Renfield star Nicolas Cage revealed that he would be open to playing The Spectre in a DC Universe film.
During a Reddit Ask Me Anything with his Renfield co-star Nicholas Hoult, Cage was asked if there were any undead characters left that he would like to tackle now that he's played both Ghost Rider and Dracula on the big screen. "Ohh! Yeah! Jim Corrigan, the Spectre (old DC comic character). That would be a fun one," said Cage. "But that’s a hard one to pull off because he’s virtually invincible, he has no weakness. You need characters that have a kryptonite, that have a flaw, but he’s kinda unbeatable. But that would be a fun one."
Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Bernard Baily, Jim Corrigan was the Golden Age Spectre and first appeared in More Fun Comics #52 in 1940. Corrigan was a hard-boiled police detective who was murdered by a crime boss. After Corrigan's soul refused to go to Heaven, the archangel Michael bonded him to the spirit of God's vengeance, the Spectre, and sent him back to Earth to punish wrongdoings. As Cage stated in his answer, the Spectre is near invincible, with powers ranging from reality warping and cosmic awareness to immortality and superhuman strength.
Spectre previously appeared in Batman: The Brave and the Bold as a member of the Justice Society of America, voiced by Mark Hamill. Jim Corrigan also appeared in the Arrowverse crossover event "Crisis on Infinite Earths," played by Stephen Lobo. In the crossover, he passes the Spectre's power to Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) so he can save the multiverse from the Anti-Monitor.
Nic Cage's History Playing Superheroes
As an avid comic book fan, Nic Cage has starred in several superhero adaptations besides the two Ghost Rider films, playing Big Daddy in Kick-Ass (2010) and voicing Peter Parker/Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). Cage was also attached to play Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman in Tim Burton's Superman Lives, but the project was scrapped just weeks before filming would have begun. Cage did eventually get a chance to portray Superman in film, voicing the Big Blue Boy Scout in the 2018 animated film Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, which is based on the animated series Teen Titans Go! and set during its fifth season.
Would Nic Cage Play Dracula Again?
Cage is set to make his debut as Count Dracula in Universal Pictures' horror comedy film Renfield, which opens in theaters on April 14, opposite Hoult as his loyal assistant, Renfield. Cage recently expressed interest in playing Dracula again, as long as the project allowed him to dive deeper into the iconic horror character. "You know, there are some minor moments here where you get to see some of the pathos in Dracula’s eyes," Cage said. "That made me think that maybe one day I might like to try for a whole movie where you’re really understanding the psyche of the character. I didn’t really have the time to delve into that here."
Source: Reddit