The MCU boasts of many actors who have either been made stars due to the franchise or were already stars and contributed their talents to the MCU. One such actress is Linda Cardellini, who fans might know as Velma in the live-action Scooby-Doo films.
The actress has starred in two MCU outings. One was Laura Barton, the wife of Jeremy Renner’s Cliff Barton a.k.a Hawkeye; and the other reuniting with her Scooby-Doo writer James Gunn in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3, where she voiced the character Lylla.
Linda Cardellini In The MCU
While Linda Cardellini has made a mark with her voice acting and supporting roles in commercially successful dramas, she returned to the blockbuster genre with her short appearance as Laura Burton in the MCU. She is paired opposite Jeremy Renner’s Cliff Barton, a.k.a Hawkeye, and appears in the films Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Endgame, and the Disney+ series Hawkeye.
Cardellini’s Laura Barton is a former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., with the code name Agent 19. After her marriage to Cliff, she lives with her children in a secret hiding place, as revealed in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Her prominent roles in Age of Ultron and GOTG: Vol.3, have made her a part of some of the most commercially successful films, earning a combined total of $2.24 billion.
Linda Cardellini reunited with her Scooby-Doo writer James Gunn in this year’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol.3. She voiced the character of Lylla, an anthropomorphic otter who is imprisoned along with a young Rocket after being experimented on by the High Evolutionary.
Linda Cardellini’s Rise To Fame
Actress Linda Cardellini shot to fame with her appearance as the classic character Velma Dinkley in the two live-action adaptations of the Scooby-Doo series. She featured along with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Matthew Lillard, Isla Fisher, and Rowan Atkinson. The film was written by James Gunn, in one of his earliest screenplays.
The film was a huge success and earned over $275 million at the box office. The success led to a sequel despite the negative reviews. The gang got back together with Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, which was also written by Gunn. Linda Cardellini’s Velma was explored more in the films.
Before she became known as Velma, Linda Cardellini had her breakthrough with the short-lived but cult classic sitcom Freaks and Geeks. She joined the cast of ER in 2003 and starred in the medical drama for six seasons. Cardellini’s TV career reached its peak when she appeared in Mad Men, for which she earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress.
Linda Cardellini has a sprawling voice acting career, having voiced Disney’s Gravity Falls and ABC’s The Goode Family. Cardellini has also starred in the horror film The Curse of La Llorona, the Best Picture Oscar winner Green Book, and Tom Hardy’s Capone.
Source: The Numbers
