Marvel has been very smart in casting mostly unknown (i.e., cheap) actors in the lead roles of these films. Robert Downey Jr might seem an exception, since he’s been in Hollywood for a while, but his reputation was poor at the time of the first Iron Man movie and I think he only got something like $50,000 for that movie.
Heh.
So I just reviewed Wiki’s category for Characters Created By Stan Lee, and you can maybe guess at the superheroes it listed: Spider-Man, of course, and Iron Man; and Doctor Strange, and Mister Fantastic; and Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch; and various other Appeared-On-Screen-Of-Late types; just dance through the alphabet, from Ant-Man to Black Panther to Cyclops to Daredevil and so on.
Which means, if the pattern holds, that: the Swordsman is on the way?
Wait, that can’t be right.
Downey was making a comeback, starting with the little-seen but fantastic Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Singing Detectivep, but Iron Man was a high profile role in a big budget blockbuster that Downey had never been known for headlining. He certainly wasn’t an above the marquee draw for anything, although his talent and dedication to craft was well-known among the film community, and he did take a paltry salary in exchange for ‘points’ on the gross profits which made it cheap for Marvel (on the upfront costs) and very, very lucrative for Downey, who also negotiated a points option for his subsequent contractual obligations, making him one of the wealthiest actors in Hollywood on the basis of revenue from films. (There are others who are worth more due to outside business ventures, but I think Downey is still the record top earner from the standpoint of money for acting and producing.).
He’d be a perfect fit for a post-Infinity Wars side character film. Widow, Falcon, and Hawkeye, anyone?
Stranger
Good movies are going to do well, bad movies are going to bomb. They can keep cranking out this movies forever and that simple fact is going to hold.
I’d like to see a movie about the Dora Milaje. Hope The Black Panther’s sequel focuses on them more.
I saw 2001 in the theater when it first came out; haven’t tired of it yet.
Is it still playing? I heard that was a long movie, but…wow.
Just had an epiphany; they should do something with the Savage Land and Ka-zarr, load it up with dinosaurs (ride the Jurassic World wave) and rake in the cash.
I’m actually hoping the next phase will do a Captain America 4 that’s actually an adaptation of “The Truth” miniseries about the black Captain America created after Steve Rogers. It’s a storyline that I thought would have been awesome for Agent Carter or Agents of SHIELD to do. After the success of Black Panther I could see them doing this.