Brendan Fraser might still be open to playing a DCU character as the actor bids farewell to the role of Robotman, a character he voiced for HBO Max’s Doom Patrol across four seasons. Before his award-worthy performance from The Whale made news, The Mummy actor resurfaced on Hollywood’s radar through the DC Comics-based character and gained more exposure for his involvement in the canceled Batgirl movie.
It seems like DC Studios could still redeem the talent it lost due to the Batgirl cancellation. Brendan Fraser was one of the actors on board the axed DC Film from Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi. The 54-year-old was signed on to play the villain known as FireFly but WBD canning the project for a tax break took away the opportunity to see the classic star in the DC Universe. Fortunately, Brendan Fraser is still open to taking up a gig in the superhero franchise.
“Maybe. Everything’s contingent on what it’s about,” Fraser told Variety. “The job’s not easy to do, no matter who’s producing it. I just finished up with Doom Patrol, which is also a DC property, and that’s a unique cast and I love Riley Shanahan, the actor who would wear all the gear so I could just do the voice and do my job in my long johns and nobody would know because I was in a recording studio and it was the best day job ever. Apart from that, I’m open to it.”
Brendan Fraser says "maybe" to the possibility of rejoining the DC world after #Batgirl — and reflects on #DoomPatrol. https://t.co/i5wEon5eiV pic.twitter.com/EXggFCRIOp
— Variety (@Variety) February 13, 2023
The axing of Batgirl continues to be seen as the right call to safeguard the quality of projects based on the DC Comics property, in fact, even DC Studios’ co-CEO Peter Safran threw his support in WBD’s decision by calling the project “unreleasable” however, that statement has been met with pushback from Batgirl’s titular star Leslie Grace who saw the final cut and describes it as “incredible” and potential for “good film”.
It was reported last December that WBD’s chairpersons Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy expressed their desire to cast Grace as Batgirl in the new world-building but the decision falls to James Gunn as DC Studios head. The DCU architect was one of the first creatives to offer support to the Batgirl directors so it would be an interesting turn of events if Gunn had a DCU role in mind for Fraser, Grace and a project for the directing duo (Batman Beyond?).
