It has been a good few years for a very specific type of comedic actor with a bit of a weirdo sensibility—in terms of getting work in animated movies, at least. First there was Jay Baruchel in How To Train Your Dragon and John C. Reilly in Wreck-It Ralph. Then Josh Gad melted everyone’s hearts as the wacky snowman in Frozen. Now comedian T.J. Miller—himself a specific type of comedic actor with a bit of a weirdo sensibility—is getting in on the action.
As reported by Rotoscopers, Miller let it slip in an interview with BostInno that he would be playing a character in Disney’s upcoming Big Hero 6, an animated movie based on the Marvel superhero team of the same name. Based on the fact that Miller usually plays characters he describes as “weird people,” Rotoscopers theorized that he’d be playing Fred, whom they described as the team’s comic relief. And Miller himself later confirmed this in a tweet (that has since been deleted), saying simply, “Look how cool [Big Hero 6] looks. I’m Fred.”
In the comics, Marvel’s Big Hero 6 is a team of heroes created by the Japanese government that features characters like Wasabi-No-Ginger, GoGo Tomago, Honey Lemon, and the aforementioned, dully named Fred. The movie will combine the comic’s Japanese setting with a more Western one, setting the story in a fictional city called San Fransokyo. If that doesn’t tip you off, Big Hero 6 will most likely exist outside of the established Marvel Cinematic Universe, meaning a cartoon Nick Fury probably won’t show up at the end and say something enigmatic about The Avengers.