The Marvel Stars You Likely Forgot Were In Breaking Bad
Although you won't find any superheroes within the desert meth labs or drug-fueled shootouts of "Breaking Bad," the series itself contains a surprising number of stars with ties to the Marvel Universe. Most obvious among these is actor Krysten Ritter, who played Jane Margolis in "Breaking Bad," a character with a crucial role in Season 2 as the doomed girlfriend of Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). From 2017-2019, Ritter portrayed the titular Marvel superhero in Netflix's "Jessica Jones," a role she reprised in "The Defenders" and one which she is rumored to be returning to in the upcoming Disney+ series "Daredevil: Born Again."
Another "Breaking Bad" star with ties to Marvel media is Tony Dalton, well known for his performance as the sociopathic cartel boss Lalo Salamanca in "Better Call Saul." Dalton appeared in the 2021 MCU series "Hawkeye," playing a wealthy swordsman named Jack Duquesne, who also happened to be the stepfather of the new Hawkeye, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld).
While these two actors are certainly well known by both Marvel and "Breaking Bad" fans alike, there are actually several other Marvel stars who you may have forgotten appeared in Vince Gilligan's acclaimed crime drama.
A former X-Men star had brief screen time on Breaking Bad
One Marvel star who most "Breaking Bad" fans almost certainly forgot about is Caleb Landry Jones, who played the sonic mutant Sean Cassidy (aka Banshee) in "X-Men: First Class."
Banshee's mutation allows him to project strong sonic waves using only his voice, and in "First Class," he is recruited by Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) to join the very first group of X-Men. Banshee not only survives the initial ambush by Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) but plays a crucial role in the final battle against Shaw and the rest of the Hellfire Club — locating Shaw's submarine with his advanced sonic powers.
In addition to his work in "X-Men," Caleb Landry Jones also played Louis in Season 2 and Season 3 of "Breaking Bad." Louis is the best friend of Walter White Jr. (RJ Mitte) and can be briefly seen picking him up from or dropping him off at school. Because Louis is mentioned by Walt Jr. far more than he is seen on screen (and because Louis was originally played by Kyle Swimmer in Season 1), "X-Men" fans can get a pass for not recognizing this loudmouthed superhero in "Breaking Bad."
Kevin Rankin played Bruce Banner's lab assistant and neo nazi in Breaking Bad
Another Marvel star you might have missed in "Breaking Bad" is Kevin Rankin, who played the character of Harper in 2003's "Hulk." Harper is a Berkeley Lab assistant who helps Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) and Betty Ross (Jennifer Connolly) experiment with dangerous, gamma-based nano-medicine. Bruce actually inherits his superpowers after saving Harper from a catastrophic gammasphere malfunction, merging the dangerous gamma radiation with his mutant DNA to become the Hulk.
In "Breaking Bad," Kevin Rankin plays the similarly small role of Kenny, a lieutenant in Jack Welker's (Michael Bowen) gang of neo-nazis. Kenny appears frequently over the back half of "Breaking Bad" Season 5, most notably restraining Walter White (Bryan Cranston) while Jack executes his DEA brother-in-law, Hank Schrader (Dean Norris). Kenny is also present in the series finale, "Felina," where he dies in a hail of gunfire courtesy of Walt's booby-trapped car trunk.
Since director Ang Lee's "Hulk" has been somewhat forgotten by most Marvel fans as the character has been rebooted twice since then, in 2008's "The Incredible Hulk" and 2012's "The Avengers", it's hard to imagine many fans would have made the connection between this detestable neo-nazi and the bumbling assistant who gave Bruce Banner his powers.
Kerry Condon voiced an Iron Man A.I. and was a major part of Better Call Saul
During the events of "Avengers: Age of Ultron," Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) decides to upload his artificial intelligence, J.A.R.V.I.S., into a synthetic body to create the superhero Vision (Paul Bettany). With J.A.R.V.I.S. now forever gone from the Iron Man suit, Tony is forced to replace him with another A.I. assistant named F.R.I.D.A.Y, which adopts a female Irish accent and is voiced by actor Kerry Condon.
Outside of "Age of Ultron," Condon provided the voice for F.R.I.D.A.Y. in several major MCU films like 'Captain America: Civil War," "Spider-Man: Homecoming," "Avengers: Infinity War," and "Avengers: Endgame." Because Kerry Condon only ever uses her voice in the MCU, you may not have recognized her in "Better Call Saul" as Stacey Ehrmentraut, the daughter-in-law of Mike Ehrmentraut (Jonathan Banks) and widow of his son Matt (Nicholas Liam King).
Both Mike and Stacey begin the series wracked with grief over the death of Mike's son, who was killed by crooked police officers in Philadelphia. Stacey eventually works through her grief with Mike's help, and he starts passing along the money he makes as an enforcer in Gustavo Fring's drug empire, hoping to create a better future for Stacey and his granddaughter, Kaylee (Abigail Zoe Lewis).
Michael Mando played Scorpion in Spider-Man: Homecoming
While nobody is likely to forget Michael Mando's tragic performance as cartel member Ignacio "Nacho" Varga in "Better Call Saul," you may have forgotten Mando's work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — specifically, his small role in "Spider-Man: Homecoming."
In "Homecoming," Mando plays a smuggler and criminal named Mac Gargan, who strikes a deal with Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Michael Keaton) to buy some Chitauri-based weaponry aboard the Staten Island Ferry. By the end of the movie, Spider-Man (Tom Holland) has sent both Toomes and Gargan to prison, and in the film's final moments, we see Gargan interrogate Toomes about Spider-Man's true identity.
Although this appears to be setting up a future conflict for the friendly neighborhood web slinger, Gargan has yet to reappear in any MCU project to date. While he might seem like no more than a petty criminal in this brief appearance aboard the ferry, Marvel Comics fans know that Mac Gargan is actually the name of the supervillain Scorpion, one of Spider-Man's most iconic foes. As such, it's possible we'll see Michael Mando return in the upcoming "Spider-Man 4," possibly even rocking some scorpion-themed abilities for his rematch with Marvel's wall-crawler.