Deadline is reporting that British actor Peter Serafinowicz has been cast in Amazon’s revival of The Tick, replacing Patrick Warburton, who played the big blue bug of justice on Fox’s mid-2000s version of the cult superhero show. The deep-voiced, 6’5” actor joins a cast that already includes Griffin Newman and Valerie Curry, who’ll play The Tick’s moth-suited sidekick Arthur and his sister Dot, respectively.
If Serafinowicz sounds familiar, it’s because he’s been in—to use a technical term—a shitload of things, from Shaun Of The Dead to South Park to Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, where he provided the voice for the taciturn Darth Maul. If nothing else, comic book fans probably remember him from Guardians Of The Galaxy, where he played a dour member of the futilely heroic Nova Corps. (Comedy dorks, meanwhile, know him as one of the minds behind the surreal genius of the BBC’s faux-educational “science” series, Look Around You.)
Tick fans worried that a Brit is taking over the character—originally created by Ben Edlund, who’s executive producing the Amazon pilot—might want to check out the clip below, where Serafinowicz seamlessly cycles through 50 impressions of fake celebrities for the U.K.’s version of Funny Or Die. We’re pretty sure the stalwart Rik Keanureeves (or maybe The Murderist star Jip Jones) would sound perfect shouting “Spoon,” and punching evil in its big, stupid face.