Multifaceted actor and modern-day Elvira David Dastmalchian wants to play Morbius in the MCU, but he also wouldn't mind taking on a couple of spooky-ooky DC villains.
"Since I was a little boy, I always wanted to be a vampire, and I am an actual real vampire, but to play one in, like, a fictional setting that sprung from the pages of a comic book," Dastmalchian tells GamesRadar+ in an exclusive interview at NYCC. The actor, coming hot off playing the Gemini Killer in Dexter: Resurrection and starring as the strangely likable Gurathin in Apple TV's Murderbot, has no intention of taking a break any time soon. "It was either like Tomb of Dracula when I was a kid, or Morbius the Living Vampire. And I always loved Spider-Man, and I was always a big Marvel [fan]."
Dastmalchian's lifelong love of comics has also led him to pen several graphic novels, including DC Horror Presents... #1 and DC Horror Presents: Creature Commandos, and Web of Venomverse: Fresh Brains: #1 and Venom: Black, White, & Blood for Marvel. His most personal project, Through, is set for a March 2026 release.
"What I loved most about Marvel was the heroes, and I just feel like Marvel had some of the coolest antiheroes," Dastmalchian explains. "I just thought figures like Blade, Ghost Rider, and Morbius were just so cool. I just thought DC had the best villains and Marvel had the best heroes. When I was a kid, I used to do my own mash-up comics. And I'd have, you know, like, the Avengers versus the Legion of Doom or the West Coast Avengers versus a bunch of weird DC villains."
"But I think Morbius is, to me, a really interesting metaphor for addiction and some of the more difficult elements when wrestling with the different parts of ourselves psychologically that take over. Especially anger parts, self-destructive parts, or uncontrollable parts of ourselves. So I just thought, I'm not smart enough to be a doctor, but I can play one. That would be a great role. I love vampires. Never in a million years would I have said if I could pick what, you know, what superhero or villain I want to play, that I would ever have picked Polka-Dot Man. I never in a million years would have thought of that character. But then you get to go play some wonderful, beautiful, complex character like that."
We were supposed to meet Morbius in 1998's Blade, as the original ending was meant to set him up as the villain for Blade 2. Ultimately, the Living Vampire wouldn't make his official big screen appearance until 2022, when Jared Leto portrayed the antihero in the critically panned Sony Marvel movie. As it stands, Morbius has yet to be introduced into the MCU, and Dastmalchian has already made his MCU debut as shape-shifting bleep-blorp Veb in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, a role that the actor says helped him "learn a lot about how to act and transform my body." However, Veb does make it out alive at the end of the film...though it's always possible that the actor could play Morbius in another universe that isn't Earth-616.
"I love characters where I get to do lots of prosthetics and makeup, and I always wanted to be Lon Chaney as a kid," he continues. "And James [Gunn] knew that about me when we were doing Polka-Dot Man. That was really cool. It was like Elephant Man with Christmas lights strung throughout his body."
In James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, Polka-Dot Man has a pretty tragic death (after stealing our hearts with his tragic backstory, mind you). Though The Suicide Squad is canon to the new DCU, Gunn has said that any actor who has already appeared in one of his pre-DCU projects can, in fact, go on to play another character. If Dastmalchian can't play Morbius...is there a villain he'd want to play in the DCU?
"There's always been something really appealing to me about Solomon Grundy," the actor says, without any hesitation. "I think that there's this deep dark sadness within that character that is, and he evokes all the stuff that I love about, like, Southern Gothic horror, Halloween. I could see me just charging through Gotham on a dark Halloween night. I think J. Crane is a great fucking character who's the flip side of all the work that I care about when it comes to psychology and psychiatry. And imagine taking that and manipulating it for your own benefit."
Solomon Grundy (who first appeared in All-American Comics #61 back in 1944) is a reanimated corpse who comes back to life after being thrown into Slaughter Swamp. He's a classic Golden Age villain...who became a popular internet meme because of a Cartoon Network edit of a Super Friends episode where he angrily demands a new pair of pants. Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka Scarecrow, was portrayed by none other than Cillian Murphy in Batman Begins. If we're thinking in terms of universes, Solomon Grundy seems like more of a fit for the campier, David Corenswet-led DCU, with Scarecrow fitting more into Elseworlds, which is the universe that Robert Pattinson's Batman and Colin Farrell's Penguin coincide in. I say we petition Gunn to let Dastmalchian do both.
"Sometimes I'm like, there's no way I'm ever gonna get to be in another superhero thing, 'cause I've gotten to do so much fun stuff in all the worlds, but you never say never," he continues. "You never know what could happen. Think about what Doug Jones did with Abe Sapien [in 2004's Hellboy], and I'd love to take a crack at Abe."
Dastmalchian has a plethora of non-superhero-related projects coming up, including Netflix's live-action One Piece series, as well as Legendary's live-action Street Fighter movie. In One Piece, the actor portrays wax-wielding villain Mr. 3, who is able to turn living humans into terrifying wax statues. In Street Fighter, Dastmalchian plays none other than M. Bison, the video game franchise's main antagonist and the megalomaniac at the center of powerful criminal organization Shadaloo. Not to mention Dust Bunny, directed by Bryan Fuller, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September. Needless to say, the actor – and part-time talk show host – is booked and busy. A new season of Grave Conversations, where Dastmalchian interviews everyone from Hollywood darlings like Matthew Lillard and Joel McHale to filmmakers Mike Flanagan (and, of course, James Gunn) about their end-of-life plans, is getting ready to hit YouTube soon.
One Piece season 2 is set to hit Netflix sometime in 2026, while Street Fighter is slated for an October 16, 2026 release date. For more, check out our list of the best Netflix shows to stream right now.
