There are some actors indelibly associated with a certain cinematic universe, to the point where them being cast in the other just wouldn’t feel right. For instance, it’s difficult to imagine Gal Gadot popping up in the MCU and almost impossible to envisage Robert Downey Jr. playing a DC hero. But there a handful of actors that have made the jump successfully. For example, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje portrayed Killer Croc in Suicide Squad and Algrim in Thor: The Dark World and Josh Brolin was Cable in the Deadpool franchise and Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
CNN correspondent Jake Tapper has now taken a hardline against any such crossovers, though. Tapper discussed the current state of superhero moves at length in a recent interview, saying that actors should pick Marvel or DC and stick to one of them out of principle. He laid out his views thusly:
“I think that if you are in the Marvel Universe, then you have to have the ethics and the strength to not then go into the DC Universe as an actor, and both. You can’t be J. Jonah Jameson — Peter Parker’s boss — and then turn around, and you’re Commissioner Gordon for Batman. You can’t do it, Simmons. You can’t do it — it’s not fair! You can’t be one of Aquaman’s evil gremlin fish-men, and then turn around and be the Green Gobin fighting Spider-Man. You can’t be Daredevil and Batman, Affleck. You have to pick one. I’m actually an unapologetic Affleck fan. I don’t care what anybody says. And he’s good as Batman, but I’m sorry, he was Daredevil first.”
When the example of Ryan Reynolds was brought up, with Tapper asked whether him starring as Hal Jordan in Green Lantern meant he shouldn’t have played Deadpool, he said:
“Yes. I submit that there are sacrifices that one makes for principle. That’s what principles are; you uphold them even if sometimes it’s inconvenient. Like, you honor democracy even if your candidate loses.”
As I’m sure some of you are aware, Tapper isn’t entirely right here. First up, Green Lantern was released in 2011, two years after Reynolds debuted as Deadpool in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, meaning that he should be arguing that he should’ve been barred from playing Hal Jordan. But even beyond that, Reynolds actually made his Marvel debut way back in 2004, when he appeared as Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity. So, if anything, the House of Ideas has a much stronger claim to the actor than DC does.
It’s worth pointing out that neither Tapper nor host Conan O’Brien are taking this conversation particularly seriously, with both heaping praise onto Ryans Reynolds for his performance as Deadpool. Even so, if you agree that actors shouldn’t be allowed to hop between universes, let us know in the comments.
