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You know their names. You even know their faces - after all, even though some of Marvel Studios' stars are sometimes hidden behind masks, they are easily identifiable. As the MCU movies & TV shows have become entrenched in modern pop culture, those actors do as well. And now, they're branching out - not only into unrelated movies and TV shows, but also something else.

Commercials.

You can't watch TV or streaming for more than a few minutes than you'll see an MCU actor in a commercial promoting milk, a credit card, a mobile phone, or something else. 

For a time, it was seen as unseemly for major movie stars to appear in commercials - around the same time it was considered a step-down for a movie star to do television. But in the late '80s and early '90s, US movie stars began to see the money it could make and discreetly began filming commercials for various products - but only in foreign markets, as not to devalue themselves back in America. This is in fact the storyline of Bill Murray's character in 2003's Lost in Translation.

But in recent years, and with the death of true 'movie stars' in terms of being guaranteed box office money, actors have been swarming into commercials - acting as a spokesperson, or sometimes a more dignified-sounding 'brand ambassador' role, to lend their popularity to a commercial project. What changed? It seems to be when people began to see some redeeming value in commercials outside of blatantly advertising a product and into being witty, funny, and sometimes shocking short films.

Here now in a modern age influenced by the MCU, nearly every major Marvel Studios actor has a commercial deal - some are long-running recurring ones like Samuel L. Jackson's Capital One ads or Brie Larson's Nissan ads, while others such as Robert Downey Jr.'s are one-offs for high-profile brands like Amazon, HTC, Volvo, and Aura. Stars like Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans have fallen back into their modeling days, becoming the face of fashion brands like Gucci, Dolce & Gabana, and Prada.

The big hold-out in this is Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo, who while did commercial work before he was famous now restricts his endorsements only to political work such as for the non-profit, non-partisan group RepresentUs. (There's a joke in there about green, but let's leave that alone.)

Our pointing this out isn't a judgement against doing it - but rather a sign of the times of how now starring in a major MCU project seemingly comes with a fringe benefit of now being wanted by ad agencies to hawk your products. 

At the same time, we're closer to becoming full circle where commercial spokespeople could become MCU stars. In 2017, AT&T spokesperson Milana Vayntrub was cast to play Squirrel Girl in a Marvel Television live-action series called the New Warriors. While a pilot was produced, the show never got any traction and remains in the MCU vault. 

Still: someday, perhaps, Jake from State Farm could be in the MCU.

Let's not even begin talking about Ryan Reynolds and those Mint Mobile commercials. But kudos to him for negotiating an ownership stake in the company in exchange for doing it.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Which Secret Wars comic the Russos are basing Avengers 6 off of
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Marvel's accidental closure on the Kang storyline
• Robert Downey Jr. is entering his villain era
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• For Marvel actors, the MCU also stands for the Marvel Commercials Universe
• The Fantastic 4: First Steps offers Marvel a visual makeover, courtesy of a classic movie designer
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• With Daredevil, and spinoffs from Black Panther, What If, and more, Marvel Studios' 2025 Disney+ slate is bigger than ever, and that might be a big deal for the future