Sam Rockwell Casts Doubt on His MCU Return

I was bartending at a Broadway theater when an older woman insisted I go see Iron Man 2. “You haven’t seen it yet,” she asked. “You have to go. It’s amazing!” Movies in a theater were not in my post-conservatory budget at the time. Even still, I was surprised to hear someone tell me that, despite the monumental success that was the first Iron Man film. My memory of Iron Man 2 was that it was a bit of a disaster, which is wild to consider, given how far the MCU has come since.

When I eventually saw the film, it was a bootlegged copy I downloaded from Pirate Bay and viewed on my laptop. And baby, I did not like it at all. Despite being all in after the first movie and even enjoying The Incredible Hulk, it felt like all the magic had disappeared. What remained was a mishmash of nonsense, CGI, and an insane Mickey Rourke performance. There were some bright spots. Scarlett Johansson was introduced as Black Widow, a role she would nail for a decade. There was also Sam Rockwell as the villainous Justin Hammer.

A “Bizarro” Tony Stark is a really fun idea for a villain, and they couldn’t have secured a better actor to play him. Rockwell is the kind of performer who feels too good for a comic book movie but also perfect for it. He brings a level of prestige, but is also capable of just having a good time, man. He’s there to have fun and get under Robert Downey Jr.’s skin. It felt like a perfect match, and many expected Rockwell to return to menace Tony Stark in future movies, but that has yet to materialize.

Rockwell did briefly return in a Marvel one-shot, but that was over a decade ago. However, rumors started to swirl that Sam would appear in the announced movie/television series/who the hell knows at this point Armor Wars, which would be centered around Don Cheadle’s James Rhodes. But that went from a movie to a show to maybe being cancelled entirely. Whether it happens or not, the man who was Justin Hammer doesn’t seem confident he will return.

“There was talk of a series,” Rockwell explained recently on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “I think the movie thing would be exciting … might be some juice. I don’t know what you get out of that guy. He’s essentially Lex Luthor. It’s Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor. It’s the same character, really. It’s a comedic device, that character, mostly. Although he was in prison, so it could get weird.” Rockwell’s reference to Hammer being in prison is regarding the one-shot, and it feels like he thinks the character should stay there.

He’s not wrong in comparing the villain to Hackman’s Luthor, and maybe that’s part of the reason he hasn’t returned. Aside from Ben Kingsley’s take on Mandarin (which real ones will acknowledge was sick as hell), the villains in the MCU haven’t been very funny, despite the universe itself often leaning on humor. There’s an argument to be made for Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Valentina Alegra de Fontaine being funny, but I think that’s more a result of her inherent talents and ability to make a lot out of a little.

Secret Wars is probably going to cost 3/4 of a billion dollars. With that kind of money, anyone could come back. But I think it’s safe to say that Rockwell’s time in the MCU is done. If he didn’t make it back during Disney’s mad dash to make eight thousand Disney+ shows, it doesn’t seem likely that he ever will.