Exclusive: Mark Wahlberg Eyed For Marvel Cinematic Universe
According to our sources, Kevin Feige really wants Mark Wahlberg to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Is the Funky Bunch becoming a superhero team? Probably not, but regardless our trusted and proven sources have reached out to let us know Kevin Feige is particularly keen on getting Mark Wahlberg to come into the Marvel fold. We don’t know exactly who Feige wants the Father Stu star wants to play, but we’ve got some solid guesses considering what Wahlberg has said in the past about joining the world of capes.
Speaking to ComicBook.com back in February, Mark Wahlberg talked about what could be one of Feige’s biggest obstacles in getting the actor to play a Marvel role. The actor said that while he liked superhero movies, he didn’t want to find himself leaving his trailer “with a cape on, and a spandex suit.” So–unless he’s set aside that issue since the February interview–in order for Feige to have a chance at netting Wahlberg, he’ll have to offer him either an important but non “super” role, or the role of a character who does fall under the “super” category but doesn’t require as elaborate a wardrobe as your average superguy.
In 2006’s The Departed, Wahlberg played the abrasive and intimidating Sergeant Dignam. It’s not tough to imagine Mark Wahlberg taking that same kind of energy and bringing it to the part of one of Marvel’s many prominent federal/secret agent roles (minus, in most likelihood, most of the f-bombs). And while the MCU has already given us its versions of Nick Fury, Everett Ross, and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, we have yet to hear from perhaps the comics’ most hated federal agent–Henry Peter Gyrich.
Matthew Sharp played Henry Gyrich in 2000’s X-Men–or, to be more accurate, he played Rebecca Romijn’s Mystique disguised as Gyrich–but so far he’s been a no-show in the MCU. A ruthless and ambitious bureaucrat, Gyrich has been a thorn in the side of just about everyone in the comics; none moreso than the Avengers and X-Men. With the mutants getting closer to finally appearing in the MCU, it could be the perfect time for Mark Wahlberg to play Marvel’s least favorite federal agent.
Of course, there are heroes and villains Wahlberg could play as long as he and Feige could come to understandings about wardrobe. Another natural fit for the actor could be as the successor to Josh Brolin as the time-traveling mutant Cable. Mark Wahlberg is in his early fifties now and he’d be a perfect fit for a gun-toting Marvel mutant who is generally depicted as being older than his colleagues.
If fan artist m.design34 had their way, as you can see above, Mark Wahlberg would be the next star to play Marvel’s Sandman. While we agree with the fan artist that the Uncharted star could pull it off, technically Sandman falls under Sony’s properties. Because of the deal between Sony and Marvel, Sandman could appear in MCU films as Thomas Haden Church’s version does in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but Kevin Feige would likely have little to no say in casting the character.
