Ezra Miller playing mentally ill pyromaniac Trashcan Man in The Stand

Ezra Miller joins the already-impressive cast of The Stand as the pyromaniacal Trashcan Man. Why did he want the role? Two words: “Fireproof underwear.”

The Stand, a new adaptation of Stephen King’s doorstop of a post-apocalyptic epic, is coming to CBS All Access next month, and the cast is pretty impressive. You’ve got James Marsden as Texan everyman Stu Redman, Amber Heard as the troubled Nadine Cross, Henry Zaga as the deaf-mute Nick Andros, Heather Graham as socialite Rita Blakemoor, Greg Kinnear as the kindly Glen Bateman, Alexander Skarsgård as the demonic Randall Flagg, Whoopi Goldberg as the saintly Mother Abigail, and many more.

The Stand is about a superflu that wipes out 99% of the world’s population (weird timing, I know), leaving survivors who separate into two groups: one good and one evil, destined to clash before the story is over. Joining the ranks of the evildoers is Donald Elbert, a mentally ill pyromaniac better known as the Trashcan Man. Now, Entertainment Weekly that Elbert will be played by none other than Justice League veteran Ezra Miller, adding yet another big name to the cast.

“It’s so different from any way that anyone has seen Erza before, and he’s so committed to it,” said The Stand showrunner Benjamin Cavell. “He’s a huge fan of the book and had fallen in love with this character and wanted to play it for a long time. On our first call, he described Trash as ‘the embodiment of pyromania.’ The only thing this guy was capable of, and the only area in life he was comfortable, were with  the explosives and instruments of fire and destruction.”

"He wears basically no clothes except for his extensive tactical gear. So he just kind of in underwear and combat boots … the character has to be right on the edge of over-the-top. But no matter how strangely he’s behaving there’s always this Ezra Miller soul as a twinkle coming through. I can’t say enough about how brilliant he is in it."

Miller has a history of playing darker, more disturbed roles — see also his turn as the troubled Credence Barebone in the Fantastic Beasts movies — so playing Trashcan Man isn’t that much of a stretch for him, although Elbert is more messed up than even his usual characters.

He’s also critical to the climax of King’s book, although we won’t say how. If you’ve seen the 1994 miniseries where Trashcan Man was played by Matt Frewer, you know what we’re talking about.

“What excites me is the deception of behavior and appearances,” Miller told EW. “Trash is the underestimated and misinterpreted amongst us.”

And then there’s that “underwear and combat boots” costume, which appears to have really interested Miller. “‘Fireproof underwear’ were two of the first words out of my mouth in the first conceptual meeting,” he said. “I was very interested in working directly with the wardrobe department in creating a look based entirely on the practical demands of the characters pyromania. Trash wears nothing but what is necessary to craft incendiaries, ignite them, and get as close to the flames as possible — in order to revel in the fire.”

Early on, there were rumors that shock rocker Marilyn Manson might play Trashcan Man, which…yeah, we could see it. But it ended up that he was actually set to play a different character from King’s extended version of the book: the Kid, who drives Trashcan Man to Vegas, where Randall Flagg has set up his dark kingdom. But in the end, Cavell cut the Kid for the same reason King cut him from his original draft: there’s just not much of a reason for him to exist. So Trashcan Man will be traveling solo.

The Stand premieres on December 17.

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