Cody Rhodes Just Reignited Marvel Casting Rumors, and This Time It’s Not Just a Studio Visit
Wrestling stars making the leap to Hollywood is nothing new, but few current WWE Superstars have generated as much movie buzz lately as Cody Rhodes. Between an upcoming video game adaptation and a growing list of screen credits, the American Nightmare has spent the past year quietly building the kind of resume that makes fans start paying attention to everything he posts.
That attention hit a new gear last week after Rhodes shared a photo from inside Marvel Studios’ offices in Burbank, California, on his Instagram Story. He offered zero context for the visit, and it’s still unclear whether the photo was even taken recently, but that didn’t stop speculation from spreading fast across wrestling and superhero fan communities alike.
Now Rhodes has added fresh fuel to that fire. In a new Instagram Story, he used the ‘X-Men ’97’ theme song as the soundtrack, a detail that lands just days after his previously reported trip to Marvel’s headquarters and has fans once again convinced something is brewing behind the scenes.
To be clear, nothing here confirms an actual Marvel Cinematic Universe role is in the works. It’s entirely possible the studio visit and the music choice are unrelated coincidences, but the timing has been enough to send fan casting into overdrive online.
The X-Men connection isn’t coming out of nowhere either. During an appearance on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, Rhodes was asked which mutant he’d want to play, and as a longtime fan of the X-Men animated series, he reacted positively when the character Cable was floated as an option.
That podcast moment has become the anchor for a lot of the current speculation, with fans specifically zeroing in on Cable given Rhodes’ blonde hair and imposing physique matching the time-traveling character fairly closely. Others have thrown out names ranging from Bastion and William Stryker to Havok, while some fans have pushed beyond the X-Men entirely and floated Venom as another possibility.
Rhodes’ interest in comic book roles isn’t new either. He previously appeared in seven episodes of The CW’s ‘Arrow’ as Derek Sampson, and he’s spoken openly about pursuing the role of Black Bolt for Marvel’s ‘Inhumans’ series back in 2016, well before his current run of Hollywood projects began.
He’s also named Omega Red and Cyclops among his favorite Marvel characters in the past, giving fans even more material to work with as they try to map his comic book fandom onto a potential casting announcement. Whether any of that translates into an actual role remains entirely speculative for now.
In the more immediate future, Rhodes is set to appear as Guile in the upcoming ‘Street Fighter’ adaptation this October, sharing the screen with Roman Reigns, who plays the villain Akuma. He also recently starred in the comedy ‘The Naked Gun’ and is attached to the TV series ‘The Rest of Us.’
As for timing, any hypothetical Marvel role likely wouldn’t arrive for a while regardless. ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ is set to release this December, ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ follows roughly a year later, and the next ‘X-Men’ film currently isn’t scheduled until 2028, meaning Rhodes fans may be waiting a long time to find out if any of this speculation actually pays off.
Which Marvel character should Cody Rhodes play?
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