20 Marvel Actors Who Were Wasted In MCU Roles

Everyone loves a paycheck. I don’t begrudge any actor who looks at the film landscape (and their bank account) and says “Yes, I will show up for two minor scenes in the next Marvel movie. I really need to remodel my kitchen in my house.”

Still, it’s hard sometimes not to get a little frustrated with the way the Marvel Cinematic Universe has squandered some of the best performers of this era in nothing roles. While some actors flourished in the MCU — Robert Downey Jr. owes the entire second act of his career to Tony Stark, and Chris Hemsworth became a beefy comic leading man thanks to his hilarious work in Thor and The Avengers — many well-known stars have been brought in for some marquee value, a handful of scenes, and little else.

The list below collects 20 of the most notable and disappointing examples. It does not include anyone introduced in Phase 4 of the MCU, because we’re going to give the company the benefit of the doubt and assume that even if someone made a brief and unsatisfying appearance somewhere recently, they could show up in a much larger and more meaningful way down the line.

The actors below have generally already come and gone from the MCU — although is anyone ever truly dead in comics? There’s always a chance these performers could get a second shot at Marvel stardom. Until then, they remain MCU what-ifs — and not the good kind of MCU What If...?s that star Jeffrey Wright as Uatu the Watcher.