Why Metamorpho From James Gunn's Superman Looks So Familiar

Despite James Gunn's "Superman" being yet another reboot of the character for the big screen, the film isn't taking the typical origin story route. Instead, the movie meets up with the titular Kryptonian already being quite a ways into his journey as the defender of Earth, and with that, the film's cast contains a rather large number of other heroes and villains — more than we're used to seeing in a typical superhero movie universe's starting point.

One of those heroes is Metamorpho, the Element Man, whose comic book origins go back to the 1960s but who has yet to be portrayed in live action. For the character's non-animated screen debut, he's being played by actor Anthony Carrigan. Carrigan is currently best known as NoHo Hank of the acclaimed HBO series "Barry," a character who stole pretty much every scene he was in as the longtime frenemy of the show's lead character. In fact, NoHo Hank was originally supposed to die in Episode 1, but Carrigan's performance was just too good to be a one-and-done.

But "Superman" and "Barry" are far from the only high-profile projects on Carrigan's resumé. The actor has several significant movies and TV shows under his belt that people might also recognize him from.

Not only does Anthony Carrigan have several notable characters in his filmography that predate "Superman," but Metamorpho isn't even the actor's first DC role — in fact, it's his third. Carrigan first stepped into the world of DC adaptions in 2014 when he played villain Kyle Nimbus, aka The Mist, in a Season 1 episode of the CW's "The Flash." He'd reprise the role for one more episode near the end of the season.

Concurrently with his short stint on "The Flash," Carrigan also brought another DC villain to the small screen. In the first season of the Fox series "Gotham," the actor started his stint as Victor Zsasz, a hitman for hire who would remain an ongoing presence for all five seasons of the show, typically working under whichever crime boss was the show's biggest bad at the moment.

While he has yet to join the MCU, in 2021, Carrigan revealed he'd like to play Marvel's Silver Surfer in an exclusive interview with Looper, saying that getting to take on that role would prove to the world that bald actors don't always have to play villains. Of course, Julia Garner has the honor of debuting the character in the MCU in "Fantastic Four: First Steps," but there's nothing to say Carrigan couldn't play another version of the iconic hero down the road.

It's easy to lose sight of how good Anthony Carrigan is at being bad whenever NoHo Hank is being funny and charming, but despite his desire to play a hero, the actor does excel at bringing villains to life. In addition to the aforementioned TV bad guys, Carrigan also previously played an antagonist on the big screen. In 2020's "Bill & Ted Face the Music," Carrigan was a robot named Dennis who was sent back in time to kill the titular heroes. However, given that he wore a mask that obscured most of his face and having what is visible painted white, it wasn't an especially distinctive role for Carrigan in terms of fans of the film recognizing him on the street.

If you're still trying to pinpoint where you know Carrigan from and aren't satisfied by any of the movies or TV shows mentioned thus far, you might have seen him on the 2009 ABC mystery series "The Forgotten," where Carrigan played Tyler Davis in all 17 episodes. In 2011, Carrigan also played Cory Smith, a colleague of Adam Braverman (Peter Krause), for five episodes of the NBC series "Parenthood." Other film credits for Carrigan include "Death of a Unicorn," "Satanic," and "The Undying."

Finally, though it hasn't yet aired as of this writing, Carrigan is set to portray lead villain Calypso in Season 2 of Peacock's high-octane adaptation "Twisted Metal," adding yet another feather to his playing iconic villains from other media cap.