Why Matthew McConaughey turned down Marvel to make a massive flop instead
From finding mankind a new home among the stars to leading a troupe of singing animals, Matthew McConaughey has done it all in Hollywood. A former romcom star who famous reinvented himself as a dramatic lead, his career trajectory offered plenty of hope for other performers looking to break out of a mould.
The smooth-voiced Texan has been massively successful in his career, despite the fact that he hasn’t starred in that many major franchises. He has attempted to start a few, but has failed almost every single time. He was offered a role in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, but he had his doubts.
“I like Guardians of the Galaxy, but what I saw was ‘It’s successful, and now we’ve got room to make a colourful part for another big-name actor.’ I’d feel like an amendment,” he told The Independent. “The Dark Tower script was well written, I like the director and his take on it, and I can be the creator, the author of the ‘Man in Black’ – aka the Devil – in my version of this Stephen King novel.”
Adding, “We’ve done the first one. It’s a fantastic thriller that takes place in another realm, an alternate universe, but it’s very much grounded… I enjoyed approaching my character as if I were the Devil having a good time, getting turned on by exposing human hypocrisies wherever he finds them.”
The character McConaughey was going to play was Ego, an all-powerful ‘Celestial’ and father of Chris Pratt’s Peter ‘Star-Lord’ Quill. He would have started out as a friendly figure, only to turn on his son and the rest of the crew in the film’s grand climax. The part eventually went to Kurt Russell, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing it with the power of hindsight.
The Dark Tower was adapted from the first in a series of novels written by the ‘Master of Horror’. In the film version, which was directed by Danish filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel, a young boy named Jake (Tom Taylor) is transported to an alternate dimension overseen by the titular structure. Idris Elba plays a jaded gunslinger who is meant to protect the Tower, while Mr McConaughey stars as the film’s antagonist, a sinister ‘Man in Black’.
The book series contains eight different novels that were released over the span of 30 years. There were plans for a similar franchise of films, but the first one bombed so badly that any chances of a follow-up were completely destroyed. Box office numbers were lower than expected, and almost every critic worth their salt said that it was a poor representation of the source material. Even King himself admitted that the movie didn’t live up to its potential.
We can all look back at McConaughey’s decision not to join Marvel and laugh, but his reasoning in the moment was spot on. There was every chance that The Dark Tower could have spawned its own franchise that would have set the star up for years. He wasn’t to know it would be an absolute disaster. You have to admire his confidence, even if it was entirely misplaced.
