Nathan Fillion

Today, ladies and gentlemen, is an important day. Today is the 38th anniversary of the birth of one Nathan C.* Fillion, and as such should surely be a public holiday. Because while you may not know the name, or even the face, Fillion holds a unique place in the heart of millions of film and TV fans worldwide, and should really be a national treasure for every country worth its salt. Today of all days, in lieu of the worldwide day of witticism-quipping, bonnet-wearing and pie-eating that we should be indulging in to celebrate the birth of such an important figure, we thought we’d look at the Fillion phenomenon, and maybe try to explain his awesomeness for the uninitiated.

Here’s the weird thing about Nathan Fillion: he’s not a big star, but every single time that a major piece of (especially) comic-book casting comes up, his name is binged about with the same regularity of other fanboy favourites like Christian Bale and Robert Downey Jr - people who are, y’know, stars.

Google his name and Captain America and you’ll get over 22,000 hits. For Superman, 34,000 and change. For Batman, it’s 58,000. The fanboys want him for Green Lantern, for Steve Trevor (Wonder Woman’s guy, who he actually already voiced in the latest Wonder Woman animated film), for Halo’s Master Chief, for you name it. It’s almost an online joke: the moment a big-budget film requiring an action star is announced, someone will suggest Nathan Fillion for the part.

The reasons for this fanatical devotion are many and varied. First of all, he’s pretty good: he has the cheesily good looks of a big star, the ability to deliver one-liners with panache and a way with action. Secondly, he can do all this with a sense of wry self-awareness and tongue firmly in cheek. This crosses over into the camp at times (see his performance in Joss Whedon’s AWESOME musical blog Dr Horrible) but he can walk the line: Firefly’s Captain Mal Reynolds is this millenium’s only true Han Solo-alike. Thirdly, he’s very, very funny in interviews, good to fans and comes across as an immensely likeable guy.

So Hollywood, if you’re listening, why not dip your toe in the water and give Fillion something to do? His turn in Waitress shows that he can do rom-coms; the barmy monster horror that is Slither showed he can battle large, squishy things, and Firefly and Serenity showed he can do anything. Heck, all this and he can sing.

This is turning into a love letter. I’m not one of the crazed Fillion fangirls - I don’t believe he’s capable of playing every part out there, and believe me some people do - but I do think the guy deserves a bigger break than he’s had to date. So let’s celebrate his birthday by joining the fun: what roles should he play? And what’s your favourite Fillion turn to date?

*An internet search has not revealed what this "C." stands for. We’re going to guess "Crazily Cool". That, or Cedric.