No offense intended to Jai Courtney, but the actor was being written off as merely the latest in a long line of handsome, jacked, bland, charisma-free, and identikit would-be Hollywood leading men until he surprised everyone with his energetic and disarmingly charming performance as Captain Boomerang in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad.
It showcased a wit, comic timing, and all-round wattage of star power that was barely seen in the likes of A Good Day to Die Hard, I, Frankenstein, Divergent, and Terminator Genisys, leaving us wanting more from the character. Of course, the Australian supervillain was killed off in the opening scene of The Suicide Squad, but that doesn’t mean the door is completely closed on a potential return to the DCEU.
Courtney can currently be seen antagonizing Chris Pratt in Prime Video series The Terminal List, with the star admitting to ComicBook that he’s more than open to a Boomerang solo series on HBO Max.
“The sort of TV streaming realm right now is really exciting and I think exploring something like that, you know, longer format and giving it a little more space would be really cool. I kind of have some ideas around that, you know, which I think would work for a character like Boomerang because he’s so much fun. I think it’d be really cool to get into some backstory stuff and the nature of how he falls in the DC world, you know?
I mean, that’d be cool. He’s one of those roles that I would love to just kind of be able to do again and again. It’s like so much fun and probably a little too easy for me in a way. But I think there’s tremendous potential for enjoyment with something like that and we could really push the kind of boundaries of what’s possible. So, listen, just waiting on the call from Warner Brothers. I mean, if they want me to throw that jacket on again. I’ll be more than happy to oblige.”
Peacemaker cracked the formula for turning a B-tier comic book baddie into the star of their own streaming spectacular, so the precedent has been set already by James Gunn and John Cena; we just need to wait and see if Courtney will end up joining them.