Brendan Fraser Cast As DC Villain In Major Movie
Brendan Fraser's Hollywood comeback is about to include a villainous role in a huge DC movie!
Can the same guy who’s already playing a DC hero play a DC villain? Apparently, if you’re Brendan Fraser you can. News broke today that the same actor who plays Robotman on HBO Max’s Doom Patrol will also play a supervillain in the upcoming movie Batgirl.
The report comes from Deadline, who says that along with joining the cast of Batgirl with Leslie Grace — who plays the eponymous hero — Brendan Fraser is expected to be playing one of the few signature Batman-mythos villains to not yet show up as an antagonist in a live-action film: Firefly. While there have a been a couple of different versions of the character, the one known the best is Garfield Lynne who first appears in 1952’s Detective Comics #184. Firefly is an arsonist who usually uses a flamethrower, a jet pack, and fire proof armor. Anyone who’s played the popular 2015 game Batman: Arkham Knight will likely remember side missions in which Batman chases the airborne arsonist all over Gotham City. Firefly’s been widely believed to be the Batgirl villain since July, when rumors emerged that the filmmakers were looking for a man in his 50s or 60s to play a “disgruntled former firefighter.”
The addition of Brendan Fraser isn’t the only Batgirl casting news to emerge recently. Just last week Deadline reported Jacob Scipio (Bad Boys for Life) was added to the cast in an undisclosed role opposite Leslie Grace. Back in July, word came from The Hollywood Reporter that J.K. Simmons was in talks to reprise the iconic role of Gotham City’s Police Commissioner James Gordon. Simmons previously played the part in 2017’s Justice League.
Many have referred to Brendan Fraser’s “comeback” or “revival” to Hollywood, but really it’s much more. The actor’s return to the spotlight has seen him in the kinds of roles he rarely had in his heyday of blockbusters like The Mummy. Along with his turn as the foul-mouthed and tortured Robotman on Doom Patrol, this year has seen Fraser playing hard against type as a crook in Steven Soderbergh’s No Sudden Move, and buzz is building for his appearance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. He’ll also be starring alongside Hollywood giants like Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
In a powerful 2018 interview with GQ, Brendan Fraser opened up about the incident that was the beginning of the end of his career’s ascendance. While the event had already been reported by other sources, it was the first time Fraser had spoken it about it himself. Fraser alleged he was sexually assaulted by former Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) President Philip Berk during a luncheon in the Beverly Hills Hotel. The event was so traumatic, Fraser said it forced him into depression and seclusion in 2003. He also suggested the HFPA may have actively worked against his career after that, saying he was never invited to the Golden Globes again after reporting the incident. Berk called Fraser’s version of the events a “fabrication,” and said the HFPA had nothing to do with his career’s decline.
Batgirl does not yet have a release date, though we know it will release on HBO Max. The film will star Leslie Grace, Brendan Fraser, Jacob Scipio, and J.K. Simmons. The film will be directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life), and written by Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey, Bumblebee).
