Lewis Tan has confirmed that he’s discussed the Nightwing movie with DC, among other projects. The actor, who recently starred as Shatterstar in Deadpool 2, announced that he had met with DC through his social media accounts last month. Tan further posted a photo of himself carrying a stack of comics books that included Ed Brubaker’s Batman Vol. 2 and tagged DC’s digital service in the image, but avoided shedding more light on what, exactly, he and the comic book company talked about beyond that.

However, a few weeks after that, Tan posted fan-art of himself as Nightwing, leading to fan speculation that he’s gunning to play said character in DC’s cinematic universe (aka. the DC Extended Universe). Tan has now confirmed that LEGO Batman Movie director Chris McKay’s Nightwing movie was something that he and DC’s executives talked about during their June meet-up.

Tan confirmed as much to THS, when the outlet caught up with him at the 2018 Saturn Awards this past week. The actor further discussed his desire to collaborate with DC, having already worked on a pair of Marvel projects (Deadpool 2 and Marvel TV’s Iron Fist):

[UPDATE: Since this interview went live, Tan has taken to Twitter to emphasize that his meeting with DC was not “specifically” for Nightwing.]

 I know Chris McKay wants a martial artist, right, so that’s out there. He’s following me on Twitter, you know…there’s a lot of good juju vibes out there for that. Nothing that I can say that is confirmed. This is a project that he’s still developing and I sat down with DC, with some of the executives at DC, and they’re big fans, I’m a big fan, obviously. My father came to America, because of Batman (Tan’s father worked on Tim Burton’s 1989 film) and, you know, I definitely want to see that come full circle and give back. Im not trading in my Marvel roots, because they started me, but DC started my dad, so it would be nice to go over there and play around and find the right thing. So we’re looking for the right thing and there were a lot of different talks and Nightwing was one of those that were mentioned, so we’ll see.

Between his brief, but memorable, turns in Iron Fist and Deadpool 2, and his role as the character Gaius Chau on AMC’s martial arts fantasy epic series Into the Badlands, Tan’s star is very much on the rise right now. The actor has been aided in his quest to become an action star by his practical martial arts experience, which only further makes him a promising candidate to bring the acrobatic Nightwing to life in live-action. It is unclear at the moment where McKay’s DC movie is at in development, especially now that the DC movie slate is being reorganized in the wake of the DCEU’s leadership changes. All the same, Tan clearly already has the support of many fans, when it comes to him possibly landing the Nightwing role.

Tan and THS further discussed how, were Tan to land the role, it would mean that Nightwing would be biracial in the DC film universe. The actor has expressed a desire to see more non-white actors cast in comic book and/or superhero projects in the past, and was even in the running to play Danny Rand aka. Iron Fist in the Marvel TV show, at one point. DC has already began to diversify its cinematic universe by casting Jason Momoa (who is part Hawaiian, part Native American) as Aquaman, and would only further do so by casting Tan (who is part Asian) as Nightwing. Plus, as the actor himself noted to THS, he does indeed come equipped with the ability to perform all of his own stunts, on top of that:

The actor has also confirmed that he’s qualified to play Nightwing in other respects (per his Twitter account):

Yeah, I would put everything into it. I think that, when you’re a martial artist and you’re doing an action show, you can do so much more. You don’t have to cut around the actor, you don’t have to hide the actor and the performance alone is going to show so much more because it’s all you and you’re all there and you’re putting your blood, sweat and physicality into the role which is a big part of these type of films, you know, like Deadpool and Batman and Iron Fist, all those roles that I did, I can put so much more into it and I think it comes across, you know, and when fans see it they go, “Wow, that was incredible!”, even if it was short they go, “Wow, that was incredible!” and I think it’s because of that effort you put into it.

MORE: Every DC Movie That’s Currently in Development

We will bring you more Nightwing and/or Lewis Tan-related news as it comes our way.

Source: THS

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