As he steadily becomes one of the key faces of the DC Universe, Nathan Fillion may not return to his original franchise role.
The Emmy nominee spent years on the animated side of DC voicing the Hal Jordan incarnation of Green Lantern and Steve Trevor before making his proper live-action debut with James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, playing the metahuman The Detachable Kid, who is left shot and dying in the decoy assault on Corto Maltese. Fillion would later return for Gunn’s proper DCU relaunch as Guy Gardner’s Green Lantern, most recently appearing in HBO’s acclaimed Lanterns.
Now, during DC‘s “The Suicide Squad: Is It Canon?” podcast special, Gunn has addressed the possibility of Fillion reprising his original role of T.D.K. in the DC Universe. The studio and franchise boss began by acknowledging that he “purposefully did not kill T.D.K. at the end” of his 2021 film in the hopes “to bring him back” at some point in the future, to which co-host Jennifer Holland denoted her husband “love[s] Nathan,” and he concurred that the Suicide Squad character “was funny.”
However, in directly answering the question, Gunn confirmed that T.D.K. could return in the DCU, but would “probably not” be played by Fillion again, citing the fact that he is now “very famously Guy Gardner.” He and Holland concluded by chuckling as they pointed out how “useless” T.D.K. ultimately ended up being in The Suicide Squad, with his telepathically-controlled arms able to “slap you,” but that’s about it.
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It certainly came as no surprise when Fillion was first cast for The Suicide Squad, as the pair are longtime friends and collaborators going back to the 2006 horror cult classic Slither. The years since have seen them work on everything from the cult favorite superhero satire Super to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, in which Fillion played different roles in each title.
Thus far, Fillion’s Gardner has proven to be one of the main recurring players across the DCU since making his debut in Superman, having subsequently appeared in Peacemaker season 2 and Lanterns, while also being set for an appearance in the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow coming in July 2027. Fillion previously shared with ScreenRant his thoughts on why Gardner is one of the few to have said connective thread, citing his self-image as one of the main reasons for it:
Nathan Fillion: I think he is wary. I think he has a social media presence. I think he understands TikTok trends. I think he’s got his finger on the pulse. He has financial goals. He wants to open a bar. He wants to do things, and his appearance, how he’s perceived, that’s important to him. So I think he’s out there in the public eye. I think maybe that might be one of the reasons he exists across the projects he exists in.
Nathan Fillion: I think he is wary. I think he has a social media presence. I think he understands TikTok trends. I think he’s got his finger on the pulse. He has financial goals. He wants to open a bar. He wants to do things, and his appearance, how he’s perceived, that’s important to him. So I think he’s out there in the public eye. I think maybe that might be one of the reasons he exists across the projects he exists in.
While the above comments may seemingly shut the door on Fillion reprising the character, it doesn’t completely rule out the possibility of his playing T.D.K. in the DCU again. Gunn has made a penchant for bringing back a variety of actors for the new franchise after their previous roles, namely Sean Gunn, who went from playing both Weasel and Calendar Man in The Suicide Squad to Maxwell Lord in Superman and Peacemaker, and Weasel and G.I. Robot in Creature Commandos season 1.
The discussion of the uselessness of T.D.K. in The Suicide Squad also doesn’t necessarily mean Gunn can’t find a way for Fillion to give the character new depths in the DCU. The aforementioned Creature Commandos took the similarly joke-y character of Weasel and gave him an emotional backstory. As such, there is certainly the possibility for the show’s animation to subtly change the character’s design to avoid having dual Fillion faces, and build on Gunn’s previous thoughts for expanding the character.
The DC Universe is a multimedia franchise based on DC Comics and its roster of iconic heroes and villains. The DCU has inspired an ongoing cinematic universe led by James Gunn and Peter Safran, a previous cinematic universe helmed by Zack Snyder, and several independent movies and TV shows.
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