The Floronic Man is coming to DC Universe’s Swamp Thing and he might be played Kevin Durand. Durand is no stranger to genre media, specifically comic books properties. The actor played Fred Dukes, otherwise known as Blob, in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Durand also had a major role in the FX series The Strand as well as ABC’s Lost.
Interestingly Swamp Thing has already cast a major villain for season 1. Will Patton has been tapped to play series regular Avery Sunderland. While all signs point to Sunderland being the main antagonist of the first season, if not the entire series, he could be backed up by a far more monstrous persona in Durand’s The Floronic Man.
That Hashtag Show reports Kevin Durand is in the midst of negotiations to play Jason Woodrue better known to comic fans as The Floronic Man. Woodrue would be a recurring role on Swamp Thing with the likely, but unconfirmed, option for it to grow into a series regular as The Floronic Man is one of Swamp Thing’s greatest enemies in the comics. In these reports it’s clear that no formal offer has been extended to Durand to play Woodrue. The actor is just “in talks” to inhabit the role. However, rumors circulated that Derek Mears was in talks to play Swamp Thing before he was officially announced.
There aren’t any character details yet about Swamp Thing’s version of Woodrue. With original characters joining the series like Virginia Madsen’s Maria Sunderland, the wife of Avery, the streaming series has established that it’s very open to switching up comic book canon. The Floronic Man first appeared in 1962 as a character known as Plant Man in the pages of Atom before moving onto The Flash as The Floronic Man. For a few years Floronic Man bounced around fighting various heroes in the DC Universe before settling on Swamp Thing, who made far more sense for him as an adversary.
Though his origin has changed in recent years to be a human who was given plant-like powers, originally Floronic Man was an exile from an inter-dimensional world. A brilliant scientist, Woodrue transformed himself into a human and plant hybrid with devastating powers. Floronic Man first ran afoul of Swamp Thing when he was hired by Avery Sunderland in order to discover how scientist Alec Holland gained his powers and turned into Swamp Thing. Floronic Man eventually betrayed Sunderland and trapped in him a room with a very murderous Swamp Thing.
Production is still a few weeks away on DC Universe’s Swamp Thing so this is heavy speculation, but it’s probable that the series will follow a similar story for their version of Woodrue. The character description for Avery Sunderland already made clear that the character will be dangerously obsessed with Swamp Thing in the TV series. It’s not much of a stretch to believe that Patton’s Sunderland will hire Woodrue as the “muscle” in his showdown with Alec Holland’s new alter ego.
More: DC Universe Reveals Original TV Show Release Schedule
Swamp Thing will premiere on DC Universe sometime in 2019.
Source: THS
