Classic Marvel Actors Who Should be Brought Back into the MCU

Last Updated on April 12, 2022

Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to bring older onscreen characters and actors back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe or rather the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse! With some old characters and actors coming back to the big screen it opens the door to bring back lots of our favorite characters and actors. While comic book movies have dominated the box office for the last twenty years they weren’t always connected by a constantly running storyline or sharing of characters. Marvel actors never really crossed over outside of their respective films and made a return for another hero’s film.

Now that Disney has all their toys back in their toybox, along with owning the studio that made some of the more popular movies, could we see some returning faces being put back into the MCU? MCM? Whatever. Disney has said that they are keeping Deadpool from the FOX X-Men Universe but what about some old friends dropping by to say hello from some other old Marvel movies from before?

If anything, just look at what CW/DC did with their last crossover event Crisis On Infinite Earths for their Arrowverse shows. They were able to take all of their old TV properties and make them all canon by showing that they all did indeed exist in the same DC Multiverse. Even the 90s Flash character played by John Wesley Shipp got a hero’s send-off and the closure he never got on his own show. Marvel has a chance to do the same thing with all their previous movie properties.

Dolph Lundgren
The Punisher 1989

Since this movie, we’ve had better interpretations of the dark antihero but Dolph was the first to don the skull. Well, he didn’t actually wear the skull but you get my point. Before Thomas Jane grabbed his machine gun Dolph took on waves of Yakuza members in the 1989 movie making him one of the earliest cinematic Marvel actors.

Recently, Jon Bernthal was playing the character on the Netflix series of shows, but Dolph could bring an older version of Frank Castle to the big screen. One that has lived a long life of killing those who wrong the innocent. Seeing that version of Frank would be a lot of fun and since now the Multiverse is a thing, a return for the actor could make as much sense as anything else going on with Marvel.

Wesley Snipes
Blade 1998

If you trace back this current trend of superhero films Blade would be the starting point. The genre was all but dead after the disastrous film that was Batman & Robin and no studios were lining up to take on the comic book heroes again. But David S. Goyer and Steven Norrington took a somewhat obscure character and made a dark and gritty vampire hunting film that suddenly made studio execs sit up in their chair a little straighter.

There is a new Blade film on the horizon with Mahershala Ali in the black trenchcoat but before then maybe we could get one last glimpse of the man who started this thing with Wesley Snipes flashing around his katana. It wouldn’t have to be a big role but even as a quick encounter it would be nice to see Marvel tip their hat to the movie that helped them make comic book movies a thing again and lead the path for them to create their own studio.

Michael Bailey Smith
The Fantastic Four 1994

This might be the most obscure on the list for some but it could be fun. Back in the early 90s, Roger Corman helped to make a Fantastic Four film that was strictly made to hold onto the film rights for the franchise. If Constantin Films didn’t make a movie by a certain point the rights would revert back to Marvel. A film was hastily put together and was never intended to ever actually be released.

Word is that Marvel actually saw the film and bought every print and negative they could to destroy it because they hated the low-budget effects so much. Before they could do it someone smuggled out a copy and bootlegs have been available ever since. Michael Bailey Smith played The Thing in the movie and it’s obvious that his suit was the most expensive part of the movie. Even after three other Fantastic Four films it still stands out as one of the best live-action interpretations of the character. Sadly these Marvel actors never got their due.

Having the character and actor return somewhere would be a fun nod to the long-time Marvel fans that have been clamoring for a release ever since pictures of the film started to circulate. There is no record of if a great version exists to make a proper release but have the character show up in an upcoming film and then announce a Blu-Ray release of this already completed film and you have a way to print money. From what I understand Disney likes money.

Tobey Maguire/Andrew Garfield
Spider-Man 2002/The Amazing Spider-Man 2012

This could actually be happening come the release of the new Spider-Man film but just in case . . . I mean after Into The Spiderverse it would kind of be dumb not to play up some sort of crossover among the live-action Spider-Men. Throw in Nicholas Hammond from the 70s TV series and Shinji Todo from the Japanese TV series, and you have all of them.

The younger actors would play great against each other with all of them at different stages of Spidey’s crimefighting career. Plus it would be great to see Maguire and Garfield back in the suit. Tobey getting to erase Spider-Man 3 from everyone’s memories as his last appearance and Garfield possibly getting to at least get one last appearance in since his cliffhanger second movie didn’t get to wrap up his version of the character at all. With the confirmation that Alfred Molina is returning as Doc Ock and Jamie Foxx again playing Electro this seems like the perfect opportunity to bring in two more Spider-Men. Here’s hoping.

Hugh Jackman
X-Men 2000

This one seems obvious. Even though he wrapped up playing the character with the film Logan Jackman had said he might be lured back to the role if he was able to crossover with The Avengers in the MCU proper. Who are we to say no. Some rumblings have been going about that Marvel may be trying to see if he will keep that promise with Jackman himself sparking speculation that it could be in the works after he posted a pic of himself with Marvel Studios Kevin Feige on his Instagram.

This could be a case of Marvel having its cake and eating it too. Jackman could show up as Wolverine during this Multiverse series of films and after that story wraps up they could cast their own version of the character. Maybe even have a handoff on-screen with the old Logan meeting up with the new version of the character before heading back to his FOX reality or once again dying on screen. The possibilities are endless for this actor’s return to Marvel are endless!