Who can take on Marlon Brando and come out on top? As a lifelong Kurt Russell fan, I can tell you it’s him. When asked point blank whether there’s any truth behind him taking the role of Superman’s pops from Krypton, Jor-El, in James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy, Russell seemed to be up for the challenge.
Talking to ComicBook.com, Russell addressed the rumor about working with Gunn again in the upcoming film. “Yeah! Yeah, I’ll take on Marlon Brando!” Kurt Russell joked, going on to say, “I mean there was something awesome about the way he was just looking around – I don’t care that he was looking at his lines – he’s crazy-great to watch!” Russell is, of course, referring to the fact that Brando is rumored to have been hard to work with on that set and didn’t want to learn his lines. Honestly, good for Brando. That performance and didn’t even know his lines?
Russell then went on to clarify that he hadn’t heard about this but that he would work with Gunn again since the two had worked on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 together. “You know what: we don’t know a lot about Jor-El. Maybe there’s a version … I never heard this, so I don’t know. James Gunn was a blast to work with, though, so you never know.”
Russell is currently doing press for his show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, where he plays Lee Shaw, with the younger version of the same character played by his son, Wyatt Russell, but the Superman question came up, and it does now have me thinking about a world in which James Gunn and Russell could work together again in Superman: Legacy. That’s a world I would not be mad about living in.
Ego to Jor-El? I’ll take it.
There was an energy to Russell’s Ego that did rule because he was a fun addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe canon. Russell can bring that kind of energy to Jor-El that has been missing in the DC canon. Brando did a great job despite his lack of care about the character, and Russell Crowe’s take on Jor-El in Man of Steel was also a choice.
So, letting Russell breathe new life into this role for a film like Superman: Legacy? It is something that I will willingly take and think it would be a great fit for how Gunn uses actors he has worked with in the past, beyond just a great fit in general. Plus, come on, it’s Kurt Russell.
If anyone were going to take on the role and bring a new kind of vibe to it, it would be someone like Russell, so I say that this is a great rumor to cling to for now. Until we know more about the casting of Superman: Legacy, we can hold out hope that James Gunn sees our hope and pleas and reaches out to his old friend Ego. Maybe this time he can actually sing “Brandy”?
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
