Here's what my wife and I came up with when deciding to create a fancast for an expanded MCU. But first, a few ground rules that we followed when creating our top picks:
1. This fancast must exist within the existing MCU. That means no changing current actors who already portray a character.
2. It also means that we cannot pick the same actor twice or use an actor that currently exists somewhere in the MCU as another character.
3. The actors must be alive today, ready to shoot for Marvel Studios.
4. We've left out Dr. Strange characters. Even though the movie has not been released, Marvel Studios has already made the movie and chosen the corresponding actors/characters.
5. We've left Marvel characters whose cinematic rights are owned by other studios (i.e. X-men) out of the loop - as they are not currently in the MCU - with the following exceptions: Fantastic Four and Ghost Rider. This is due to the hope that Fox will just stop "trying" and soon release the characters back to their rightful place with Marvel Studios. We've also gone ahead and went crazy with the new Spidey universe, as it is now somewhat shared property and his surrounding characters could now feasably be in the MCU.
So..... here we go:
SPIDER-MAN
Peter Parker / Spider-Man = Tom Holland
Gwen Stacy = Emma Watson
Mary Jane Watson = Kaya Scodelario
J. Jonah Jameson = Gary Oldman
Norman Osbourn / Green Goblin = Bryan Cranston
Otto Octavius / Dr. Octopus = David Morrissey
Adrian Toomes / Vulture = Desmond Harrington
Mac Gargan / Scorpion = Raymond Cruz
Eddie Brock / Venom = Joel Kinnaman
Harry Osbourn / Hobgoblin = Jack O’Connell
Herman Schultz / The Shocker = Steve Buscemi………Ok this one may need any explanation. Picture the Ultimate Shocker version: the total loser guy who is comedic relief as his representation of a terrible D-list villain that Spidey keeps running into. Of course, we would want Mr. Buscemi to eventually get the upper hand show his dark side at some point in the franchise series.
Dr. Curt Connors / Lizard = Christian Camargo
Kraven = Erik King…….I think we need to get away from the whole “Russian bad guy” cliché. Especially if the villain is dressed as the king of the African safari animal kingdom. I’m normally one for as-close-as-possible adaptions of source material, but a character change like this would not be monumental and Mr. King could give an excellent “hunter killer” vibe as Kraven.
Silver Sable = Mireille Enos
Cletus Kasady = Andrew Scott
Hydro-(Wo)man = Aubrey Plaza…..I know, I know, you’re like “whaaaat the…..?” But here is another example of a change in the original (boring) character that I could see happening for a good reason. My wife and I recently wrote up a cinematic version of the “Maximum Carnage” story (which we may post in the future as Fan Fic), and in it we decided to hold true to the idea that Carnage assembles his own little baddie-group while taking over the city. However, instead of filling his crew up with lesser-known villains (like “Shriek”, Carnage’s crazy-brained lover), we felt it would be in the expanding MCU’s interest to use that opportunity to create/use some of Spidey’s villains who have genetically-based powers. This includes Sandman, Electro, Molten Man, and Hydro-Man – who is now Hydro-Woman (or Hydro-Gal or Hydro-Babe or just Hydro or whatever it doesn’t matter) and would represent the Shriek character from the original story. Ok, whew. If you hate it, just move on. Cuz I love the idea.
Flint Marko / Sandman = Michael Cudlitz
Max Dillon / Electro = Steven Yuen
Mark Raxton / Molten Man = Giancarlo Esposito
Felicia Hardy / Black Cat = Lauren Cohan
Aunt May = Susan Sarandon
FANTASTIC FOUR
Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic = John Krasinski
Susan Storm / Invisible Woman = Emily Blunt
Johnny Storm / Human Torch = Ryan Phillippe
Benjamin Grimm / The Thing = John Boyega
Dr. Doom = Kiefer Sutherland
Namor / Sub-Mariner = Christian Bale
DAREDEVIL
Matt Murdock / Daredevil = Charlie Cox
Bullseye = Norman Reedus
Mr. Fear = William Fichtner
INCREDIBLE HULK
Bruce Banner / Hulk = Mark Ruffalo
The Leader = Rainn Wilson
Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk = Michelle Rodriguez
INHUMANS
Black Bolt = Andrew Lincoln
Medusa = Marcia Cross
Crystal = Amy Adams
Maximus = Michael C. Hall
Gorgon = Dwayne Johnson
Karnak = Jackie Earle Haley
Triton = Daniel Dae Kim
NOVA
Richard Rider / Nova = Aaron Paul
Annihilus = Christoph Waltz
CAPTAIN MARVEL
Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel = Katheryn Winnick
Philip Lawson / Mar-Vell = Zachary Quinto
Super-Skrull = Daniel Craig
GHOST RIDER
Johnny Blaze / Ghost Rider = Karl Urban
Mephisto = Jeremy Irons