8 Actors Whose Careers Flopped After Leaving The MCU

6. Michael Rooker

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 Yondu
Marvel Studios

A big part of the reason why Michael Rooker had an MCU career in the first place was because his friend (director James Gunn) hired him to work on Guardians Of The Galaxy, but that doesn't detract from the man's talent - or his great performance - one tiny bit.

Rooker was excellent as Yondu, Peter Quill's short-tempered adoptive father. His sharp line delivery and intimidating, yet warm presence made him a standout character in a movie that was full of standout characters, and his larger role in Vol. 2 smartly fleshed him out in unexpected ways.

But after Vol. 2 launched, Camp Rooker went very, very quiet.

With Yondu meeting a heroic end after saving Peter Quill's life, it's unlikely we'll ever see him in the MCU again, particularly as Marvel already gets hate from fans for constantly reversing/faking character deaths. And, at the moment, he only has two small films on the horizon (Bolden and A Good Man Is Hard To Find), and there's no telling if they'll get a wide theatrical release, or if they'll be any good if they do.

And for someone as enjoyable to watch as Rooker is, that's a crying shame.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!