Sebastian Stan might be best known for playing The Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he also has a long history of choosing exciting non-superhero projects. In the past, he’s played everyone from police officers to NASCAR drivers to Tonya Harding’s infamous boyfriend Jeff Gillooly. Next he’s set to play Tommy Lee in a Hulu show, and if fans are lucky, they could get to see him play wrestling legend Ric Flair afterwards. Now if that doesn’t deserve a loud and pompous WOOOOOOOO I don’t know what does.
The idea came up in a recent interview thanks to Sebastian Stan’s former co-star Paul Walter Hauser. Hauser is a huge wrestling guy and tweets about it frequently. He’s also buddies with Stan. The two have apparently talked about doing a biopic about Ric Flair and Arn Anderson, and the subject came up during Stan’s recent interview with Frosty from Collider. You can check out a portion of the quote below...
We gotta do that Ric Flair/ (Arn) Anderson biopic... (Paul Walter Hauser) is so funny, and he’s such a big wrestling fan. I was a big wrestling fan too growing up like I loved WWF and stuff… I’ll do it in a second if they let me. I mean pretty soon I’ll be eligible, I guess.
Playing Ric Flair is a tall order. The history of wrestling has been built by men and women with over-abundances of charisma, and with all apologies to The Rock and other legends on the microphone, I’m not sure anyone in the squared circle has ever had more charisma than Flair. The limousine ridin’, jet flyin’ son of a gun was able to draw unreal fan response, especially as a heel and is responsible for some of the best performances in wrestling history including in the greatest Royal Rumble of all-time in 1992. I mean look at this victory face...
Arn Anderson doesn’t have any of the same pop culture pull as Ric Flair, but the brilliant in-ring tactician and workhorse heel was a longtime partner of Flair’s. The men predominantly worked together in a stable called The Four Horseman that’s widely considered to be either the best or second best wrestling faction of all-time (depending on how one feels about the recently enshrined nWo or I guess DX). The group’s primary run was in the late 1980s and included Ole Anderson and Tully Blanchard, but they got back together in various forms over the years, and Flair and Anderson also joined forces for non-Horseman storylines in a variety of promotions including WWE.
Obviously Paul Hauser has already put a lot of thought into fantasy casting the other primary members of the Four Horseman too. He recently dropped his ideal picks on social media, and his choices are quite good. You can check out his tweet below…
I’m not going to get too excited yet considering actors have 50 ideas in Hollywood for every one that actually gets made, but at the same time, the world could really use a Ric Flair movie. The casting choices are also spot-on, as Ben Foster is great in every single thing he's in and Ethan Suplee is a great comedic support and is now jacked. Flair's name also still means something to people, and with a Hulk Hogan movie on the way with Chris Hemsworth and a recent popular documentary on Andre The Giant, I can’t think of a better person to get his due next. And if we can get Sebastian Stan and Paul Walter Hauser, all the better.
