Brett Goldstein Is Marvel’s Hercules, Our Scoop Confirmed
We told you it was coming.
Only a couple of weeks ago we exclusively reported that Brett Goldstein of Ted Lasso fame had been cast in the role of Marvel’s Hercules. Now our scoop has been confirmed. SPOILERS follow for Thor: Love and Thunder. In a mid-credits scene for the film that’s in theaters now, Brett Goldstein is finally revealed as the Prince of Power, and he’s got a dark task ahead of him.
As you know if you’ve seen Thor: Love and Thunder, Zeus (Russell Crowe) — the king of the Greco-Roman pantheon of gods — is defeated by Thor (Chris Hemsworth) earlier in the film during a battle in Omnipotence City. But to anyone who thought Zeus was dead, the mid-credits scene delivers a surprise: Zeus is not only alive but he wants payback. For most of the scene Zeus talks to someone off-camera, but once the camera turns to Brett Goldstein, it’s clear he’s playing Hercules. Not only would Hercules naturally be the character Zeus refers to as his son, but Goldstein appears in a comics accurate outfit.
Uproxx talked to Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi about how Brett Goldstein landed the role of Hercules, and his answer was pretty uncomplicated. “[Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige] really wanted him to do it, and yeah, Brett’s amazing. He’s great.” Waititi also admitted that, in spite of the tease of a Thor/Hercules clash, whatever plans Feige has for the character, he’s keeping them to himself. “I don’t know if that’s to do with Thor, or if it’s to do with how that will develop,” Waititi told Uproxx. “Because, obviously, Hercules, there’s a character from the books as well… Kevin, he’s obviously the mastermind of all of these threads and how they’ll tie up and how they meet, mix and match. So I’m curious to find out myself.”
Whatever Feige’s long term plans for the character are, it seems pretty inevitable for at least one epic clash between the Brett Goldstein Hercules and the Chris Hemsworth Thor. While Hercules is part of his own pantheon, he starts his Marvel Comics journey as a rival of Thor’s in 1965’s Journey Into Mystery Annual #1 and the two have clashed plenty of times since then. Even though since their first meeting in the comics, Thor and Hercules have become friends and both are members of the Avengers, their battles have never stopped for very long. Whether it’s over pride, one of them being controlled by an exterior force, or another reason, the two strongmen always seem to find a reason to throw down.
There is a decent chance that whenever Brett Goldstein gets to play Hercules on a larger scale, he will be part of the MCU’s growing LGBTQ+ community. For quite a while, fans and critics like CBR‘s Brandon Zachary have argued that the hero should be openly bisexual. There have been hints for years in the comics that Hercules is bisexual. In fact in the comic book Exiles — whose heroes are made up of variants from across Marvel’s multiverse — a variant Hercules and a variant Wolverine were a couple.
