Mickey Rourke Takes a Stab at Marvel While Praising Law & Order SVU

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Mickey Rourke has become a fan of Law & Order: SVU and has found another chance to criticize Marvel Studios. Law & Order: SVU has been on the air for 22 seasons to become the longest-running program in the Law & Order franchise, surpassing the original. The series recently received a spin-off series focusing on original cast member Christopher Meloni's character Elliot Stabler in Law & Order: Organized Crime.

Rourke was on the rise in the 1980s with films like Rumble Fish, Barfly, and 9 1/2 Weeks but in 1991, he left acting to pursue a career as a boxer. He returned to acting in the mid-'90s and saw a career renaissance in 2008 for his part in The Wrestler, which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. 2008 was the same year Iron Man opened in theaters and kicked off the MCU, and during the awards circuit, Rourke became attached to the highly anticipated sequel. Fans were excited at the prospect of seeing two beloved stars of the 1980s who were seeing career revivals, Downey Jr. and Rourke, share the screen. Iron Man 2 was a box-office hit, but fan and critical reaction were not as kind. While there seem to have been many issues behind-the-scenes of Iron Man 2, Rourke has been the most vocal about his anger at the project, director Jon Favreau, and Marvel Studios.

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In a recent post on his Instagram account, Rourke spoke about how he had started watching Law & Order: SVU while in quarantine. He had always heard of the series but never picked it up until recently when he moved his gym equipment into his living room. He went on to praise the actors on the series, including Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni, Stephanie March, B.D. Wong and Ice T. claiming what they do is real acting as opposed to what Marvel does.

Rourke's post was on May 8, just one day over the eleventh anniversary of the release of Iron Man 2. Rourke's displeasure with Iron Man 2 has been well documented, and he has criticized Marvel Studios for cutting down his performance. His comeback seems to have stalled as 2010 also saw Rourke starring in The Expendables, but the actor did not return for the two sequels. Since then, the actor has taken a lot of work in direct to DVD projects, smaller independent projects and was most recently seen in 2020 on the Fox reality competition, The Masked Singer.

The early days of the MCU, while successful, also had their share of drama behind the scenes with stars like Edward Norton, Natalie Portman, and director Edgar Wright. While Wright reconnected with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and Natalie Portman is set to return to the MCU after an eight-year absence in Thor: Love and Thunder, it doesn't appear Rourke will be invited back anytime soon. Yet there now could be a chance the producer of Law & Order: SVU reaches out to him for a guest-starring role.