Casting for Kick-Ass 2 has started ramping-up - now that the filmmakers have locked-in returning players. We recently learned that John Leguizamo has joined the production, playing Red Mist's bodyguard, Javier, and further announcements should be quickly forthcoming - since the film is expected to start filming in September. Mark Millar penned much of the Kick-Ass 2 comic series with the movie sequel in mind - dramatically expanding on the number of included characters and introducing a Justice League/Avengers-like superhero squad, Justice Forever.
Now, one member of the Justice Forever team looks set for a big screen counterpart, as Scrubs alum, Donald Faison (who played Christopher Turk on the popular NBC series), is set to once again don a "Doctor" title. However, this time, instead of fighting infection and failed organs as a surgeon, Faison will be fighting super villains and evildoers as a costumed crime fighter.
According to a Deadline report, the actor is in talks to play Doctor Gravity - one of the Justice Forever heroes that partners with Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl in the sequel.
In the comics, Doctor Gravity claims that, when he's not fighting crime, he works as a physics professor at Columbia University - where he designed his iconic, "Gravity Pole." According to the superhero, the weapon alters the bearer's physical composition - allowing them to float or conversely become thirty times heavier (i.e. when the pole is flipped over). However, Gravity's public story isn't entirely true (more like an aspiration) as the masked character is actually a Columbia undergraduate English major - not a physics professor - and the "Gravity Pole" is little more than a standard baseball bat wrapped in tin foil.
As mentioned, Doctor Gravity is only one of several new supporting characters that could be joining the Kick-Ass movie universe - considering the Justice Forever team, at one point or another, includes: Colonel Stars, Lieutenant Stripes, Battle-Guy, Moon-Bird, The Enforcer, Ass Kicker, Remembering Tommy, Insect-Man, Rocket-Man, Night-Bitch, The All-seeing Eye, not to mention Doctor Gravity. That said, at this point it's unclear whether or not all of Millar's creations will make it into the film sequel - especially considering some of them aren't essential to the core Kick-Ass 2 storyline.
We're hearing a lot of conflicting reports on how close the film version will stick to the comic book source material - since Millar has promised the film will be controversial only to hear Red Mist actor, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, assert that the story's most controversial (and gratuitous) plot arc will not be included.
Either way, while some insiders had expected the new movie to get bumped into 2014, we're now getting official confirmation that the filmmakers intend to get Kick-Ass 2 out in 2013.
Check out the image below from the movie's official Facebook page:
A 2013 release date is ambitious - given that the film hasn't even started shooting yet. However, Kick-Ass 2 isn't going to be a mega-CGI fest, so it's possible that director Jeff Wadlow could, conceivably, pull everything together - with only a year to get the movie onto the screen. Not to mention Matthew Vaughn (who directed the first Kick-Ass and will oversee the sequel's production) knows how to work under a tight schedule - given the run-and-gun filming of X-Men: First Class.
As for what to expect from Faison in the Doctor Gravity role, there's no doubt that the actor would be a comfortable fit for tongue-in-cheek (albeit still brutal) approach of the Kick-Ass universe. Despite an especially lackluster turn in the near-universally derided alien invasion film, Skyline, Faison has delivered a number of fun performances in both TV and movie roles - most recently as Phil Chase on The Exes. Of course, who can forget his work as Gary the Stormtrooper on Robot Chicken as well as Murray in Clueless.
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Kick-Ass 2 is scheduled to begin shooting in September and will release in 2013.