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As the 2011 movie season begins we look ahead and see a whole slew of comic book movies on the horizon, Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern to name a few. I am sure many of you will agree with me that this is exciting for Geekdom at large. Many of us grew up reading about these heroes in the comics or watching their cartoons on TV and seeing them brought to life on the big screen is awesome. This surge of comic book movies has also helped to elevate a number of actors and actresses from obscurity into the lime light. These movies provide a great opportunity for these actors, but there is a right way, an acceptable way, and a wrong way to go about them.
Robert Downey Jr. is an example of the correct way to star in comic book movies. He has settled into the roll as Iron Man/Tony Starke so well that I cannot see any other actor playing this character. Not only that, but he is starring in different franchises as the same character; he has been cast to reprise Iron Man in the Avengers movie. This is the correct way to act in comic book movies because we as fans can now safely associate this man’s face as our beloved superhero.
Ryan Reynolds is going about this in what I call an acceptable manner. He is going to have portrayed two different super heroes instead of one; the main caveat with this is the two heroes are from different universes. He first played Deadpool in the Wolverine Origins movie which is set in the Marvel universe. This summer he is going to play Hal Jordan/Green Lantern who is from the DC universe. It will still be a little uncomfortable seeing him play two characters, but since they are from two different universes, they will likely never meet; thus avoiding any sort of paradox.
This brings us to the third example, the wrong way to do it. Chris Evans portrayed a great Johnny Storm/Human torch in the Fantastic Four movies, and he has been tapped to play the iconic Captain America this summer in his self-titled movie. I happen to think Evans will do an outstanding job as Cap, but this creates other problems. Unlike Reynolds, the two characters that Evans will be playing are both from the same universe, the Marvel universe. So not only will it be a little unnerving to see the same man’s face as two heroes, it may be possible for them to eventually interact at a later date. Hollywood can probably get around this by just not casting both the characters in the same movie, but as a fanboy this displeases me. It limits the creativity the writers can bring because they are now forced to make sure they don’t meet.
So there you have it, my analysis of how casting super hero movies has consequences. To the everyday movie watcher, this is no big deal. To the producers and directors and people making money off the films, it is probably no big deal either. But to us fanboys and fangirls, it is important to us and as a whole, we are a fairly picky lot when it comes to our passions (see my article on suspension of fandom). I think all of these actors are great, and are going to do amazing jobs, but their some of their roles may be a bit tainted by the knowledge that they may again be tapped for future heroes.
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