Karen Gillan wants to play Poison Ivy in the DCU

Karen Gillan
(Image credit: Kristy Sparow / Stringer)

Guardians of the Galaxy star Karen Gillan has revealed who she'd like to play in James Gunn's DCU.

"I always thought that Poison Ivy was really fun. So maybe something like that would be cool," she says in the new issue of Total Film magazine with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny on the cover. "Honestly, if James asked me to play an alien that sits in the background of a shot and doesn’t talk, I would say yes [laughs]. Because working with him has been one of the great joys of my career so far."

The actor plays Nebula in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, daughter of Thanos and sister to Gamora (played by Zoe Saldaña).

Gillan goes on to call the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise the "gift that keeps on giving," because she didn't think her tenure as Nebula would last very long: "I was under the impression I was signing up for eight days of filming on the first film. And then it just gradually kept getting extended. And here we are, nine or 10 years later."

The actor played the antihero turned Guardians member in Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Thor: Love and Thunder.

As Guardians director James Gunn shifts his focus to DC Studios, Gillan doesn't know what the future holds for Nebula. "I just genuinely love this character so much, and I feel like there’s just an endless amount of things that could be done with her," she goes on to say. "So, yeah, I would obviously love to explore more, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen. I’m waiting to see just as much as everyone else [laughs]."

Gillan is also known for her role as Amy Pond in the Doctor Who franchise, a primary companion to the Eleventh Doctor played by Matt Smith.

Guardians of the Galaxy 3, which concludes the popular trilogy, hits theaters on May 3 in the UK and May 5 in the US. 

This is just a snippet of our interview in the new issue of Total Film magazine, which is out now. Check out the covers below:

Total Film's Indiana Jones covers.

(Image credit: Lucasfilm/Disney/Total Film)

If you’re a fan of Total Film, why not subscribe so that you never miss an issue? You’ll get the magazine before it’s in shops, with exclusive subscriber-only covers (like the one pictured below). And with our latest offer you can get a free STM ChargeTree worth £69.99. Head to MagazinesDirect to find out more (Ts and Cs apply).

Total Film's latest subscription offer.

(Image credit: Total Film/STM/Lucasfilm/Disney)
TOPICS
Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at 12DOVE, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.

With contributions from
Read more
Amanda Seyfried in Mamma Mia!
Mean Girls star Amanda Seyfried was offered the role of Gamora in the MCU, but turned it down because she thought Guardians of the Galaxy would be "Marvel's first bomb"
Guardians of the Galaxy 3
Dave Bautista wants to be in both DC and Marvel's futures, but rules out a Drax return in the new Avengers movie: "The character ran its course"
Creature Commandos
Creature Commandos star Maria Bakalova talks playing evil for the first time and that dramatic finale reveal: "I've never played the villain before"
David Dastmalchian as Jack Delroy in Late Night with the Devil
DC and Late Night with the Devil star reveals that his "greatest career dreams" are two of Hollywood's most coveted roles: the Joker and a Bond villain
Furiosa
After Sigourney Weaver said she should be in Avatar, Anya Taylor-Joy says it's her "dream" to be Na'vi: "I watched that movie eight times in a row once"
Ms. Marvel and Captain America Steve Rogers side by side
Ms. Marvel actor Iman Vellani got so into Captain America: Civil War that she "lost friends" over "people being Team Cap"
Latest in Marvel Movies
Wanda in Doctor Strange
Scarlet Witch star Elizabeth Olsen is one of the first Marvel actors to say she's not in the next pair of Avengers movies
Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania
Paul Rudd is still thinking about that one Thanos and Ant-Man fan theory: "I often wonder, though, could he really have stopped Thanos in that way?"
She-Hulk on Disney Plus
Tatiana Maslany canceled a Comic Con appearance due to "filming commitments", and it could mean She-Hulk is in the next Avengers movie
Charlie Cox in Daredevil
Daredevil star Charlie Cox says keeping his Spider-Man: No Way Home cameo a secret for two years was a "nightmare"
Avengers: Doomsday directors admit it's a "difficult" movie to make but tease some great Marvel collaborators "old and new"
Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom
The Russo Brothers say Robert Downey Jr. "tried to talk us into" doing another Avengers movie but they "said no" until they heard the pitch for Doomsday: "That story has to be told"
Latest in News
Batman looking over the city during Batman: Arkham City, one of the best PS3 games.
The PS2 Batman Begins game was considered such a "disaster" that Christopher Nolan turned down a Dark Knight-inspired game
Assassin's Creed Shadows Naoe assassinating target with Tanto skill
Assassin's Creed Shadows' first title update is a hotfix with three lines of patch notes and a download size up to 9GB
a victory screen showing someone in a day of the dead mask and another who is an old man looking sad
GeoGuessr is coming to Steam and you can go head-to-head to prove you're the best geographer of them all
Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 "is done," but it's been delayed again to October for "bug fixing, stability, and performance"
Ben Affleck in Air
Ben Affleck isn't in The Odyssey, but he plans to visit the set anyway to watch Christopher Nolan work: "He's one of the greatest filmmaking architects to ever live"
GTA 6 trailer screenshots showing lucia in an interview room
"GTA 6 is basically a huge meteor, and we will just stay clear of the blast zone": Publishers are in a frenzy over when to release their games to avoid Rockstar