What Oliver Jackson-Cohen Really Thinks About Fans Casting HIm in a Marvel Show
The concept of “fan-casting” has become a social media pastime in the last few years, almost to a point where entire websites are now available as forums. Some studios have even visited these sites to gain the best ideas in who to cast for certain parts in big franchise films.
One recent celeb responded to his fans wanting to fan-cast him for a critical new Marvel villain.
An anticipated antihero for future Marvel movies is Moon Knight (or Marc Spector), despite casting choices for this role from fans being all over the place. Everyone from Daniel Radcliffe to Pedro Pascal have been bantered around as contenders.
According to a large bevy of Marvel fans, Oliver Jackson-Cohen would be the best choice. Cohen’s reply to his fans was more than a little humble.
Why Oliver Jackson-Cohen seems like the perfect casting choice
Maybe not everyone knows who Oliver Jackson-Cohen is yet, despite being in a few top-tier projects. He recently acted in the popular Netflix remake of The Haunting of Hill House, including in the upcoming follow-up. Plus, he’s going to play the Invisible Man in an upcoming big-screen adaptation/reboot of the H.G. Wells story.
Before doing those projects, he worked quite a bit in British TV and movies considering he was born in London. However, he’s of Egyptian-Jewish heritage, an important factor since the Marc Spector character is the same.
Yes, this was a key element in why fans thought Cohen would be the perfect one. Add in the idea that Marvel loves to hire those who aren’t overly well-known either to turn them into bigger stars.
All of the stars seem aligned for Cohen to join. The only problem is he had no idea what his fans were talking about when the fan-casting comments occurred on social media.
Oliver Jackson-Cohen isn’t overly familiar with Moon Knight
It’s a given Moon Knight isn’t overly familiar to casual comic book fans. Not everyone has read Marvel comic book of yore to know every character that could be adapted.
Besides, Moon Knight/Marc Spector has yet to appear in any big-screen movie. No wonder Oliver Jackson-Cohen claimed he had no idea what his fans were saying when pressing him on his Instagram to play Moon Knight.
Some might find it amusing he was so bewildered, even if it’s arguably refreshing to know he’s not a Marvel nerd. It seems some of the most perfect casting choices in history usually had the actor involved not knowing anything about the character until finally doing research.
He’s still very interested in playing the part. Recent comments from him have him saying he’d love to be a part of the MCU. Who wouldn’t with the studio’s paychecks paying better than any studio in the world?
Playing Moon Knight would push new superhero boundaries
No matter who’s cast as Moon Knight, the actor involved will likely become a vital part of superhero history. Anyone familiar with the character knows he has three distinct personalities, making him the first superhero with multiple personality disorder.
In other words, it would be the first Marvel character with a mental illness to explore in-depth. Giving a more humanized portrait of a superhero like this is long overdue anyway and requires the best possible actor.
Cohen has done a great job in his American debuts lately. Even so, he’s still untested to tackle something as complex as Moon Knight would be. One thing for sure is he’s (facetiously) telling his fans to go to Marvel to tell them to cast him as Marc Spector.
Fan-casting has worked occasionally before, which only saves the studios time holding hundreds of auditions. Not that fans don’t love seeing the countless audition tapes of A-list stars who ultimately don’t win the part.
