If we’re to believe actor Derek Luke, Marvel has offered Will Smith the starring role in The First Avenger: Captain America.
Luke, who’s probably best known for Antwone Fisher and Spartan, floated that tidbit in an interview with MTV’s Splash Page:
“I heard they offered Will Smith Captain America,” said Luke, adding that the intriguing casting rumor “just shows you how times have changed.”
There are two key words in that quote: “heard” and “offered.” Are Luke’s Hollywood sources any more reliable than, say, Julie Newmar’s? Maybe. But even if they are, Marvel offering Smith the part isn’t the same as Smith accepting it.
The scenario strikes me as a bit unlikely unlikely, though.
Smith as Captain America — whether that’s Steve Rogers, Isaiah Bradley, or some combination of the two — certainly would make for an interesting World War II-era movie. Interesting and expensive, considering that Smith was paid $20 million for Hancock. With that in mind, just how much of the budget would salaries eat up in the planned Avengers movie?
Update: AICN’s Harry Knowles fires back with his own unnamed sources, saying that Marvel hasn’t offered Smith the role. So, yeah …
September 8th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I’d be more interested in Derek Luke as Luke Cage than Will Smith as Cap. Will’s just not right for the role in my opinion, whether it’s Steve Rogers, Isaiah Bradley or anyone else.
September 8th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Aww, hell no!
+
September 8th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Brad Pitt should be one to be given the role. Will Smith is ok too.
September 8th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I’m not one of these people who feels a black actor can’t play a character previously established as white. Really, I’m not. I didn’t have any issues with Billy Dee Williams playing Harvey Dent in the 1989 Batman (I had plenty of problems with that movie, but that wasn’t one of them), nor with Michael Duncan Clarke playing Kingpin (again, a movie with problems but Clarke wasn’t the problem). I think Sam Jackson, as sick as I am in seeing him show up in everything, is going to make a great Nick Fury. I’m just not seeing Will Smith as Cap. Then again, I’m probably more sick of seeing Will Smith than I am Jackson, so that could have something to do with it.
September 8th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Aaron Eckhardt!! Since RDJ and Edward Norton are already tied up with Samuel L. Jackson (theoretically) for the Avengers, you need someone who is:
1) affordable, and
2) a strong enough actor to believably command a room with those guys in it.
Eckhardt is that actor, and he even has the chin. TDK’s Harvey Dent was just the kind of throwback, hard-nosed, no-nonsense idealist that Steve Rogers is. This is a no-brainer.
September 8th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Can’t wait to hear what John Byrne has to say about this one.
September 8th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
@ apk: I think you’ve nailed it with Aaron Eckhart! He’s fairly bankable, thanks to The Dark Knight, but he’s also not a huge star whose presence could overshadow the movie. That could easily happen with either or Will Smith or Brad Pitt, regardless of their skin color. Yep, I could definitely see that chin showing underneath that mask. It’s perfect casting! Since there’s no more Batman in his future, he’d be the guy to play this part. If he’s willing.
Back to Smith, he’d be great as Isiah Bradley or… for a possible sequel, how about The Falcon?
September 8th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
I don’t watch Will Smith movies. His acting has not improved from his Fresh Prince days.
September 8th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Captain America: AWWWWWWWWWWW,Hell NAW!
September 8th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
@Andrew Wickliffe:
The Fuhrer doesn’t take kindly to that!
September 8th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
BEST IDEA EVER !
im hyped if this happens
Truth was one of the most underrated Marvel books…
September 8th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I think it would be a clever way to fill what might be the hardest part to cast, ever. But Will is going to be 40 this year. Age works in favor for a part like Tony Stark or Nick Fury, but Cap is a physical role and needs a youthful actor.
My pick? Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood). Film him as is for the scrawny Steve Rodgers now, then send him off to buff up to play Cap while you’re filming Ant-Man.
September 8th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I’d actually like this…Will Smith can be a very warm guy…yeah I’d go for it.
September 8th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Ridiculous. Not a black or white thing at all, just ludicrous. Steve Rogers is blond hair and blue eyes and some things don’t need to be changed just for the sake of change. There are plenty more great roles out there for Smith. Please don’t let this be one of them.
September 8th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
I happen to think that Will Smith is a very good actor. And he is physically able to do the job. I do agree that he’s a bit old for the part, though he’s in better shape than most 25 year olds, so that’s not exactly insurmountable.
However, my biggest problem with him being cast is it takes away the poetic aspect of Steve Rogers fighting Nazis. He was tall, blond and blue-eyed. In other words, he was Hitler’s Aryan ideal turned against him.
That could, of course, easily be redirected to be Hitler getting his ass kicked by one of the “mongrel” races. That works, too.
September 8th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Wouldn’t mind a bit if Smith were Isaiah Bradley in a segment before Steve Rogers is given the serum. We’ve already established in ‘Hulk’ that the military in the Marvel Movieverse tried such experiments. Remember the Weapons Plus canister in the lab?
I’d rather not have Smith as Cap himself — for me it’s just a hard sell that an African-American would have been designated as a national symbol in the 1940s. Now, sure, but not while the military (not to mention American society) was still segregated.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:36 am
don’t think I’ve seen Will in a bit part since Made In America
September 9th, 2008 at 2:41 am
Truth was awesome !
Go read it.
Could work…
September 9th, 2008 at 2:42 am
What ever happened to the cut Cap scene from Hulk 2 ????
September 9th, 2008 at 4:33 am
Stupid stupid stupid. This is the worst casting if true. I am mexican and just like I wouldn’t want to see an african american as Captain America I wouldn’t want to see a mexican actor as Captain America. Not one bit no matter how much I enjoy seeing the actor. You want to cast Captain America? Grow a brain and look at the cast of Generation Kill. Alexander Skarsgård is Captain America or just go with Matthew McConaughey or Brad Pitt. Those are 3 solid choices and any of the 3 could work. Will Smith?-He’d be better off being chosen for something else like maybe Cage or on second thought no. Cage needs to be massive. Black Panther should be played by Djimon Hounsou.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:05 am
True or not I think it’s perfect casting.
Black Captain America the whole way. Call him Steve Rodgers, keep the origin keep him all America and apple pie whatever. But a black dude makes more sense (Tuskegee) it’ll get press (ground breaking) and it’ll be more interesting (red skull is bound to hate a black dude more than a blond hair blue eyed white guy).
Plus a man who would have been a slave in this country a few hundred years ago wearing the flag and fighting in that country’s honor says a lot about the American dream and the bold experiment of democracy – standing in stark contrast to the revisionism of fascist nations.
Black Cap works better today.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Well, the last time Will Smith starred in a movie adapting a character from another form (this one was television) that was originally portrayed as white was Wild, Wild, West.
And we all know how that turned out……
September 9th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Oh please. Every time there’s an action movie Will Smith’s name comes up.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Wait. Does this film even have a director attached yet? Somehow I don’t see Will Smith playing a character with a mask. You’d have Cap wearing sunglasses.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I really like the Aaron Eckhart idea…the fact he can act a little helps immeasurably!
September 9th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I think Aaron Eckhart is the logical choice in this debate–due to his dramatic acting capabilities, his spot on “look” of Rogers, and the fact that Will Smith would ruin the role. Not all of us liked Hancock…and “Mr. July” isn’t the answer to every summer blockbuster dilemma.
September 9th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
@Marcej
I know Smith agrees with that…but people forget the fact that the movie just really really sucked.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Well he’s Will Smith..he’s topped the acting world..action star, drama star…maybe he’ll take a page from RDJ’s Tropic Thunder character and get a skin bleaching for the part
September 9th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Richard J. Marcej wrote:
“Well, the last time Will Smith starred in a movie adapting a character from another form (this one was television) that was originally portrayed as white was Wild, Wild, West.
And we all know how that turned out……”
On the other hand, in Men in Black, Smith played the role of Agent J, who was White in the comics. And we saw how popular a comic book flick MIB was. (MIB’s profits are even more impressive when you take inflation into account.)
As for a Captain America flick, I think Smith playing Bradley would be cool enough and would still garner lots of press. You can get someone like Eckhart to play Steve Rogers.
And, yes, I’m a Black guy making this suggestion.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Fred wrote:
And we saw how popular a comic book flick MIB was.
I think Smith playing Bradley would be cool enough and would still garner lots of press.
Well, I don’t know who Bradley is, so I guess I’ll have to take your word for it. But as for an actors choice garnering press, and a movie being popular, well, personally I could care less.
I just want to see a good movie.
Which Wild, Wild West and MIB 2 (IMO) weren’t.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
@Richard: Fred’s talking about Isaiah Bradley, whom you can learn more about by clicking the link about him in the article above. I think Will Smith’s all wrong for Steve Rogers, but he’d great as Bradley.
Wild Wild West was crap. MiB2 wasn’t as good as the first, but I was sufficiently entertained. Smith’s a good actor, just horribly overexposed. Sam Jackson, as I noted earlier, is the same way. It would be nice to see other talented African-American actors once in a while.