Andy Samberg Would Be a Good Doctor Octopus

Images from CBM and Nylon

“My tentacles give me the strength to defeat any living being!”

Josh Brolin, Jonathan Majors, James Spader. So many Marvel Cinematic Universe films cast actors in the villain roles who just makes sense. Brolin? Intimidating. Majors? Unknowable. Spader? Vocally menacing. Each glowingly fit into the respective roles of Thanos, Kang, and Ultron, so much so that they have radically redefined the characters from their on-the-page counterparts. It’s not just about the perfect, comic-accurate “match” (Willem Dafoe is far more of a “Green Goblin” than Dane DeHaan); it’s about channeling the proper energy for the film’s tone and the aura of who the character is, rather than what they look like. It’s why Heath Ledger, Topher Grace, and Jesse Eisenberg (Joker, Venom, and Lex Luthor) were equally unconventional and varyingly successful. It is with all of this in mind that I say Andy Samberg — courtesy of his zero-to-sixty anxiety, capable-of-mania demeanor, and grounded handsomeness — would be a perfect choice to play the next Doctor Octopus in the Spider-Man films.

First of all, Doctor Octopus does have the ability to display a veneer of confidence, but the root of the character is the opposite of this. Yes, he can shout, “Happy landing!” at a bunch of unsuspecting tourists on the Spider-Man ride at Universal Orlando, but the interiority of the character is one that is rooted in much more anxiety. Not quite insecurity, like Nate from *Ted Lasso*, but more that he is anxious that he’s not smart enough, not caring enough, not kind enough to be the best version of himself. He does have it warped in his mind as the “best version” is a power-hungry octopus rampage man, but there is still an anxiety at the core of him.

Samberg would excel in this range. He was able to stretch his acting range on *Brooklyn Nine-Nine with moments exactly like that — the kinds rooted in feelings of anxiety or of being a sub-par person. Think of his most famous gif from Brooklyn Nine-Nine*, the “Alright, I’m gonna go cry” one.

Image from Tenor

He’s not in the middle of a tantrum or an anger attack, but he’s also not hiding his high emotionality and its ability to usurp his prefrontal cortex in rapidly onset and volatile ways. An average conversation at work, if it doesn’t go in favor of Jake Peralta’s goals, can result in that zero-to-sixty nervousness, almost bordering on panic attacks, the results of which are kept private. We see it when Peralta is nervous around Captain Holt or his father or any paternal figure he’s trying to impress. There’s an anxious sensation behind the performance as he tries to prove he belongs. When Samberg performs moments like these, he still musters the same sort of confidence that makes Jake someone who you could be friends with or who kids could look up to. But the vulnerability is still at play, as well. All he would need is to tweak the likability into a slightly more manic dimension.

Fortunately, it was my first exposure to Samberg that assured me he’d be capable of this sort of mania, via Saturday Night Live’s Digital Short, “Great Day,” from him and his Lonely Island mates and partners, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer. Granted, I did not see this video and think of Samberg as a potential Doc Ock one day, but I did notice the unhinged nature of his performance, which staunchly differed from the typical, disaffected, goofy slacker persona that was present in other Digital Shorts (certainly one with a juvenile, but not raunchy, sense of humor).

Instead, the instance of Samberg as a potential Doc Ock came courtesy of a friend of mine. He suggested a litany of comedy stars as potential Marvel characters; he liked Bill Hader as Spider-Man and Andy Samberg as Iron Man and Jonah Hill as Captain America. The sheer novelty of such prospects tickled me, but it always seemed more like an SNL sketch casting than something the MCU would ever truly consider (perhaps not, though, with Paul Rudd providing a perfect Ant-Man). However, since I was still mostly only familiar with Samberg as the guy from “Great Day” (and, albeit, “Dick in a Box”), I could only picture his cackling, cocaine-infused laughter from behind the Iron Man mask. And part of me grew infatuated with the potential of hearing that laugh echo throughout Manhattan as he crashed down a city street with eight robotic arms in search of Spider-Man. I saw it so vividly and clearly in my head: Samberg would be a flawless Otto Octavius if anyone in a casting agency would ever dare to really think about him and what he could bring to the role.

I don’t know if anyone’s considered it before, but maybe this will be a piece that spurs Sarah Halley Finn to think twice about paying homage to Doc Ock with an Alfred Molina return and then calling it a wrap. Yes, it was nice to bring a second, different-but-still-proper conclusion to the Molina Otto and Tobey Maguire Peter Parker dynamic. But Tom Holland deserves his own Octavius and Samberg’s laughter is still ringing in my ears.

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Obviously, not much about Samberg’s performance is “normal” in “Great Day,” but his film acting experience proves he can dabble in the drama that could apply to the everyman before exploding into mania when he’s corrupted, either by power (Doctor Octopus) or cocaine (“Great Day”). He’s goofy and likable in Celeste and Jesse Forever, but also someone who knows more and more the time and the place for that behavior as he matures. But that maturity never feels passionless; his heart is in every performance, as with Palm Springs, when he pleads for finding monotonous love in an outlandish sci-fi setting. Samberg also can deftly weaponize that ceaseless passion as being wildly unpredictable in the form of a person who could be hard to talk to or even know in real life. Think of the socially stunted Rod Kimble from Hot Rod or the blithely condescending Conner4Real from Popstar. There’s a way for him to thread that infantile-clueless from that arrogant-clueless and it’s exactly the form of Doctor Octopus, who’s not juvenile, but also not braggadocious.

That doesn’t mean Samberg would need to be as self-serious as Kang if he played Doctor Octopus. Yes, Kang belongs to the MCU, which is innately lighter in tone than something like Tim Burton’s Batman or Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. However, Kang and Peter Parker interacting and blending their tones is an issue for the next Avengers film. Peter will encounter Doctor Octopus in his own storyline. The Spider-Man movies have always been among the lighter MCU fare, which Samberg would fit snugly into, but even as they move away from it in this post-Zendaya, post-high school phase of the Parker arc, Samberg’s more matured, post-Brooklyn Nine-Nine on-screen persona would still match and merge his Octavius with Tommy Holland’s Spider-Man well.

Lastly, there is a grounded handsomeness to Samberg as a human being. There is no denying that Molina’s physical appearance and age fits Otto as best as we might ever be able to do with the character. All that means, though, is that we’ve already had that perfect marriage of actor and character. Why not go different with the casting since any future actor will be inevitably compared to Molina anyway? Don’t make the next guy do a Molina impression that makes everyone wish they were watching Spider-Man 2 or Spider-Man: No Way Home instead. Let them do something that’s their own. Samberg is younger, but in his acting toolbox, he possesses the corruptible, easily-influenced demeanor that he could utilize for true malice on screen. Garry Shandling harnessed the sleaziness of Larry Sanders to believably portray the HYDRA-infected Senator Stern in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Michael B. Jordan unleashed a charged charisma that we always knew he had, but never in the way we saw within Black Panther’s Killmonger. Michael Keaton used the parts of Batman that seemed most unhinged to effectively portray Tom Holland’s first animal-based villain, the Vulture. Let Andy Samberg take all of these aforementioned qualities of anxiety and mania and use them to bring an original spin on Doctor Octopus.

Samberg isn’t traditionally “movie star” hot, but he is real and still handsome and pleasant, but funny without being safe or milquetoast. A villain arc could make sense for Samberg personality-wise, rather than being about the falsified looks that make him “bullied” throughout his life even though he’s too cute and personable for that to be believed by anyone ever (sorry, Jamie Foxx). Samberg can be generally likable while still believable when he reaches for more.

Whether Samberg wants to spend some of his underratedly fascinating comedy and acting career playing in the Volume with Tom Holland and a three-picture deal is unknown to me. I can only speculate on the hope that, if it doesn’t take away from what Samberg wants to do, we could see an opportunity for him to bring an iconic comic book villain to life in an entirely new way, upending every expectation along the way like the best of the on-screen superhero villains before him.