David Dastmalchian explains why he wants to play MORBIUS and the DCU villains he watches over
David Dastmalchian is no stranger to comic book adaptations, having starred in the Ant Man trilogy (with two different characters), The suicide squadAnd Batman: The Long Halloween. Recently, the actor spoke about wanting to play Morbiusand he now explains why.
The Living Vampire, a classic Spider-Man villain, was supposed to make his live-action debut in 1998. Blade. This did not happen and the vampire remained in the comics until 2022, when Academy Award winner Jared Leto played him in Sony Pictures. Morbius. The film was a critical and commercial failure.
Speaking to GamesRadar+, Dastmalchian said that horror comics have always appealed to him and shared what about Morbius makes him such an exciting prospect as an actor.
“I think Morbius is, to me, a really interesting metaphor for addiction and some of the more difficult elements of struggling with the different parts of ourselves taking over psychologically.” he shared. “Especially the angry parts, the self-destructive parts or the uncontrollable parts of ourselves. So I just thought, I’m not smart enough to be a doctor, but I can play one.”
“It would be a great role. I love vampires. Never in a million years would I have said that if I could choose which superhero or villain I wanted to play, I would have one day chosen Polka-Dot Man,” Dastmalchian added. “I would never have thought of that character in a million years. But then you get to play a wonderful, beautiful, complex character like that.”
Although he may return as Polka-Dot Man in the DCU, the door is surely open for Dastmalchian to take on another role in this world. There are two villains in particular that stand out. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania star.
“There was always something really attractive to me about Solomon Grundy,” he thought. “I think there’s this deep, dark sadness to this character, and he evokes everything I love, like southern gothic horror, Halloween. I could see myself charging through Gotham on a dark Halloween night.”
“I think J. Crane is a great [frick]character who is the other side of all the work that is close to my heart in psychology and psychiatry, “ Dastmalchian said of the Scarecrow. “And imagine taking that and manipulating it for your own benefit.”
We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for the MCU and DCU actor, as well as what happens to the characters he played. James Gunn brought many of the DCEU actors he worked with into the DCU, sometimes in new roles and sometimes in familiar ones.
Unfortunately, given that Morbius was such a bomb, we might have to wait a decade or more before we see him on screen again (similar to what happened to Fantastic Four and Green Lantern).
Which of these characters would you like to see Dastmalchian play?
