David Dastmalchian Comments on Polka-Dot Man TSS Prequel Series Chances
The Suicide Squad star David Dastmalchian talks about the chances of Polka-Dot Man returning for a prequel series. James Gunn’s Suicide Squad sequel was filled with loads of oddball characters ripped from the pages of DC Comics. And arguably the oddest and most memorable of these characters was the enigmatic Polka-Dot Man.
Of course in The Suicide Squad it initially seems that someone whose super-power is growing polka-dots all over his body won’t be much use on the team's desperate mission. But Polka-Dot Man soon proves his value when he begins using his signature polka-dots as weapons to take down bad guys. Unfortunately Polka-Dot Man ends up boosting The Suicide Squad’s already large body-count when he perishes in the film’s climactic fight against the massive kaiju Starro.
Of course Polka-Dot Man’s Suicide Squad teammate Peacemaker also supposedly died in the movie, but he still managed to come back for a sequel series on HBO Max. Given the success of the Peacemaker show, it’s natural to wonder what other The Suicide Squad characters may also make their way to the small screen in some fashion. Speaking to Polka-Dot Man actor Dastmalchian on the Moon Knight red carpet, Screen Rant asked him about the chances of his character getting a Peacemaker-like return and the actor did not rule it out. In fact Dastmalchian even proposed a way that Polka-Dot Man could live on:
This is Hollywood. Nothing is impossible. Anything could happen. Although his end was pretty epic, I don't throw that term around lightly. I felt like getting crushed by a five-story tall intergalactic starfish alien, evil overlord was pretty...that's pretty good stuff there. That needs to be the last moment of the death reel. Goodness, who knows? Maybe I could just be one of the dots that's left and it has some kind of consciousness. The dot can slither around and move.
It’s no surprise that Dastmalchian would have thought out ways for Polka-Dot Man to come back given that, besides being an actor, he is also a comic book writer. But while there’s promise in the idea of Polka-Dot Man’s consciousness being preserved through one of his dots, opening up the door on some kind of resurrection, what fans really want is a prequel that dives into the character’s incredibly insane backstory. The Suicide Squad of course offered more than a taste of how Polka-Dot Man came to be, giving some information about the origin of his polka-dot affliction, while making dark comedic hay out of his traumatic relationship with his mother. But that taste only made fans hungry to know more about the history of this bizarre and ultimately strangely sympathetic character.
Indeed there does seem to be enough substance there with Polka-Dot Man to warrant further exploration via some kind of spinoff. The Suicide Squad writer-director Gunn of course already proved his skill at fleshing out such quirky second-tier comic book characters with his smash hit Peacemaker show. Dastmalchian naturally is keeping the door open on all possibilities with his standard “anything could happen” line, but a Polka-Dot Man prequel does in fact feel like something that could happen one day. And it certainly seems that Dastmalchian would be game to revisit the character if given the chance.