Random Most Overqualified Performances In The MCU (17 items)

(#14) Walton Goggins
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The main antagonist in Ant-Man and the Wasp is Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost. The secondary antagonist in Ant-Man and the Wasp is Walton Goggins' Sonny Burch. One of these characters is given a tragic backstory and great character moments. The other is an afterthought.

Goggins's time on The Shield and Justified proved he is capable of playing compelling characters with aplomb. But in the MCU, Goggins's talent was wasted much like it was in 2018's Tomb Raider.
(#5) Peter Dinklage
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Peter Dinklage has been garnering critical plaudits since 2003's The Station Agent, but he didn't become a household name until his star-making turn in Game of Thrones as Tyrion Lannister. A four-time Emmy Award winner for supporting actor in a drama series, Dinklage knows how to make the most of any screen time he is given.

Alas, his cameo as Eitri in Avengers: Infinity War was more of a "Hey! That's Peter Dinklage" moment than anything else. They probably didn't have to pay someone as famous as Dinklage to play Eitri, but when you have that Marvel Studios money... you can basically do whatever you want.
(#4) Tony Leung Chiu Wai
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Marvel really pulled off a casting feat when it brought in Tony Leung to play the ruthless Wenwu in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Not only did they get one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation to join the MCU, but they also got him to play his first major role in a Hollywood film.

Calling Leung a Hollywood newcomer totally underplays his impact on the international film scene. Leung is the Hong Kong cinema equivalent of Leonardo DiCaprio, not just because he originally played the role in Infernal Affairs that went to DiCaprio when the film was remade as The Departed. Leung brings an emotionally charged element to the millennia-old Wenwu that comes through both when he lays waste to his enemies and when he's grieving the loss of his true love.
(#1) Anthony Hopkins
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Classically trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Anthony Hopkins is one of the great screen and stage actors of the past 50 years. With five Academy Award nominations and five Emmy Award nominations to his name, Hopkins is as talented as he is diverse.
When Kenneth Branagh and the rest of the production team behind Thor were looking to cast an actor as Odin, Hopkins was an ideal choice. It just turned out the Welsh actor wasn't given much to do throughout the first three Thor films. Is he great? Yes. Is he just a little bit wasted in the role? Unfortunately, yes.
Hopkins himself didn't seem to be much of a fan of acting in the MCU. He told The New Yorker: “They put me in armor; they shoved a beard on me. ‘Sit on the throne, shout a bit.’ If you’re sitting in front of a green screen, it’s pointless acting it.”
(#12) Annette Bening
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When you need to cast a character as both the Supreme Intelligence and the MCU's version of Mar-Vell, it makes sense that you would go for an extremely accomplished performer. Still, four-time Academy Award nominee Annette Bening is clearly punching below her weight in Captain Marvel.

It is a testament to her abilities that Bening can, in the same film, provide performances that are both sinister and endearing. When you have the laundry list of award nominations that Bening does, we suppose it should come as no great shock that she was able to pull this off.
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