Marvel Rejected Shaquille O’Neal From ‘Avengers’ For Being ‘Too Famous’

Shaquille O’Neal may never realize his dream of being a part of Marvel’s Avengers.

​In a recent interview with Variety, the NBA legend says that because his personal brand overshadows his characters, he has officially laid his Marvel ambitions to rest.

​”I wanted to be in the Avengers, and they were like, ‘Shaq, we f—in’ love you and we’d love to put you in, but if your face pops up on screen, people are going to go, ‘Hey, that’s Shaq!’ O’Neal said. “He said it truthfully, and I was like, alright… I guess my face is too bigtime.”

​O’Neal also shared that his fame has cost him other opportunities.

​”I would love to do more action roles, but we were told by top Hollywood executives that I’m too big, and what they mean by that is when I pop up on the screen everyone will go, ‘Oh, that’s Shaq!’ ” he explained. “So, if I’m trying to play a doctor or anything, my character won’t be believable.”

​Back in 2018, during an interview with Entertainment Weekly,  O’Neal went public with his desire to join the MCU.

​”I would love to be in one of the Avengers movies,” he said at the time. “I would like to kick Robert Downey Jr.‘s a**.”

​While the MCU may not be in the cards, O’Neal has superhero experience of his own. In 1997, he starred in Steel.

​O’Neal plays John Henry Irons, a brilliant military weapons designer who resigns in disgust after a rogue colleague (Judd Nelson) sabotages an experiment and paralyzes his partner, Sparky (Annabeth Gish). When Irons discovers his dangerous acoustic weapons are illegally being distributed to Los Angeles street gangs, he teams up with Sparky and his resourceful Uncle Joe (Richard Roundtree) to fight back, forging a heavy suit of metal body armor, a high-tech hammer, and a weaponized motorcycle to become the vigilante hero “Steel”. Loosely adapted from the DC Comics character, the film was created in the aftermath of The Death of Superman arc.

​”It was an awesome opportunity,” O’Neal said. “However, I’d like to redo it and get some of these 2018 special effects.”