The Marvel Character You Likely Didn't Realize Was Played By A Say Nothing Star

Marvel Studios

FX's mini-series "Say Nothing" arrived back in November, but despite that late release date and its invisible advertising, it managed to sneak in as some of the best TV of 2024. The series is based on a 2018 nonfiction book by Patrick Radden Keefe, the full title of which is "Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland."

The book and series' story spans decades, focusing on "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland and the scars they left. The Troubles refers to the terrorist campaign waged by the Provisional Irish Republican Army and British forces' attempts to suppress it, which raged from the 1960s until a ceasefire in 1994. 

One of the key figures in this narrative is Brendan Hughes, an IRA leader who in middle-age wound up disillusioned; not with the cause, but with his former friend (and key peace broker) Gerry Adams for "betraying" the IRA and not delivering a truly united, British-free Ireland. The real Hughes (who died in 2008) recounted his time in the IRA for Boston College's "Belfast Project" oral history, and the tapes of him speaking to that are vital to Radden Keefe's book and this new TV show. 

Hughes is played by Anthony Boyle in his younger days (the 1970s) and then by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor in the 1990s-2000s segments. Watching Vaughan-Lawlor in "Say Nothing," I felt I recognized him from something else. So, I checked his Wikipedia page, and I was right; he'd previously played Frank Mackey in 2019's "Dublin Murders," adapting Tana French's rightfully acclaimed "Dublin Murder Squad" novels. What was much more surprising was to find out he'd also played the villainous alien Ebony Maw in "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Endgame."

A key servant of Thanos (Josh Brolin), Maw is a telekinetic sadist and one of the four members of the "Black Order" that serve the Mad Titan. Designed by artist Jerome Opeña in Marvel Comics, Maw is a grey-skinned, thick-lipped, noseless alien and barely human looking. 

No surprise Vaughan-Lawlor looks even more unrecognizable as Maw than he does with Brendan Hughes' distinctive thick black mustache.

FX

One of the most baffling Marvel Cinematic Universe casting choices to me is Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight, another of the Black Order. Yes, let's hire this acclaimed character actor, put her in unrecognizable make-up, and barely give her a word to say. Vaughan-Lawlor as Maw is the only one of the four who makes an impact, especially since he speaks the most (yet also dies first). Further disguising his actor, Maw talks with an upper-crust British accent, not Vaughan-Lawlor's Irish one.

So yeah, Ebony Maw — fun villain, but definitely nowhere near as good a showcase for Vaughan-Lawlor as Hughes.

During the Troubles, Hughes (as played by Boyle) is the field leader of the IRA in Belfast; Adams is the brains of the operation, Hughes is the fist. Their chosen roles aren't all about intelligence; Hughes also has the charisma to lead an army, while Adams is colder and more ruthless, the type of man who best serves when making calls from back rooms, not leading the men from the front.

In theory, Vaughan-Lawlor has the easier job of the two Brendans. Whereas Boyle has many scene partners and action scenes, Vaughan-Lawlor mostly stays in the framing device. His scenes as Brendan are dialogue only, and many of the scenes are just close-ups of him speaking before a microphone on his couch. Yet, listening to Brendan recount his story, you're as drawn in as you are by the scenes recreating it.

Vaughan-Lawlor plays Brendan as not haunted exactly by the violence and his part in it, but disappointed. He says once that none of the deaths on his hands were worth it, but with the unsaid asterisk that they would've been had the IRA "won." You totally buy this man as someone who was a fiery hellion with life of the party charisma, a long time ago, but now all that has been snuffed out with disillusionment.

Vaughan-Lawlor played a small part in making "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Endgame" memorable, but a vital one in doing the same for "Say Nothing."

"Say Nothing" is streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.