Nicolas Cage, who’s known for films like Face/Off (1997), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), National Treasure (2004), and Marvel Entertainment’s Ghost Rider (2007), received a Variety Legend & Groundbreaker Award in March by the publication – Variety, for his contributions to different genres.
His endeavors have gotten him an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild award as well. While accepting this one, Cage spoke about the character that he named himself after, Luke Cage.
Luke Cage, one of Marvel’s earliest superheroes who took center stage in comics in 1972, got his own series led by actor Mike Colter in 2016. Thanking the godfather of Marvel, the late Stan Lee, Cage said, he too, had a big hand in it.
Ghost Rider was released just a year before Robert Downey Jr. kickstarted the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man in 2008, and Cage couldn’t become a part of it. He also revealed if he would ever appear in an MCU film.
Nicolas Cage Named Himself After Luke Cage
Born in 1964, Cage is the actor’s stage name that he adopted in 1983 when his film – Rumble Fish came out. As a matter of fact, the actor is related to the director of the film, Francis Ford Coppola.
Cage, being Coppola’s paternal nephew, was born Nicolas Kim Coppola. Reports claimed that he started using Cage as a workaround because he wanted to move away from his uncle’s shadow, but did he?
Talking about superhero films, he said –
“I’ve gotta be nice about Marvel movies because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage. What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down? Stan Lee is my surrealistic father. He named me.”
Utterly confident about his position in the film industry, Nicolas Cage cleared the air on whether he would ever appear in a Marvel franchise film.
Nicolas Cage’s Answer On Appearing In Marvel Movies
Though Marvel Entertainment co-produced it, the sequel – Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011) was a standalone film. Compared to the first’s $229 million collection, Spirit of Vengeance wrapped up at $149 million.
However, the collections may not be Nicolas Cage’s worry as he still remains a fan favorite actor to play the character. Speaking on if he will likely join the Marvel roster in the future, he jokingly said –
“I don’t need to be in the MCU, I’m Nic Cage.”
Cage has recently appeared in a horror comedy – Renfield. The film stars Nicholas Hoult (X-Men franchise), and Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians).
Renfield, which was released on April 14, is currently streaming on Peacock.
Source: Variety
