Fans expected him to appear on WandaVision. He was referenced on Agatha All Along. But it wasn’t until Ironheart that the extra-dimensional demon character Mephisto, “a devil who presents Faustian bargains to hero characters,” made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, brought to life on screen by Sacha Baron Cohen, the actor and comedian who’s best known for playing Borat. Deadline reports that Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige said there are big things ahead for Mephisto, who will be prominent as the next MCU supervillain – and Baron Cohen is ready for action. While preparing to play Mephisto on Ironheart, he reached out to Matthew McConaughey to get the phone number of a personal trainer who might be “capable of getting an actor buff and shredded in a hurry.” McConaughey got Baron Cohen in contact with Alfonso “The Angry Trainer” Moretti. The result of the work Baron Cohen put into his training sessions with Moretti can be seen in images from the new issue of Men’s Fitness UK.
Baron Cohen said he started out with “the core strength of an arthritic jellyfish,” but now he’s in the best shape of his life. Sharing the images on Instagram, Baron Cohen joked, “This is not AI, I really am egotistical enough to do this. Some celebs use Ozempic, some use private chefs, others use personal trainers. I did all three.” He added that he’s “hard launching my mid-life crisis” and “debuting my new character: middle aged man who replaced beer with protein shakes.”
Now that Mephisto has entered the MCU, we’ll have to wait and see where he’ll show up next. There are rumors that his appearance on Ironheart could be a stepping stone toward a Midnight Sons movie that would draw inspiration from the comic book storyline Damnation… but it will probably be a while before we find out if there’s any truth to that. In Damnation, “Mephisto takes over Las Vegas, literally creating Hell on Earth. As protection, he turns the Avengers into demonic Ghost Rider-style minions. Wong has to assemble a new version of the Midnight Sons to infiltrate Mephisto’s lair and end his domination before he takes over the world.“
That would be pretty cool to see. In the meantime, we have pictures of a buff Sacha Baron Cohen to marvel at. Are you looking forward to seeing more of his Mephisto? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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