When you reach a certain age, you evolve from becoming the person who gets talked about to play superheroes into the person who gets talked about to play their fathers, but it’s a role that Russell Crowe has embraced.
The Academy Award winner has been making it his mission to hire as many costumed crimefighters as humanly possible, with his number apparently being one of the first on speed-dial when somebody is required to deliver exposition and possibly make a heroic sacrifice depending on what the story requires.
He’s sent Henry Cavill’s Superman off to Earth from the dying remnants of Krypton in Man of Steel, set up the storyline for Thor 5 in the post-credits scene of Love and Thunder that introduced Brett Goldstein’s Hercules, and now he’s jumping back into the Spider-Verse for Kraven the Hunter, and Crowe only needed one word to sum up why.
“Across time and space,” indeed. Whether it’s the DCU, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, Crowe is always on hand to dispel nuggets of paternal wisdom and even engage in the odd action sequence or two when the time comes for it. Looking at how badly the Dark Universe stumbled when he was established as its would-be Nick Fury instead, it’s clearly a gig he’s better-suited for, too.
Who could be next on the list to enlist Crowe as their old man? It’s anybody’s guess, but it’s destined to happen eventually now that it seems to have become his new sideline.