For years, fans have been photoshopping Dacre Montgomery into every nook and cranny of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, teaming the Stranger Things star with costumes ranging from Wolverine to the Human Torch. But now, the actor has finally taken on the superhero talk firsthand—and he’s got one condition before he’ll don the cape.
In an interview conducted by The Direct on January 20, 2026, in an effort to promote Dead Man’s Wire, Montgomery was asked whether he would ever be interested in working within the MCU. It was made abundantly clear in his response what he meant by projects he would be interested in working on, and this is not based on box office numbers or the length of time a series might have been running.
“I think it’s more about director.” Montgomery went on. “Like, I would be interested in doing anything depending on the director.”
His conditions are valid
In spite of the constant chatter regarding “superhero fatigue,” Montgomery stated that he “feel[s] like even though they’re having a comeback, I feel like there’s a bit of general kind of fatigue around the whole superhero genre, in a way.” It is this willingness to defy convention and to push this genre in a darker direction that fascinates Montgomery regarding this genre of films.
The actor chose Zack Snyder’s Watchmen as one of his favorite superhero films of all time because of its “intense and violent” approach, and also analyzed Taika Waititi’s first work in the Thor franchise as an expression of a director’s capacity to alter the “face” of a character according to his own vision and point of view.
This casting-from-behind-the-scenes philosophy has not served to stop fans from fervently casting Montgomery in their version of the MCU. He has been touted as a strong candidate for the role of Wolverine, primarily in relation to the unhinged, physical presence he displayed in Stranger Things as Billy Hargrove, in order to illustrate that he has the chops for the rough-and-tumble part of Logan.
Some fans believe he would be great for a tougher, more commanding role of Cyclops in the forthcoming relaunch of the X-Men series for Marvel, while others believe he would be a natural fit for the part of Nova based purely on lead-man charisma.
For years, Montgomery has been touted as the web’s number-one choice for playing the role of Johnny Storm, but that is not an option anymore because Marvel has picked another Stranger Things actor, Joseph Quinn, for The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Meanwhile, Montgomery is also focusing on acting in those kinds of roles, which will give him a chance to test his limits. His latest movie, Dead Man’s Wire, which was released in theaters on January 9, 2026, is already gaining popularity among directors such as Gus Van Sant. Montgomery is playing the role of Richard Hall, a real-life mortgage broker in the 1970s, who finds himself hostage to a disgruntled person, Bill Skarsgård, who puts a ‘dead man’s wire’ or a shotgun trigger around Hall’s neck. As expected, he demanded to use real handcuffs and a real wire in order to perform better in character.
