Looks like one of our favorite Beverly Hills, 90210 actors just landed a devil of a role.
Ian Ziering, who played Steve Sanders on the beloved 1990s series, has just been cast in the role of Daniel Cassidy—better known to DC fans as Blue Devil—in DC Universe’s highly anticipated new Swamp Thing series.
If you’re check-in here at DCComics.com pretty regularly, you know we’ve been covering Swamp Thing’s casting and development pretty closely, as it’s assembled a pretty impressive core cast. And it appears that they’re not quite done when it comes to filling out the series.
Per the show’s description of the character, stuntman turned movie star Daniel Cassidy became semi-famous after playing the demonic Blue Devil. But now, eight years later, Cassidy finds himself living out his days in frustration, pining for his former fame while on a collision course with destiny.
That above image of Blue Devil is production art from the series—a poster promoting Cassidy’s fictional horror film. The character of Blue Devil was created in the mid-1980s and anchored his own self-titled series for over thirty issues. Since then, he’s appeared in series like SHADOWPACT and JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK (Cassidy plays a significant role in the current Justice League Dark storyline), and is overall seen as a key supporting member in the magic-based corner of the DC Universe.
In the comics, Cassidy was an actor playing the monstrous role of Blue Devil for a production when a confrontation with an actual demon resulted in him becoming permanently fused with the suit. As far as his powers go, they’ve varied over the years, but he’s a powerful fighter, skilled acrobat, possesses superhuman strength and durability and is just generally connected to the magic community overall.
Since his role on 90210, Ziering has stayed busy, and has found some success in the realm of science fiction and superheroes. He voiced roles on both Batman Beyond and 2003’s Spider-Man animated series, in which he played Harry Osborn. Most notably, he’s been a regular part of Syfy’s infamous Sharknado franchise, where he played the male lead, Fin Shepard.
This is actually the second casting announcement today for a DC Universe original series. Earlier today, Joel McHale was announced for the role of Golden Age Starman in next year’s Stargirl series. Swamp Thing, which is executive produced by James Wan, Mark Verheiden, Gary Dauberman, Michael Clear and Len Wiseman, is also set to premiere in 2019, so you might want to make sure you’re subscribed to DC Universe since you're not going to want to miss out!