It's hard to forget Polka-Dot Man's demise in The Suicide Squad. A villain who struggled to accept his abilities as more than a deformity, only to finally embrace his innate heroism just at the moment of his death. It was cathartic and frustrating, especially for fans who hoped to see David Dastmalchian's spot-on characterization again.
"That was a death. That was a really final and complete kind of death. That was a really beautiful death," Dastmalchian told me.
The actor, who's set to inhabit Mr. 3 in One Piece season 2 on Netflix next year and an assassin opposite Mads Mikkelsen in Dust Bunny next month, told me the death was hard for him, too.
"It was hard for me to have that character die because he ... had just passed the cusp of embracing the thing that he hated the most about himself. [It] was actually empowering, and I've done that," he told me.
Polka-Dot Man's (Abner Kril) story arc was all the more meaningful because it was engineered by Suicide Squad Writer/Director James Gunn.
"James is not only a director, but also, as a friend, has helped me be proud of who I am and the things that I used to be so ashamed about myself, the weirdness about me, the flaws in me," he told me.
While Gunn and Dastmalchian remain tight – the former appeared on the latter's YouTube Web Series, Grave Conversations – that Polka-Dot Man death was final, meaning the character could not appear in Superman: Man of Tomorrow. Dastmalchian also confirmed to me that he will not be appearing in the upcoming DCU film in any other role.
"I am not a part of the next movie that he's making. I could say that I can absolutely answer that question," said Dastmalchian.
Of course, DCU Chapter One has many branches both on the big and small screen, leaving open all sorts of opportunities for the kinds of juicy roles in which the chameleon-like Dastmalchian excels.
"I do hope and pray that at some point, down the journey, there's a character that I would make sense for James to put me back into something," but Dastmalchian is also sanguine about the possibility that nothing new materializes:
"But... if the things that I've gotten to do with James up to this point are the things that I've gotten to do, then I'm already swimming in riches. I mean, there's never been a character like Abner Krill and and there never will be a character like Abner Krill."
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