Comic book writer Mark Millar (Kick-Ass, Fantastic Four, Wolverine) recently told ComicBook.com that he thinks WWE star John Cena would be great for the new film adaptation of his comic series Superior.
Superior is the story of a young boy with multiple sclerosis who makes a wish and is transformed into his favorite superhero. Millar recently tweeted that Cena would be great for the role after watching him in the Amy Schumer movie Trainwreck, then explained (via email) his desire to see Cena in the role. You can read a few excerpts below:
Millar explains what the Superior role requires, why John Cena would make sense:
“Superior‘s a project we’ve been developing for a little while and different actors have been on everyone’s radar. It’s a fun story, the conceit being Big meets Superman, so it needs to be someone who can pull off the comedy. Just as Kingsman: The Secret Service was for people who missed fun spy movies, Superior is for people who miss Christopher Reeve making little jokes and rescuing cats from trees. I even dedicated the book to Dick Donner and Christopher Reeve because Superman The Movie was the most formative experience of my life in terms of what I wanted to do when I grew up.
So it needed to be an actor who didn’t take himself too seriously and could do the funny moments as well as the poignant ones. It also needed to be someone a 12 year old boy would make a magic wish to be. Bryan Cranston and Robert DeNiro are amazing actors, for example, but they’re not going to be who a kid closes his eyes and wishes they were. A wrestler kind of is and some pals had suggested John Cena in the past, but I’d only seen him play a very, very small role in a comedy last year.”
Millar talks about the impression Cena’s role in Trainwreck left:
“I was texting people before the movie had even finished! He was in that picture with four top-of-their-game comedians and he stole the entire movie. He was so, so funny. His comic-timing is just impeccable and he looks very thoughtful too. He immediately went to the top of my own personal list in terms of who I’d be suggesting once the script comes in this week and the studio formally starts going out to actors at some point.”
Millar says he’s a John Cena fan, but his tweet was also done to try and get some interest:
“John physically looks perfect for the part, but that’s only 10% of why I think he works. It’s the heart of the character he seems to embody very well and I love the fact that he’s done more Make A Wish hospital visits than any other actor or athlete in America. I think he’s done around 500 of them now and that just seems incredibly in keeping with the character. This was one single tweet at the weekend, a thought out loud when I was watching a movie and it went everywhere, which is usually a sign that you’re onto something interesting.”
Has Millar been in contact with Cena about the role?
“He and I are in touch and I’ve told the rest of the team he’d be my absolute favourite choice,” Millar revealed. “So we’ll see where it goes from here. I’ve been very lucky so far. The director who’s being brought on in is very much in that ‘Amblin’ tone this kind of movie needs to work. He’s great at comedy and he’s great at poignant drama. I really have a good feeling about this as it comes together. The script has been really, really funny, which I think people want right now. The big box office belongs to movies that look like they’re promising a good time for the past year or two. This is very much in that mould.”
