Simon Pegg is a geek treasure for his various roles in major franchises like Star Trek, Mission: Impossible and even Star Wars (he was Unkar Plutt in The Force Awakens, remember?). One big one he’s yet to tick off, however, is Marvel.
Recently, it went around that Pegg was looking to play English superhero Captain Britain in an MCU movie. Something which got fans of both the actor and the underrated character excited. Unfortunately, though, it sounds like we should probably measure our excitement, as he’s now stepped back from his previous comments a little.
ScreenRant asked Pegg to elaborate on his wish to play Captain Britain in a recent interview, which led the star to explain that, though he’s read the hero’s comics since he was a kid, he doesn’t actually have any burning desire to play him on the big screen. He made it clear that he’s a fan of the MCU, but is perfectly happy just watching the films.
“I think somebody asked me recently at an interview that had nothing to do with superheroes. What superhero would I’d like to play. And I just sort of said Captain Britain, because I used to get the Hulk Weekly when I was a kid. And Captain Britain debuted in that. And he’s a British superhero. I used to read the Knights of Pendragon. And I figured that was a good answer.
Continuing on, he said:
Suddenly, all these rumors popped up. Oh, Simon Pegg wants to play Captain Britain. I don’t really. But you know, I mean, I try to take every job as it comes. I don’t have any ambition really to be in anything else, other than what I’m in now. If something comes up and it looks good, of course it’ll be fun. I love watching the Marvel films. They’re always so well executed. They’ve done a fantastic job with that sort of extended universe of movies. But I’m happy to be an audience member.”
By the sounds of it, Pegg might not be knocking on Kevin Feige’s door asking for a meeting, but he probably would say yes if they came to him with plans for a Captain Britain movie. As Pegg himself said in his previous comments, though, he might be a little old now to portray the hero himself, so maybe he could take on a different role in the film instead?
Up until recently, we weren’t actually sure that Marvel Studios could have tackled Captain Britain even if they wanted to, as Brian Braddock has strong ties to the X-Men universe, whose rights rest with 20th Century Fox. Now that Disney’s hoovering up their rival, though, it seems the only thing stopping the character from making it to the big screen is whether Feige and his team believe there’s a worthwhile story to tell with him.