Matthew McConaughey Turned Down the MCU for This Stephen King Flop

Hindsight is 20/20, and what appeared just like the wiser alternative on the time isn’t at all times the one appears appropriate whenever you look again. It’s a common human expertise, one shared by common individuals and well-known individuals alike. Simply ask Matthew McConaugheywhose resolution to show down a job in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 appeared like such a good suggestion on the time.

McConaughey possible would’ve performed Ego, Star-Lord’s dad, who was in the end performed by Kurt Russell within the film (and in subsequent What If…? cameos that McConaughey possible wouldn’t have been as recreation for). Extra importantly, although, it will’ve launched him into the canon of the Marvel Cinematic Universewhich he has managed to keep away from to date — for those who don’t depend him offering the voice of the cowboy Deadpool in Deadpool & Wolverine. As a matter of reality, he’s one among only some big-name actors who has by no means been in any superhero film or any Star Wars filmand now it looks as if he ought to simply maintain that up.

Why Did Matthew McConaughey Flip Down the MCU?

We truly don’t understand how shut McConaughey obtained to enjoying Ego, however we do know what he selected to make as a substitute: Niklaj Arcel’s disastrous adaptation of The Darkish Tower, Stephen King’s sprawling, genre-defying sci-fi/horror/Western saga. McConaughey performed The Man in Black, a.ok.a. Walter, a.ok.a. Randall Flagg, the overarching villain of an entire bunch of Stephen King tales (most famously The Stand), and to at the present time it stays frustratingly good casting. (As does the casting of Walter’s nemesis, the heroic gunslinger Roland Deschain, who was performed by Idris Elba within the film.)

But it surely’s laborious guilty McConaughey for making the selection he did, as a result of it does make sense on paper. Why be one more well-known particular person in a Marvel film when you might be the man enjoying this massive vital character in a film that would’ve/ought to’ve spawned some sequels? McConaughey laid it out properly again in 2017:

I like Guardians of the Galaxyhowever what I noticed was ‘It’s profitable, and now we’ve obtained room to make a colourful half for an additional big-name actor.’ I’d really feel like an modification. The Darkish Tower script was properly written, I just like the director and his tackle it, and I might be the creator, the creator of the Man in Black — a.ok.a. the Satan — in my model of this Stephen King novel.

It’s slightly reductive to name Walter “the Satan,” however that’s the fundamental concept (particularly when he’s utilizing the Randall Flagg persona, which is a bit more theatrically evil than Walter/The Man In Black). McConaughey went on to say that he performed the character “as if I had been the Satan having an excellent time, getting turned on by exposing human hypocrisies wherever he finds them.” And that’s not a nasty take! It looks as if he knew what he was doing, and it looks as if choosing the character that he may deliver one thing to was a better option than simply doing “Matthew McConaughey is Star-Lord’s dad.”

Sadly, the Darkish Tower film ended up being terriblewith simply 16 p.c on Rotten Tomatoes (and an unbelievably beneficiant 44 p.c from customers). It’s not McConaughey’s fault in any respect, actually, however the truth that the film tried to condense seven dense, bizarre books into only one, not-so-weird film. Did he make the precise alternative? Properly, he’s nonetheless a wealthy and well-known actor, so… in all probability, yeah.