Red Dead Redemption: 10 Actors Who Could Play John Marston In A Movie
Since Red Dead Redemption is one of the most popular game franchises out there. And since it’s based on one of the most quintessential movie genres in American cinema – the western – it’s pretty well-primed for a film adaptation. Movies based on video games usually end up disappointing fans of both the games they’re based on and movies in general, but a Red Dead movie could be the video game movie world’s diamond in the rough.
The key to making a Red Dead Redemption movie work would be casting the perfect actor to play the game’s grizzled antihero John Marston in live-action.
10 Christian Bale
In American Psycho, The Fighter, and Ford v Ferrari, Christian Bale has more than proven that he’s one of the finest actors working today. Whether he’s playing John Connor or Dick Cheney, Bale always brings nuance to every performance.
He’s also one of the few actors who still stars in westerns, having appeared in 3:10 to Yuma and Hostiles. If Bale can play Batman, he can play John Marston.
9 Josh Holloway
Best known for playing Sawyer in Lost, Josh Holloway’s career as a leading man has been a long time coming. Outside of a minor role in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Holloway was considered for the role of Hawkeye in the MCU, but didn’t clinch it.
Holloway has the cool charisma to bring Marston to life. His guest spot on Community as a cowboy showed that he looks even more awesome in western attire.
8 Justin Theroux
Although the show suffered from weak ratings during its three-season run on HBO, The Leftovers makes a good case for Justin Theroux as a casting choice for John Marston in a Red Dead movie.
His lead character in The Leftovers, disturbed police chief Kevin Garvey, is just as competent, badass, and world-weary as Marston. Theroux has also given delightfully enigmatic supporting turns in thrillers like Mulholland Drive and The Girl on the Train.
7 Anson Mount
There’s no actor in the world who looks more like how John Marston is animated than Anson Mount. He’s primarily a TV actor, but a Red Dead movie could help him cross over onto the big screen.
Mount has already played one cool-as-ice cowboy, Cullen Bohannon, in AMC’s underrated revisionist western series Hell on Wheels. He can do it again.
6 Jon Bernthal
Jon Bernthal has made a career out of playing characters that dance around the line between law and order and violence and chaos. He played a brutal vigilante in The Punisher and a sheriff’s deputy-turned-unhinged psychopath in The Walking Dead.
Bernthal has a way of making gruff, violent characters seem lovable and there’s no doubt that he’d make for a captivating John Marston.
5 Karl Urban
Although his performance is majorly underrated compared to that of his co-stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock, Karl Urban’s turn as Bones in the Star Trek reboot series proved that the actor is more than capable of satisfying fans of a beloved character with a new take.
And that’s before mentioning Urban’s greatest role. The actor gave Judge Dredd fans the movie they’d always wanted to see with 2012’s Dredd, an ultraviolent ride that doesn’t sanitize its source material any more than a Red Dead movie should.
4 Keanu Reeves
Since he’s one of the most popular actors in the world as well as one of the most committed action movie stars, Keanu Reeves has become a popular fan casting for a live-action incarnation of Red Dead Redemption’s John Marston.
Reeves could bring the same dedication and intensity to the action scenes of a Red Dead movie that he continues to bring to the John Wick franchise with each successive sequel.
3 Norman Reedus
The first name in “rough around the edges” types, Norman Reedus would be perfect for the role of John Marston. Renowned for playing Daryl Dixon on The Walking Dead, Reedus has been in need of another iconic role for a while.
Replace Daryl’s motorcycle with a horse and replace his crossbow with a Winchester Repeater and you’ve pretty much got Marston already.
2 Josh Brolin
Having gotten his start as a teenager in The Goonies, Josh Brolin is one of the few child actors to shake his image as a child actor and find success as an adult. And not only that; he’s made a name for himself as one of the greatest actors working today.
Based on the brooding intensity that he brought to the role of Llewelyn Moss in the Coen brothers’ masterpiece No Country for Old Men, Brolin would probably give a terrific performance as John Marston in a Red Dead movie.
1 Viggo Mortensen
Although he might be getting a little old to do the part justice, Viggo Mortensen could make for a fantastic John Marston. He’s well-versed in playing grizzled antiheroes, thanks to his underrated gems A History of Violence and Eastern Promises.
Mortensen has already played one iconic badass on horseback, Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and it’s about time he played another one.
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