Do You Agree With Kevin Feige that Molina and Dafoe Are Irreplaceable?

[Amadeus Arkham]

Kevin Feige said last year that one of the reasons they avoided recasting old villains like Green Goblin and Doc Ock is because he felt they couldn’t do better than them. After seeing No Way Home, do you agree with this statements or do you think that Feige is mistaken?

Marvel head Kevin Feige explains the MCU avoided using DocOck and GreenGoblin before SpiderManNoWayHome because they didn't think they could do better than Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe.

Either way, this seems to rule out new versions of these characters for the MCU going forward.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

Absolutely not. Imagine if Nolan had that mentality about Nicholson's Joker while making TDK. Or if Eon had that mindset about Connery's Bond films while making Craig's.

The only difference is that Feige worked on the first two Raimi films, and therefore has that bias that those two are irreplaceable.

In hindsight, this mentality is partly to blame for how both of the post-Raimi reboots turned out. Both Sony and Feige started out with this implicit mindset that Spidey's best live-action days are behind him and that there is no way to top what came before. It's clear when you look at how reactionary each series was in trying differentiate themselves from Raimi.

[Frontier]

No.

I mean, Molina and Dafoe are amazing in those roles and embodied them phenomenally, they're iconic, but they're not the only ways to portray those characters.

Just look at all the various, yet valid, takes on the Green Goblin and Doc Ock we've had in animation or video games. There are very different ways to play these characters, even different than the live-action actors did, that are still true to the character. It's not like Molina ever had a Master Planner saga or we got to see Dafoe fight the Hobgoblin or Tombstone.

Just look at how many Joker and Lex Luthor's we've had.

From what I've heard NWH made the villains work surprisingly well in the context of a story about Tom Hollands' Spider-Man but on some level I do feel like he deserved to have his own Gobby and Doc Ock and not just hand-me-downs from other Spider-Man.

[The Kid]

I don't agree that they're irreplaceable but I'm glad they were focused on using different villains instead of redoing them. Batman has so many villains but the Joker well always returns so it was nice to see great takes on Vulture and Mysterio. That said, those two are very big Spider-Man villains so I'm glad they could re-use the legendary versions themselves in a clever way

[Nero]

No.

No actor or actress should be the be all/end all with any of these fictional characters.

[Username taken]

Just to echo others' sentiments, no actor is irreplaceable in any role. These characters existed before the actors and will continue long after these actors exited these roles (I'm actually paraphrasing Tom Hiddlestone on playing Loki).

I'm not sure why Feige is so married to this idea that some actors played some characters so well that they can never be replaced.

It's part of what's led to the "recast T'Challa movement" that's gaining steam.

[NC_Yankee]

Kevin Feige said last year that one of the reasons they avoided recasting old villains like Green Goblin and Doc Ock is because he felt they couldn’t do better than them. After seeing No Way Home, do you agree with this statements or do you think that Feige is mistaken?

Marvel head Kevin Feige explains the MCU avoided using DocOck and GreenGoblin before SpiderManNoWayHome because they didn't think they could do better than Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe.

Either way, this seems to rule out new versions of these characters for the MCU going forward.

Absolutely not. Look at James Bond. Sean Connery was the definitive Bond, but they replaced him with five other guys ( including two men ( Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig) most people say was just as good if not better then Connery).