While Stephen Lang is preparing to see his Avatar villain on the big screen again as the Avatar 2 release date approaches, one thing that’s certainly not on his mind is the idea of nabbing a role in another major franchise. More specifically, Lang has given up hoping for the chance to play a Marvel villain.
Lang plays Colonel Quaritch in the original 2000s movie, a ruthless military man who looks to destroy everything the Na’vi have built on Pandora. The actor was mentioned as a candidate for the role of X-Men character Cable in Deadpool 2, but ultimately missed out on that opportunity.
Speaking to ComicBook.com, Lang revealed that the disappointment of that casting decision has taught him to stay quiet when it comes to the Marvel movie rumour mill.
When asked about a rise of fan-casting for Lang as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, Lang played it cool: “I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut about stuff like that. As you well know, I put out one tweet years ago about saying, ‘Sure, I’ll play Cable,’ and it became all of a sudden, ‘Lang is campaigning for the role’ and everything,” Lang said.
Fans have also eyed adventure movie legend Harrison Ford for the role, and Lang isn’t about to be drawn into a battle over any prospective MCU movie job offer.
“All I can say is that I think Harrison Ford is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful actor. I can’t think of anybody better in that role — except for maybe one or two people — but I have nothing to say upon those lines. I await the call from the ghost of Stan Lee, that’s all I can say,” Lang added.
Only time will tell who will take on the role when the Thunderbolts release date comes around, in which we anticipate a re-casting of the MCU character after the death of actor William Hurt.