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Welcome to the main discussion thread for the Marvel Cinematic Universe! This pinned post is here to establish some basic guidelines. All of the Media Forum rules still apply.

  • This thread is for talking about the live-action films, TV shows, animated works, and related content that use the Marvel brand, currently owned by Disney.
  • While mild digressions are okay, discussion of the comic books should go in this thread. Extended digressions may be thumped as off-topic.
  • Spoilers for new releases should not be discussed without spoiler tagging for at least two weeks. Rather, each title should have a dedicated thread where that sort of conversation is held. We can mention new releases in a general sense, but please be courteous to people who don't want to be spoiled.

If you're posting tagged spoilers, make sure that the film or series is clearly identified outside the spoiler tagging. People need to know what will be spoiled before they choose to read the post.

    Original post 
Since Thor and now Captain America came out this year, I wanted to get what Tropers thought of the concept and execution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general. Personally I love the idea and wonder why this idea hasn't been seriously tried before. It sorta seems to me like the DCAU in movie form (And well, ummm, with Marvel), and really 'gets' the comic book feel of a shared universe while not being completely alienating.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#72601: Jul 11th 2017 at 12:34:42 PM

[up][up] The blue, gold and red didn't look good together. Seems to have been solved by lessening the red elements and darkening the blue into either black or a very dark blue. And its hard to say with only a waist up blurry picture but it looks like they toned down the elements that made the unfinished suit look too busy. Also it has arms now.

[up] Disagree.

edited 11th Jul '17 12:35:25 PM by Bocaj

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
comicwriter Since: Sep, 2011
#72602: Jul 11th 2017 at 12:37:58 PM

Bare arms in the microverse seems like a safety hazard.

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#72603: Jul 11th 2017 at 12:40:24 PM

Safety is forever second when designing outfits for female characters to include high heels, cleavage windows, and thongs.

I know the idea was that it was not finished yet. But couldn't help but think this instead.

edited 11th Jul '17 12:40:48 PM by Bocaj

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#72604: Jul 11th 2017 at 12:47:19 PM

SHE BREATHES THROUGH HER SKIN

...so why doesn't she shave her head?

edited 11th Jul '17 12:48:26 PM by Tuckerscreator

Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#72605: Jul 11th 2017 at 1:15:02 PM

You know why.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
RavenWilder Since: Apr, 2009
#72606: Jul 11th 2017 at 6:38:35 PM

Something I've been wondering about: what's the record for the largest number of films featuring the same actor playing the same character?

'Cause, as of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Robert Downey Jr. has played Tony Stark in seven different movies (not counting his post-credits cameo in The Incredible Hulk), which puts him even with Sean Connery and Roger Moore playing James Bond or Christopher Lee playing Dracula, and he should surpass them come Infinity War. I'm pretty sure those are far from the biggest, but I'm curious who the actual record holder is here.

MonsieurThenardier Searching from Murika Since: Nov, 2016 Relationship Status: Getting away with murder
Searching
#72607: Jul 11th 2017 at 6:42:31 PM

Christopher Lee was Dracula in ten movies.

Hugh Jackman was Wolverine in nine movies. Leonard Nimoy was Spock in eight movies. The core Harry Potter cast all played their same roles for eight movies. Robert Englund was Freddy Krueger eight times. Desmond Llewelyn was Q in 17 James Bond movies.

edited 11th Jul '17 6:45:21 PM by MonsieurThenardier

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."
KJMackley Since: Jan, 2001
#72608: Jul 11th 2017 at 7:09:04 PM

If you want to include the old serials of the 30's and 40's it will be hard to beat, as film turnaround was a lot faster and some actors starred (not cameo or supporting role) as certain characters for 10-15 movies over 7-8 years. A quick search (from off the top of my head) suggests Warner Osland playing Charlie Chan in 16 movies. And that's not including things like Three Stooges (200+ short films and a number of features) or Laurel and Hardy (flexible continuity). Even something more recent, Ioan Gruffold was in 8 television movies over 5 years as Horatio Hornblower, and he has expressed interest in doing more.

RavenWilder Since: Apr, 2009
#72609: Jul 11th 2017 at 7:27:34 PM

I was really only thinking about feature length films, although, doing some research of my own, it looks like the original Zatoichi series had the same actor play Ichi for 26 movies. I don't know if that's the record, but it's darn hard to beat, regardless.

Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#72610: Jul 11th 2017 at 7:46:01 PM

Robert Downey Jr. may hold the record for most reprisals of the same character in a movie not about him, but that's a narrow category.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
LordVatek Not really a lord of anything Since: Sep, 2014
Not really a lord of anything
#72611: Jul 11th 2017 at 7:46:35 PM

If you really wanted an accurate answer, counting total screen time would be the best way.

This song needs more love.
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#72612: Jul 11th 2017 at 7:57:48 PM

According to this Tony wins in that category easily. The only movie actor with more screentime is Coulson and most of that comes from a TV show. Cap is up there too but there's a pretty huge gap. Thor is actually surprisingly low although Ragnarok's time hasn't been added to the count yet.

MonsieurThenardier Searching from Murika Since: Nov, 2016 Relationship Status: Getting away with murder
Searching
#72613: Jul 11th 2017 at 8:04:11 PM

You can pretty much disregard all the TV actors. In which case the top ten are:

1. Iron Man: 306 minutes

2. Captain America: 207 minutes

3. Thor: 110 minutes

4. Bruce Banner/Hulk: 95 minutes

5. Black Widow: 89 minutes

6. Starlord: 84 minutes

7. Spider-Man: 83 minutes

8. Stephen Strange: 73 minutes

9. Pepper Potts: 64 minutes

10. Loki: 60 minutes

Dat gap tho.

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#72614: Jul 11th 2017 at 8:07:55 PM

How on Earth does Strange have almost as much screentime as Quill when the latter appeared in two movies?

MonsieurThenardier Searching from Murika Since: Nov, 2016 Relationship Status: Getting away with murder
Searching
#72615: Jul 11th 2017 at 8:24:37 PM

Ensemble vs solo

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."
alliterator Since: Jan, 2001
#72616: Jul 11th 2017 at 8:28:10 PM

'Cause, as of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Robert Downey Jr. has played Tony Stark in seven different movies (not counting his post-credits cameo in The Incredible Hulk)
Then it's eight, because Incredible Hulk didn't have a post-credits scene. Stark meeting with General Ross was supposed to be put in post-credits, but since this was only the second MCU film, they thought they should put RDJ's scene into the actual film, so it was inserted near the end.

PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#72617: Jul 11th 2017 at 8:30:55 PM

Guardians is more of an ensemble movie than Dr. Strange was and Stephen was in almost every scene in Dr. Strange.

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#72618: Jul 11th 2017 at 10:26:17 PM

Something I've been wondering about: what's the record for the largest number of films featuring the same actor playing the same character?

The first thing I thought of was Basil Rathbone being Sherlock Holmes fourteen times. I wouldn't be surprised if there was someone with more. Film series were allowed to get longer way back in the day than they tend to be allowed to get now.

edited 11th Jul '17 10:26:54 PM by KnownUnknown

Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#72619: Jul 11th 2017 at 10:35:31 PM

I'm going to guess the real answer is going to be whoever has the most screentime out of the Three Stooges, or else the star of one of the old western or cop shows, maybe a soap opera. Guiness must have a world record for that, surely.

LordVatek Not really a lord of anything Since: Sep, 2014
Not really a lord of anything
#72620: Jul 11th 2017 at 10:38:07 PM

A Google search gives Arthur Lake and Penny Singleton as Dagwood and Blondie in twenty-eight films. No idea how accurate that is.

edited 11th Jul '17 10:39:50 PM by LordVatek

This song needs more love.
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#72621: Jul 11th 2017 at 10:44:28 PM

Today I learned that there were 28 movies adapted from the Blondie comic book. You know, people say Hollywood's gone crazy with remakes, adaptations, and sequels, but that's just wrong. There's less original movies being made, but that's just because there's less movies in general being made nowadays.

Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#72622: Jul 11th 2017 at 10:45:09 PM

I'm sure someone can top that for both number of appearances and running time, but I can't believe that A) Blondie was popular enough at one time that they made actual movies out of it and B) that I had never heard there were Blondie movies before. Something new everyday.

[up]It's not really wrong, it's just that if Hollywood is going to make fewer movies, the proportion of those movies that are remakes could really stand to be adjusted downward.

edited 11th Jul '17 10:46:49 PM by Unsung

alliterator Since: Jan, 2001
#72623: Jul 11th 2017 at 10:46:33 PM

I'm going to guess the real answer is going to be whoever has the most screentime out of the Three Stooges, or else the star of one of the old western or cop shows, maybe a soap opera.
Since we're talking about films, I don't think cop shows or soap operas count. But Mickey Rooney played Andy Hardy in sixteen movies between 1937 and 1958.

Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#72624: Jul 11th 2017 at 10:47:30 PM

Someone brought up Coulson at one point, and a lot of old cop shows and cowboy movies had theatrical releases too.

KJMackley Since: Jan, 2001
#72625: Jul 11th 2017 at 11:11:43 PM

Franchise movies used to have a much quicker turn around time and cost relatively a third because of different budget flow and shorter production periods. The minimum average today is about two years to make a sequel, factoring in developing the story and resetting the contracts with the actors. The Harry Potter movies managed a faster production cycle because they had the books as a template. That's why the cinematic Shared Universe was such a big gamble to deal with, imagine spending the money for all three Divergent movies at the same time and watch the returns tank. Except for Iron Man, the MCU was just a modest success before Avengers.


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