While Nicolas Cage has never been far from the public eye ever since he started making waves with movies like Raising Arizona and Moonstruck, the last several years have been especially good to him. The actor has drawn acclaim for his performances in smaller movies like Pig and bigger fare like The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, we’ll see how he does playing Dracula in Renfield, though the actor is already campaigning for his version of the vampire to get a spinoff. However, as far as future prospects go for him, Cage has shared that he has no interested in joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and his reason for why is just classic Nic Cage.
Nicolas Cage already has some superhero movie experience under his belt, having played Ghost Rider in two movies and voiced Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (though we won’t be seeing that character again in Across the Spider-Verse). And yet, while accepting the Variety Legend & Groundbreaker Award at Miami Film Festival, Cage made it clear to the audience he doesn’t intend to join the MCU, saying:
I don’t need to be in the MCU, I’m Nic Cage.
There you have it. For those of you who’ve been wanting to see Nicolas Cage in the MCU, be it in a new role or perhaps even reprising his version of Johnny Blaze (we are in the middle of The Multiverse Saga, after all), it’s not going to happen. This isn’t to say that Cage dislikes Marvel, because along with his prior superhero roles, he also drew attention to how Marvel influenced the name that the general public calls him, since he was born Nicolas Coppola. In the actor’s words:
I’ve gotta be nice about Marvel movies, because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage. What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down? Stan Lee is my surrealistic father. He named me. I understand what the frustration is. I get it. But I think there’s plenty of room for everybody. I’m seeing movies like ‘Tár.’ I’m seeing all kinds of artistic and independently driven movies. I think there’s plenty of room for everybody.
So as Nicolas Cage sees it, while there’s room for both Marvel-scale blockbusters and independent movies to coexist, for him personally, he doesn’t feel a need to join the ever-increasing lineup of actors to appear in the MCU. Maybe he’ll change his mind about that someday, but for now, if the day comes we see the Johnny Blaze incarnation of Ghost Rider in this superhero franchise, it won’t be the version from 2007’s Ghost Rider and 2012’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. In addition to his Marvel outings, Nicolas Cage has also lent his talents to DC voicing Superman (a character he was once supposed to play in live-action) in Teen Titans Go! to the Movies.
You can see Nicolas Cage as Dracula when Renfield comes out on April 14, and along with other upcoming movies like Dream Scenario and Longlegs, it sounds like Cage will be involved with Face/Off 2, and he’s also expressed interest in starring in a musical. As you wait for more news about Cage’s professional endeavors, keep track of the 2023 new movie releases that are slated.
