- Maria Bakalova wants to continue playing Princess Ilana in the DCU
- The Creature Commandos star says she “wants to see her exist” in another James Gunn project
- Bakalova’s comments come after Season 1’s bloody finale, which Ilana was involved in
Maria Bakalova has expressed her desire to continue playing Princess Ilana in the DC Universe (DCU), even though it is incredibly unlikely that the character will return.
Speaking exclusively to TechRadar ahead of Creature Commandos‘ Season 1 finale, Bakalova admitted she wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Pokolistan’s monarch-in-waiting. But given what happens in Season 1’s seventh episode, titled ‘A Very Funny Monster,’ Bakalova’s desire to continue playing Ilana seems like a pipe dream.
Full spoilers immediately follow Creature Commandos season 1 episode 7!
In the last few minutes of this season’s final chapter, which you can read more about in Creature Commandos season 1 finale explained article Ilana is killed in cold blood by The Bride. Minutes earlier, Ilana had carried out her own assassination, with the Pokolistani royal family killing Nina Mazursky, aka one of the titular team members and the closest thing The Bride had to a friend. As Baklova told me, Ilana ended Nina’s life “to protect herself” after Nina attempted to assassinate Ilana under ARGUS commander and Task Force M handler Amanda Waller’s instructions.
Okay, but why was the named group tasked with killing Ilana? Remember that in the fourth episode of the Max series, Amazonian sorceress Circe Waller warned – as a premonition – that Ilana wanted to conquer planet Earth and turn Pokolistan into a tyrannical global superpower.
The plot twist in Episode 4, which also reveals the DCU’s Justice League for the first time (albeit dead at the hands of Pokolistan’s armed forces), completely changed viewers’ perception of Ilana. It’s a moment that Bakalova previously told me was “an interesting reveal” for Ilana’s development as a character, which is an understated way of describing Ilana’s heel turn.
Unfortunately, it seems we’ll never know why Ilana had plans for world domination, or what drove her to be such a diabolical individual. That said, characters in comics and their multimedia adaptations — DC or otherwise — tend to come back to life in one form or another. So there’s no reason why Ilana couldn’t return, even if it’s in a flashback sequence in the recently announced Creature Commandos season 2 or another DCU Chapter One project.
That’s the hope that Bakalova clings to. Actually, when I asked Borate 2 and Marvel star (she told Cosmo Guardians of the Galaxy 3) if there was ever a situation—via a previous script or a conversation with DC Studios co-head James Gunn—where her femme fatale-turned-wannabe-dictator could have survived, Bakalova confirmed that wasn’t the case. However, she has not given up hope of voicing Ilana again in the future.
“I want to be completely transparent,” Bakalova said. “I want her to exist in the future. As an actor, I want to continue playing this role and I’m really interested to see how the audience reacts to it [Ilana’s death]. If viewers want to see more of her, maybe that’s a reason to talk about it [her return] and if not i might just be stuck! We make these shows for people, so it’s important to listen to their opinions.”
As for what Bakalova would like to explore if one of the best Max series’ most notable original characters is brought back in some form, the actress said: “I want to know how she ended up being who she is is today why she wants to destroy the world and why she wants so much power What pushes someone to have such evil dreams of world domination What drove her to become such a monster?
“At the end of it all, she’s the biggest monster of everyone on the show,” she continued. “The Creature Commandos are monsters by circumstance or the way they look. Ilana is this beautiful, seemingly innocent human who commits monstrous acts of violence. Why is that? I want to find out in the future, so if James ever asked me to come back, whether it’s for an episode, a whole season, or even just a cameo, I just want my badass princess back from the dead already!
