Despite his penchant for comedies and dramas, Michael Shannon has dipped his toe in the superhero genre a few times. His most notable role in that area in supervillain General Zod in Henry Cavill’s first Superman outing, Man of Steel. Many DC fans enjoyed him as the rogue Kryptonian general, but after that movie, there was a chance for Shannon to hop over to rival Marvel, according to a Bullet Train producer. It turns out that Shannon, who appears in the now-released Bullet Train, almost played a major Marvel superhero.
Bullet Train producer Kelly McCormick spoke about the Knives Out actor almost joining the Marvel universe to play a pivotal role while being interviewed by Indiewire. After playing General Zod, Shannon came close to playing antihero Cable in Deadpool 2 before Josh Brolin landed the role. McCormick explained how Brolin ended up as the Marvel character instead of Shannon:
He actually almost was Cable. Then there was some sort of hiccup conflict at the very last minute, and then we just ended up reconnecting on this one, and felt really lucky that this was the role for him. Because Josh [Brolin] was so good as Cable, I can’t even imagine [what that would have been like].
As the Hollywood producer pointed out, it’s hard to picture anyone else other than Brolin playing the time-traveling soldier. As far as Brolin is concerned these days, it isn’t sure if he will return as Cable, as the action-comedy franchise is now part of the MCU. While each man has their strengths, Brolin captured Cable’s stoic and cynical nature for the big screen whereas Michael Shannon may have come off harsh and menacing, as seen in Man of Steel. But things worked in a full-circle moment as Kelly McCormick and the 47-year-old actor finally got to work together on Bullet Train.
Michael Shannon probably isn’t crying over not playing the Marvel hero as he is set to reprise his role as General Zod. He will appear in The Flash alongside Ezra Miller and Batman actors Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton. His reprisal of the DC supervillain comes years after moviegoers last saw the former Kryptonian’s corpse in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
But the Deadpool 2/Bullet Train connection didn’t just stop with Shannon. There’s Brad Pitt’s famous and insane Deadpool 2 cameo where he played The Vanisher, who got electrocuted trying to help the mouthy mercenary as an X-Force member. While viewers enjoyed the “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” moment, Ryan Reynold’s wife Blake Lively wasn’t amused. After a Deadpool 2 clip featuring Pitt went viral, Lively couldn’t help but get a classic quip about Reynolds not inviting her to set when the Oscar winner shot his scene. The actress’ response was expected as she and her husband are consistently trolling each other online.
Michael Shannon could always work with Marvel, especially after CEO Kevin Feige announced the official Phase 5 lineup and previewed the MCU’s Phase 6. In the meantime, audiences can watch Shannon as White Death in Bullet Train, which is currently in theaters. Check out CinemaBlend’s 2022 movie schedule to see what new films are being released the rest of the year.
