J. August Richards says he had no idea he was going to be Deathlok

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Just to give you an idea of how hush-hush Marvel has been with their movies and television series: actor J. August Richards recently revealed he had no clue his Michael Peterson was going to become Deathlok in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. In an interview with Hero Complex, the actor was asked how far in advance did he know he would be coming back for the show after appearing in the pilot, and Richards says everything is on a need-to-know basis with Marvel. Richards also says he had a costume fitting, but didn't know it was for Deathlok.

"Not far in advance at all. Everything with Marvel is on a need-to-know basis, so I didn’t officially know until the second episode I did, which I think was the 10th episode in the season. Information is carefully guarded over there. I definitely didn’t know that I was Deathlok. I even had a costume fitting, and I didn’t know what I was being fitted for!"

J. August Richards was then asked if he did any research for the character once he found out he was going to play Deathlok. Richards said he did, but he also collected and read a ton of comics as a kid.

"I did, but honestly, I feel like I’ve researched this role my whole life because I was a comic book collector as a kid. Once I found out that I was playing Deathlok, I unearthed my old comic book collection.  I was going home for Christmas and I have a collection of thousands of comics.  I was surprised to see that 90% of them were Marvel. So, I wanted to go through my collection and start there. Fortunately I had the “Guide to the Marvel Universe,” all of them, and I looked up Deathlok and read a little about him there. I started doing research on the Internet, and then Marvel was kind enough to give me access to some of the older comics. I read some of the Michael Collins versions of Deathlok and got what I needed from that, but I also wanted to make sure that my research and my information were based on what I was doing on the show."

So does J. August Richards have any details he wants to share on Marvel's plans for his character on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Nope.

"I can’t really comment on that ’cause there are things that I know and things that I don’t know, so any answer that I give you would be incomplete and would get me in trouble! What I do know is that I love characters where I can’t quite look to others to get cues from.  I have to create this since he’s never been done before, and I’ve never seen anything like it. It just requires me to show up and be on my game."

I know shitting on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the popular thing right now, but I'm very interested in seeing what Marvel will do with Deathlok. He's been a fan favorite character for years, and I hope Marvel finds a way for him to appear in a future film. Is there any chance we'll be seeing him in THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, or will the character only be used in the television series? I guess we're going to have to wait and see.

The next episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will air on ABC on March 4th, 2014.