The NCIS Character You Likely Forgot Was Played By MCU Villain Corey Stoll
Corey Stoll is one of those actors that can play good, bad, and everything in between. Stoll hunts vampires and deals with a messy family life in "The Strain," he navigates a brutal political world in "House of Cards," narrates a hockey dynasty in the "Quest for the Stanley Cup," and plays a cunning financial game in "Billions." And of course, one of the most recognizable characters in Stoll's acting stable is that of Darren Cross aka Yellowjacket in 2015's MCU heist movie, "Ant-Man."
Acting as the former protégé of former Ant-Man Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), Cross becomes obsessed with Pym-based technologies, specifically his amazing shrinking technology. Cross wishes to weaponize and unlock the secrets of shrinking, but Pym warns of potential side-effects — like psychosis — due to the mechanism of the technology, and exposure to strange states of matter. This does little to dissuade Cross from his actions, which eventually culminates in a miniature high-stakes battle between Cross and Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), the now-current Ant-Man.
However, before battling worm-infested vampires or donning the militarized Yellowjacket suit, Stoll had a role on the popular series "NCIS."
Corey Stoll played Martin Quinn in NCIS
"NCIS" follows a resilient group of agents for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Due to the fact that they work predominately for the American government, the "NCIS" crew typically engages in both domestic and foreign threats. Appearing in three Season 4 episodes between 2006 and 2007 — which are "Smoked," "Driven," and "Blowback" — Stoll plays the arms dealer Martin Quinn (via IMDb).
As an ally of René Benoit (Armand Assante), Quinn is involved in the movement and sale of illegal weapons, which is a highly profitable and lucrative business venture within the world of "NCIS," and a common threat to the security of the United States. Although the episodes "Smoked" and "Driven" have a primary focus on crimes other than arms smuggling, the final episode in which Stoll appears, "Blowback," involves a tip from Israeli Intelligence regarding an advanced weapons system that leads the "NCIS" team to investigate by sending one of its members undercover, which eventually stops Benoit's operation and disrupts the flow of weapons and technology on the black market.
Unfortunately, it appears the "NCIS" members didn't do a great job — because Stoll definitely gets involved in some serious arms dealing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! Jokes aside, though Stoll's "NCIS" villain helped to establish the actor, and we probably would not have seen him in "Ant-Man" had it not been for "NCIS" and his other pre-MCU roles.