‘Ant-Man’ actor David Dastmalchian is crossing over to the Distinguished Competition! He has signed on the dotted line to portray the Polka-Dot Man in James Gunn‘s reboot ‘The Suicide Squad’. The character appeared in ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’ during a roll call, prompting the query “Are those real villains?” Yes, he is, and it’s probably the completely quirky nature of the character that attracted the attention of Gunn, who made movie stars out of a talking raccoon and tree.
Personally, I LOVE this casting! Dastmalchian is excellent in roles that are either off-kilter themselves or in projects that are a little off. He had a role in the ‘Twin Peaks’ revival, as well as in ‘Blade Runner 2049’. He has the recurring role of assassin Murdoc on ‘MacGyver’. He has also appeared in numerous comic book-based projects. He played one of The Joker’s thugs in ‘The Dark Knight’, which happens to have been his first film. He portrayed Dwight Pollard on two episodes of ‘Gotham’, and the villain Abra-Kadabra on ‘The Flash’. He will also be seen in ‘Dune’.
Polka-Dot Man (né Mister Polka-Dot), a.k.a. Abner Krill, first appeared in 1962’s ‘Detective Comics’ #300. He has no origin to speak of, but he can pluck the polka-dots off of his suit and use them as weapons, because why not? If that weren’t bad enough, for whatever reason, he later lost the dot weapons gimmick and was later depicted as just some weirdo in a polka-dot suit carrying a baseball bat.
He was depicted as part of the ‘Suicide Squad’ in the ‘Injustice 2’ video game, so there is a precedence for his inclusion in the film, but somehow, I suspect he will go the way of poor dumb Slipknot in the first movie.
Reportedly, Gunn’s ‘The Suicide Squad’ is a “total reboot” and not a direct sequel to the 2016 DC movie. Gunn penned the screenplay himself. Despite the statement of this not being a sequel, Margot Robbie and Jai Courtney are returning as Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerang, respectively, and it appears that Joel Kinnaman and Viola Davis will also be back as Rick Flag and Amanda Waller. One new addition is Idris Elba, who was originally cast to replace Will Smith as Deadshot, but Gunn has since switched plans and Elba will play a separate character whose identity is unrevealed, although I’d put money on him playing Bronze Tiger. Another newbie is John Cena, who will portray DC’s Peacemaker.
In addition to Polka-Dot Man, Gunn reportedly included the villains King Shark and Ratcatcher, whose castings should be announced any time now.
Check out Polka-Dot Man and some of Batman’s… er, less iconic Rogues in this clip from ‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold’:
‘The Suicide Squad’ opens in theaters on August 6, 2021.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
