The beauty of the Marvel multiverse - or, well, any multiverse for that matter - is that there are really cool explanations to highlight why different versions of the same character exist. This also allows current adaptations of those characters to incoporate all of the previous ones too, making them all canon - even if they aren't canon to the same timeline or universe. They all existed, and that's what matters.
DC did it on TV with the Arrowverse and movies with the former DCEU, Now, Marvel is doing it with the Multiverse Saga. And as a result of this, any properties that run parallel to the Marvel Cinematic Universe can still be explained away as existing in an alternate timeline. It means that we can have multiple versions of the same character appear in either the same or different properties.
Why are we explaining this now? Well, because a new Marvel series is coming to Disney and it features a major A-List star in a pivotal role - and it's not the actors that people have come to associate with the character. But hey, multiverse remember!
John Stamos cast as Howard Stark in Iron Man And His Awesome Friends
John Stamos has joined the cast of upcoming animated series Iron Man And His Awesome Friends to voice none other than the father of Iron Man himself, Howard Stark. The series, a spinoff of Spidey and His Amazing Friends, is set to premiere on the Disney Jr. Channel on Monday, August 11 before arriving on the Disney Plus streaming service the very next day (Tuesday, August 12).
Stamos' casting is obviously a very big deal, for the Full House star is a big grab for the animated series. It might also raise some eyebrows as to why Dominic Cooper, who has been portraying the younger version of Howard Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger, or John Slattery, who has portrayed the older version of the character since Iron Man 2, will not be reprising their roles. Cooper, in particular, might be a surprise considering he has recently voiced the character in animated series What If...?. However, there is a simple explanation for that.
Although this is a Marvel Studios Animation series produced for Disney and Disney Plus, it isn't set in the MCU - therefore it is allowed to have a completely separate voice cast. This is why animated series Spidey and His Amazing Friends also doesn't have Tom Holland or Hudson Thames (who voices Spidey in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man) voicing the character. It isn't canon to the MCU, nor is it a part of the Multiverse Saga, so it's important to differentiate itself with its own cast. That being said, we can consider it a part of the MCU's wider Marvel Multiverse - and, as we all know by now, any and all Marvel properties can exist out there in the multiverse.
Stamos is now the fourth actor to play Howard Stark in a Marvel Studios-produced project, carrying on the legacy from Slattery, Cooper, and Gerard Sanders, who played him in a quick memorial slideshow featured in 2008's Iron Man. Cooper was the most regular of the three to play him in the MCU, bringing Howard to life in the aforementioned Captain America movie, as well as the Agent Carter One-Shot, multiple episodes of the ABC series Agent Carter and animated Disney Plus show What If...?. His most recent appearance came in the third and final season of the latter show, voicing Howard as he crossed paths with Kathryn Hahn's Agatha Harkness.
We can't wait to see - or hear - Stamos take on the character.
More from Bam Smack Pow: