Joe Manganiello Pitched a Colossus Reboot to Marvel

Joe Manganiello is a man of many talents – and is way geekier than most people may assume of a man whose signature is playing onscreen hunks. Case in point: Joe Manganiello once pitched his own Marvel Comics concept to Marvel – and he didn’t go for the big name-brand characters like Wolverine or Spider-Man, oh no. Joe Manganiello wanted to do a reboot of X-Men’s Colossus! 

ComicBook.com had the chance to sit down and speak with Joe Manganiello, and he shared the backstory of how and why he wanted to do a comic book series about Colossus – aka Piotr Rasputin.

“I actually pitched a reboot of Colossus to Marvel Comics at some point, a retake of it all,” Manganiello told us. “A retake of it all.” 

Manganiello went on to explain “In college, I learned how to speak some Russian. We had the Moscow Art Theater in college, so I learned to speak a lot of Russian. I actually wrote a short film where I spoke Russian. And so I had always kind of felt an affinity to the Russian people – and I also like have a lot of Eastern European blood. So there’s something in there and I really just thought of kind of redoing – retelling – a more modern take on Colossus, I think would have been fun.”

While we didn’t get the specifics on what Joe Manganiello had in mind for a Colossus story, he did reveal that there was a specific Marvel Comics moment that solidified his love of Colossus: 

“He was always my favorite character in Secret Wars, you know? He got the girl. There was this kind of alien healer woman from that other planet, and I always thought he was like the coolest.” 

Colossus became one of the Marvel heroes that was snatched up and taken to Battleworld by the Beyonder in the original Secret Wars story arc (1984-1985). At the time, Piotr was dating Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat, but while on Battleworld, he fell in love with Zsaji, a healer on Battleworld who saved his life after a near-fatal battle with the Wrecking Crew. The situation was complicated, as Fantastic Four’s Human Torch (Johnny Storm) had also been healed by Zsaji and started a physical relationship with her. Despite that, Colossus’s affection was deep enough that he got back to earth and promptly broke up with Kitty. 

All in all, kind of a strange place to hang your fanboy love, but okay! 

Ironically, Colossus has been more relevant and pivotal than ever in the current “Fall of X” arc and X-Men’s Krakoa Era of the last few years. Thanks to being mind-enslaved by his brother Mikhail, Piotr ended up being a Russian mole in the mutant nation, murdering several other characters and eventually nearly killing his X-Force teammates. Now free again, Colossus is fighting with his fellow mutants to survive – and fighting with his own tormented soul. 

You can find Colossus in the pages of Marvel’s X-Force.