Joss Whedon works fast: now that Summer Glau is no longer busy with Terminator, he's already talking to her about showing up on Dollhouse. But she won't be playing the role you might expect. Possible spoilers below.


Whedon tells EW that he pounced on Glau even before Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was officially canceled:

If anybody thinks [bringing Summer onto Dollhouse] hasn't occurred to me already then they have not met me. I mentioned it to her before [SCC] was canceled. I was like, 'You know, we should get you in the 'house.' But first we have to come up with something that works.


But Whedon cautions that Glau won't be playing a mind-wiped Doll, because she's already played that type of role too often in the past. (Including in his own Firefly.) Instead, Whedon would rather cast Glau as something totally different — like "somebody who talks too much." Whedon likes to take people who are "good and comfortable" at playing one thing, and then he makes them play something totally different. And Glau has told Whedon she'd like to play a normal person before she dies of old age.

So who could Glau be playing in Dollhouse? It's not a show that has too many parts for normal people — unless she plays a client who hires Echo or one of the other Dolls for some reason. (Possibly a wealthy lady with a scar fetish, who has a torrid weekend with Victor?)

But honestly, I can think of a couple other roles it would be fun to see Glau play: Maybe she could be the FBI agent assigned to take over Paul Ballard's stillborn investigation of the Dollhouse? (Or an NSA agent picking up where Mr. Dominick left off?) But even better, maybe Glau could play a steely corporate shark from the Rossum Corp., the shadowy corporation whose research the Dollhouse funds? You just know we're going to be meeting some more Rossum Corp. people in season two, and I can't imagine anyone I'd rather see doing corporate evil than Ms. Glau.

What do you think?