8 Actors Who Were Sadly Wasted In The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Across the 13 movies released under its banner so far, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has featured some of the crème de la crème of Hollywood acting talent. Apart from the lead actors who it has made into stars – Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt spring to mind – it has also managed to coax a lot of very big names into roles of various sizes and importance. Unfortunately, while it is great to see these familiar faces turning up in superhero movies, often they are portraying characters who demand a lot less of them than we are used to. A lot of Marvel’s villains alone have been played by some great actors in less than fulfilling roles, including Jeff Bridges, Mickey Rourke and Hugo Weaving. The following stars, though, really drew the short straw when it came to dishing out parts in the MCU movies. These 8 talents were more or less completely wasted by the studio, and they definitely deserved a lot better. 8) Kate Mara Kate Mara is an actress who no doubt has an illustrious career ahead of her, after appearances in The Martian and TV series like House of Cards. It’s a shame, then, that Marvel didn’t use her well enough when they nabbed the then up and coming actress for a part in Iron Man 2. To show how underused she is, Mara’s character remains unnamed – a U.S. Marshall who turns up for less than a minute to give Tony Stark a subpoena to appear in front of Congress. She’s just there for a pretty face to entrance Tony for a few seconds, which is a great shame. Obviously, this wasn’t Mara’s last role in a Marvel movie, as she was cast as Sue Storm in Fox’s Fantastic 4 in 2015. Though that should have made up for her bit part in Iron Man 2, that film also served her, and the rest of its talented cast, just as badly. 7) Natalie Dormer Game of Thrones’ Queen Margaery, Natalie Dormer, has mainly made a name for herself on TV, with recurring and regular roles in the likes of The Tudors and Elementary. However, she has made a few film appearances, too, particularly in The Hunger Games saga. It is a surprise, then, that Marvel employed the actress for such a tiny part in Captain America: The First Avenger. Dormer appears as Private Lorraine, the secretary to Tommy Lee Jones’ Colonel Phillips. She turns up for one scene where she tries to seduce the naïve Cap – but they are interrupted by Peggy Carter. It’s a fun little sequence which adds to the growing affection between Steve and Peggy (as well as addressing the fact that not just one woman would be after Steve), but Dormer could have been granted a much bigger role. Hayley Atwell was obviously perfect casting, but Dormer wouldn’t have been a bad choice for Peggy, actually. 6) Richard Armitage Another famous face mostly hidden away in Captain America: The First Avenger is Richard Armitage, who turns up as an ill-fated HYDRA agent. His character, Heinz Kruger, is pretty instrumental to the plot, as he infiltrates Cap’s creation and is responsible for Dr. Erskine’s death. However, it's still an unfairly small part for the charismatic actor, as Kruger unceremoniously kills himself off after a short amount of screen time. If you don’t know the name, Armitage is most well known for playing Thorin Oakenshield, the head dwarf in The Hobbit movies. He’s also proven his acting chops as creepy serial killer Francis Dolarhyde on Hannibal and in several British TV shows like Robin Hood, Spooks (MI-5 in the US) and Strike Back. 5) Glenn Close Guardians of the Galaxy has a fantastic ensemble cast, and it is a testament to the film’s embarrassment of riches that it features such a big name as Glenn Close and then does practically nothing with her. Close appears sporadically throughout the film as Irani Rael AKA Nova Prime, the head of the Nova Corps space police who at first capture the Guardians before allying with them to stop Ronan the Accuser from destroying Xandar. The actress appears in a bigger role than some others on this list, but she doesn’t get a lot more to do than simply spout exposition (with the odd one-liner). She will reprise the role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, though, so perhaps she'll get a meatier part next time around. Speaking of Ronan, Lee Pace (The Hobbit, Pushing Daisies) probably also deserved a better character than yet another alien warlord intent on destroying the universe - just saying. 4) Djimon Hounsou If you don’t know the name Djimon Honsou, you should – as the acclaimed Beninese-American actor has been nominated for not one, but two Academy Awards in the past for his supporting performances in 2004’s In America and Blood Diamond in 2007. In Guardians, however, Marvel utilized him in the forgettable role of Korath the Pursuer, a henchman of Ronan’s who, er, pursued the Guardians across the galaxy. It’s a thankless role that gives Hounsou little to say or do other than look menacing. With the multitude of characters in the movie, it’s hard to even remember Hounsou was in it. Chadwick Boseman is a terrific choice for T’Challa, but Djimon Hounsou actually played the role first - voicing him in the 2010 Black Panther animated series. It’s a shame he couldn’t have got a sizeable role in the upcoming Black Panther movie instead, as a nod to his history with the character. 3) Rebecca Hall British actress Rebecca Hall has yet to make a really big impression on Hollywood, but she has still proved her great range in the likes of Transcendence, The Town and Vicky Christina Barcelona. It is a crying shame, then, that her role as Maya Hansen, the creator of the Extremis virus and old flame of Tony’s, was sidelined in Iron Man 3. There was promise there, but ultimately she didn’t get much to do and was killed off much too soon. It’s doubly annoying that Hall has such an underwritten role, as Maya came close to being a really great character. Originally, the plan was to make the real Mandarin a female villain instead of Aldrich Killian, which means it would have most likely been Maya. However, orders from above made director Shane Black change his plans as they thought a female villain would hurt toy sales. Seriously, we’re not kidding. 2) Christopher Eccleston Former Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston is an actor with a great deal of gravitas who previously brought a lot of humanity to a sci-fi production in his role as the Ninth Doctor. He was the perfect choice, then, for Thor: The Dark World’s villain Malekith. With him in the part, the character was sure to be more than a boring one-dimensional bad guy. Unfortunately, that is exactly what he turned out to be. As well as having Eccleston swamped under a lot of prosthetics and a modulated voice, Malekith was given the bare minimum of screen time and certainly nothing approaching a motivation for his evil acts. This is a great shame, as apparently there was originally a detailed backstory for Malekith, which explained that Thor’s grandfather Bor was responsible for the deaths of his wife and children. This subplot was eventually cut from the released version, however, leaving Eccleston to play an anaemic character. 1) Idris Elba It might seem somewhat ridiculous to claim that an actor who has appeared in no less than three (soon to be four) movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been wasted by the studio, but - if we’re being honest – Idris Elba is far too good for the minor role of Heimdall. The gatekeeper of the Bifrost, Heimdall’s role in the films is an important one but, in terms of personality and story arcs, the character is rather limited. We know from The Wire, Luther and everything else on Elba's resume that he can reliably deliver the goods, so it is a shame that Marvel are content to let him simply stand around with contact lenses and a silly helmet. It seems that Elba himself isn’t even too keen on his Marvel role either, as the actor has previously described the process of working on the Thor movies as “torture” (or at least the gruelling reshoots). When even the actor is not enjoying it, it's safe to say they are not in the right role.