In 2011’s X-Men: First Class, the mutant Armando Muñoz (Edi Gathegi) was nicknamed “Darwin” because of his ability to adapt to survive. Recruited to the CIA’s Division X — a precursor to the X-Men in 1962 — Darwin was part of Professor Charles Xavier’s (James McAvoy) first class alongside fellow young mutants Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Havok (Lucas Till), Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones), and the winged Angel (Zoë Kravitz).
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But midway through the Matthew Vaughn-directed X-Men prequel, Darwin was killed by the Hellfire Club’s Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) when the energy-absorbing villain used his own powers to overload Darwin’s reactive abilities. Fans have long pointed out that, of all the characters in First Class, Darwin should have survived.
“They’re not wrong,” Gathegi told Entertainment Weekly in an interview for Superman, where the Twilight and For All Mankind actor plays the tech-based, hyper-intelligent hero Mister Terrific. “I think it is just a case of bad representation and missed opportunity. There was a lot that they could have done with that character, probably should have done with the character.”
“I was waiting to be brought back [after First Class] because, as you know, the character doesn’t die,” Gathegi continued of Darwin’s power set. “The fact that he died in the first one isn’t that big of a deal if he does what he does in the comics, which is come back. Every movie that came out and the character didn’t come back, it solidified that it was a misrepresentation and a missed opportunity.”
The sequel, 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, eschewed most of the First Class cast except for McAvoy’s Professor X, Lawrence’s Mystique, Hoult’s Beast, Till’s Havok (in a bit role) and Michael Fassbender’s Magneto. While First Class would be Gathegi’s only appearance as the Marvel mutant, Superman is “kind of undoing the wrongs of Darwin,” he said. “I know that as it stands right now, this isn’t the only project that I’ll be in.”
Gathegi couldn’t divulge where Mister Terrific next appears after Superman, but in the comics, the character has been a member of the Justice Society of America, the Justice League, and the Terrifics, a quartet that includes Plastic Man, Phantom Girl, and element man Metamorpho (who also appears in Superman, played by Anthony Carrigan).
Mister Terrific is “one of the most philosophically compelling heroes in DC: he’s an atheist who believes in justice,” Gathegi notes of the character who wears his famous “Fair Play” jacket as part of the “Justice Gang,” a team of corporate-sponsored superheroes with the Guy Gardner Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced).
After the death of his wife in a freak car accident, Michael Holt “found meaning in knowledge,” Gathegi explained. “He saw that, while the universe might be cruel, intelligence, science, and innovation could make it better. He chose to become hope rather than succumbing to the despair of losing his wife.”
Written and directed by Gunn (the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, The Suicide Squad), the new movie stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman alongside Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. The cast includes Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, with Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, María Gabriela de Faría as Angela Spica/the Engineer, Wendell Pierce as Perry White, Alan Tudyk as Superman Robot #4, Neva Howell as Ma Kent, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Pa Kent, with Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord and Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr.
Superman soars into theaters July 11.
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