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Casting Call: Flash Gordon

When Ming the Merciless captures Flash Gordon, his daughter Princess Aura takes it upon herself to save him. With her good looks, she helps Flash and Dale escape and soon becomes the new leader of Mongo. To take on the role as the alien femme fatale, we nominate actress-turned-model Yaya DaCosta.

Flash Gordon is an athlete, Yale University graduate and... savior of planet Earth? Here's hoping that Matthew Vaughn will point the spotlight on Palestinian actor Adam Bakri to star as Flash.

 

As the companion and love interest of Flash Gordon, Dale Arden fills the trope of princess-in-the-tower in this science-fiction narrative. Hopefully, Vaughn will add a little nuance to Arden by casting someone like Sheila Vand.

Upon landing on planet Mongo, Flash Gordon and friends find themselves face to face with the tyrant ruler, Ming the Merciless. Ming quickly becomes infatuated with Dale Arden and captures her, sentencing her friends to a worse fate. Arden eventually escapes, and Ming's regime is toppled. But what happened to Ming? The 1980 version ends with a blatant clue that Ming survives, and since we're nominating the hunky Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje to battle Flash Gordon and his friends, we pray that he does.

When Earth is under attack, isn't the only logical response to find the source? Dr. Hans Zarkov, a quite possibly insane scientist, builds a rocket and tricks Flash Gordon and Dale Arden into flying to planet Mongo. To fill the intelligent, but kooky role, we nominate Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn.

 

Prince Barin, the Ruler of Arboria, is in love with Princess Aura, and becomes violently jealous of Flash Gordon. At first, he subjects Flash to torturous rituals but eventually joins Flash in his fight against Ming and takes a seat beside Princess Aura on the throne of planet Mongo. We'd like to suggest British bad boy Ed Skrein to take fill the shoes of Prince Barin.