Brendan Fraser has already made a great impression with DC Comics fans thanks to his brilliant work on the excellent HBO Max streaming series Doom Patrol, and the wait is on for him to impress us again. In the upcoming movie Batgirl, he will be given the spotlight as the serial arsonist Firefly, and there are high hopes that he will wow in the antagonist role. That being said, Fraser had to recently clarify exactly which version of the comic book villain he is playing, and in doing so he revealed a bit of backstory about his character in the new film.
The Mummy star was a guest on a panel this past weekend at GalaxyCon in Raleigh, North Carolina (via YouTube), and it was while answering audience questions that Brandon Fraser talked a bit about his role in Batgirl. The actor was asked by a fan if there was a hero or villain from the long history of Marvel Comics that he would be interested in playing, and while pivoting away from that question he talked a bit about Firefly and the version of the character that we'll soon see in live-action. Said Fraser,
Ted Carson is the character's name. It's misprinted in the media, I‘ve noticed this. It's a new character, it's a new day. He's quite cross, he's a veteran whose benefits have been cut, so he wants to burn Gotham to the ground. And luckily, Batman and Batgirl are there to stop him. Or are they?
When it was first reported in October 2021 that Brendan Fraser had joined the cast of Batgirl, the trades only identified his character as Firefly and didn't mention his alter ego. With no other information to go on, there has been an assumption that Fraser was going to be playing Garfield Lynns (the identity of the original version of the villain from DC Comics, introduced in 1952), but now that record has been set straight with the actor confirming that he will be playing the Ted Carson iteration of Firefly.
The Ted Carson version of Firefly was introduced much more recently – specifically in 2013 – and he is a version of the character who wears a robotic suit while committing his flame-centric crimes. You probably shouldn't expect to see that robotic suit in the upcoming DC movie, though, as set photos of Brendan Fraser in costume didn't give off a high tech vibe.
Firefly is a character with an interesting history in comics and live-action, and he will be featured alongside a stellar cast in Batgirl. Leslie Grace is playing the titular hero, and she will be joined by Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner James Gordon, Ivory Aquino as Alysia Yeoh (Barbara Gordon’s best friend), and more. The directing team of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah is currently in post-production on the film, fresh off their work on the Disney+ Ms. Marvel series and introducing mutants to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Batgirl doesn't have a release date yet, but it is being produced as an HBO Max exclusive.
