2024 has been a pretty terrific year for blockbusters. The big money ball got rolling pretty early, too, with Dune: Part Two. Now, not every movie listed below was a blockbuster, per se, but when projects nab the presence of big stars, like the stars in the MCU, it stands to reason there’s some money behind it. That was certainly the case with the two Dune movies, and Marvel stars need to have something to do when they’re not fighting aliens or reversing fatal finger snaps.
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The only exceptions were especially minor Marvel presences. For instance, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was included not for Jenna Ortega, who only had a non-verbal, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role in Iron Man 3, but rather for Michael Keaton, whose role in Spider-Man: Homecoming was substantial. Furthermore, it wasn’t just actors from the MCU who were considered, but rather Marvel cinema as a whole.
Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Stellan Skarsgård, Josh Brolin, and Dave Bautista in Dune: Part Two
Big stars attract the attention of big projects and big directors attract the attention of big stars. One such big director is Denis Villeneuve, and his Dune duology (soon to be a quasi-trilogy) was a big project. So naturally there would be some overlap between it and the MCU when it came to casting.
Yelena Belova a.k.a. Black Widow 2.0, Michelle “MJ” Jones, Thanos, Magik from The New Mutants, Drax, Erik Selvig — they’re all here. Samuel Sterns, a.k.a. The Leader in Captain America: Brave New World (Tim Blake Nelson) showed up for Dune: Part Two, but his scenes were cut. But, besides a big budget, there’s not much of a throughline between Dune and the MCU, either in terms of content or tone.
Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum in Wicked
Box office smash Wicked has gone on to be a fan-favorite cinematic success, just like the musical that inspired it. The biggest difference is the clout of the stars (though Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel certainly have clout of their own). And, while Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo have yet to appear in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh have. Avengers: Infinity War‘s Peter Dinklage also has a role in Wicked, lending his iconic deep voice to Doctor Dillamond, the goat professor of Shiz University.
The closest Wicked ever comes to an MCU movie or TV show is the musical sequence in The Marvels and the fact it features witches, just like Agatha All Along. Well, those elements and the fact that Goldblum’s Wizard is an eccentric fellow, just like Thor: Ragnarok‘s Grandmaster. But it’s Jeff Goldblum, you don’t bring him onto a project if he’s not allowed to have a blast.
[RELATED: Wicked Star Sides with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in Debate About Theater Etiquette]
Willem Dafoe and Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
The recent glut of legacy sequels has been a mixed bag. For every Creed or Twisters there’s been a Dumb and Dumber To or Independence Day: Resurgence. Fortunately, Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sides firmly with the former group, not the latter.
It also wisely relegates Vulture himself, Michael Keaton, to the sidelines, just as the first film did. The sequel is every bit as bizarre and adventurous as the original, and while there isn’t as strong a core plot as the struggle of the original movie’s recently deceased Maitland couple, it’s a lot of fun. Furthermore, Keaton isn’t the only MCU star who rides the soul train, as there’s the aforementioned Jenna Ortega and Justin Theroux, who wrote the underrated Iron Man 2.
Rebecca Hall & Brian Tyree Henry in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
It really is a shame that Adam Wingard is not returning to direct a third Godzilla vs. Kong movie, because Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire cements the notion that he understands the assignment. It’s not quite as good as his 2021 monster mash (the best MonsterVerse movie to date), but he gets what made the classic Toho Godzilla movies click: it’s okay to be silly.
All that said, it does feature the same problem that has plagued the Monsterverse from the beginning: woefully underdeveloped human characters. In the case of The New Empire, there is a pair of MCU stars inhabiting two of those underdeveloped human roles, and they’re both returning from Godzilla vs. Kong. Admittedly, they’re the most fleshed-out of the lot, with Iron Man 3‘s Rebecca Hall getting some nice maternal scenes while Eternals‘ Brian Tyree Henry does his best with some goofy comedy relief dialogue.
Kumail Nanjiani, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Celeste O’Connor, and Bill Murray in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
For the longest time, it looked like the Ghostbusters IP was done for. Then, after 27 years, Paul Feig’s reboot hit theaters with a thud, primarily courtesy of rampant online vitriol. Given the response to that film, it was something of a surprise that there was interest in another attempt at busting with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but Jason Reitman, son of the first two films’ director, Ivan, was the man for the job.
Reitman’s sure hand is missed in the director’s chair for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, but he’s still there as co-writer, as is a host of Marvel stars. The list includes Ant-Man himself, Paul Rudd, Rudd’s co-star in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Bill Murray, Eternals‘ Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt, Madame Web‘s Celeste O’Connor, Avengers: Infinity War‘s Carrie Coon, and Mckenna Grace (viewers might remember Grace as 13-year-old Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel, and they’ll soon see her again in Scream VII).
