Deadpoolstar Morena Baccarin details her audition for Maria Hill in The Avengers and why she didn’t take the role. Baccarin has been a staple of television as she has had lead roles in programs like Firefly, Homeland, V and currently, is the lead on the NBC series The Endgame. The star has also had an impressive film career, as she starred in both Deadpool and Deadpool 2 as Vanessa, the love interest of Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds).

Baccarin almost joined the MCU with the role of Maria Hill for 2012’s The Avengers. Baccarin was on the shortlist for the role alongside Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Birds of Prey), Jessica Lucas (Cloverfield), and eventual choice Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother). Baccarin had already worked alongside Joss Whedon on Firefly and Serenity, so many believed her to be the top pick, but the part eventually went to Smulders, who played the role in The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Spider-Man: Far From Home and various episodes of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

During an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast hosted by Josh Horowitz (via Reddit), Baccarin reveals why she did not get the part in The Avengers. She revealed she tested for the role, even at one point with Smulders, but she just couldn’t quite get into the mindset of the character that Whedon was giving directions for. She went on to praise Smulders for her depiction of the character. Baccarin said:

“I didn’t get it at all, I didn’t get it at all. I love that [Joss Whedon] brought me in for it. He kept telling me she was like Sigourney Weaver in Alien, that she had this kind of hard edge to her, and I was like ‘I don’t understand.’ I couldn’t see it on the page, I couldn’t do it. I tested. I was there with Cobie, we tested against each other and I was like, ‘She’s going to get this part, I can see it.’ He wanted me to be emotional but hold it all in and be hard, and I was like, ‘I don’t know what you’re asking me to do. I can’t do it.'”

Created by Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch in New Avengers #4, Maria Hill was a major character during the Civil War comics and has been in opposition to the Avengers as well as an ally. While the character has not gotten the same major storyline, and much of the character’s scenes in The Avengers were cut, the character has become a staple of the MCU and an example of a minor character who has become known by many the world over even as a supporting character. The character will next be seen in Secret Invasion, alongside Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury.

While Baccarin did not get the role of Maria Hill in The Avengers, she has played a large number of comic book characters outside of her role in the Deadpoolfilms. She is most commonly known for playing in the world of DC Comics. Her first was as the voice of Black Canary in Justice League Unlimited. She voiced Talia Al Ghul in 2014’s Son of Batman and 2016’s Batman: Bad Blood. Then, she would go on to voice the Reverse Flash’s A.I. Gideon on The Flash in 2014, then in 2015, she joined the cast of Gotham as Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Had she been in the MCU, she may not have been able to fit Gotham into her schedule, and it was on that set where she met her husband Ben McKenzie with whom she has a son so, in the end, she made the right decision.

Source: Happy Sad Confused (via Reddit)

Key Release Dates
See also  10 Hilarious Moon Knight Quotes From The Comics That Fans Would Love To See In The Show
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)Release date: May 06, 2022
  • Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)Release date: Jul 08, 2022
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever/Black Panther 2 (2022)Release date: Nov 11, 2022
  • The Marvels/Captain Marvel 2 (2023)Release date: Feb 17, 2023
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)Release date: May 05, 2023
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)Release date: Jul 28, 2023
Mads Mikkelsen’s Grindelwald Is Better Than Johnny Depp’s (It’s Not Even Close)

About The Author


Richard Fink
(532 Articles Published)

Richard Fink is a news writer for Screen Rant. He graduated from Arizona State University in 2016 with a degree in Film and Media Production. He loves the finer things in life, like cold Diet Coke on a hot summer day. Richard is a fan of all things Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and Film History.

More From Richard Fink