Oscar Isaac Holds An Incredible Marvel Record
Oscar Isaac has portrayed three different Marvel characters: Apocalypse, Moon Knight, and Spider-Man 2099.
Oscar Isaac is an actor who perfectly balances his project output with major blockbusters and prestige dramas, and now he’s managed to set a pretty impressive Marvel record. As the account Culture Crave on Twitter points out, Isaac is the first actor to play three major roles for the comic book giant. The first was the villainous Apocalypse in X-Men Apocalypse, the second was Moon Knight in the Disney+ TV series of the same name, and the third was his most recent as Spider-Man 2099 in Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse.
There is a tiny bit of contention for Oscar Isaac holding this record, as technically, Mahershala Ali could be considered the first actor to hit the threepeat for Marvel. Ali appeared in the Marvel projects Luke Cage, where he played Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes, and then he played Aaron Davis/Prowler in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. He also made a brief cameo as Blade in the post-credit sting at the end of Eternals, so it’s unclear whether or not a cameo “counts” as Ali playing the character in a major role.
In either case, both Oscar Isaac and Mahershala Ali should be praised for their versatility and ability to take on a range of interesting superhero or supervillain roles in the Marvel cinematic universe. In any case, Isaac is probably reveling in the success of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse right now, as it’s being widely praised by critics and audiences alike. Of course, the big money it has been making at the box office probably doesn’t hurt either.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the sequel to the Oscar-winning original Marvel film and sees Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) entering the multiverse and meeting a group of Spider-people tasked with defending the multiverse’s existence, led by Oscar Isaac’s Miguel O’Hara, aka Spider-man 2099. Along with Moore and Isaac, the film stars Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, and Daniel Kaluuya.
Oscar Isaac is also listed to return in the upcoming Marvel threequel Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, which is set to come out on March 29, 2024. In the meantime, Isaac will likely be busy filming his myriad of other upcoming projects. One of the most anticipated of these, other than Beyond the Spider-Verse, is undoubtedly his long-gestating Metal Gear Solid movie.
Oscar Isaac was announced to be starring as Solid Snake from the popular Metal Gear Solid video game franchise back in 2020, but there hasn’t been a ton of forward momentum. Isaac gave an update back in 2022, saying they were still figuring out the story. Hopefully, they figure it out sooner than later so we can finally see Hideo Kojima’s highly cinematic franchise brought to the big screen.
Along with Beyond the Spider-Verse and Metal Gear Solid, Oscar Isaac’s other upcoming projects that have nothing to do with Marvel include Francis and the Godfather about the making of The Godfather. Isaac is set to play Francis Ford Coppola, while Jake Gyllenhaal plays Robert Evans. He is also set to star in the Ben Stiller-directed thriller London and the TV series Helltown where he’ll be playing famous author Kurt Vonnegut.
