Ranking 10 Famous Actors Who’ve Had The Worst Ever MCU Debuts

Kit Harrington’s performance as Jon Snow in HBO’s Game of Thrones put him on the map as one of the best British talents to ever hit the small screen. It wasn’t, therefore, far-fetched when the MCU went on to cast him in what was expected to be one of the most iconic antiheroes in the franchise. Dane Whitman, who becomes the Black Knight in the comics, was introduced in Eternals in 2021 as Sersi’s boyfriend, and while the post-credit scene revealed him in his true role as the wielder of the legendary Ebony Blade, nothing about Harrington’s performance suggested he could continue playing the role. In the comics, Whitman uses the power of the blade for a lot of missions with the Avengers, even becoming their leader at some point.

The Ebony Blade, forged by Merlin himself for one of Arthur Pendragon’s knights, has nearly the same power as Thor’s hammer, although in its case, continuing to wield it draws one to darkness. If he aced the role, Harrington would have become an impactful superhero in the MCU, just like Chris Hemsworth. However, while Harrington’s performance isn’t the worst in Eternals, he lacks presence, doing very little to give his character any importance. Harrington later admitted that he only took the role because he found it hard to say no to Disney, which sounds correct because he looked like he would rather be somewhere else throughout the film.

This is another Game of Thrones alum that didn’t live up to fan expectations in the MCU. The positive reception of Daredevil: Born Again has brought to light the immense potential that the Defenders would have had in the MCU had they been integrated sooner. However, the one character that many fans don’t miss is Finn Jones as Danny Rand because of how a combination of miscasting and poor direction made a mess of one of the series’ best superheroes. The power of the Immortal Iron Fist, largely inspired by Asian legends, was a great opportunity for the MCU to cast an Asian actor to bring the story to life.

Instead, Finn Jones, whose performance is still serviceable, totally seems out of touch with everything that the Iron Fist is supposed to be. Despite appearing in two whole seasons of Iron Fist as well as The Defenders, Finn Jones never once grows into the character. Finn’s Rand is largely an obnoxious, spoiled, rich kid who never outgrows the trauma of losing his parents. His time in the snowy mountains training to be the Iron Fist doesn’t seem to have done much to change his mind and help him mature. In the end, he doesn’t seem to use his immense power to do anything substantial, which is a total waste.

RELATED: Marvel Studios TV Head Confirms The Punisher Will Return After ‘Daredevil: Born Again’, Says Jon Bernthal “Is Working On A ‘Special Presentation’ With Us About That Character”

With over 20 years of experience in successfully playing powerful villains, the casting of Christopher Eccleston as Malekith in Thor: The Dark World in 2013 was supposed to turn the Dark Elves into the most formidable threat in Asgard’s history. With his experience from working on Doctor Who and The Leftovers, Eccleston clearly had the charm to bring out an intense but likable version of Malekith. However, generic writing and a matching poor performance from Eccleston turn Malekith into the most forgettable villain of all Thor films.

Many things clearly went wrong with Thor: The Dark World, the writing being one of them, and Malekith was definitely one of the film’s worst-written characters. At the start of the film, Malekith is presented as a formidable threat for Thor to deal with. His primary storyline involving plans to dominate the world by taking control of Aether (the Infinity Stone), was compelling, but the writing gives him no background and no actual justification for most of his actions. Ecclestone’s performance is also lifeless and even appears forced towards the end of the film. While speaking bout his time on the set, Ecclestone confirmed that he was miserable because of the bad script and the heavy prosthetics he had to wear. Fortunately for him, he is covered up and barely recognizable in most of the film, so many MCU fans don’t think of Eccleston when they remember Malekith.

RELATED: James Gunn Says The DCU Is Building Toward An ‘Avengers: Endgame’-Style Event, But Offered No Specifics

Natalie Portman’s return to the Thor franchise as the Mighty Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder in 2022 was a huge step in redeeming the character of Jane Foster, who had been nothing more than a forgettable love interest to Chris Hemsworth’s Thor in the franchise’s first two films. Natalie Portman clearly came to the set prepared to match Hemsworth’s energy, having worked with a trainer for over 10 months to bulk up physically and have the frame that could believably wield Thor’s hammer. The performance, coupled with the emotion of her character dying from terminal cancer, gives Portman’s character a presence she never had in the first two films.

In the first film, despite being presented as a talented astrophysicist, Foster doesn’t have any significant contribution to Thor’s fight which makes the character appear lame. Portman’s character is merely a shadow in the towering impact of Hemsworth’s Thor, as Marvel seemingly didn’t know what to do with her talents. Compared to her outstanding performance in Black Swan, Portman does very little to turn Jane Foster into a memorable character, leading to a lack of chemistry with Chris Hemsworth, which eventually makes her character look miserable.

After her incredible performance as Arwen Undomiel in Lord of The Rings, Liv Tyle became one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood. Her casting as Betty Ross in The Incredible Hulk was supposed to create a powerful alliance with Edward Norton’s Bruce Banner. Being a cellular biologist, Ross was supposed to be the sharp mind that helped Bruce figure out his powers while also creating a memorable romantic relationship with the newly-found superhero.

Unfortunately, The Incredible Hulk was nothing like Tyler’s earlier films, as it has one of the most disconnected scripts in the MCU. Norton’s performance as the Hulk was less than convincing, to say the least, and Tyler’s Betty Ross wasn’t given much to go with either. Instead of being the film’s emotional anchor and a powerful female voice, Ross appears to be the lost girl forced into a relationship with Bruce Banner. Tyler’s return in Captain America: Brave New World has given fans more reasons to like Betty Ross, but her MCU debut wasn’t memorable.

After his Oscar-worthy performance as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones, Peter Dinklage’s casting as Eitri in Avengers: Infinity War was more than justified. However, like most of his colleagues from the hit HBO show, Dinklage’s time in the MCU didn’t go according to plan. Having forged Mjolnir and Stormbreaker, Eitri the Dwarf King’s fame as a weaponsmith is legendary in the comics. The version of him described in the comics would never let the dwarves of Nidavellir be wiped out and while he stays behind mourning, as was the case in the film.

While the character’s writing is atrocious, Peter Dinklage doesn’t do much to redeem him. Besides a really terrible accent and a seemingly forced attempt to recreate his sharp lines from GOT, Dinklage puts in very little charm, making the character seem out of place in the otherwise well-executed film. Rumors of his possible return in Thor 4 give hope to the redemption of the MCU’s favorite space dwarf. However, as things stand, Dinklage’s MCU debut feels like an unfortunate waste of talent.

One of the biggest miracles in MCU history was Iron Man 2. One of the worst things about the film was its terribly written one-directional villain, Ivan ‘Whiplash’ Vanko, whose lines sounded like they were generated by a total amateur. At the peak of his fame at the time, former pro-boxer and seasoned actor Mickey Rourke was no stranger to playing a bad guy, but his performance in the film is anything but convincing. From a hoarse robotic-sounding Russian accent to an outrightly lazy display in the film’s climatic fights, Rourke looks like he just didn’t want to be on that set anymore.

The character’s final appearance is the total opposite of what fans expected, especially after it was reported that Rourke spent time in Russia trying to learn the language and even had some of his lines translated into Russian. Rourke even spent some time in a Russian prison just to familiarize himself with Vanko’s background. His comments after the film was released prove his disappointment at Marvel’s treatment of the character, as he accused the director of “not having balls” and failing to deliver on his demands for the character to be more multi-dimensional.

Emilia Clarke is the living image of The Mother of Dragons as she totally owned the role with her excellent performance in Game of Thrones. It is, therefore, difficult to imagine her replicating a similar performance in a different show. However, her MCU debut was overdue after she was passed on for a role in Iron Man 3 due to a script change. While the details of the role she was to play in Iron Man remain scant, her debut role of G’iah 10 years later was still one of the best since she was set to become the face of the Skrulls in the MCU. Unfortunately, her serviceable performance in the role didn’t leave much to desire about the character.

G’iah was supposed to be the “punk-spirited” leader of the Skrull rebellion, posing as much a threat to the planet as her male counterpart, Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir). While her character was totally expected to have a strained father-daughter relationship with Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), Emilia Clarke has zero chemistry with the key members of the show’s cast, and none of these interactions come out as they should. The show then bottled her long-awaited transformation into the Super-Skrull, turning what was supposed to be a compelling multidimensional character into a forgettable observer.

While announcing Swinton’s casting in the role of Dr. Strange’s mentor in 2016, Marvel put out a statement saying, “The Ancient One is a title that is not exclusively held by any one character, but rather a moniker passed down through time, and in this particular film the embodiment is Celtic. We are very proud to have the enormously talented Tilda Swinton portray this unique and complex character alongside our richly diverse cast.” Well, While Swinton’s talent was never in question, that casting didn’t go according to plan, as Marvel’s attempt to whitewash a character presented as an old Tibetan man in the comics met immense backlash.

Swinton still put in all the effort, including undergoing the intense transformation by shaving herself bald and mastering an accent to match her otherwise serviceable performance that made the character remotely sound like a mentor to Strange. Unfortunately, the character was poorly developed, which gave Swinton very little room to bring life to it. Her relationship with Cumberbatch in the film doesn’t build up to the father-son relationship that fans expected either, as Swinton appears out of place, with most of her lines sounding totally generic. Kevin Feige later expressed his regrets at the attempted whitewashing of the character. Still, the damage was already done, as Swinton’s MCU debut was forever stained.

RELATED: 10 Superheroes We Would Like Better As Villains In MCU Phase 6

Jude Law won his first BAFTA in 1999 and has since become one of the most influential actors of the 21st century. Playing an antihero is one of his best traits because of his ability to personify the darkest aspects of a villain while giving them a lovable sense of humor. Unfortunately, none of these excellent skills can be associated with Jude Law’s character in Captain Marvel. Despite being one of the best-executed MCU films, Captain Marvel had one of the most generic villains ever developed in the franchise, and Jude Law’s performance doesn’t do much to improve the character.

Having trained Carol Danvers to use her powers and mentored her into one of the best Kreel soldiers ever, Yon Rogg was supposed to be a Nick-Fury-style character for the bad guys. Unfortunately, Law’s performance gives him away as the bad guy from the start of the film. Law also looked disinterested in the character, a problem he later associated with the uncomfortable costumes that are apparently made of tough rubber. Law also complained that the directors didn’t listen to his requests to infuse a little humor into the character. The end result was a forgettable MCU debut by a veteran actor in a hit film that made over $1 billion, which makes Jude Law’s poor performance impossible to miss.