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)

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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 GamesRadar+, 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