Nathan Fillion has a long and impressive career in movies, TV shows, the stage, and even voice over work in video games, and his best movies and TV shows reflect both his talent and his charisma. Fillion worked on stage and in smaller roles before landing his big break thanks to the soap opera One Life To Live. Soap operas often offer younger actors a crash course in what working in television is like, and it clearly paid off for Fillion, who has been a TV mainstay ever since.
Fillion is best-known for his deadpan humor and his charming, if slightly smarmy, characters. He even retains those elements in procedurals like The Rookie and Castle, two of the television shows he is most recognized for today. Fillion, however, has also appeared in a lot of hidden gems and cult classics, and many of those make up some of his best movies and TV shows.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (2003)
As Caleb
…one of the best villainous roles that Fillion has ever played.
Nathan Fillion’s career started to take off in the late 1990s, but his five-episode role as Caleb in Buffy the Vampire Slayer started his working relationship with Joss Whedon. Whedon and Fillion have teamed up for numerous projects over the years, including an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and the cult classic Firefly.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer was a darker adaptation of the movie of the same name. It made Sarah Michelle Gellar a household name as the title character, who came of age battling vampires and saving the world alongside her friends every week.
Fillion’s Caleb is a former priest, a serial killer, and all-around misogynist who acts as the lieutenant to the First Evil. He might only be in a handful of episodes in a single season of the show, but he makes one of the best villainous roles that Fillion has ever played. While Fillion has played plenty of charming characters over the years, even those with large egos, it’s rare for him to play outright villains like Caleb, and this part demonstrates that he would be great in those roles.
Waitress (2007)
As Dr. John Pomatter
Fillion is a bright spot in a bittersweet story…
Though Nathan Fillion has been in a lot of television series that would technically be considered dramas, he is more known for his comedic skills on camera. That’s why a heavier movie like Waitress is a standout on his acting resume.
The movie follows Jenna (Kerri Russell), a young woman who waits tables and bakes pies in a small town. Trapped in an abusive marriage and facing an unwanted pregnancy, she dreams of a way out. She also has an affair with her doctor.
Fillion’s role as Dr. Pomatter hits all of the rom-com elements needed to give the movie hope. Despite his relationship with Jenna putting his marriage at risk, it’s one of the few good things in Jenna’s life, and it gives her hope for a future with her daughter and without her abusive husband. Fillion is a bright spot in a bittersweet story about enduring the bad to make it to the good, and he is perfect for the part.
Santa Clarita Diet (2017-2018)
As Gary West
Santa Clarita Diet has the misfortune of being one of the many Netflix shows canceled on a cliffhanger. Critically acclaimed and with a loyal audience, Santa Clarita Diet is certainly a unique take on the zombie genre that could have benefited from a few more seasons.
The series follows Drew Barrymore as a woman who finds herself developing a taste for human flesh. With the help of her family, she hides her zombie condition from the outside world. One of her rivals in the real estate business is Fillion’s Gary West.
Fillion steals every scene he is in thanks to his comedic timing and impeccable delivery. Interestingly, Fillion only actually played the role for the first two seasons of the show – during which Barrymore’s Sheila actually ingests most of him. When his more deteriorated and zombie-like character reappears in the third season, Fillion’s frequent costar Alan Tudyk takes over the role.
Justice League Animated Films (2011-2019)
As Green Lantern Hal Jordan
In superhero animated projects, it’s not often anymore that the same actor will voice the same characters across multiple movies or series. Fillion is one of the exceptions to that as he gives voice to Hal Jordan across six different Justice League related animated movies over the course of eight years:
- Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011)
- Justice League: Doom (2012)
- Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)
- Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015)
- The Death of Superman (2018)
- Reign of the Supermen (2019)
The movies are inspired by stories about the various members of Justice League from DC Comics. They cover everything from the death of Superman to villains using Batman’s contingency plans for his teammates against them.
Fillion has done a lot of voice over work in his career because he is great at modulating his tone for different types of humor and drama, and that works very well in the superhero world where dramatic monologs are as important as witty one-liners. He has become one of the most beloved voices in the DC animated world.
A Series Of Unfortunate Events (2017-2019)
As Jacques Snicket
Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events had a movie adaptation several years before Netflix adapted the novels into a series. The series is arguably the better format as it allows for a more complete look at the story and a chance to get to know all of the characters.
The series follows the Baudelaire orphans as they not only struggle to survive in a dangerous world, but they also seek to find out the truth about their parents’ pasts. Each of the children has their own unique talents that help them along the way, and they meet some of the most eccentric characters.
Fillion stars as the brother of the story’s narrator, and he is bold and brash in his portrayal. Because the series is not shy about its tragic elements and horrible circumstances, it can be seen as incredibly dark, but it treats that darkness with a fair dose of humor, which is why someone like Fillion is such a great fit for the show.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (2008)
As Captain Hammer
Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog debuted as a web series in 2008. From the mind of Joss, Jed, and Zack Whedon alongside Maurissa Tancheroen, the series is a tongue-in-cheek musical approach to a superhero story.
The three-part series follows Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) as he falls in love with Penny (Felicia Day) and goes up his nemesis Captain Hammer (Fillion). While Dr. Horrible is the traditional villain of a superhero project, the series makes it clear that there is more nuance than that in superhero stories, that perhaps the motivation of the villains can be understood, and the heroes are not as good as they appear to be.
Fillion’s Captain Hammer is a hilarious caricature of a superhero. He is self-centered and more likely to find a person he believes is a villain to harass them than he is to actively save the day. Providing an even more hilarious take on the genre, the cast also got to lampoon DVD commentaries as they sang on a commentary track on the DVD. Fillion gets to sing about how he is better than Neil Patrick Harris, which certainly works for his role in the series.
Slither (2006)
As Bill Pardy
Slither is responsible for creating the working relationship between director James Gunn and Nathan Fillion. It’s one of Fillion’s earliest science fiction roles, but the movie is also a horror comedy that became a cult classic.
Slither sees a very B-movie idea brought into the modern day. Parasitic worm-like creatures are transforming the residents of a small town into mutated beings. The sheriff is the only one standing in their way, but he is not entirely sure how to save the residents. That sheriff is Nathan Fillion.
The movie was not a financial success at the box office, but word of mouth after the fact helped to elevate it to cult classic status. The performances of Elizabeth Banks and Fillion were praised, even if a lot of critics did not see the fun appeal of the movie. It has since gone on to garner comparisons to such B-movie classics as The Blob. It also picked up several Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominations.
The Rookie (2018-)
As John Nolan
The Rookie is partially inspired by the real-life story of William Nocross who decided to attend the police academy and join the force in middle age. Most people who opt to go into law enforcement do so when they are in their twenties, right out of school. The rookie of the group being the oldest member makes for an interesting hook for a police procedural. Of course, this procedural might still employ cases of the week for its format, but it also is very much about the characters instead of the cases they are working.
Fillion’s role in The Rookie is a little less cocky than audiences might be used to seeing him as. Instead, he plays an optimist with a heart of gold who just wants to do the right thing. Idealists can often become jaded very quickly in police procedurals, but Fillion’s Nolan is still carrying the show with it character-driven plot lines and real heart.
Fillion has also gone on to reprise his role in the spinoff series The Rookie: Feds and executive produce it.
Castle (2009-201)
As Richard Castle
One Life To Live might have given Fillion his big break a few years earlier, but Castle made him a household name. He and the show were regularly nominated for People’s Choice Awards during its run thanks to a very loyal and very vocal legion of fans.
The series focused on the titular character as he decides to shadow a police detective whom he plans to use as inspiration for his next book. Castle is a mystery writer, and the many cases Castle becomes involved in (and helps solve) help to provide inspiration for a whole new series of novels. Making the show even more compelling is that it is also a love story as the two characters fall for one another along the way despite their differences.
Castle is Fillion’s longest-running project to date with more than 170 episodes produced. He has his signature humor and cocky attitude in the character, but Castle is also clearly someone with a lot of heart from the get-go. He is simply someone used to getting what he wants, and his arc as he learns to be better and to put others first, is part of the charm of the show.
Firefly And Serenity (2002, 2005)
As Captain Malcolm Reynolds
Fillion fully embodies Mal in a way he has not in any of his other characters
Firefly fans likely sound like broken records at this point as they wax on about the one-season show and the movie that was made to give fans closure. The part of Malcolm Reynolds, however, feels like it was tailor-made for Nathan Fillion, so even though he has longer-running television shows and higher-profile movies in the years since Firefly and Serenity were made, they make for his best tv show and movie, respectively.
Firefly centers on a crew on the spaceship Serenity in the distant future as they take on mostly illegal jobs in the outer reaches of known space. They go up against Reavers, the law, and their lives become complicated when they take on a doctor and his sister as passengers – who happen to be wanted fugitives.
The series and its movie are very much a perfect example of Joss Whedon’s work, which is now being seen through a different lens as a result of discussions about his on-set behavior in the past. Firefly features a central female character akin to Buffy with superior skills to those around her. It features a found family that has a very specific moral compass. It also features whip-smart dialogue and a healthy dose of sarcasm. At the center of all of that is Fillion’s Mal.
Mal has some Han Solo swagger, but he also has the awkwardness of a man who never quite gets what he wants, the world weariness of a man who has seen his world torn apart, and the skills of just about any action hero. Fillion fully embodies Mal in a way he has not in any of his other characters, even in the short time he got to play him. The show and the movie have become such a part of him that he has repeatedly worked with the cast members from it on other projects and snuck Easter eggs for it into other TV shows.
