The Marvel Cinematic Universe is arguably the most famous movie franchise of all time; it's certainly the most successful, grossing over $33 billion at the box office since its debut in 2008, with more multi-million dollar projections on the horizon. Meanwhile, The Walking Dead remains one of the most successful TV franchises of all time, with the TWD Universe still producing new shows 16 years after the original series' premiere. In many ways, both of these franchises have stood the test of time.
Sometimes, the stars from one of them have popped up in the other. It's true, fans of both have absolutely become that Leonardo DiCaprio meme when they recognize a TWD star in a Marvel movie / series or an MCU star in a Walking Dead spinoff. The most obvious example here is Jon Bernthal, who very much got his start as Shane Walsh on The Walking Dead and has since become a household name through his portrayal of The Punisher in the MCU. However, he wasn't the only TWD veteran who became a Marvel star.
With that in mind, here are three Walking Dead favorites who had pretty significant MCU roles, too.
Matt Lintz
Matt Lintz first made an impression on The Walking Dead viewers in the ninth season of the original series. Portraying the grown up version of Henry Sutton, Lintz shared the screen with Melissa McBride's Carol Peletier and Khary Payton's King Ezekiel a lot (after all, Henry was their son) and he was completely at home, making us all proud of who the troubled kid from season 8 had grown into. This ensured that we were broken by Henry's unexpected demise in the brutal season 9 finale, which is undoubtedly one of the most shocking moments in the show's long history.
Not quite through with endearing comic book fans, however, Lintz would make the jump to the MCU when he appeared in 2022 Disney Plus series Ms. Marvel. There, he portrayed Bruno Carrelli, the best friend of Ms. Marvel herself, Kamala Khan. To say that he quickly proved himself to be one of the most enjoyable parts of the show would be an understatement.
From his comedically awkward charm to his genuine affection for Kamala, viewers responded well to Henry, with many hoping that we will see more of him whenever Kamala returns to the screen next.
Ross Marquand
Ross Marquand is best known for portraying Aaron in The Walking Dead. Although the character first appeared all the way back in the show's fifth season, he became a fixture of it from that point onwards, remaining with the series until its final episode. Before the credits rolled on the show's 11 seasons, Aaron had become one of the main characters, helping the survivors overcome the Commonwealth.
However, Marquand is also known for his incredible ability to do impersonations, which makes him a terrific voice actor too. This has led to a beautiful long-term partnership with Marvel Studios, in which he has voiced multiple characters across multiple MCU and Marvel projects. However, that partnership all started with on-screen appearances in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, in which he portrayed the Red Skull - taking over from Hugo Weaving (who initially played the role in Captain America: The First Avenger).
After this, he would go on to voice multiple characters in MCU-adjacent animated series What If...? - particularly Infinity Ultron and Red Skull - before voicing Professor X / Charles Xavier full-time in separate animated series X-Men '97. Interestingly, he also provided voicework for the Ultron Sentries in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Colman Domingo
With Oscar nominations to his name and leading man roles aplenty, Colman Domingo is riding the high of his career as one of the most charismatic actors of our generation. If you watched Fear The Walking Dead throughout the 2010s, however, you already knew what he was capable of. His performance as the enigmatic, oddly alluring Victor Strand made the complex character easy to root for - even when we really shouldn't been rooting for him. And thus ensured that his scenes remained of a high standard, even when the show was struggling creatively.
While Domingo has yet to step foot on a Marvel set, he does voice Norman Osborn in the Marvel Studios Animation series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which is honestly a work of casting genius. You can just hear the charisma oozing off Domingo's voice whenever he brings the Oscorp boss to life and it makes us extremely excited for his return to the role in the second season.
This also may be the beginning of a beautiful relationship between Domingo and Marvel. He has gone on record before to reveal that there were discussions about him replacing Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror when the studio was attempting to recast the villainous role and there are also reports that indicate that he could bring his version of Norman Osborn to the MCU's main earth should a future Spider-Man movie introduce the character. Now that we would love to see.
Add us as a preferred source on Google