Fifty Shades Of Grey Star Reveals Talks With Marvel
One of the stars of Fifty Shades of Grey is looking to make the jump to the superhero genre!
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Known best to many as the male lead of the erotic Fifty Shades films, Jamie Dornan is looking to expand his horizons. The actor has made big strides recently to be known as more than just Christian Grey. In a recent interview, Dornan reveals he’s been talking to Marvel Studios in hopes of joining the cinematic world inspired by comic book legends like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
The New York Times spoke to Dornan on the eve of the premiere of his new film Belfast in the same Northern Irish city the movie is named for, and in which Dornan lived until he was 19. The Fifty Shades actor revealed he’s been trying to make his way into the superhero movie world for around a decade. In particular, he said he’s met with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige about a potential Marvel role.
The Northern Irish actor says that part of his motivation for playing a superhero is the chance to be taken more seriously as an actor by straight men. Dornan told the New York Times that, because of his involvement with Fifty Shades, most of his fans are woman and gay men, while straight men treat him with “skepticism.” He mentioned instances of straight men asking for his autographed photo always making sure to mention the photo was for their wives or girlfriends.
Dornan spoke of his colleague and friend Robert Pattinson with admiration, and seems to hope Belfast — which is considered a major Oscar contender — will afford him similar opportunities. Pattinson and Dornan have a lot in common. Both earned their fame in critically panned but popular films — Fifty Shades in Dornan’s case and Twilight in Pattinson’s — based on critically panned but popular books. But, as Dornan points out, Pattinson has managed to shake off some of the critical stink of Twilight with acclaimed indie projects like 2019’s The Lighthouse. And now, of course, Pattinson will be starring in one of the most anticipated superhero movies of 2022, The Batman.
Dornan didn’t talk about exactly what role he discussed with Feige. Assuming they talked about one of the projects announced by Marvel already, one possibility is Jon Watts’ upcoming Fantastic Four project. It’s not out of the realm of possibility to see the Fifty Shades actor either as Reed Richards or his nemesis Doctor Doom. Judging by his performance in BBC’s The Fall — in which Dornan plays a brutal serial killer — the actor could be mesmerizing as the right supervillain.
Then, of course there’s the untapped hordes of X-Men characters fans are waiting to see enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are any number of mutant charatcers the Fifty Shades actor could play. We’ll just have to wait and see if and when Dornan shows up.
Apparently, Marvel actually wasn’t Dornan’s first stop in his quest to become a superhero. Even before starring in Fifty Shades of Grey, Dornan auditioned for the role of Superman in 2013’s Man of Steel, losing out to Henry Cavill. It’s not surprising considering he bears a passing resemblance to the Witcher lead.
