‘Bullet Train’ Features Several Marvel Actors Who Have Never Worked Together
Brad Pitt has definitely been having fun on screen since his Oscar win for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In 2022, he had a small but memorable role opposite Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum in The Lost City. And he’s similarly embracing his comic timing in the wild action comedy, Bullet Train. Although the movie tells an original story, it does feature several actors who have appeared in various movies based on Marvel Comics. Now they come together for the first time.
‘Bullet Train’ features Brad Pitt and an ensemble supporting cast
Bullet Train is the latest release from director David Leitch. The filmmaker co-directed the original John Wick with Chad Stahelski. And while Stahelski has stuck with that franchise, Leitch has branched out. His subsequent movies include Atomic Blonde, Hobbs & Shaw, and Nobody, the latter of which he produced but didn’t direct. Bullet Train looks to have similarly kinetic action.
In the film, Pitt plays an assassin named Ladybug who takes on a seemingly simple mission to retrieve a briefcase aboard a speeding bullet train in Japan. However, he soon finds that various parties are all there for the same reason, leaving Ladybug facing one deadly foe after another. Who will be left standing when the titular bullet train actually reaches its destination?
Many ‘Bullet Train’ stars have appeared in hit Marvel movies
Leitch has made several notable action films, and among them is 2018’s Deadpool 2. That film, of course, stars Ryan Reynolds as the Marvel mutant anti-hero. But Pitt makes the briefest of cameos as Vanisher, who is only visible in his dying moment. However, Pitt is far from the only Bullet Train star to first appear in a Marvel film. Zazie Beetz even co-starred in Deadpool 2 as Domino.
In addition, Hiroyuki Sanada – who also played Scorpion in the 2021 Mortal Kombat – played Shingen Yashida in 2013’s The Wolverine. Brian Tyree Henry voiced Jefferson Davis, Miles Morales’ father, in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse before making his live-action Marvel debut in 2021’s Eternals. Meanwhile, Aaron Taylor-Johnson played Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron and is set to play Spider-Man villain Kraven the Hunter in a spinoff movie set for 2023.
The movie could become a runaway blockbuster this summer
Bullet Train doesn’t only feature a fun mix of existing stars. It could even launch some of its actors to even bigger stardom. For instance, rapper Bad Bunny appears in the film, just his second big-screen appearance after F9 in 2021. And he’s already signed on to star in yet another Spider-Man villain/anti-hero spinoff, this time as an obscure character called El Muerto.
With a star-studded cast and a director with a filmography as consistently strong as Leitch, Bullet Train proves to be the late summer thrill ride moviegoers never see coming. The only other wide release movies set for release on August 5, 2022, are comedy Easter Sunday and horror satire Bodies Bodies Bodies. Neither has the same broad appeal as Bullet Train, which should easily dominate.
