Howard Stark made his big screen MCU debut in Captain America: The First Avenger, helping transform Chris Evans’ scrawny Steve Rogers into the buff hero, and giving him his vibranium shield.

“I auditioned a lot for it but I was handed an incredibly wonderful, versatile, elaborate, clever character who was part of the creation of Captain America,” Cooper gushes to ABC Radio. “It was such fun to play.”

At the time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was in its infancy, Cooper notes, adding, “It was kind of good I never saw it for its vast scale, and actually, as a result, could really play around with it.” 

Although John Slattery went on to play an older Howard Stark on the big screen, from 2010’s Iron Man 2 through Avengers: Endgame, Cooper reprised the role on the ABC-TV series Agent Carter, which was set in the ’40s.

“I was so honored and relieved that it would come back in some form,” he says.

And Cooper tells us he just recently voiced the character in Marvel’s upcoming What If animated series for Disney+.

Based on a comic book of the same name, What If flips well-known story lines: For example, one had Cap’s love Peggy Carter taking the super-soldier serum instead of him.

“It was really good fun to go and do his voice again,” Cooper said. 

Preacher airs Sunday nights at 10 p.m. Eastern on AMC.