As tends to be the case with any Marvel Cinematic Universe project, the long-awaited premiere of Secret Invasion contained no shortage of talking points for the fandom to dissect and discuss.
While there’s always the chance things will dramatically improve over the next five weeks, it can’t be overlooked that Samuel L. Jackson’s first time taking billing after 15 years in the background is currently boasting almost identical Rotten Tomatoes scores to Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder, which is held up as one of the franchise’s biggest misfires.
However, lost in all the commotion was the quiet appearance of Tony Curran, with the Scottish character actor playing the part of Derrik, who shared a brief moment of foreshadowing with Olivia Colman’s Sonya Falsworth. While that’s hardly anything to write home about on the surface, it did confirm that the star has continued his sneakily impressive track record of showing up all across the Marvel multiverse.
In fact, Secret Invasion marked the fifth different role Curran had played in a live-action Marvel Comics adaptation, following on from his turn as Priest in Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II, a one-episode stint on Netflix’s Daredevil as Finn Cooley, a brief guest spot as Odin’s father Bor in Thor: The Dark World, and his pivotal contributions to X-Men: First Class as “Man in Black Agent.”
The likes of Chris Evans, Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, and Gemma Chan may have played more than one Marvel favorite, but does anyone even come close to matching Curran’s five?