A Marvel Studios insider recently corroborated reports that Sacha Baron Cohen will play Mephisto in the upcoming Disney+ series Ironheart.
Deadline cites an unnamed source close to the production who claims that Baron Cohen's portrayal of the demonic supervillain is currently a topic of conversation on the set. The outlet also alleges that Baron Cohen has been sighted in the same area of Pinewood Studios reserved for Marvel Studios projects. Despite mounting evidence that Baron Cohen will play Mephisto, it's worth noting that Marvel Studios is still yet to publicly comment on whether the English actor and comedian has joined the Ironheart cast.
Reports that Marvel Studios had enlisted Baron Cohen to bring Mephisto to life in the Marvel Cinematic Universe first surfaced in mid-October 2022. At the time, multiple outlets reported that Baron Cohen was almost certainly playing the diabolical baddie, although some added that he could actually have been hired to take over the Dormammu role, instead. Were this to be the case, Baron Cohen would replace previous Dormammu performer Benedict Cumberbatch, who (along with an unnamed British actor) voiced the Dark Dimension's ruler in 2016's Doctor Strange.
Is Mephisto Finally Joining the MCU?
That said, the online rumor mill remains largely behind the idea that Baron Cohen's alleged Ironheart role is Mephisto and not Dormammu. Many fans will no doubt wait for official confirmation from Marvel Studios before getting too excited, though, as speculation around Mephisto's MCU debut has so far yielded disappointing results. For example, a popular theory prior to the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home held that Doctor Strange would be unmasked as Mephisto in disguise, which ultimately turned out not to be the case.
Mephisto was next linked to both WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Fans hypothesized the Lord of Hell would step forward as the true antagonist in at least one of these projects, which once again didn't pan out. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness screenwriter Michael Waldron later revealed that he never seriously considered making Mephisto the villain for that film, and occasionally joked about the idea with WandaVision head writer Jac Schaeffer.
For her part, Schaeffer admitted that she didn't even know who Mephisto was until the character's name started to come up in interviews shortly after WandaVision's release.
Ironheart is slated to arrive on Disney+ in late 2023 and will run for six episodes.
Source: Deadline