A Short History Of Marvel Using Huge Actors In Small, Random Roles For Unclear Reasons

SPOILER WARNING: The following article gives away a detail from The Fantastic Four: First Steps that honestly will not ruin the new 2025 movie for you at all. However, if you still wish to go into every cinematic release with the absolute freshest of eyes, proceed with caution.

Marvel Studios seems to have an unspoken goal of inducting as many names from Hollywood’s A-List into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as possible, even if that means casting them in a small part of little to no significance. This has actually happened on more than one occasion, including in the latest Marvel movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. I’ll start there as I recall some of the big stars who took on decidedly minuscule roles in the MCU.

Natasha Lyonne In The Fantastic Four: First Steps

CinemaBlend’s Adam Holmes suspected that Natasha Lyonne was voicing H.E.R.B.I.E., a robotic assistant, in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but she ended up playing a love interest to The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) named Rachel. The teacher only shows up for a couple of brief scenes and is never brought up again, which makes me wonder if Marvel is keeping an opportunity open for Ben Grimm to meet Alicia Masters in a later film. However, that also makes me wonder why the Poker Face star’s role was introduced in the first place.

Wendell Pierce In Thunderbolts*

Twice in 2025, Wendell Pierce appeared in a new superhero movie for what amounted to a few, relatively inconsequential minutes, the most recent being in the new DC movie, Superman, as The Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White. A couple of months earlier, he showed up in Thunderbolts* as Gary, a Congressman who, in a subplot that I have almost completely forgotten about, has it out for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and wants to see her impeached.

Giancarlo Esposito In Captain America: Brave New World

One issue I had with 2025’s Captain America: Brave New World is how it makes Giancarlo Esposito’s Sidewinder a throwaway side character. How does one cast an actor who has perfected the art of villainy (i.e. Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian, The Boys) and make him the secondary antagonist to Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel “The Leader” Sterns? I just hope the claims that we will see more of the terrorist leader are true.

John C. Reilly In Guardians Of The Galaxy

At the time Guardians of the Galaxy was released in 2014, John C. Reilly was one of the biggest names in the cast. Yet, the Academy Award nominee’s Corpsman Dey is one of the hilarious space adventure’s most forgettable characters, which might not have been the case if he had been brought back in at least one of the sequels.

Idris Elba In Thor

I would not say that Heimdall is really a random or unimportant role in the Thor movies, considering he does guard the Bifrost and shows up in six MCU installments, not counting a What If…? episode. However, it is a pretty small role for an actor as popular and acclaimed as Idris Elba, especially when compared to his other, more prominent comic book movie roles in The Losers, The Suicide Squad, and more.

Benicio Del Toro In Guardians Of The Galaxy

Speaking as a huge fan of Guardians of the Galaxy, I think we can all agree that The Collector’s sole purpose in that film, and ultimately the MCU as a whole, is to provide exposition. Quite frankly, I believe Academy Award winner Benicio del Toro deserves more chances to make this bizarre character really stand out.

Hannibal Buress In Spider-Man: Homecoming

Donald Glover’s role in Spider-Man: Homecoming is surprisingly small for an artist of his magnitude, but still noteworthy for his previous connections to the webslinger and his reprisal cameo in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as Aaron “The Prowler” Davis. The one who really gets the short end of the stick in the 2017 hit is acclaimed comedian Hannibal Buress, who appears just twice and for mere seconds at a time as Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) gym teacher, Coach Wilson. He would show up again in No Way Home, but for even less time.

Just to reiterate how little of an impact Buress’ character makes on Homecoming, the comedian couldn’t make it to the premiere and hired a lookalike to pose as him, and barely anyone noticed. I don’t think it should be that easy for an actor to pull off an otherwise brilliant stunt like this at a red carpet event for a huge blockbuster they are appearing in. In other words, Marvel, if you can get the best, give them the best.