Young men playing superheroes

Because they want to start franchises and it takes years to build one. And usually the movies are origin stories, which is why they go young. Studios also like to find young undiscovered/ unrecognized actors to turn into stars. Also, when you see chris hemsworth now, you think of thor. Whereas if you got someone older and more famous like Brad Pitt, you'd see brad pitt in just another role.

 

They hire young not-in-the-spotlight promising actors because they present a whole "set" set of films or franchise. I personally think that superhero comics should be presented as series, but more mature and grounded that smallville or arrow, etc. Give all the characters the appropiate development.

 

also, if you want your actor to have a lot of muscle mass and definition, like we saw with Hemsworth, Evans, Toby Maguire, a younger person can achieve that much easier and faster. Sure, Hugh Jackman can get ripped as well, but for his age it probably takes him twice as long.

 

It's also about age rascism.
Strong superheroes "can't" be family fathers. They have to look like they're really strong, acrobatic and fast.
We shall be thankful they went with 30+ actors in Matrix and trained them in martial arts.

One negative thing is that their hero alias doesn't seem to be "-man" or "-woman" when casting young, rather "-boy" and "-girl".
The irony about this is that the same young people could play teens in high school and college films, because these kind of characters are always being cast older.

 

Also... they're telling origin stories, not 'these characters have been active for 10-15 years' stories, so casting a 30 year old isn't necessarily logical.

 

i was gonna post this yesterday but i didn't. given the rdj news, that's the reason why you go young. marvel's already gonna have a problem there. of course it may all be a negotiating tactic, still, rdj's no spring chicken and a guy of his talent might just be getting bored with it.

 

To be fair, Alex Ross's Superman looks like he's 50 so most actors are gonna look younger by comparison.

 

Agree with this I love unknown actors playing hero roles

 

Choosing young actors is important if we want to make sequels. Look at R. Downey Junior, ok there will be Iron Man 3, Avengers 2 in theaters but the years pass.
For me it's easier to identify with a character or hero when it's an unknown actor rather than an celeb actor. With him, I'll only see how the actor plays and not the character.

 

RDJ it's a singular case, were the actor have so much charisma or attitude that instead of "acting" he gives part of himself to the part. Same with Christopher Waltz or Jack Nicholson.

 

Henry Cavil is almost 30; 28 when he was filming Man of Steel. Brandon Routh was 25 when he was shooting Returns, Reeve was 24 when he was shooting Superman.

 

all it will take is for a movie to hit big about an old superhero then you will get more to follow. if it sells then everyone wants in. maybe an old batman or kingdom come might spark it.

 

It all started with the movies, needing younger to keep the franchise going or because they thought that the general audience would connect more with a younger hero. Then the comics, to help promote their films, altered their characters to fit the ages in the film. Now Batman and Superman are in their 20s instead of late 30s/early 40s.
They already had an older superhero film that succeeded, Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. He is 48 now. Back then in Iron Man 1 he was 43. Jon Favreau had to fight for that though, from what I hear. The studio wanted a teen Tony Stark, probably because the success of Spider-Man the studio was afraid to go with an older hero. Maybe thats why the cartoon show featured a teen Tony Stark.
High Jackman is 44. When if 1st played Wolverine he was 31. But he still looks like a young Wolverine, sort of. At least I wasn't aware of his age anyway. And he is still playing Wolverine, but that could be because he was grandfathered in.
But what was the response by the public and comic fans to a younger actor, Michael Fassbender, playing Magneto in 1st Class over the older actor, Sir Ian Murray McKellen, in X-Men?
I thought I remembered rumblings at the time that McKellen was too old for Magneto, and later thought I heard that finally we got a right aged actor for the part.
However, I do want to point out that in my opinion Chris Evans and Hemsworth are perfect choices for Captain America and Thor. Just like I thought Downey Jr. was the perfect Stark.

Studios have always seemed to promote the younger age though, I heard that one suggestion for the movie Hero Bear and the Kid (that hasn't been made yet) was to make the little boy a teenager, and to put Hillary Duff in the film. So its not just making the older characters younger, it can sometimes be making the younger kids teenagers.
But TV does this too, I remember watching Friends and thinking the stars were so much older than me, and now the stars of How I Met Your Mother are my age.
It could have a similar reason as to why DC introduced Robin in the Batman comics, because younger kids connected with Robin being young and it boosted sales. Maybe they see the younger crowd as being a more viable market than the older crowd and that is why they target them.
Similarly why cartoon shows like Spectacular Spider-Man, Young Justice, and Avengers gets canceled and replaced with Ultimate Spider-Man, Tinny Titans, and other shows that appeal to young and younger crowds rather than try to appeal to older or young and old at the same time.
My dad said that I outgrew their target market.

So, while I agree that the prospect of sequels and cameos and continuing to use that actor for things in the future must play a part, I also think it has to do with market research on the studios part. Them thinking that the more profitable way to do things is casting unknowns, or little well knowns like Evans, and younger actors who are around their mid 20s-early 30s.


Someone should make a, maybe generic, superhero movie with an all old cast. Casting actors and actresses who people would have loved to see in superhero films but now they are too old. Not like Red, I mean like a superhero movie where the actors play superheroes like Spider-Man or Superman types but are "too old" by studio standards. Like in their 40s and 50s and even 60s and 70s.
I heard that Denzel Washington wanted to, would LOVE to, play a superhero but no one asked him.

 

I agree with Quasimod0's comments regarding building up franchises and new credible faces for such roles.

Jon Hamm would be my choice for a mature Superman.

 

It's for all the people in the audience who are into dudes. We, the superhero loving crowd, will go see superhero movies for the character. Other audiences are harder to sell the concept to, so the studio wants to hire pretty people to put asses in seats so they'll all stare at Chris Evans' ass in IMAX.

 

I think Hugh Jackman could have worked for this year's Superman. Because he's so well preserved, looks young enough to work as Supes.

 

I agree with that. I prefer the less famous actors in comic book films. I don't see Henry Cavill, Andrew Garfield or Chris Hemsworth (not in the first Thor at least). I see Superman, Spider-Man and Thor.

Your main protagonists are usually young, less known (Henry Cavill as Superman, Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor)
Your main antagonists are strong, talented actors actors with some fame (Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane, Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, Ben Kingsley as Mandarin, Guy Pearce as Killian)
Your power characters are usually power actors (Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury, Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Phillips, Russel Crowe as Jor-El)

That's the way I see it It's not 100% this way in every film, but it's a good theory to go with in my opinion.

 

If you picture Captain America, especially a new recruit Super Soldier'd CA, in his 30s I question what you know about the character and the era he was in. Cap from the 40s and just after being thawed shouldn't be any older than 25.

Also, I lost any conception of John Hamm as any kind of superhero after seeing him with his shirt off in Bridesmaids. I was like "oh, this dude is SOFT." No muscle definition on that guy whatsoever. He's all face.

 

Superheroes being played by actors in their late 20s-early 30s has been the norm for quite a long time now. There aren't that many you can name who were older than 35 the first time they played a major superhero role besides Robert Downey Jr, Michael Keaton, Nicolas Cage and I guess Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo. Meanwhile, both incarnations of Spider-Man, Nolan's Batman, Thor, Captain America and Wolverine were all played by actors in their late 20s-early 30s, at least for their first film.

 

It would be really interesting to cast the superhero characters that way, but with younger stars than the ones mentioned.
Who says it can't work just fine?

I mean, why should only the villains be treated that way?

 

The main obstacle is cost. If you cast a big name as the lead, you have to pay more money. This means either you cut costs on something else important, or you balloon your budget. Either way makes it more precarious.

 

They have these things nowadays called "gyms" that help with that sort of thing.

Anyways, I've always pictured Hamm as Reed Richards, and muscle isn't really important for that role.

 

But casting big names for villains doesn't affect the budget or the final product, right?