Shaquille O’Neal is one of the best basketball players of all time, but his skills on the court certainly do not match up to his skills on the big screen. As a result, it may come as a surprise to many that O’Neal has been very vocal about joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the past despite starring in one of the worst DC movies ever made.
Not only did O’Neal express an interest in joining the multi-billion dollar franchise, but he also wanted to battle it out against the face of MCU, Robert Downey Jr. Here is why O’Neal wanted to fight Downey Jr’s Iron Man on the big screen and the DC movie that was almost proof that such a face-off would not work.
Former NBA Star Shaquille O’Neal Wanted to Join the MCU to Fight Robert Downey Jr
Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal starred for the LA Lakers during the late 90s and early 2000s. During his lengthy NBA career, Shaq won the NBA Championship four times and was named NBA Finals MVP three times. Shaq has also been featured in a string of movies, most notably in collaboration with Adam Sandler.
In a 2018 interview, O’Neal made a bold statement by expressing his desire to star in a Marvel movie, opposite Robert Downey Jr, who at the time, was starring as Tony Stark / Iron Man. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, O’Neal made the following comment:
“I would love to be in one of the Avengers movies.I would like to kick Robert Downey Jr.’s a**.”
The former basketball superstar and occasional actor revealed that he wanted to join the MCU so he could fight against the Avengers, presumably appearing in a negative role.
While O’Neal made the comment jokingly, it did prompt fan art featuring him as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin. Hence, it is safe to say Shaq wasn’t the only one who wanted to see him in the MCU. It would have certainly been interesting to see Shaq as a physically dominant opponent for Iron Man.
Shaquille O’Neal Starred in One of the Worst DC Movies of All Time
Even before the MCU became the money-spinning franchise and cultural juggernaut, Shaquille O’Neal did get to play a superhero on the big screen. However, O’Neal’s first and only superhero outing to this day was a major commercial and critical failure.
In 1997, O’Neal starred in the superhero drama film Steel, directed by Kenneth Johnson. It was based on the DC Comics character of the same name and features O’Neal as John Henry Irons / Steel, an African-American weapons designer turned vigilante.
Released on August 15, 1997, the film debuted to poor reviews and currently holds a rating of 8% on Rotten Tomatoes. As a result, it is tied with 2004’s Catwoman and 1984’s Supergirl, for the lowest-rated DC Comics movie on the reviews aggregator platform.
The film also only managed to collect $1.8 million at the global box office, becoming a major flop. In the modern era of superhero films, Steel is mostly remembered for being the second major film to feature a black superhero after Spawn, which was also released in the same year.
Steel is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video and other VOD services.
