A Breaking Bad Actor Keeps Turning Down Roles On Invincible
Read Robert Kirkman's superhero comic "Invincible" now, and it's hard not to hear the character voices from the animated series. Prime Video's "Invincible" has quite the recognizable voice cast, stocked with bona fide celebrities (Seth Rogen, Mark Hamill), prolific TV actors (Sandra Oh, Walton Goggins, Clancy Brown) and celebrated voice actors (Grey DeLisle, Kevin Michael Richardson, Peter "Optimus Prime" Cullen). Mark Grayson himself is played by Steven Yeun, whose breakout role was Glenn on "The Walking Dead," also based on a comic by Kirkman. The show's most famous performance so far is probably J.K. Simmons as Mark's superhero dad, Omni-Man. Lightning struck twice, because Simmons is as perfectly cast as Omni-Man as he was as J. Jonah Jameson in "Spider-Man."
"Invincible" season 3 has upped the cast's ante once more, including scoring two "Breaking Bad" alums. Aaron Paul, the erstwhile Jesse Pinkman, voices Scott Duvall/Powerplex, an energy-absorbing super-villain with a grudge against Invincible. Jonathan Banks,who played Mike Ehrmantrau, has also been cast in a mystery role.
Heisenberg himself, though? No such luck. In a recent interview with Discussing Film, Kirkman revealed that "Bryan Cranston is the only actor that has turned us down."
"Sometimes an actor is brought up for a role, and I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, never in a million years would have I thought of that.' That's when it's really exciting. As far as dream casting goes, I think we offer Bryan Cranston a role every season. That has become our tradition, and his tradition is that he turns us down (laughs). But we're coming for you again, Bryan, and we'll see what happens next time. Fingers crossed!"
You think with Cranston having almost turned down "Breaking Bad" back in the day, he wouldn't be so picky with his roles now. But alas...
Robert Kirkman says that Bryan Cranston has said no to Invincible
Making Cranston's absence even more glaring is how "Invincible" scored AMC's other most famous TV leading man, Jon Hamm (Don Draper in "Mad Men") for a cameo in its first episode. Hamm voiced Steve, a Secret Service agent who nearly gets caught in a superhero battle on the White House lawn.
Cranston has the voice acting experience, too. He did some anime dubbing in '80s and '90s, such as the English dubs of "Macross Plus" and "Tekkaman Blade." (He also played two costumed villains on "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.") As for superhero projects, he voiced Jim Gordon in the animated "Batman: Year One" film, released in 2011. But aside from that, Cranston has not joined either the Marvel Cinematic Universe or any DC film franchise. He once expressed interest in playing the X-Men villain Mister Sinister, and told Screen Geek back in 2018 that he had two rules for accepting a superhero movie role:
"I want to play an antagonist a fraction smarter than the protagonist, never dumbed down to give the hero an easy win. That's frustrating and boring to watch. [And] I don't want to do a character that has been done several times before. I don't want to be compared like 'well, his Commissioner Gordon was yada yada yada.' I don't want to do that. I want to take something that hasn't been done."
"Invincible" has never been adapted before, so in theory it fits with what Cranston wants. What "Invincible" character could he play? I'm guessing whatever roles he was originally offered have been filled with other actors, but there are plenty of characters that haven't been seen yet.
Perhaps Grand Regent Thragg, the leader of the Viltrumite Empire and Invincible's most powerful foe. Cranston has a powerful voice, on par with other Viltrumite actors like Simmons. Or maybe he could play Dinosaurus, a radical environmentalist villain who can shapeshift into a red-skinned reptile (and a clear riff on Spider-Man villain the Lizard). Cranston's defining performance as Walter White was all about finding the darkness in a mild-mannered man; he could easily do a more literal, werewolf style version of that with Dinosaurus. All he's got to do is finally say yes!
"Invincible" is streaming on Prime Video, with new episodes dropping on Thursdays.