniel Radcliffe was once the subject of rumors that he would succeed the role from Hugh Jackman before denying it as a throwaway joke he once made during a separate interview. However, fan art imagining him as the Adamantium-clawed, cigar-chomping, Canadian X-Men member looks promising enough that I would not be surprised if he ended up eating his words.
Cyclops
That being said, the fact that there is already some expectation over how Daniel Radcliffe would match up as Wolverine is the very thing that would discourage the actor from taking on the role - not to mention the fact that it was supremely owned by Hugh Jackman for the better part of two decades. Yet, that is not so much the case for Cyclops, who was first played by James Marsden and then as a younger iteration by Tye Sheridan in what may be one of the more inconsequential comic book movie recastings on record. As I see it, this is a perfect chance for Radcliffe to step into the shoes of the laser-eyed Scott Summers for the next X-Men movie and give a performance that audiences may one day remember as the ultimate, defining portrayal of the character.
What do you think? Should Daniel Radcliffe trade his wand in for a visor in a future X-Men installment, or do you think he would do even better in a DC movie? Let us know in the comments and be sure to check back for additional information and updates on the former Harry Potter star, as well as even more hypothetical comic book movie casting sessions, here on CinemaBlend.
