Evan Peters is Not The First Marvel Star to Play Jeffrey Dahmer
Talk about unsettling tendencies.
With Netflix 's new TV series about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer enjoying a wave of social media hype, its star Evan Peters is also in the spotlight. However, here is a fact that you might not have known about Marvel stars portraying serial killer: Peters, who played Peter Maximoff in WandaVision, is not the only one.
Yep, another big Marvel name happened to also reprise the role of the Milwaukee Monster. We are talking about Jeremy Renner, the actor we know and love as Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Renner portrayed the Milwaukee cannibal in the 2002 movie Dahmer, a horror drama thriller film written and directed by David Jacobson, and co-written by David Birke. It was a limited theatrical release, and, perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, it did flop, grossing just $148,235 against $250,000 budget.
Like the Netflix series, the 2002 film with Jeremy Renner explored Dahmer's crimes and the psychological motivations behind them. In the film, Dahmer was shown as an adult, but the director, using flashbacks, showed Dahmer as a troubled teenager, exploring his past from turbulent childhood and his religious father's denial of his homosexuality to the first murder he committed.
In the wake of Netflix series popularity, many fans have wondered why the Renner-led movie did not get as much hype as the 2022 show. A lot of people praised Renner's performance in the movie, saying that he was "unreal." For some, it was the first Renner movie that turned them into his fans.
Now, the unsettling role went to Evan Peters, who MCU fans know as a Peter Maximoff variant who first appeared in WandaVision. For Peters, there is a stark contrast between the hilarious speedster from WandaVision and the sinister figure of Jeffrey Dahmer.
After the Netflix premiere, many people were concerned about Peters' mental health, noting that he delivered an uncanny and unsettling performance. Many people, however, slammed the Netflix series for "romanticizing" Dahmer's figure, not least due to casting of the attractive actor to reprise the role.
However, aside from Renner's movie and the new Netflix show, there are plenty of Dahmer-inspired projects. For instance, there is a 2006 movie about his parents, titled Raising Jeffrey Dahmer. Another movie, My Friend Dahmer, was released in 2017 and told the story of the Milwaukee Monster from the perspective of his friend John Backderf.