Ben Schwartz Says ‘Plastic Man’ Could Be DC’s ‘Deadpool’

Sonic the Hedgehog star and Plastic Man hopeful Ben Schwartz says the stretchy thief-turned-crimefighter could be DC’s Deadpool.

“If you look at the original Plastic Man, he’s a thief, he gets these superpowers, and then he uses his connections with being in the crooked world to aid the police,” Schwartz told ComicBook.com at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

“But in my head, how much fun if he was a thief, got superpowers, and was like, ‘Screw it, I want to keep being crooked.’ But he’s also, if you look at the cartoons or the other iterations of him, he’s funny! He’s so funny. And I think what Ryan Reynolds and Tim Miller did with Deadpool, you could have a funny superhero in DC. Shazam! just did it and I think it’s gonna be great. That’s it, I just love that character a lot. I think I’d get to be goofy if I ever got the chance to do it.”

A self-described comic book fan, Schwartz said last April he’s “ready” to play the role before tweeting his interest again in December after studio Warner Bros. tapped Amanda Idoko (Breaking News In Yuba County) as screenwriter on the in-the-works Plastic Man movie.

“They have a great writer, they have a great writer,” Schwartz told ComicBook. “I’m psyched for her to write it. And then in the one-in-one-billion chance I get to audition or even do it, that would be crazy.”

As the DC Extended Universe continues to bound into lighter fare with well-received Zachary Levi-led superhero comedy Shazam!, Schwartz responded favorably to the suggestion of director David F. Sandberg steering the project when the filmmaker said on Twitter he’d be interested in the project if Schwartz starred:

On board as executive producer is Robert Shaye (the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, The Lord of the Rings trilogy) for what has been described as a “comedic action-adventure” with a silly and light-hearted tone in the spirit of the comic book character, who dates back to 1941.

Schwartz would play Patrick ‘Eel’ O’Brian, a once two-bit criminal granted the powers of superhuman malleability when he falls into a vat of transformative chemicals. Renouncing his criminal ways, O’Brian becomes a goofy, fun-loving costumed superhero and later acts as a member of the Justice League and oddball supergroup The Terrifics.

Also in the works from the DC Films branch are Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 1984, Ava DuVernay’s New Gods, Margot Robbie’s Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, Matt Reeves’ The Batman, and Aquaman 2. Other projects in various stages of development include Batgirl, Supergirl, Blue Beetle, Zatanna, and Green Lantern Corps.

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