Rumor Report: Is Marvel Eyeing Henry Cavill To Play This Major MCU Role?
Another day, another provocative Marvel rumor.
Citing their ever-mysterious inside sources, We Got This Covered is reporting that Marvel Studios is considering Henry Cavill, who appeared as Superman in three films for Warner Brothers and DC, for the role of Brian Braddock — AKA Captain Britain — in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Now, before we dig too deep here, it should be said that this rumor should be taken not with a grain of salt, but with the whole shaker. WGTC's report states that while Marvel Studios has not yet reached out to Cavill, but that he is on its "wish list," which seems like it would be a pretty difficult thing to ascertain unless you were actually Kevin Feige. We're trying to picture Mr. Feige sharing his Captain Britain wish list with some dude who immediately turned around to divulge the info to a website with an extremely long track record of inaccurately reporting Marvel news, and for some reason, we're having a hard time doing that.
Having said that, though, Marvel has actually planted a tiny, tiny seed for the arrival of Captain Britain in the MCU with a line in Avengers: Endgame, one you could totally be forgiven for having missed. It happens during Steve Rogers and Tony Stark's mission to 1970 to recover the Tesseract from the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, and it's spoken by an unidentified man to none other than Peggy Carter as Steve surreptitiously gazes at her through the window of her office. Looper can confirm that when Peggy tells the man to "bring them in," he responds, "They're trying, ma'am, but Braddock's unit has been stopped by lightning strikes." While it's possible that screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely just pulled the name "Braddock" out of a hat, fans of the MCU know that this isn't bloody likely.
Created by Marvel legend Chris Claremont, Captain Britain first appeared in the pages of the comics in 1976. If you're unfamiliar with the character, you're probably picturing a very polite, yet formidable, hero who will take high tea before kicking your butt with his Union Jack-emblazoned shield, but Braddock is far from being simply a British analog for Captain America.
A gifted young physicist, Braddock was working on an experiment involving antimatter particles when he had a fateful run-in with the supervillain Reaver, who was intent on stealing the research. Braddock sustained what would have been fatal injuries when he crashed his car while fleeing the scene — but he was rescued by Merlin (yes, the wizard), who gifted him with the Amulet of Right.
In addition to saving his life, the amulet granted Braddock superpowers on par with Earth's most powerful heroes. He can fly, he's near-indestructible, he has Daredevil-esque sharpened senses, and he can casually throw around a fully-loaded double decker bus; the only drawback is that his magically-imbued powers wane if he ventures too far from the U.K. (unless he uses a special suit).
Marvel die-hards have been fan casting Braddock since at least 2017, when Feige — while making the promotional rounds for Spider-Man: Homecoming — name-dropped the character as one that he'd like to explore in the future. "We have discussed it," Feige said at the time, intriguingly adding, "There are a lot of actors that come in and ask about that part, so we'll have to see."
Has anyone else been the subject of Captain Britain rumors?
Speaking of fan casting, it seems likely that this is how the Cavill rumor originated. In September of 2018, Twitter briefly lit up with the possibility of Cavill landing in the role of Captain Britain after it was reported that we has finished playing Superman for Warner Brothers; the flurry of activity was seemingly based solely around the fact that Cavill is square-jawed, British, and looks good in a superhero suit. Cavill himself has added no fuel to the flame whatsoever, and there are a couple of other thespians from across the pond who have not only been rumored to be up for consideration, but who have actually expressed interest.
One of these: Simon Pegg, who told JoBlo in 2018 that he loved the character when he was a kid (and even had a Captain Britain mask). Pegg has proven his action bonafides with roles in the Star Trek and Mission: Impossible franchises, but he did mention at the time that he feared he may be too old for a major superhero role (he's currently 49).
Another name that keeps popping up in relation to Captain Britain: Orlando Bloom, who threw his name into the conversation during an interview at right around the same time. Heck, even Loki himself, Tom Hiddleston, has expressed interest in taking on the role, assuming that Feige would be willing to double-cast him. Of course, we're not suggesting that any of these (extremely qualified) actors are under consideration — we're merely pointing out that all of them have spoken publicly about their interest in the character, while Cavill has said zilch.
It's also worth noting that while it was widely reported last year that Cavill had split from Warner Brothers and DC, this has never been officially confirmed. In the wake of the reports, the studio issued a statement saying that it has "a great relationship and great respect" for Cavill, and that "no current decisions regarding any upcoming Superman films" had been made. While the "Worlds of DC" franchise has been undergoing an extensive recalibration as of late, it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility to think that Cavill could eventually return to the role of Big Blue.
All of which is to say that we find the rumor that Cavill is being eyed for Captain Britain to be highly suspect, and that it is — in our professional opinion — probably a bunch of malarkey. Of course, we're constantly keeping our eyes peeled for any and all Marvel news, and if we hear anything official about Brian Braddock's entry into the MCU, we'll be the first to report it.