After 20 years in the business one might assume that Michael Mando is worthy of being a leading man and they would probably be right since he does have a great deal of charisma and is a capable actor, but it kind of depends on the role and the movie that he’s being cast in as far as his credentials towards being the lead go. The rumor right now is that Mando wants to star in a solo spinoff movie that will be focused on the villainous Scorpion character that was introduced at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming. Jeff Ames of Coming Soon has more on this topic. There’s just one problem though, Scorpion was kind of a mid-card villain in the comic books and as a villain has suffered numerous beat downs at the hands of several heroes. If anything the villain is one of the few whipping boys of the Marvel criminal element that has somehow been brought back again and again for reasons that are hard to fathom other than that his suit and the madness that resulted from his gaining superhuman abilities were deemed great enough to use more than once. But to think that fans were actually upset that his character was introduced at the end of Homecoming but not used in any way is enough to wonder: why? As Mac Gargan, Mando didn’t have a lot of prospects then and as of now it doesn’t look like much has changed unless someone’s going to write in a few redundancies that will help him appear to be a much more lethal villain.
As far as Mando being a leading man, sure. It’s a simplistic answer to a question that a lot of people might justify by bringing up his career, what he’s done, the roles he’s played, and just how effective he’s been throughout the years. But really, why not allow him to try to take the lead a few times and see how he does? That’s about the only way that his worthiness of being a leading man is going to be decided, since it’s difficult to look at a person and say ‘okay’ even when basing the decision on the things they’ve done in the past. Heck, some of the most impressive individuals in show business have taken on lead roles and they flubbed them so badly that some folks were left wondering if Hollywood had put too many eggs in the wrong basket. Plus, there are a lot of lead actors that start out strong and then fade off somehow, while there are plenty that start out looking less than impressive but eventually up their game and start doing better and better with each outing until it’s obvious that they should be given a shot at the lead more often. So in a sense, giving Mando the lead in an upcoming movie or even a TV show would be a good chance to see if he has what it takes to step up to the plate and really take over a show. He’s already proven that he’s able to get the attention of the viewers, so maybe now it’s time to see if he can keep it for an extended period of time.
But maybe not with the Scorpion character, since even in the comics he’s a little ‘meh’ and gets his butt handed to him too often. It’s almost like putting up a character such as Paste Pot Pete or Stilt Man, just because they’re a part of the comics doesn’t mean that they’re necessary worthy enough of being put on the screen. So yes, Gargan did get an appearance at the end of Homecoming, but unless we’re going to fast forward to the moment when he was inhabited by a symbiote and actually took on Venom, it’s safe to say that the character of Scorpion is one that’s best left to the imagination since as far as being a challenging figure for anyone in the MCU there are only a few individuals that would find him even problematic to say the least. Another movie however, a different story, and definitely something that would play to his current strengths would be great to see since he is a talented man and he is able to turn heads just enough so that a movie starring him as the lead would be worth trying. What that movie could be isn’t too clear since apart from the Scorpion movie he wants to do there are a lot of open ideas that could be presented and possibly looked over when trying to figure just what would work the best. He’s been in the business long enough that being a leading man should be a firm part of his resume at this point, and while he’s been a prominent figure thus far in a few productions it’s likely time to see what might happen when he’s given a story where he’s the centerpiece, the person that everyone is watching.
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