As the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to develop, more A-list talent looks to join. The MCU is looking to greatly expand in the next few years, adding some new franchises that are sure to excite fans.
With these new properties will come new opportunities for more actors to appear in MCU films. Fans can’t help but speculate who among their favorite actors might be the next person to sign up as a Marvel hero or villain.
One of those actors fans have speculated about is Erin Moriarty. Moriarty has drawn plenty of critical acclaim for her role in the hit Amazon Prime series The Boys. But who exactly do they think she could play?
Erin Moriarty’s acting career
According to her IMDb bio, Moriarty was born in New York. Her first appearances came on TV in the soap opera One Life to Live and the long-running procedural drama Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit. She also appeared in the 2012 Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn comedy The Watch.
Moriarty’s breakout role came in 2014 when she starred in True Detective as Woody Harrelson’s daughter in the show’s first season. Other appearances include the film Captain Fantastic alongside Viggo Mortensen and in the Netflix drama Jessica Jones.
Technically speaking, Moriarty has already shown up in the MCU before. All the Netflix shows have been canceled, however, and have had little to no impact on the MCU’s big screen presence.
There’s also a precedent for someone from the shows being recast: the talented Mahershala Ali, who played Cottonmouth on Luke Cage, is set to play Blade as well.
So what’s the role that got fans excited about the possibility of Moriarty in the MCU?
Who does Erin Moriarty play on ‘The Boys?’
RELATED: ‘The Boys’: Who Are The Seven and What Are Their Real Names?
On The Boys, Moriarty plays Annie, aka Starlight, a superhero (or, in the show’s parlance, a “supe”). Her power is that she can harness energy.
At the beginning of the series, she’s added as a new member of The Seven, a Justice League-like group of heroes. She quickly finds out it’s not all it’s cracked up to be as the group isn’t the team of do-gooders she expected.
Unlike many of her brethren, Annie has a conscience and develops a budding romance with Hughie, the man whose girlfriend was killed by another supe. The two eventually have a fight and split, but as season two rages on, they’re both on the same side of trying to bring down the evil corporation controlling the supes.
Who do fans think Erin Moriarty could play in the MCU?
A recent Reddit thread suggested Moriarty should play Sue Storm, aka the Invisible Woman. Sue is the wife of Reed Richards and a member of the Fantastic 4. There are a number of reasons why this idea makes a lot of sense, including:
- Moriarty has shown she has acting chops. She’s been in a wide variety of roles and has pulled all of them off.
- She’s shown she can play a superhero before. Starlight isn’t really anything like Sue, but there are some similarities. Certainly, she’s shown the ability to play in the superhero space and has done so believably.
- She’s got the same look as Sue. Take one look at the character as she was portrayed in the comics, and Moriarty is a spitting image.
There is one drawback. Moriarty is a bit young as the character usually skews a bit older than her. But it all depends on how Marvel wants to portray her.
If they want to show the origins of the Fantastic 4, a young Reed and Sue could definitely work. They’ve done it before — Marisa Tomei played a much younger version of Aunt May, and she did a great job.
This casting choice makes a lot of sense — now it’s up to Marvel to make it happen.