The DC Universe recently got a shake-up when it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would head DC Studios, overseeing the brand's film and television outputs. Among their rumored plans was to have Jason Momoa exit his role as Aquaman in order to take on another DC character: Lobo, a swaggering alien bounty hunter and regular foe of Superman. Make no mistake: Momoa would be an exceptional Lobo; he has the physicality, charisma, and pure screen presence to fully embody the Main Man.

However, those same qualities are what make Momoa's Aquaman such an interesting and engaging character. DC would be foolish to throw that away. Instead, it might do the company well to once again think outside the box and cast an unconventional action hero to bring Lobo to the silver screen, and David Harbour might be the ideal actor to do just that.

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David Harbour Has Experience in Comic Book Movies

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Harbour's big break came from playing the beleaguered Sheriff Jim Hopper on Stranger Things, and it's certainly one of many fantastic performances on the show, but it's Harbour's film work that proves he's perfectly suited to playing Lobo. His first starring feature role after Stranger Things was 2019's Hellboy, and though the film may not have been a critical or commercial success, it still allowed Harbour to show off his leading man chops. Unlike Ron Perlman's take on the character as a world-weary everyman, Harbour played Hellboy as an overgrown teenager: moody, confrontational, and regularly sniping with everyone around him. These traits fit Lobo to a T, a character who often comes off as the untethered id of a high school student.

Harbour's next comic book role would prove more successful than his first as he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian in 2021's Black Widow. While Hellboy is sullen and grouchy, Alexei is vivacious and braggadocious; the Soviet Union's first and only super soldier is keen on recounting and reliving his glory days that may never have actually happened. Red Guardian is mostly played as a joke, but he's a funny joke because Harbour is such a force of personality. Audiences can laugh at the ridiculousness of this self-important has-been (or, indeed, never-was), but there's also a part that wants to see him live up to his own legend. Lobo is much the same way: over-the-top bluster that's still compelling to watch, even when it's undercut by jokes or pratfalls. There's a silliness to the character that can be genuinely entertaining to watch given the right circumstances, and Harbour is just the person to provide those.

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Violent Night Showed David Harbour's Impressive Range

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However, Harbour's crowning achievement as an action star came late in 2022 with the Christmas thriller Violent Night. The starting premise of the movie seems like a joke: on December 24th, a highly coordinated team of robbers break into a wealthy family's home and hold them hostage while they search for a stash of stolen cash. Into the mix comes Harbour as Jolly Old Saint Nick, who uses his vast Christmas powers to brutally dispatch the thieves like a red-suited John McClane.

Violent Night takes full advantage of its premise, but what elevates the movie is Harbour in the lead role. He takes the jokey premise of "action hero Santa" and grounds it in genuine pathos and emotion. Harbour's Santa is a former Viking warrior who sought redemption by becoming the spirit of hope and generosity, only to be beaten down by a world that's gotten greedier and more hostile during his centuries of life. There's a melancholy to him that never feels forced or incongruous. Even with an absurd premise, Harbour finds a way to make the character feel real and engaging to an audience that's only here to laugh at the festive carnage.

This is why David Harbour would make an ideal Lobo. While the Main Man is inherently a ludicrous character -- an outrageous, over-the-top parody of '80s machismo and '90s grit -- there's still room to make someone like that feel authentic and grounded, even amid the absurdity of being an alien supervillain. Harbour is a uniquely gifted performer who can bring Lobo's bombastic behavior to the big screen while also finding real heart and emotion beneath it, as strange and unexpected as that may be.