Shaquille O’Neal: Marvel Turned Me Down for the ‘Avengers’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Shaquille O’Neal will not be appearing in December’s “Avengers: Doomsday,” or any other “Avengers” film, for that matter.

In an interview with Variety about his “Dunkman” league, the first professional dunking league where contestants from around the world compete for a grand prize of $500,000 — whose finals is airing the night of Aug. 25 on TNT — the NBA legend dished on his struggle to land roles in Hollywood where he doesn’t play himself.

“I would love to do more action roles but we were told by top Hollywood executives that I’m too big, and what they mean by that is when I pop up on the screen everyone will go, ‘Oh, that’s Shaq!’ So, if I’m trying to play a doctor or anything, my character won’t be believable,” O’Neal explained.

While O’Neal, 54, portrayed a DC superhero in 1997’s “Steel,” he says he’s spent years trying to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — namely, in an “Avengers” movie — but was rebuffed by the studio. He’d first made his desire to be in an “Avengers” movie known during a 2018 interview with EW.

“I wanted to be in the ‘Avengers’ and they were like, ‘Shaq, we fuckin’ love you and we’d love to put you in, but if your face pops up on screen people are going to go, ‘Hey, that’s Shaq!’ He said it truthfully, and I was like, alright… I guess my face is too bigtime.”

O’Neal did pop up in a fun cameo at the end of this year’s “Scary Movie,” and will also appear in “Grown Ups 3.” But now that the Marvel dream has died, he’s keen on sharing the silver screen with another hulking star, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.  

“I want to do a movie with The Rock so I can beat him up,” he declares.  

As for whether he can take down The Rock, Shaq replies, “Oh, easy! Barbecue chicken.”

Variety’s full feature on Shaquille O’Neal and “Dunkman” will run Tuesday, Aug. 25.