Mark Strong was almost Sebastian Shaw in X-Men: First Class

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Mark Strong has played quite a number of nefarious villains over the years in films such as SHERLOCK HOLMES, KICK-ASS, GREEN LANTERN, ROBIN HOOD, and more, but he very nearly added one more to the list when he was asked to play the main villain of X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. While speaking with Coming Soon, Strong revealed that director Matthew Vaughn had approached him about taking on the role of Sebastian Shaw, but that it would have been one villain role too many at the time.

Matthew Vaughn did ask me to do ‘X-Men: First Class.' There was a bad guy in ‘X-Men’ that Kevin Bacon played. Because I speak German it just seemed so logical having worked with him that I would play that part, but I think at that point we both felt… I think I had just done Blackwood in ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and it had been just too many bad guys very recently. So that one we didn’t go down the path of that.

What do you think? Would Mark Strong have made for a good Sebastian Shaw or was Kevin Bacon the right choice? Mark Strong does play a great villain however, and he'll soon be laughing maniacally in SHAZAM! as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana. During our own Editor-in-Chief Paul Shirey's SHAZAM! set-visit, Strong spoke about what attracted him to Dr. Sivana. "What I love about this movie and the way they’ve written it is there is a reason he is how he is. Often villains can be painted in broad strokes. They are evil, and that’s it. But, we get to see him young, we get to see a scene in which he’s bullied not only by his older brother, but by his family and is misunderstood as a young boy," Strong said.

The official synopsis for SHAZAM!:

We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard. Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he’ll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Strong).

SHAZAM! will hit theaters on April 5th, so be sure to check out reviews from our own Paul Shirey and Chris Bumbray!