At this stage, Marvel Studios is doing a deep dive into the comics to find inspiration for who to bring to the big screen next. For instance, the upcoming Eternals movie or the reports of Shang-Chi and Nova films. Still, it might be possible that the studio is also thinking of re-utilizing characters who’ve already appeared on the TV side of the MCU. No, we’re not talking about Daredevil or Luke Cage but rather, Deathlok.
In a piece explaining the differences between similarly-named comic book characters Deathstroke, Deadshot, Bloodshot and Deathlok, Deadline reports that the last name on that list could be making his way to theaters at some point. “There’s been rumors that Marvel Studios may use the character soon,” reads the final sentence of the Deathlok entry, off-handedly referencing info that we didn’t previously know about.
Marvel fans will be aware that Deathlok has already appeared on Agents of S.H.I.E.LD., played by J. August Richards, as a recurring presence on the ABC series’ first two seasons as well as a one-off return appearance in season 5. If you’re wondering if this rumor means that either Richards will be back in the role or that AoS is going to be retconned out of the MCU, neither of those are likely to happen. After all, the Deathlok mantle has been taken on by many different heroes and anti-heroes in the comics.
If you’re not familiar with Deathlok, you can essentially think of him as Marvel’s version of DC’s Cyborg. Except he was around first (Deathlok debuted in 1974, Cyborg in 1980) and the various Deathlok storylines generally lean into the horror-filled, Frankenstein-like drama of a man resurrected via cybernetic implants. As Deadline notes, it was a pretty novel idea in the 70s, but moviegoing audiences are quite used to cyborgs now, after decades of Terminator and Robocop.
Still, we’d be intrigued to see what Marvel Studios could do with Deathlok. It’s even possible that they intend to give him his own Disney Plus TV series rather than a movie appearance. Chalk that up as speculation for now, but as soon as we hear more, we’ll be sure to let you know.