Could Lewis Tan, of Into The Badlands and Deadpool 2 fame, be in talks to join the DC Universe streaming service?
Tan, who played Shatterstar in Deadpool 2, posted a photograph of himself at DC’s corporate headquarters in Burbank, holding a stack of graphic novels, and saying that he had a “great meeting.” While it could be nothing more than a celebrity visit, the fact that he tagged the nascent streaming service in the tweet seems to suggest more could be afoot.
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What role he might be meeting about, and in what show, is anybody’s guess, although his reference to his father’s work on Tim Burton’s Batman and a stack of comics featuring the Dark Knight could hint that he is playing Batman or someone in the Bat-Family.
With an animated Harley Quinn series as well as Titans, which will feature at least one Robin and the Bat-Signal, it is plausible that Tan be in talks to take the role of Batman in either live-action or an animated form — although the live-action version would be a surprise, given that Titans has been pretty secretive about their process up to now, and it seems like if they wanted to bring Batman to that show, they would particularly want to keep it quiet.
Great meeting 🤔🔥 My father started in this business with Tim Burtons #Batman, soon will be full circle. #DC @TheDCUniverse pic.twitter.com/n8jmwTs1hI
— Lewis Tan (@TheLewisTan) June 11, 2018
Of course, Tan could also be playing either a supporting Bat-character or someone like Terry McGinnis, better known as Batman Beyond and a character for whom fancasts have often included actors of Asian descent.
Or, given the presence of comics like 100 Bullets in the stack, the selection of graphic novels could have little to do with whatever role he might be interested in and could mean little more than “these are the comics I took when they were offered.”
Besides all of that, Tan could be meeting about any of a number of other projects that involve Batman, such as Gotham, Matt Reeves’s The Batman, or even the upcoming CW crossover which will introduce Batwoman — but none of those have obvious ties to the streaming service.
Tan’s father Philip Tan — no relation to the DC Comics artist of the same name — is a stunt performer and choreographer who was credited as one of The Joker’s goons in Batman. Given Tan’s own martial arts skill and athleticism, we’re going to go ahead and guess it was one of the guys who attacked Batman with all those flips in the bell tower.
More details on this are likely forthcoming, since it is unlikely DC would have wanted Tan posting about it on social media if a deal wasn’t done or nearly done.