Marvel Studios has been able to attract a lot of actors to their projects over the years, including many that people thought would never have played ball; Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Christian Bale, and more. Clearly, the company knows what it's doing and has been able to get these actors comfortable under its wing.
But there are still plenty of actors that have not yet touched an MCU project. Lots of people want to see the likes of Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, or La La Land’s Ryan Gosling, or even Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston join the Avengers world.
Then there’s Simon Pegg, who is known thanks to his involvement with Edgar Wright’s movies such as Hot Fuzz. He’s always been loved in any project he’s come up in, and in an alternate timeline, he likely would have played a role in Wright’s unmade Ant-Man film.
Now, the actor has commented on why Marvel movies just aren’t quite in his interest right now.
Simon Pegg’s Issue With Marvel
In talking with Newsweek, actor Simon Pegg talked about his time in the Mission Impossible franchise and how he feels about potentially joining the MCU.
Pegg stated that he wants “to do more sort of grown-up stuff in the future,” which in this case means he’s looking “to do some more drama [work]:”
“I kind of want to do more sort of grown-up stuff in the future. I think Mission Impossible is a very grown-up franchise. I think it’s a franchise, which is aimed less at big kids than it is just big people, but I quite want to do some more drama.”
He continued to explain how he “[isn’t] in any rush to join the MCU” and that those projects “can be a little bit restrictive:”
“I’m not in any rush to join the MCU or anything like that. I kind of feel like I kind of want to be a bit more free. You join those things, and then you’re tied to them for years, and that can be a little bit restrictive.”
Are Pegg’s Problems Justified?
Recently, Moon Knight’s Ethan Hawke commented how Marvel Studios is very “actor-friendly,” so Pegg's worries may be misplaced to some degree. The company has also stopped locking talents into long-term contracts, so he wouldn’t even have to do that.
The actor does have some experience with superheroes, however. In Amazon Studios’ The Boys, his character's son is one of the main characters who deals with superheroes on a daily basis.
At the end of the day, there's still a chance that Pegg will eventually sign on to do something in the Marvel universe at one point or another. With the rate that they’re expanding their content pool, they’ll be needing all the actors they can get.
Hopefully, Pegg can get behind trying the films out, as he is a fan-favorite performer, so the world would be quite happy to see the Shaun of the Dead star playing in the MCU’s sandbox.
Marvel Studios' latest movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, is now playing in theaters worldwide.
