Ed Skrein, who originated the role of Daario Naharis on ‘Game of Thrones’, is taking on the role of lead villain Ajax in next Valentine’s Day’s ‘Deadpool’. Fans have wondered just how faithful this adaptation would be and Skrein, who calls this “the first postmodern Hollywood superhero movie” stresses that his character is ‘very faithful” to the comic book depiction… up to a point.
In the comics, the villain lumbers around in a hulking suit of armor, but that comes a bit later. For this initial introduction, the movie hews closer to earlier depictions of the character.
As Skrein explains:
“No, we don’t go too deep into Ajax’s backstory. We mention it, it’s very faithful to the first section of Ajax in the comics, the backstory that we see, the flashbacks in the comics, and so we’re very faithful to that. There’s a second half of Ajax in the comics, where he comes back five years later with this big crazy suit and stuff, and we didn’t touch on that, so this is the early Ajax. We’ve stayed very faithful to that.”
Disappointed?
Ajax’s comic book suit of armor/cybernetic implants give him the traditional “suit of armor” powers, monstrous strength, speed and endurance.
Like Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), he is the product of the Weapon X program and he is on a mission to hunt down and kill the other enhanced beings from this secret project. But since Deadpool is nearly impossible to destroy, that obviously throws a wrench in his plans.
As for Skrein, other than his brief role in ‘Game of Thrones’ (his part was recast with Michiel Huisman taking over), he has mostly appeared in low budget British films, but he can next been seen taking over for Jason Statham as the lead in ‘The Transporter Refueled’ which hits US theaters on Septemeber 4, 2015.
Obviously taking over that franchise entails a great amount of physical agility and fighting skills, which bode well for his turn as Ajax.
What do you think? Upset that Ajax won’t be the bulky cyborg he is in the comics? Or does this make him a little more realistic?
Source: Comic Book Movie
