NBC sitcom ‘Community’ did not just give the Russo Brothers to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the stellar cast of the show also appeared in multiple cameos in the Marvel movies. Here’s a list of the popular ‘Community’ actors who appeared for some of the best cameos of MCU.
If you have just started ‘Community’, and some of the actors look more than familiar to you, it’s probably because you have seen them in the famous movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Russo Brothers, who directed the NBC series ‘Community’, shifted their base to MCU from the time of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’. However, the Russo Brothers did not enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe alone, and instead brought with them the best actors of ‘Community’ for some brilliant cameos.
Highlights —
- Yvette Nicole Brown in ‘Avengers: Endgame’
- Ken Jeong in ‘Avengers: Endgame’
- Danny Pudi in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’
- Jim Rash in ‘Captain America: Civil War’
- Donald Glover in ‘Spiderman: Homecoming’
Yvette Nicole Brown in ‘Avengers: Endgame’
Yvette Nicole Brown has been known for many amazing roles in Hollywood besides ‘Community’, but her introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe was marked by ‘Avengers: Endgame’. Brown, who played community college student Shirley Bennett in ‘Community’, played the S.H.I.E.L.D administrative employee in the 1970 army base, where the Captain and Iron Man travel to obtain the “Tesseract” and the “Pym Particles”.
Brown’s character in the film does not let any mischief escape her notice, much like her series character, and soon as she gets a whiff of what the heroes are up to, she alerts the security.
Speaking about her fun cameo, Brown said,
“This came to be because of the great Russo brothers. They give cameos to lots of ‘Community’ actors and this was my shot and it happened to be in ‘Endgame’. Like, come on! When God gives, he gives with both hands”.
Ken Jeong in ‘Avengers: Endgame’
The Russo Brothers had promised that it was not the end of the line for the ‘Community’ actors in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
They had promised to keep the cameos going even after ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ and ‘Captain America: Civil War’, and they did keep their word. Ken Jeong, ‘Community’s’ Ben Chang, the self-proclaimed “Spanish genius”, appeared in the role of a storage facility security guard. Scott Lang aka Ant-man returns from the Quantum Realm into the storage facility, and Jeong’s character lets him out.
Danny Pudi in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’
The Russo Brothers made their debut into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ and they brought in ‘Community’ star Danny Pudi aka Abed Nair, for a cameo in the movie. Pudi played a character called Moore, a communications officer in S.H.I.E.L.D, on the job when the Captain, Natasha, and Sam take over the communications room.
In an interview with “Collider”, Pudi spoke about a scene where he gets punched by the Cap, which, unfortunately, was cut out of the film. He said,
“Captain America, in one take, punched me, and I was super excited because I thought this was going to be in the movie and I was like, ‘This is amazing.’ I want to take a punch and then I want to be able to stand right back up, you know? Just to be like, ‘Okay, I took a punch. It was hard, but I could get back up after being punched in the face by Captain America. None of that made it into the film.”
Jim Rash in ‘Captain America: Civil War’
After bringing Danny Pudi on board for a cameo, the Russo brothers chose Jim Rash for a cameo in ‘Captain America: Civil War’. Jim Rash aka Dean Pelton from ‘Community’ played the “M.I.T Liaison” at the beginning of the film, walking Stark through the plans of how his donation would be used. Interestingly, the episode ‘Modern Espionage’ in ‘Community’ has Rash performing a tribute to the famed elevator action scene in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’.
Donald Glover in ‘Spiderman: Homecoming’
Remember when Troy Barns from ‘Community’ was seen showing off a pair of cool Spider-Man pants in one of the season 2 episodes? This was in solidarity with the online campaign, “#Donald4Spiderman”, that demanded greater inclusivity in the superhero show business. The campaign targeted the ‘Spiderman’ reboot of 2012 to include Glover as “Spiderman of colour”. Sadly, Donald Glover did not get the role, but what we got was a ticket from ‘Community’ to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In MCU’s ‘Spider-man: Homecoming’, directed by Jon Watts, Glover played Mile Morales’ uncle, Aaron Davis. Talk about a pleasant surprise!
How many ‘Community’ cameos have you noticed in the MCU movies? Let us know in the comments below!
