Chris Pratt is ready to join James Gunn’s DCU

Here he is seen doing his best Blue Steel at the premiere of… (looks at notes) …Garfield. Chris Pratt has, of course, signaled that he’s ready to join James Gunn’s burgeoning DCU. Why the sudden seriousness? Pratt recently visited the set of Gunn’s new Superman movie and he obviously liked what he saw. Presumably it was things like the on-location filming and the red underwear. The red underwear was definitely it.

Whatever the case, TMZ’s cameras caught Pratt remarkably not shying away from the question he’ll probably be asked 8 million times before someone pulls the trigger.

By deadline:

The actor said there was “always a chance” that he could make the jump to the franchise, but was reticent to name a character he would like to play.

“I have to leave that up to the fans and people like James,” Pratt told TMZ. “I’m not entirely sure. I’m really not sure.”

When Pratt was asked directly if he would join the rival company, he answered without hesitation: “Yes, of course.”

If you like the surprisingly decent Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3then you know that Pratt’s Star-Lord is still very much in the pipeline at Marvel. However, the studio is going through a lot right now, so who the hell knows when or if anything will be filmed there.

I am not saying that Pratt will abandon ship completely, because despite his role as Worst Chris, his Star-Lord is a fan favorite. When I said that Guardian 3 is surprisingly good, and that includes Pratt’s performance. The second film saw him stray a little too far into leading man Chris Pratt™ mode after his more Andy Dwyer-esque debut in the first. The third found an incredibly solid middle ground, and even I had to grudgingly admit, “OK, I get why this guy is a movie star.” The point of my rambling is that Pratt is a shiny gold coin for a studio that has very little of it right now.

However, it could be quite a while before Marvel takes Star-Lord off the ice, so why wouldn’t Pratt accept a huge pile of money from Warner Bros. to star with Gunn in the DCU? The only problem with that scenario is that we’re now faced with a very scary prospect: Chris Pratt as Batman. The brave and bold is on the DCU’s agenda, and a safe, boring casting decision like Pratt’s would no doubt set every bean rolling in the bean-counting department.

May God have mercy on us all.