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The last time Dan Stevens turned up in an Adam Wingard movie, he was pulling an achy tooth out of Kong’s mouth in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. It was hard to imagine the longtime collaborators topping that gloriously absurd aerial-veterinarian sequence. But somehow, they may have done it with Onslaught, trading a medical transport chopper for something far more grounded and bizarre.
Onslaught is a John Carpenter- and James Cameron-inspired action-thriller that serves as an indirect sequel to Stevens and Wingard’s cult hit The Guest (2014), completing a spiritual trilogy that began with Wingard’s 2011 home-invasion slasher You’re Next. In the latter, the defense contractor KPG is merely namechecked, but The Guest put a face to the name, introducing its headquarters as the company’s board and government partners desperately attempt to cover up and contain the escape and rampage of one of its test subjects — Stevens’ unhinged super-soldier who calls himself “David Collins.”
But instead of reprising his role as David, Stevens now plays Dr. Hans Kammler, a deranged Nazi scientist descended from the legacy of Operation Paperclip, the secret U.S. post-World War II program that brought more than 1,600 Germans to America for their technical expertise. He’s working on an evolved version of the program that created David, and although the film never substantiates the connection, David could very well be Kammler’s ancestor or clone. Dr. Kammler works within a new organization known as Priapus, and Wingard, after some hemming and hawing, confirmed to THR in an upcoming interview that Kammler is the K in KPG and Priapus is the P.
Kammler is introduced at his New Mexico compound alongside his wife, Hanna Kammler. Before the doctor heads off to work, Frau Kammler orders her husband to crawl toward her and lick her feet. Adding an even stranger layer to the scene, Mrs. Kammler is played by Rebecca Hall, Stevens’ college friend and former roommate. Post-graduation, Hall’s late father, Sir Peter Hall, hired Stevens to star in Shakespeare’s As You Like It opposite his daughter.
“Initially, the role of Frau Kammler on paper wasn’t that exciting or dynamic. We said, ‘Well, how do we make this attractive to a great actress that we want to come on board? On paper, this isn’t going to fly,’” Stevens tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Onslaught’s Sept. 4 theatrical release. “So I said to Adam, ‘What if Kammler is a sub to his dominatrix wife?’ And I’ve never had a rewrite from Adam come back faster. It was literally in my inbox 12 minutes later. And then Rebecca Hall very quickly said yes.”
The latest super-soldier program once again goes terribly awry, but unlike David, whose oddly personable charm could surface at times, these new programmable killing machines are utterly devoid of humanity. They kill anyone who crosses their path, and that path ultimately leads to a climactic showdown at the trailer park community of Adria Arjona’s former Army sniper, Celeste.
Stevens has always been very noncommittal about a direct sequel to The Guest, but he doesn’t rule out more “KPG-verse” tales.
“We’re definitely open to more KPG-verse. I don’t know whether a Guest 2, per se, is on the cards anytime soon, but you never know,” Stevens says. “We’ve teed everything up for an Onslaught sequel as well, so watch this space.”
In the meantime, Stevens remains gainfully employed. He’s currently sporting bleached hair for his role on season two of Dexter: Resurrection, where, by all indications, he’s playing yet another sociopath. “It’s a really nasty character,” Stevens admits. “As much as I’ve enjoyed [the Dexter set], I’ll be happy to let him go.”
He’s also about to portray another killing machine of sorts, following up David Collins with the righteous Alex Murphy, aka RoboCop. Based on Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 film, the Amazon Prime Video series is being produced by Blumhouse Atomic Monster and showrun by Lodge 49’s Peter Ocko.
“It’s satirical, and it’s exciting to me that it preserves that sense of the original, which is one of my favorite films of all time,” Stevens shares. “It left an imprint, and I probably saw it too young. It was, perhaps, my first exposure to extreme violence. So Peter’s take is just so smart and so funny, and the time is ripe for that kind of take.”
Below, during a conversation with THR, Stevens also discusses the creation of Dr. Kammler’s unsettling appearance, as well as continuing on in the MonsterVerse without Wingard and Hall.
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In the span of a few months, you and Robert Downey Jr. are both returning to your career-changing universes as European characters who wear capes.
Wow.
I’m not sure what you’re supposed to do with that information, but it’s there for the taking.
(Laughs.) It’s got something to do with the lunar eclipse. I’ll put it down to that.
I’m one of the many journalists who’s tested your patience over the years by begging and pleading for The Guest 2. So how did you first respond to director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett’s idea for a more indirect sequel with Onslaught?
I’m excited when Adam and Simon call about anything, frankly, even if it’s just going to the movies together to see something weird. A lot of people have been asking about a sequel to The Guest, and we’ve had various ideas over the years about what form that would take. But the indirect approach, as you say, gives Adam a bit more freedom to beef up the world that we created with The Guest. He’s been out there in the world making these big studio tentpole pictures, and now he gets to bring some of those skills back to his home turf. He gets to let rip on what he loves to do. It was so joyous and glorious to see somebody who’s become a dear friend since we made The Guest 13 years ago really firing on all cylinders here.
Did I’m Your Man and Cuckoo inspire Adam and Simon to create this bald Nazi scientist?
Funnily enough, Cuckoo kind of did. When Adam first approached me, he was like, “Hey, I’ve got something great. We want you to play this crazy German scientist.” And I was like, “I’ve just done one.” We then got him a copy of Cuckoo to watch, and he was like, “Okay, let’s make it really different.” So Cuckoo pushed Kammler in a direction that we might not otherwise have gone, and we have that film to thank for how truly weird Kammler is.
How involved were you in creating his unforgettable look?
Very involved. It’s something I love to do anyway. I always get together with heads of department to create a look for a character. For this one, Adam liked the idea that he might have a genetic defect that caused a sort of albinism. For the white hair and bald cap, we had this incredible prosthetic artist, JQ [Jennifer M. Quinteros], and we spent several hours over a few sessions trying on different things. At one point, there was a mustache and a beard, but it looked a bit Colonel Sanders. So we tried different things over the course of a few weeks until we settled on this appearance, and it’s fantastic to be able to transform in that way. I loved it.
And how did Adam deliver the news that your character’s introduction would involve you licking the feet of one of your dearest friends, someone you did Shakespeare with during and after college, Rebecca Hall?
(Laughs.) Well, that was a later addition. Initially, the role of Frau Kammler on paper wasn’t that exciting or dynamic. There are very few scenes for that role. And we said, “Well, how do we make this attractive to a great actress that we want to come on board? On paper, this isn’t going to fly. What can we do?” So I said to Adam, “What if Kammler is a sub to his dominatrix wife?” And I’ve never had a rewrite from Adam come back faster. It was literally in my inbox 12 minutes later. And then Rebecca Hall very quickly said yes.
Our generation grew up on a lot of Michael Biehn movies. Was it a thrill to share the stage with him?
Oh my God, yes. The fact that we’ve got a Die Hard star [Reginald VelJohnson] and a Terminator star [Biehn] in Onslaught is incredible. I spent four hours-plus in the chair every day for the prosthetics, and so JQ and I started a movie club while I was in the chair. One of the movies we watched was The Abyss [with Biehn], which is just incredible. We also watched Lawrence of Arabia, The Substance and Thief. We went through some great movies while we were shooting.
It’s not explicitly spelled out in the movie, but does the K in Kammler represent the K in KPG? (That’s the defense contractor first name-checked in You’re Next before The Guest revealed them as the organization behind the medical experiment that created Stevens’ wayward super-soldier, “David Collins.”)
Whoa, that’s a great question, but I think that’s a question for Adam. I have no idea, but maybe. [Writer’s Note: After some hemming and hawing, Wingard gave me a yes in an upcoming interview.]
The Guest’s “David Collins” obviously resembles Kammler and his ancestor that we see in a photograph. Do you believe David’s real identity to be that of a Kammler?
God, that’s also a good question. We definitely wanted to imply that David escaped from the same kind of facility that we end up seeing in Onslaught. Whether they’re related or Kammler is creating clones of his ancestors, I don’t know. Maybe that’s something we’ll discover in a sequel.
If he is a Kammler, we can surmise that Dr. Kammler wanted to save his own family member from the spinal injury he suffered in combat, only to experiment on his pain receptors and create an unstable killing machine. (The Guest scripted the aforementioned details of David’s injury and medical procedure before eventually cutting out most of that exposition.)
We need to sit you down with Adam. We can concoct a great sequel here.
You happened to be first on my schedule, so he’ll get his own crack at these questions later.
(Laughs.)
Going forward, is Onslaught everyone’s way of saying, “Now leave us alone about The Guest 2?” Or is everybody still open to more KPG-verse?
We’re definitely open to more KPG-verse. I don’t know whether a Guest 2, per se, is on the cards anytime soon, but you never know. On April Fool’s Day a few years ago, I really enjoyed the fact that we released an incredible soundtrack to The Guest 2, which was fully orchestrated by Adam enlisting some of his favorite musicians. He sent them a brief outline of what The Guest 2 might be, and they went away to write these incredible tracks. So if you play the soundtrack and imagine The Guest 2 in your mind, it’s probably better than anything we could come up with.
I’ve always found David’s last (?) words to Luke (Brendan Meyer) to be an interesting choice: “You did the right thing. I don’t blame you. Don’t feel bad.” Do you remember how you played that or what he meant by that?
Gosh, I can’t remember. I think he respected [Luke’s] devotion to his mission. David is somebody who’s incredibly programmed and single-minded in terms of, I will execute this program. I will execute this mission. So I think he saw that [in Luke] and had a mutual respect for it. The Terminator 2 thumb sinking into the smoke, that was a lovely day too.
It really is your fault that people like me have been hassling you for years about a sequel. The Guest ended in such a tantalizing way that you can’t help but wonder what’s next.
(Laughs.) Yeah, and we’ve teed everything up for an Onslaught sequel as well, so watch this space.
Congratulations on being the next Alex Murphy.
Thank you very much.
The role practically sells itself, but as a long-time fan of Peter Ocko (Lodge 49) myself, what was it about his take on RoboCop that struck a chord with you?
It’s very funny. It’s satirical, and it’s exciting to me that it preserves that sense of the original, which is one of my favorite films of all time. For someone of my generation, it’s right up there. It left an imprint, and I probably saw it too young. It was, perhaps, my first exposure to extreme violence. So Peter’s take is just so smart and so funny, and the time is ripe for that kind of take. I feel very excited and very lucky.
RoboCop seems like it’s right in Adam’s wheelhouse, so did he freak out over the news?
Oh yeah, for sure. He texted me and was like: “Did I just wake up in an alternate reality where you are RoboCop?”
If anybody is tailor-made for the Dexter universe, it’s you. How’s your dance with the Bay Harbor Butcher going?
So fun. It’s such a fun family to join. It’s a great set to be on, and it’s a really nasty character. As much as I’ve enjoyed it, I’ll be happy to let him go.
Is that what the peroxide in your hair is for?
It is, yeah.
You joined the Godzilla franchise to work with Adam and Rebecca, but now you’re the only one who remains. Do you feel some degree of survivor’s guilt?
(Laughs.) There’s no guilt at all. I’m very, very grateful to Adam again for giving me not just a great character introduction, but a great character in Trapper. And the fact that I got to carry forward what we created together in [Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire] into this next installment was really fun. So despite Adam not being involved in [Godzilla x Kong: Supernova], the spirit of what we created in The New Empire is very much still there.
I thought Trapper would forever be your greatest character introduction, but Kammler makes a compelling argument.
Wingard has a lot to answer for, but I’m eternally grateful to him for two great character intros.
I was hoping Onslaught would recreate The New Empire’s behind-the-scenes photo of you and Adam pointing in the distance with Rebecca cracking up on the side. It would’ve been quite something with you in Kammler mode, but alas …
(Laughs.) I’m sure there’s something similar in the archives. We’ll have to have a dig, but it was great fun to have the three of us together again in a very different mold. I’m sure we’ll get together again on something else at some point.
Lastly, what moment sums up the Onslaught experience for you?
We got incredible production value out of this abandoned Albuquerque newspaper factory. This facility had all these incredibly intricate, massive machines, and so there’s these incredible tracking shots as Kammler is arriving. Adam was in such fine form, and I’m sure there’s footage of him doing this incredible spinning dance behind the camera as it tracks Kammler and his men walking through this factory. When things are going well, Adam is dancing, and that’s always a delight.
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Onslaught opens in theaters on September 4.
English (US) ·