Aaron Johnson’s Kick-Ass is returning to the big screen for a second outing, and new director Jeff Wadlow looks to be gathering a head of steam in terms of casting the sequel to Matthew Vaughn’s alternative superhero movie. Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and even Nicolas Cage (in a rumoured cameo role) all look set to return for “Kick Ass 2: Balls to the Wall,” and the task of filling the huge amount of supporting roles from Mark Millar’s twisted comic book sequel is now well underway.
Donald Faison and John Leguizamo have already signed up to play Dr. Gravity and Javier respectively, but now we have two more casting confirmations and one very interesting rumor. British actor Robert Emms (“Mirror, Mirror”) will join the cast as Insect Man – a cop who became a hero after growing disillusioned by the lack of competence in the police department. So he’s kinda Ant-Man meets John Blake then? Meanwhile, Morris Chestnut (“V”) will replace Omari Hardwick as Marcus Williams, the guardian of Chloe Moretz’s Hit-Girl.
Those both sound like relatively minor roles, but a slightly bigger and showier role – that of The Colonel – is up for grabs, and Deadline reports that Jim Carrey is the man being sought for the part. Carrey has flirted with superhero movies before (his Riddler was arguably the saving grace of “Batman Forever”) and is reportedly a big fan of the first “Kick-Ass” movie. But as the site points out, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Carrey will say yes to a part that, if it follows the comic books closely, is a little bit grizzly. [Spoilers to follow]
Colonel Stars is an ex-mafia member who becomes a born-again Christian and costumed vigilante, and he (alongside his sister Lieutenant Stripes) forms Justice Forever – a team of heroes that Kick-Ass is recruited to. Their main adversary is Red Mist, who has now renamed himself The Motherfucker and who has also been assembling a team of supervillains. Things don’t end well for The Colonel after the Motherfucker attacks the Justice Forever headquarters. He decapitates both The Colonel and his dog, before ultimately placing the dog’s head on The Colonel’s corpse. If that sounds rough, just wait til we tell you about the gang rapes and the mass killings.
It’s a significant role, but one that wouldn’t extend into the third act. It’s also a role that may seem a little risky for someone with a profile like Carrey, however much we’d love to see him do it. We’ve no doubt that he could absolutely nail the simultaneously goofy yet darkly comic tone the role would require, and we’d much rather see him doing something like this than another “Mr. Popper’s Penguins.” Maybe it will ultimately depend on what changes are made from the original text (Matthew Vaughn did one helluva job tinkering with the first comic) in terms of attracting higher-profile stars.