Big news in the world of superhero casting, as THR reports that Pierce Brosnan has joined Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam movie, where he’ll play DC superhero sorcerer Doctor Fate, who is not Doctor Strange. This will be Brosnan’s first indulgence in the world of super-powered cinematic throwdowns, taking on the role of Kent Nelson, an American archeologist (played, obviously, by a British man), who stumbles onto vast magical powers while exploring a foreign country, and yet is not, against all odds, Doctor Strange.
Brosnan is just the latest major name to sign on for the long-gestating Black Adam movie, joining a cast of characters fleshing out a nascent version of DC Comics’ Justice Society, who comics fans will probably get very angry at us for describing as “a sort of second-string Justice League made up of old people and their super-powered kids,” but, hey, there it is. Other cast members on the film (who are also, as far as we can tell, not playing Marvel Comics character Doctor Stephen Strange) include Noah Centineo (Atom Smasher), Aldis Hodge (Hawkman), and Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone.
Despite our joking, Doctor Stra Fate predates his nearest non-union Marvel equivalent by a full generation, having debuted in 1940 under the pens of writer Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman. An archeologist who stumbles upon the tomb of the ancient wizard Nabu, Fate fights crime while wearing his magical helmet (which sometimes lets Nabu possess him, awkward). Also, when DC and Marvel did their big “Let’s glue all our character together so we can have a Batman who is also Wolverine” Amalgam event back in the mid-’90s, Kent and Stephen Strange did merge together into a character called Doctor Strangefate, so, hey: It’s not just us.
Black Adam is currently slated for a December 22, 2021 release date.
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Weirdly enough, Dr. Strangelove debuted just a few months after the character Doctor Strange.
Is Pierce Brosnan playing Colonel Sanders playing Dr. Fate? Cause that’s what that picture looks like to me.
It’s a Colonel Sanders goatee but the handlebars are all Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp.
I was gonna go with Burl Ives. A holly jolly Christmas is not enough.
Pierce Brosnan as:Colonel Sanders playing Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp disguised as Burl Ives dressed as Guy Fawkes playing his most important role to date:
Dr. Fate.
The trailer:“Remember….remember….”“Snake Plissken, did you remember to bring the KFC?”“That’s COLONEL Plissken to you! Anyway, let’s eat!”*doorbell rings”“Now who the hell could that be?”*opens the door to a cowboy twirling a pistol in each hand* “🎶 Have a Holly, jolly Christmas…”🎶“Remember…..remember….it’s coming to theaters on the fifth of November…”
Silver and Goldfinger
“Do you expect me to talk?”“No Mr. Sam the Snowman, I expect you to melt!”
Also Post-Crisis, when Kent Nelson died Nabu chose a kid named Eric Strauss and his step-mom Linda to be the next Dr. Fate by fusing them together…
Did they gain the ability to require super therapy sessions after that?
Awkwaaaaard
Shades of Rebis
Stepmom porn has gone way too far.
At least someone doesn’t have their head stuck in the washing machine.
Are you sure that’s not the plot to a porno?
(played, obviously, by a British man)…Irish. Whatever.
As long as we’re casting ex-007s to play superheros, I’d love to see like Daniel Craig as Jason Blood/Etrigan.
Sean Connery can play Deadman.
Too soon.
Your MOTHER’s too soon, Kent!
TOO SOON!
too shoon
Connery: Tew Dead, Tew Shoon!
Or how about….Deadpool! That’s a cool-sounding name!
The role of Deadman has already been taken by George Lazenby’s post-Bond career.
And while we’re dream casting Bonds and franchises, it is frankly ridiculous that no one’s yet remade “Last Crusade” with Pierce Brosnan as Henry Jones and Timothy Olyphant as Junior.Just ridiculous.
“It’s his NAME: Timothy. Elephant. JUNIOR!”
We named the dog, “Elephant!”
He is named…after the pachyderm? BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Wow, I never put two and two together, they’d look identical if not for the age difference.
Surely Brosnan will just play Kent Nelson as not-American, right? I don’t think anyone needs to pretend any role played by Pierce Brosnan, one of the most famous Irish actors, is American. I mean, that’s like 80% of his charm, right?
He’s playing him as Dutch.
He played American well in The Son.
Who Doctor Fate is under the helmet is often superfluous to the roles he plays in DC stories and his effect on other characters. Just as long as they can sound authoritative and mystical. In the animated series Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, for example, he was well-played by Israeli actor Oded Fehr using his natural accent, and almost NO ONE went “WAIT HE’S SUPPOSED TO BE AMERICAN!”.
Having watched many, many Brosnan films, I can vouch for the fact he’ll attempt any accent the script calls for, whether he can do it or not. To the point where even his Irish accent now seems mangled. (As an aside, if you want to see Brosnan do an American accent and watch an incredibly baffling (but entertaining) early 90s action DTV action film then I recommend looking up Live Wire on YouTube. Or at least the trailer)
Don’t many of his most famous roles have him doing a fake English accent? James Bond, etc?
But wouldn’t that violate the rich and storied Dr. Fate mythos so beloved by fans the world over?
#NotMyFate
#NoNoNabu
Cumberbatch tried on his best American accent for Dr. Strange and that went…well, not well. So I guess what I’m saying is, Brosnan’s American accent can’t be any worse.
Was Pierce about to swashbuckle in this photo?
Either that or hornswaggle.
He’s not British, he was born Irish and gained American citizenship in the early 2000s
Yes. But “American man plays American comic-book character” doesn’t leave any space to be outraged. So.
Is he Northern Irish? I believe some of them choose to identify as British.
No, he’s from Drogheda, which is in the Republic
But grew up in Scotland and England.
That has no effect on his nationality. An American living in Canada doesn’t suddenly become Canadian
Canadians are American. They live on the Americas.
“Nationality” is a dubious concept that doesn’t really make sense in a globalized world. There are “Mexicans” living in the US and “Filipinos” living in Dubai who have lived nearly all their life in a country where they don’t have citizenship. Likewise Brosnan spent more of his life in the UK and US than he did in the Republic of Ireland.
That has no effect on his legal nationality, which is not a dubious concept at all, it’s on your passport. Has anyone actually asked Mr Brosnan what nationality he is or were the AV Club writers just being lazy and a bit racist? Trust me, you call someone from the Republic British and nine times out of ten you’ll get your arse kicked.
Well shit, there goes my plans.
It’s the Father Ted debate all over again…
If I may translate into American Brosnanese:
nope, he’s from the Republic. And Northerners can identify as culturally British but not actually. It’s the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Says it right on the passport.
And that’s why I say Build A Wall…around Ireland.
Maybe this is just a long-play retcon that eventually leads to us getting a decent DC film adaptation that is not directed by Christopher Nolan, or David Sandberg.
“…a British man…”He’s Irish, but no big deal, not like there’s any history between the Brits and the Irish, I’m sure everyone will be cool about that.
It’s complicated with Brosnan though. He was born in the Republic of Ireland, but grew up and went to drama school in the UK.
when DC and Marvel did their big “Let’s glue all our character together so we can have a Batman who is also Wolverine” Amalgam event back in the mid-’90s* pinches nose bridge *
Oh, it got worse, there was also Supersoldier, Superman and Captain America combined
There’s no need for Dr. Fate and Dr. Strange to fight. Remember that time they fused into one entity?This was canon, and it sucked! And the mashup just got weirder from there:The great thing about DC or Marvel work is that you’re basically getting paid to write fanfic.
My work is done. Amalgam/Access was “interesting”. Where are my Dark Claw and Thor-el action figures???It didn’t have anything to do with the George Perez JLA/Avengers crossover a few years later, however.
Please let this somehow lead to Klarion being in a movie.
Having just watched Eurovision I have to say I approve of Pierce Brosnan’s silver fox phase. As long as he doesn’t keep the “evil nineteenth century gentleman” look pictured here.
If we don’t get a scene where he’s wearing a top hat and a cape and is tying a beautiful young woman to some train tracks I’m not watching this.
As long as it doesn’t take too much time away from the 19th century railway empire he’s clearly running.
I’m just going to come out and say that the Golden Age versions of The Flash and Green Lantern are cooler than their Silver Age counterparts.
They were, although haven’t they completely rewritten their histories and now Alan is gay, or did that not happen? (I’m not saying that’s uncool, I just don’t know if the old character is still around) Silver age Flash and Green Lantern are mostly just kind of depressing.
Earth 2 Alan is gay, I think (and still young). The last time I read anything, the ‘main’ version of Alan had grown older and was running Checkmate, some sort of SHIELD type agency. I don’t think that version was gay.
It’s been retconned recently that the Golden Age Alan Scott is also gay in Infinite Frontier #0.
I dunno, you look aware for five minutes and reality gets reset.
I haven’t kept up with comics in a while lol. Alan Scott is gay now? Wasn’t wood his weakness? Is he a troubled teen now, too? I’m going to have to look this up.
So the Black Adam movie is going to introduce Black Adam AND about a dozen other DC characters?It’ll be shit.
“We need to catch up to MCU! We need to recoup! Whedoooon!” – DC Execs
Yeah, why don’t they do what other comic book movies do and only have one character in the entire movie?
His superpower is rocking a cape.
https://yarn.co/yarn-clip/dbf1da41-5edb-4ca1-9e55-bca1a168cb31
It amuses me that so much of this article seemed like an attempt at riling up DC fans who mostly weren’t bothered…their complaints are more with the hacks who run DC Comics than anyone else. Doctor Fate is a much more compelling character than Doctor Strange, to me, although Doctor Strange has more gorgeous artwork (and Strange himself must be very cool to draw – I know he’s seen by many as just a Tony Stark clone, but I think he has a more expressive and weathered look, whereas Tony in the comics is flat, flat, flat). Anyway, I won’t be watching this movie, most likely, but Pierce Brosnan is a good actor and probably should have been in one of these comic book movies a long time ago.
They both pale in comparison to Doctor Orpheus, though.
Firstly, Doctor Fate predates Doctor Strange by more than 20 years, secondly, as others have mentioned, Brosnan is not British.
Let me guess, you only read the first paragraph before heading down to the comments section?
What about Dr. Bombay?
Holy shit I am all over that woo!Dr. Fate is best Dr.
Stargirl and Superman & Lois are way, way better than any of the previous or other current CW DC Shows. Swamp Thing and Doom Patrol are way better than Titans. So, let’s hope that the evolution of the DC movies emulates the evolution of their broadcast television and streaming service offerings.
I hope this news brings some joy to a mostly awful former co-worker who was a big Doctor Fate fan.
“Doctor Fate, who is not Doctor Strange.”
BAh, you’re only saying that because Doctor Fate was created a mere TWENTY-THREE YEARS before Doctor Strange.
That photo! Are they doing some live action Monopoly movie I haven’t heard about?
Dr. Fate’s go to move in the comics is dying and passing the helmet and it’s curse on to someone else. So l’ll be curious to see if Brosnan survives the entire movie.
Looking at the photo… when Pierce Brosnan start cosplaying a southern Civil War colonel?
With that facial hair, he’s perfect for a movie/ series about a much older Green Arrow.
Pierce Brosnan is IRISH…not British…