New Owen Wilson superhero movie has us imagining Supervillain Owen Wilson

Oh, wow: Owen Wilson—who recently jumped, feet-first, into the world of superhero TV with his appearance as a sort of snarky time cop on Disney+’s upcoming Loki—has now picked up another cape-related credit. Per Collider, Wilson has just signed on to star in Secret Headquarters, a family-friendly superhero flick from Catfish’s Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. The film centers on a boy who stumbles across a superhero recuperating from a battle in his lair near the kids’ home, with the youngster having to help fight off various villains trying to take advantage of the do-gooder’s weakened state.

Sadly, there’s no word just yet on which role Wilson will be taking for the movie, which is being written by Christopher Yost. It would certainly be easy to imagine the actor playing a self-effacing good guy type, a sort of “Drillbit Taylor,” if you will. But we have to ask: Where is the Dark Owen in all this? Like, every smile-y good guy actor has one, buried underneath that sunny personality, whether it’s Jim Carrey playing The Cable Guy, or Robin Williams in One Hour Photo, or Jim Carrey in The Number 23. (Actually, a lot of the names on this list are just Jim Carrey…Hm.) The closest equivalent we can think of for Wilson is his turn as a cult leader in Documentary Now!, and even that was pretty goofy. When will we finally get to see Owen Wilson go full supervillain, huh? Maybe a sort of Ewan McGregor-in-Birds-Of-Prey thing, where he combines movie star charisma with sickening violence? Owen Wilson as an evil Eternal, facing off with the good Eternals? Owen Wilson Joker, perhaps? (We would like to formally apologize in advance if Owen Wilson Joker ever actually happens on account of the previous sentence.)

Anyway: None of that is probably happening here, since this is a family-friendly superhero thing. But it’s nice to dream.