Brendan Fraser is joining upcoming DC movie Batgirl as a villain that should be familiar to some Batman fans.
Deadline – among other industry trades – reports that Fraser will be portraying Firefly, a supervillain with a propensity for pyrotechnics and other flame-based weapons.
Real name Garfield Lynns, Firefly first appeared way back in 1952’s Detective Comics #184 as the Human Firefly. Understandably, the character has undergone several iterations and changes since then – and even appeared semi-recently on consoles as a boss encounter in Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Knight.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit has also reported that Sylvester Stallone (who has recently bid the Expendables franchise a fond farewell) was offered the role of Firefly but "things just didn’t work out."
Fraser, meanwhile, is undergoing a long-overdue career renaissance. He’s already played a part in a DC superhero series, portraying Robot Man in the criminally underappreciated Doom Patrol. The Mummy actor is also appearing alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
Batgirl is set to stream on HBO Max, though no release date has yet been announced. We do know, however, who’ll be playing Barbara Gordon, AKA Batgirl: In the Heights actor Leslie Grace. The film will be helmed by Bad Boys for Life directorial duo Adil El Arbi and Billal Fallah. DC also has more HBO Max projects in the works, including a Blue Beetle movie and a Green Lantern series.
For more on what DC are up to next, check out our guide to new superhero movies.
