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For a while now, Robert Downey Jr. has intimated he’d like Mel Gibson to step into the Marvel-verse, perhaps to direct “Iron Man 4.” But according to the “Lethal Weapon” star, who recently attended the Cannes Film Festival to promote his upcoming action flick “Blood Father,” Kevin Feige and co. approached him for a role a few years ago.

“Yeah, long time ago, to play Thor’s dad,” Gibson told The Guardian. “But I didn’t do it.”

READ MORE: Watch: First Trailer For Mel Gibson’s Gritty, Violent ‘Blood Father’

He’s of course referring to Odin, with the part ultimately going to Anthony Hopkins, so we’ll just have to imagine what the franchise might’ve looked like with Gibson alongside fellow Aussie Chris Hemsworth instead. But overall, the actor doesn’t seem too enthused by superhero movies, laments the industry shift toward blockbusters, though he sees the independent arena as the new playground for challenging work.

“Some are good. Some are kind of funny … ‘Guardians of the Galaxy.’ Or the first ‘Iron Man.’ And some of them are just like [retreads]. I mean you can watch them do Spider-Man five times … There is a slight shift in film. But, then again, I think all films are suffering from people not being able to now open them with their name. It’s a different kind of business these days,” Gibson reflected. “I think you used to get more variety of stories, films and performances. You had more of a chance of a profound film experience. But that’s not gone. I think that has been relegated to the independent world – but they have to do it twice as fast for half the money.”

It’s an observation that has more than some amount of truth to it. As for Gibson, he says his upcoming WWII movie “Hacksaw Ridge” starring former Spider-Man Andrew Garfield is “almost finished,” and I’d wager we’ll be seeing it somewhere on the fall festival circuit.