Here's Who Nope's Brandon Perea Wants To Play In The MCU
Jordan Peele's third feature film "Nope" premiered on July 22 to largely positive reviews from critics. Author Matthew Jackson, who awarded "Nope" a 9/10 in a review for Looper, praised the movie's cast as one of its three biggest strengths.
The cast of "Nope" counts both big names and up-and-comers among its ranks. Steven Yeun, for example, was once a member of the primary ensemble featured on earlier seasons of AMC's zombie drama "The Walking Dead." Meanwhile, lead actor Keke Palmer is quickly becoming a marquee Hollywood star, thanks to appearances in the likes of "Hustlers" and the "Scream" TV series, among other notable works.
Brandon Perea portrays salesman Angel Torres in "Nope." Compared to some of his co-stars like Yeun and Palmer, Perea is still a relative newcomer to the film industry, positioning him to potentially become a breakout star should viewers take to his "Nope" performance. In fact, Perea is likely hoping that Peele's latest serves as a springboard for more major movie roles, after recently revealing his desire to play one particular hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Brandon Perea wants to be the MCU's Sam Alexander
In an interview with Remezcla published concurrently with the premiere of "Nope," Brandon Perea revealed that he hopes the next step in his acting career is a Marvel Cinematic Universe role. After Remezcla shared this interview on Twitter, Perea quote tweeted it on his own account and added that he would like to portray Sam Alexander, known in Marvel comics as the superhero Nova.
As chronicled on the Marvel website, Sam is the second person to don the Nova mantle, after another human named Richard Rider. Nova is part of a larger intergalactic crimefighting team called the Nova Corps, so when Sam steps into the role, be becomes a member of the team, which spans multiple planets throughout the universe.
Plans for a Nova project, in fact, are currently underway — in March, Deadline reported that Marvel Studios hired Sabir Pirzada as a writer, though virtually no other details about its development have been announced. Theoretically, then, this MCU "Nova" could feature Richard Rider as its protagonist. In either case, Perea seems to have publicly thrown his hat in the ring to play Sam Alexander, whether that's in the currently in-development "Nova" project, or a future "Nova" that follows Marvel Comics canon and introduces him as the second incarnation of the intergalactic superhero.