On the heels of last week’s news that Scrubs and Clueless star Donald Faison will play a role on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Faison’s Fake Doctors, Real Friends co-host Zach Braff told the actor that he would be down to join the cast as well. And while Faison’s charcter is as-yet-unidentified, Braff’s comments seem likely to confirm fan theories that Faison will be playing a version of Booster Gold. The time-traveling, product-shilling superhero is expected to appear in the upcoming season 7 finale of Legends, and will have a bigger role if the show gets an eighth season.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The latest episode of Fake Doctors, Real Friends — a Scrubs rewatch podcast hosted by Faison and Braff, who starred in the original series — features some heavily-bleeped conversation about Faison’s new role. The actor really doesn’t reveal anything fans didn’t already know about the part, but it’s Braff who may have tipped his hand.
“I don’t know how I got this lucky,” Faison said when Braff brought up the role. He announced that he would be playing the role, but editors bleeped the actual name so that he wasn’t spoiling the show.
“I learned, just because they of course wrote me things like ‘is Zach going to be [bleep],” Braff added, and Faison replied, “That’s who I think you should play, too.”
Braff asked whether his role would just be a voice, and Faison answered, “No, it’d be a character. We’d dress up like f–ing superheroes, put on superhero outfits.”
Braff replied with, “Well, you tell Berlanti that I’ll [bleep].”
So…what does any of that mean?
The most likely scenario is that Braff is throwing his hat into the ring to play Blue Beetle Ted Kord.
Following the announcement that Faison would be playing his mystery character on Legends, the Booster Gold speculation heated up immediately. Given that the pair have a close relationship offscreen, and played a pair of best friends with an unbreakable bond in Scrubs, fans started to lobby for Braff to play one of two characters: Blue Beetle, or Skeets.
Skeets is a security droid from the 25th Century museum where Booster worked before becoming a superhero. After Booster stole him and took him back in time, Skeets became his companion and has been a near-constant presence in Booster’s adventures since.
Ted Kord is the second Blue Beetle. Originally created at Charlton Comics, the character (along with the rest of Charlton’s IP) was purchased by DC and integrated into the DC Universe during Crisis on Infinite Earths. In the late ’80s, both Ted and Booster Gold joined the Justice League International, and quickly became best friends. They have gone on to be a fan-favorite duo and currently star in Blue & Gold, a miniseries written by Booster’s creator, Dan Jurgens.
So, the first takeaway from Braff’s comments is easy: “they of course wrote me things” almost certainly refers to the fans, and not to someone in a position to actually make any kind of decision. The use of the nonspecific “they” might cast some doubt on that, but Braff’s interactions with fans on social media is a regular point of discussion on Fake Doctors, Real Friends, and it immediately sounds here like he is talking about the audience.
So, based on Faison’s [bleep], fans were of course asking if Braff would be…? Well, that’s Skeets, or Blue Beetle.
Faison’s assurance that the role would not be just a voice, but that they would have to suit up as superheroes together, seemingly seals it as Beetle rather than Skeets, since Skeets is a floating gold robot the size and shape of a football. It would be a difficult character for Braff to depict in a costume.
Of course, Braff’s willingness doesn’t mean that Kord will appear. Even assuming the show gets an eighth season (which seems likely but is not yet guaranteed), adding both Faison and Braff would be an expensive proposition for a CW show. If anything, it would be more likely to see Braff appear in an episode or two. Additionally, with Warner Bros. currently in production on a Blue Beetle movie for HBO Max, it could be difficult to get corporate approval for Ted Kord to appear at all. The movie centers on Jaime Reyes, who succeeded Ted as Blue Beetle and has a different costume, power set, and personality, but it’s still hard to picture Warner wanting to roll out a brand new Blue Beetle on TV, only to drop another one on screening six months later. Perhaps a non-costumed cameo as Ted, rather than Beetle, would be the most plausible way to do it.
Would you like to see Braff and Faison reunite as Blue & Gold? Sound off in the comments below, or hit up @russburlingame on Twitter, because there’s nothing I love more than talking about Booster Gold.
