Chris Pratt and Taylor Kitsch are back as special ops in Prime Video’s The Terminal List prequel, The Terminal List: Dark Wolf. The new series tells of how Kitsch’s character, Ben Edwards, transitioned from Navy SEAL to CIA operative. Though no longer at the center of the series, Pratt reprises his role as James Reece, the lead character of the original The Terminal List series, and Edwards’s best friend and fellow SEAL in the prequel. While Kitsch and Pratt are both comic book movie veterans, with playing a different Marvel character on the big screen — the X-Men hero Gambit for Kitsch and the MCU’s Star-Lord for Pratt.
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Speaking to ComicBook, the actors discussed the differences between how they trained to play comic book characters versus how they prepared to play Navy SEALS. Both types of roles are incredibly demanding and athletic, yet the actors revealed that their approach to playing Edwards and Reece significantly differed from how they’d approached superheroes in the past. For Pratt and Kitsch, comic book movies involve embodying a certain look on screen, while for a project like Dark Wolf, their focus is on being able to look believable while performing tasks that display specialized skills.
“These guys aren’t fitness models, you know? I mean, there’s a certain aesthetic to superheroes,” explained Pratt, who went through a major physical transformation for the first Guardians of the Galaxy film in 2014. “You are making your body a prop because these superheroes are, in themselves, insanely shredded. But the guys that we play [in Dark Wolf] are real guys. They drink beer on the weekends, you know? They’re not, like, counting their carbs. They just work hard. They’re strong, they have great cardio, good strength-to-weight ratio, so it’s different. I think it’s not so much about the aesthetic that’s brought to a comic book character, it’s more about the functional strength.”
Kitsch pointed out the need for their characters to have more meat on them. “If you’re at 5% body [fat] with a 120-pound pack in the mountains of Afghanistan, doing a 20-mile hike in to engage, you’re going to be hurting.” Kitsch went on to reveal that the SEALS he and Pratt consulted with actually encouraged them to gain weight, given that their work in reality is “so taxing on their bodies”.
The Terminal List: Dark Wolf Training Was More About Skill Than Look
Pratt went on to underscore how in Dark Wolf, their training prioritized authentically embodying the demands their characters would be faced with in the field, as opposed to fitting into a larger-than-life, often fantastical world.
“The training is less about making your body look like something and more about how to control weapon systems and operate guns,” he said. “So if a special op guy were watching, [he’d] go ‘Dang, he knows how to hold that gun right, he knows how to do a tactical reload on a magazine.’ That kind of a thing.”
Despite the particular physical demands of role, Pratt shared that he”loves” playing Reece, and is eager to expand the world of The Terminal List, which is adapted from a book series by John Carr.
The Terminal List: Dark Wolf premieres on Amazon Prime Video August 27th. Are you surprised by the stars’ perperation or comments about superhero physiques? Let us know in the comments.
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Image courtesy of Netflix
