Between playing Amy Pond in Doctor Who and Nebula in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Karen Gillan’s science fiction résumé is pretty stellar, and she’s not done yet. This month marks the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vo. 3, the final movie in James Gunn’s original Guardians trilogy. Whether she returns to play Nebula remains to be seen, but she’s already set her sights on another potential comic book role: Poison Ivy in the DC Universe!
The DC franchise is currently undergoing a huge change. James Gunn and Peter Safran are building out the franchise, beginning with a rebooted Superman movie. Eventually, Batman villain Pamela Isley, aka Poison Ivy, will probably get in on the action. We haven’t seen much of her on the big screen, with her only live-action movie appearance coming over 20 years ago in Batman & Robin, where she was memorably played by Uma Thurman.
Having worked under Gunn on the Guardians series, Karen Gillan has full confidence that the new DC Universe will be a huge success, and she’s already making it known that she wants the Poison Ivy role. “I always thought that Poison Ivy was really fun. So maybe something like that would be cool,” she told Total Film magazine. She certainly looks the part, with the red hair and all.
“Honestly, if James asked me to play an alien that sits in the background of a shot and doesn’t talk, I would say yes,” Gillan continued. “Because working with him has been one of the great joys of my career so far.”
Gillan has been linked with the role of Poison Ivy for some time. Her casting is popular among fans, in fact, she even features on our list of ideal live-action castings for the character.
Karen Gillan doesn’t know if she’ll return to the MCU as Nebula
Actors in superhero series can have long shelf lives. Look no further than Patrick Stewart making a surprise return as Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, over two decades after he first played the character in the original X-Men film. Or witness the myriad cameos in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Despite Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 being the final movie in Gunn’s trilogy, Gillan is aware that Marvel Studios may want her back at some point. “I was under the impression I was signing up for eight days of filming on the first film,” she said. “And then it just gradually kept getting extended. And here we are, nine or 10 years later. I just genuinely love this character so much, and I feel like there’s just an endless amount of things that could be done with her.”
"So, yeah, I would obviously love to explore more, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen. I’m waiting to see just as much as everyone else [laughs]."
A Nebula solo series on Disney+, anyone?
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now in theaters!
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