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Anyone who’s watched more than a handful of Rachel McAdams movies knows she’s an incredible actress. Mean Girls and Game Night proved she had the right delivery and timing to make audiences laugh, Red Eye proved she could handle herself in the horror genre, and The Notebook and About Time proved she could move audiences to tears. But when Marvel came knocking for the first Doctor Strange movie, she was cast as …the lead character’s ex-girlfriend, Dr. Christine Palmer.
McAdams did her best with the material and got to play an alternate version of the character in Sam Raimi’s uneven 2022 sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but she was still largely there to support Stephen Strange in his quest to be a better version of himself. Even Raimi seems to understand that McAdams was cast in an underwhelming Marvel role, which is one of the main reasons she got the lead in his latest horror-comedy, Send Help.
“She was the perfect person because she’s such a brilliant actress,” he told Total Film. “I had a chance to work with her on my last film and saw how talented she was, and actually underutilized. And I promised myself that I would work with her again.”
Of course, there have been plenty of smaller supporting roles in the MCU for terrific actors over the years. Oscar-nominated Stellan Skarsgård had mostly “science stuff” to do around the main characters as Erik Selvig in Thor, its sequel, and a couple of Avengers movies. South Korean powerhouse Ma Dong-seok, Barry Keoghan, and Angelina Jolie were among the many Eternals competing for screen time in Chloé Zhao’s ambitious but misunderstood 2021 Marvel film. Sir Ben Kingsley was used as an MCU punchline twice before Wonder Man finally did right by him. The list could go on for a while!
Still, there’s something about “underutilizing” McAdams in the Doctor Strange movies that really rubs people the wrong way, and for good reason. It’s not just that she’s a brilliant actress who deserves better; she’s also pretty much perfect for a range of other notable Marvel roles. Close your eyes and imagine McAdams as Jean Grey. Imagine her as Mockingbird or Moira MacTaggert. While we’re at it, imagine her as a delicious Marvel villain, like Emma Frost or Morgan le Fay. It’s super easy (barely an inconvenience)!
In the multiverse, all things are possible. Though Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness wrapped up the relationship between Stephen Strange and Christine Palmer quite nicely, Marvel has never been shy about using the same actors for other roles, and there’s a lot of road ahead to recast McAdams in a juicier one. Frankly, it would be a real shame not to.
The post Rachel McAdams Always Deserved a Better MCU Role Than the One She Got appeared first on Den of Geek.
