Mark Ruffalo reportedly eyed to star in HBO’s Parasite series

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Fresh off of PARASITE making Oscar history by becoming the first non-English film to win Best Picture, comes an interesting piece of casting news regarding the TV series adaptation which in the works at HBO. According to Jeff Sneider of Collider, multiple sources have said that Mark Ruffalo (AVENGERS: ENDGAME) is currently being eyed to play one of the leads of the PARASITE series.

As Sneider himself notes, development on the Parasite series is still in the very early stages so it's impossible to say for certain whether Mark Ruffalo will be involved at the end of the day, but it would appear that they are looking at him. When reached for comment, HBO responded to Collider with the following statement: "The HBO limited series inspired by Parasite is in the early stages of development, and to speculate on any characters or casting is wildly premature." Premature, but not necessarily wrong. The critically acclaimed film from Bong Joon-ho revolved around members of a poor household who schemed to become employees of a much wealthier family by posing as unrelated, highly qualified individuals. To say anything more would spoil the fun.

Bong Joon-ho will be crafting the TV adaptation of PARASITE along with Adam McKay (VICE), and revealed last month that the TV series will be able to include all the ideas he couldn't fit into the feature film.

With Parasite, while I was writing the script I had so many more ideas I couldn’t convey into the two-hour running time of the film. I knew that if I had a longer running time, I would be able to tell these stories, and I that’s what I plan to talk about with Adam pretty soon.

Bong Joon-ho pointed to Ingmar Bergman's FANNY AND ALEXANDER as proof that an expanded feature-film could work on television. "Though I’m not very familiar with the TV industry, I really consider this limited series an expanded film that can delve deeper into the stories that didn’t make it into Parasite," Bong said. "Adam McKay and HBO have created the amazing show Succession, so they’re very reliable and amazing partners to have." As for whether the TV series will be in English or Korean, Bong Joon-ho told Variety that it hasn't been decided. "We’re still very much in the early stages," he said. "I’ll soon meet with Adam to talk about the set up. For now, a lot of things are open."

Our own Chris Bumbray caught PARASITE when it screened at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, and while he was loathe to dive into spoiler territory in his review, he called the film "edgy and thoroughly unpredictable" while also praising the performance of Song Kang-ho (SNOWPIERCER). "[The actor delivers] another towering performance that’s a sharp contrast from the lovable dolt he seems to initially be playing," Bumbray said. "We’re encouraged to laugh at their poverty early on, making the audience, in a way, culpable for what comes next, as to Bong Joon-ho, it’s obvious there’s nothing funny about poverty or elitism. This is a parable for our time, but beyond that, it’s also just a tremendously entertaining film."