Dominic Cooper on the return of Agent Carter, Captain America's shock revelation and his dream Preacher guest star
From Howard Stark to Jesse Custer, the British actor has had a super journey through the comic book ages
He's currently wowing audiences and critics alike as super powered man of God Jesse Custer in Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's adaptation of comic book series Preacher, but Dominic Cooper hasn't forgotten his original superhero roots.
The British actor first dipped his toe in the comic book universe as Captain America's Howard Stark (aka Iron Man's dad), and that's a role he says he'll never say no to reprising.
“I’d always love to play Howard", Cooper tells RadioTimes.com on a sunny Friday morning in London's Soho. "He’s such a fun character to play and that’s why I didn’t hesitate when I mentioned that there was a TV series being made."
That TV series, Agent Carter – starring Hayley Atwell as the titular spy – ran for two series before being cancelled, much to the dismay of fans who immediately began petitioning for its return.
"I think it’s great that there are people campaigning and that they want it back" the actor says, "but it’s hard to say or to know whether certain shows have done their time or whether there is more to be said or more to be done."
While he's not too sure about the series returning, he is convinced we haven't seen the last of its characters: "I’m sure those characters will be returning in some form in the future. They’ll be missed and I think that they will be brought back somehow."
And there’ll surely be plenty of room to get them back in action now that we’ve learned Captain America has been evil all along, right?
"Captain America is evil? You’ve got to be joking", a shocked Cooper gasps. It seems nobody’s told him about Marvel’s big comic book revelation.
"No… I made his shield. God. Is that really true?” he asks, before musing that the big twist is “kind of brilliant."
It’s enough to send Cooper, who freely admits he was once one of the people who would dismiss comic book readers as “un-normal”, into a little tailspin.
“I’ve now come to learn is that there’s such an imaginative universe that’s so brilliantly creative and so filmic when you look at them, and when you create those landscapes and those worlds in your head”, he says when asked why he thinks comic books are now viewed as mainstream cool.
“I think that they’re much more imaginative that I ever gave them credit to be and I wish I’d read more of them. I think that they’re a real chance, a first opportunity to get into reading, and I think they lead people into reading books much more as well.”
What does he think of fans’ campaigns to get his old pal Captain America a boyfriend, then?
“Get Captain America a boyfriend as well? Well, I mean they can do anything they please, it’s a fantastic idea”, Cooper says.
Speaking of romance and bromance, he’d love to get his History Boys co-star and good friend James Corden in on the Preacher action too.
“That would be amazing”, Cooper tells RadioTimes.com when we ask if he’d like to see James popping up in a future episode.
“He’s so ridiculously busy, but yeah, that’s a very good point. And there’ll be some great characters coming up so yeah, I’m going to make that phone call immediately.
“He really misses doing stuff like that as well”, says Cooper of his pal, who has already tweeted his support for both the show and its leading man.
“He’d be very much up for it", says Cooper, "but he’s so busy doing his show, I don’t know whether we could steal him.”
Preacher continues on Amazon Prime on Mondays
