David Dastmalchian has closed a deal to play Abner Krill (aka. Polka-Dot Man) in James Gunn’s DC Extended Universe movie, The Suicide Squad. While the DCEU is coming off back to back hits in Aquaman and Shazam!, it infamously had a rough go in the beginning. Films like Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad were commercially successful, but polarizing at best and failed to impress critics overall. Then came Justice League, a movie that disappointed on multiple fronts and led to a retooling of the franchise that, as mentioned, has been largely effective so far.

Some of the changes made to the DCEU this past year including re-casting the Caped Crusader for Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman, after Ben Affleck played the role in Batman V Superman, Suicide Squad, and Justice League. Meanwhile, Suicide Squad is getting a soft (as in, not “total”) reboot with The Suicide Squad, which Gunn signed on for between being fired and rehired for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy 3. The film is essentially a continuation that will include characters from the first Suicide Squad, as well as new additions to the team of super-villain convicts turned begrudging heroes.

According to THR, Dastmalchian has signed on to play one of the fresh recruits in The Suicide Squad. The actor is reportedly set to portray Krill, a criminal who was introduced in the DC Comics universe in 1962 and is pretty obscure, even by lower-tier comic book villain standards. Krill is known as the Polka-Dot Man because of his polka-dotted costume and attack methods, which include using spots that turn into buzzsaws on command.

If Polka-Dot Man sounds unimpressive, that’s exactly the point. Gunn’s long had a soft spot for writing weird antiheroes who lack self-awareness into his scripts, and Abner Krill is very much cut from that cloth. It’s a fitting character for Dastmalchian to play too, given his track record of playing oddballs in movies and TV shows alike. The character actor is already famous for playing Scott Lang’s Baba Yaga-fearing associate Kurt in the Ant-Man films, and portrayed the similarly eccentric Abra Kadabra in The Flash TV show a couple years back. He’s even appeared in DC movies before, having played one of the Joker’s thugs in a small, but memorable scene in The Dark Knight.

Dastmalchian joins a cast here that already includes Jai Courtney back as Captain Boomerang from the first Suicide Squad, and (reportedly) Margot Robbie playing Harley Quinn again. Other new additions in the film look to include Peacemaker (the role John Cena may be circling), in addition to The Ratcatcher and King Shark. Meanwhile, original reports to the contrary, Idris Elba is now said to be playing a new DC character, rather than taking over as Deadshot from Will Smith. It’s a pretty motley crew of not-so-heroic types, but considering they’re in the hands of the man who helped make Rocket Raccoon into a household name, The Suicide Squad has a lot of potential.

Source: THR

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