Entertainment
Sabrina Carpenter Will Revive Stan Lee’s Decades-Old Marvel Dream
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
The late, great Stan Lee is still credited as Marvel’s biggest creative force, and many fans see the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the culmination of the man’s decades of hustling in the crowded world of publishing. But some of this legendary creator’s hopes never saw the light of day, including a Dazzler movie that got canceled in the early ‘80s.
Now, scooper @MyTimeToShineHello is reporting that pop icon Sabrina Carpenter is being considered for a major role in the MCU and previously reported she would play Dazzler, which means Marvel may finally be able to revive Lee’s decades-old movie dream.
Sabrina Carpenter Is Ready To Dazzle
Most recently, the scooper took to X to write, “Sabrina Carpenter is also being eyed for a HUGE Marvel role” before asking who fans would like to see her play. Most fans want her to play Dazzler, a mutant rock star who is able to convert sound into light. The same scooper previously reported that Carpenter would definitely be playing this role, and while nothing has been confirmed, it would admittedly make plenty of sense for Marvel to cast the world’s biggest pop star in their cinematic universe ahead of bringing the X-Men and other mutants to the big screen.
What is perhaps most interesting about this casting possibility is that it would revive a Marvel movie dream that died nearly three decades before Iron Man launched the MCU. Before she ever graced the page of a comic book, Dazzler was conceived as a collaboration between Marvel and Casablanca Records, where the former would create a new singer-turned-superhero and the latter would create a real-life record of this new mutant character’s songs. Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter wrote a treatment for a half-hour animated special, but he was soon asked to write a script for a full-length feature film.
The Craziest Marvel Movie Never Made
The feature film was going to star Bo Derek as Dazzler and had a cast that included Rodney Dangerfield, Cher, Robin Williams, and KISS. However, after Derek insisted that her inexperienced husband direct the film, the Dazzler movie lost all of its funding, and the project died. As for Stan Lee, while he didn’t create the character or write those earlier scripts, he did approve the concept of this multimedia crossover and, after the film fell through, he continued to promote the character’s comic introduction while never forgetting his larger dream of having Marvel expand into movies and television.
Obviously, those movie and television dreams came true in a big way with the introduction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ironically, Stan Lee later commented on the possibility of a Dazzler movie before his death, but only in a joking and ironic way: in trying to ensure the event would be well-attended, Lee joked that he was going to “make a Dazzler movie starring Lady Gaga” if nobody came to see him at Comikaze Expo. Even though the iconic comic creator was clearly joking, this quote is still bandied about by some fans as proof that he supported Lady Gaga playing Dazzler.
The Mutant Master Of Music
If scooper @MyTimeToShineHello is correct, we may yet see Sabrina Carpenter play this fan-favorite comic book character. As a worldwide star, she definitely has the aura and stage presence to convincingly play the coolest rock star in the Marvel universe (sorry, Lila Cheney fans, I said what I said). Plus, she’s got the musical chops to create custom songs for the MCU, which would be in the vein of what Marvel wanted to do with this character decades ago.
This casting would effectively revive one of Stan Lee’s earliest dreams of seeing this Marvel character transcend the printed page and become a multimedia sensation. Only time will tell, of course, if the scooper is right or if Carpenter is just the latest in a long list of pop stars (including Taylor Swift) rumored to play this mighty mutant. If the rumor ends up being true, we’ll just have to hope Carpenter tones down some of her naughty dance moves for the silver screen, or the first X-Men movie may end up with an R-rating!
