It’s hard not to picture Benicio Del Toro in big bombastic movies, as many people may have first noticed him playing a James Bond villain’s henchmen in “License To Kill” in the 1980s before eventually landing gigs in more recent franchise projects like “Guardians of The Galaxy,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”
His involvement with the “Star Wars” franchise had been long rumored to go back to “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” and being up for the role of Sith Lord Darth Maul, only to back out once George Lucas decided to scale back the part. Well, that rumor has been busted as “Happy Sad Confused” podcast host Josh Horowitz spoke with the actor who cleared things up while promoting his new Wes Anderson flick “The Phoenician Scheme.”
No, I don’t remember that, but you know, I don’t remember everything. I don’t remember being cast in another ‘Star Wars’ movie except for [‘The Last Jedi’], Del Toro said of the rumor he was offered/cast as Darth Maul before exiting the film entirely.
Back in the 1990s, the net to cast various prequel roles was wide; hell, even Sofia Coppola ended up as one of Queen Amidala’s handmaidens, Saché. So, a rumor like Del Toro as Maul was very much believable, as he had recently been in the wildly popular thriller “The Usual Suspects” when Lucas was courting actors for big and small parts.
Speaking of Darth Maul, a new animated series is on the horizon, called “Maul: Shadow Lord,” and that would erase previous chatter of a live-action Darth Maul series coming anytime soon.
While he didn’t talk specifics, Del Toro also is open to the idea of returning to the role of the MCU’s The Collector, a powerful cosmic Elder (similar to Jeff Goldblum‘s The Grandmaster) that hasn’t been seen since “Avengers: Infinity War,” and has reprised the part for the animated Multiverse series “What…If?” since then.
“Definitely there is more on the table, yeah. It’s not up to me, but you know, [I’m game, I’m available],” the Oscar-winning actor said of a potential return to the world of Marvel.
Not exactly, a serious or major villain, The Collector has likely survived the events of Thanos’ reign of terror throughout the galaxy when he secured a couple of the infinity stones off-camera. Potentially allowing him to return for things like “Avengers: Doomsday,” “Avengers: Secret Wars,” whatever the “Nova” project turns out to be (development on a series is currently on pause), or the next phase for “The Guardians of The Galaxy” now led by Bradley Cooper‘s Rocket Raccoon.
The more Del Toro in any franchise, the better, we tend to think, and there is an expectation he’s going to be back in “Sicario 3.” However, we’re not entirely sure he’ll be making a grand return to “Star Wars” in the near future.
That full conversation between Horowitz and Del Toro can be watched below.
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