{"id":671073,"date":"2026-09-03T21:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/671073\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T21:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:25:12","slug":"onslaught-dan-stevens-on-expanding-the-guest-becoming-robocop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/671073\/","title":{"rendered":"Onslaught: Dan Stevens on Expanding The Guest, Becoming RoboCop"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe last time Dan Stevens<\/a> turned up in an Adam Wingard<\/a> movie, he was pulling an achy tooth out of Kong\u2019s 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<\/a>, trading a medical transport chopper for something far more grounded and bizarre.<\/p>\n

\n\tOnslaught is a John Carpenter- and James Cameron-inspired action-thriller that serves as an indirect sequel to Stevens and Wingard\u2019s cult hit The Guest<\/a> (2014), completing a spiritual trilogy that began with Wingard\u2019s 2011 home-invasion slasher You\u2019re 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\u2019s board and government partners desperately attempt to cover up and contain the escape and rampage of one of its test subjects \u2014 Stevens\u2019 unhinged super-soldier who calls himself \u201cDavid Collins.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tKammler 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<\/a>, Stevens\u2019 college friend and former roommate. Post-graduation, Hall\u2019s late father, Sir Peter Hall, hired Stevens to star in Shakespeare\u2019s As You Like It opposite his daughter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cInitially, the role of Frau Kammler on paper wasn\u2019t that exciting or dynamic. We said, \u2018Well, how do we make this attractive to a great actress that we want to come on board? On paper, this isn\u2019t going to fly,\u2019\u201d Stevens tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Onslaught\u2019s Sept. 4 theatrical release. \u201cSo I said to Adam, \u2018What if Kammler is a sub to his dominatrix wife?\u2019 And I\u2019ve never had a rewrite from Adam come back faster. It was literally in my inbox 12 minutes later. And then Rebecca Hall<\/a> very quickly said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 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\u2019s former Army sniper, Celeste<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tStevens has always been very noncommittal about a direct sequel to The Guest, but he doesn\u2019t rule out more \u201cKPG-verse\u201d tales.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re definitely open to more KPG-verse. I don\u2019t know whether a Guest 2, per se, is on the cards anytime soon, but you never know,\u201d Stevens says. \u201cWe\u2019ve teed everything up for an Onslaught sequel as well, so watch this space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the meantime, Stevens remains gainfully employed. He\u2019s currently sporting bleached hair for his role on season two of Dexter: Resurrection<\/a>, where, by all indications, he\u2019s playing yet another sociopath. \u201cIt\u2019s a really nasty character,\u201d Stevens admits. \u201cAs much as I\u2019ve enjoyed [the Dexter set], I\u2019ll be happy to let him go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s also about to portray another killing machine of sorts, following up David Collins with the righteous Alex Murphy, aka RoboCop<\/a>. Based on Paul Verhoeven\u2019s 1987 film, the Amazon Prime Video series is being produced by Blumhouse Atomic Monster and showrun by Lodge 49\u2019s Peter Ocko.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s satirical, and it\u2019s exciting to me that it preserves that sense of the original, which is one of my favorite films of all time,\u201d Stevens shares. \u201cIt left an imprint, and I probably saw it too young. It was, perhaps, my first exposure to extreme violence. So Peter\u2019s take is just so smart and so funny, and the time is ripe for that kind of take.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, during a conversation with THR, Stevens also discusses the creation of Dr. Kammler\u2019s unsettling appearance, as well as continuing on in the MonsterVerse without Wingard and Hall.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIn 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWow.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m not sure what you\u2019re supposed to do with that information, but it\u2019s there for the taking.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) It\u2019s got something to do with the lunar eclipse. I\u2019ll put it down to that.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDan Stevens as David Collins in Adam Wingard\u2019s The Guest (2014).<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Sundance<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m one of the many journalists who\u2019s tested your patience over the years by begging and pleading for <\/strong>The Guest 2<\/strong>. So how did you first respond to director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett\u2019s idea for a more indirect sequel with <\/strong>Onslaught<\/strong>?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m excited when Adam and Simon call about anything, frankly, even if it\u2019s 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\u2019ve 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\u2019s 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\u2019s become a dear friend since we made The Guest 13 years ago really firing on all cylinders here.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid <\/strong>I\u2019m Your Man<\/strong> and <\/strong>Cuckoo<\/strong> inspire Adam and Simon to create this bald Nazi scientist?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tFunnily enough, Cuckoo kind of did. When Adam first approached me, he was like, \u201cHey, I\u2019ve got something great. We want you to play this crazy German scientist.\u201d And I was like, \u201cI\u2019ve just done one.\u201d We then got him a copy of Cuckoo to watch, and he was like, \u201cOkay, let\u2019s make it really different.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow involved were you in creating his unforgettable look?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tVery involved. It\u2019s 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\u2019s fantastic to be able to transform in that way. I loved it.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDan Stevens as Dr. Kammler in Adam Wingard\u2019s Onslaught<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of A24<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd how did Adam deliver the news that your character\u2019s introduction would involve you licking the feet of one of your dearest friends, someone you did Shakespeare with during and after college, Rebecca Hall?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) Well, that was a later addition. Initially, the role of Frau Kammler on paper wasn\u2019t that exciting or dynamic. There are very few scenes for that role. And we said, \u201cWell, how do we make this attractive to a great actress that we want to come on board? On paper, this isn\u2019t going to fly. What can we do?\u201d So I said to Adam, \u201cWhat if Kammler is a sub to his dominatrix wife?\u201d And I\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tOur generation grew up on a lot of Michael Biehn movies. Was it a thrill to share the stage with him?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tOh my God, yes. The fact that we\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s not explicitly spelled out in the movie, but does the K in Kammler represent the K in KPG? (<\/strong>That\u2019s the defense contractor first name-checked in <\/strong>You\u2019re Next<\/strong> before <\/strong>The Guest <\/strong>revealed them as the organization behind the medical experiment that created Stevens\u2019 wayward super-soldier, \u201cDavid Collins.\u201d<\/strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWhoa, that\u2019s a great question, but I think that\u2019s a question for Adam. I have no idea, but maybe. [Writer\u2019s Note: After some hemming and hawing, Wingard gave me a yes in an upcoming interview.]<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Guest<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cDavid Collins\u201d obviously resembles Kammler and his ancestor that we see in a photograph. Do you believe David\u2019s real identity to be that of a Kammler?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tGod, that\u2019s 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\u2019re related or Kammler is creating clones of his ancestors, I don\u2019t know. Maybe that\u2019s something we\u2019ll discover in a sequel.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf 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\u2019s injury and medical procedure before eventually cutting out most of that exposition.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWe need to sit you down with Adam. We can concoct a great sequel here.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou happened to be first on my schedule, so he\u2019ll get his own crack at these questions later.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.)<\/p>\n

\n\tGoing forward, is <\/strong>Onslaught<\/strong> everyone\u2019s way of saying, \u201cNow leave us alone about <\/strong>The Guest 2<\/strong>?\u201d Or is everybody still open to more KPG-verse?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019re definitely open to more KPG-verse. I don\u2019t know whether a Guest 2, per se, is on the cards anytime soon, but you never know. On April Fool\u2019s 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\u2019s probably better than anything we could come up with.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ve always found David\u2019s last (?) words to Luke (Brendan Meyer) to be an interesting choice: \u201cYou did the right thing. I don\u2019t blame you. Don\u2019t feel bad.\u201d Do you remember how you played that or what he meant by that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tGosh, I can\u2019t remember. I think he respected [Luke\u2019s] devotion to his mission. David is somebody who\u2019s 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\u00a0thumb sinking into the smoke, that was a lovely day too.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt really is your fault that people like me have been hassling you for years about a sequel. <\/strong>The Guest<\/strong> ended in such a tantalizing way that you can\u2019t help but wonder what\u2019s next.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) Yeah, and we\u2019ve teed everything up for an Onslaught sequel as well, so watch this space.<\/p>\n

\n\tCongratulations on being the next Alex Murphy.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThank you very much.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe role practically sells itself, but as a long-time fan of Peter Ocko (<\/strong>Lodge 49<\/strong>) myself, what was it about his take on <\/strong>RoboCop<\/strong> that struck a chord with you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s very funny. It\u2019s satirical, and it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tRoboCop<\/strong> seems like it\u2019s right in Adam\u2019s wheelhouse, so did he freak out over the news?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tOh yeah, for sure. He texted me and was like: \u201cDid I just wake up in an alternate reality where you are RoboCop?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIf anybody is tailor-made for the <\/strong>Dexter<\/strong> universe, it\u2019s you. How\u2019s your dance with the Bay Harbor Butcher going?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tSo fun. It\u2019s such a fun family to join. It\u2019s a great set to be on, and it\u2019s a really nasty character. As much as I\u2019ve enjoyed it, I\u2019ll be happy to let him go.<\/p>\n

\n\tIs that what the peroxide in your hair is for?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt is, yeah.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou joined the <\/strong>Godzilla<\/strong> franchise to work with Adam and Rebecca, but now you\u2019re the only one who remains. Do you feel some degree of survivor\u2019s guilt?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) There\u2019s no guilt at all. I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tI thought Trapper would forever be your greatest character introduction, but Kammler makes a compelling argument.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWingard has a lot to answer for, but I\u2019m eternally grateful to him for two great character intros.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAdam Wingard, Dan Stevens and Rebecca Hall on the set of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDan McFadden\/Warner Bros.<\/p>\n

\n\tI was hoping Onslaught would recreate The New Empire\u2019s behind-the-scenes photo of you and Adam pointing in the distance with Rebecca cracking up on the side. It would\u2019ve been quite something with you in Kammler mode, but alas \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) I\u2019m sure there\u2019s something similar in the archives. We\u2019ll have to have a dig, but it was great fun to have the three of us together again in a very different mold. I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll get together again on something else at some point.<\/p>\n

\n\tLastly, what moment sums up the <\/strong>Onslaught<\/strong> experience for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWe got incredible production value out of this abandoned Albuquerque newspaper factory. This facility had all these incredibly intricate, massive machines, and so there\u2019s these incredible tracking shots as Kammler is arriving. Adam was in such fine form, and I\u2019m sure there\u2019s 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\u2019s always a delight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t***
Onslaught opens in theaters on September 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time Dan Stevens turned up in an Adam Wingard movie, he was pulling an achy tooth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[163901,88887,15247,18,117,19,17,327,163902,121415,119150,247130],"class_list":["post-671073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-adam-wingard","tag-dan-stevens","tag-dexter-resurrection","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-onslaught","tag-rebecca-hall","tag-robocop","tag-the-guest"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117209224826569533","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}