The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a well-oiled machine at this point, thanks to projects hitting theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. Fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order have seen a ton of actors come and go throughout the years, including Dominic Cooper. He debuted as a young Howard Stark in Captain America: The First Avenger, and recently lamented about now knowing how good he had it at Marvel until the phone stopped ringing.
While upcoming Marvel movies will feature a huge cast of characters, Cooper isn’t set to reprise his role as Howard Stark in live-action anytime soon. The Preacher actor spoke to CBM about his time in the MCU, offering:
I look back on Captain America and the Marvel world…you’re thrown into it at the time, and you don’t realize what an incredible thing it is to be part of. To get to have been with Stan [Lee]. To do a scene with him and be like, ‘Oh, really? You wrote those comics?’ It was cool. Now, I’m like, ‘Wow.’ I really hope I get the option to play him again because he’s really fun.
Talk about a pinch me moment. The first Captain America movie was early in the MCU’s long life in theaters, released back in 2011. While Cooper was happy to have the gig as Howard Stark, he couldn’t have known how much the franchise would become a sensation. But he does seem happy to have those memories, including his time with late Marvel architect Stan Lee.
While Cooper is hoping he gets to play Tony Stark’s dad again, he has gotten to reprise that role a number of times. In live-action he played Howard in Agent Carter, and also voiced him in two episodes of What If…?. Still, it’s clear he’d like to have more time as his signature Marvel character.
Later in the same interview, he spoke more about wanting to play Howard Stark again, and equated his time in the MCU with his new show The Last Frontier (streaming with an Apple TV+ subscription). In the actor’s words:
I hope so, because he’s an amazing character. He’s such fun, but he’s from a certain time. I hope so, I really, really hope so, because again it’s one of those things… it’s like this. This show is amazing. I stopped and looked at the real plane in the field and thought, ‘This is a really lucky experience and it’s happening much less and less.’
Of course, longtime Marvel fans know that no one is every truly gone. Cooper getting to voice a few variants of Stark in What If…? proved this. With the multiverse seemingly anything could happen, so we’ll have to see if the Mamma Mia! actor gets his wish, and another chance to step into that role in live-action.
The next MCU movie hitting theaters is Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 24th as part of the 2026 movie release list. We’ll just have to wait and see if Dominic Cooper gets to play Iron Man’s father again.