It’s been fifteen years since David Dastmalchian got his breakout role in The Dark Knight, and now he is teaming up again with filmmaker Christopher Nolan. The actor is the latest to join the cast of Oppenheimer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Dastmalchian is coming off the biggest year of his acting career so far, following his role in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad as the Polka-Dot-Man and then his role in Dune. However, it was not long ago that Dastmalchian was in a different world back in Chicago, trying to balance out life as a telemarketer, movie theater usher, and theater actor. At that moment, he saw a casting call for The Dark Knight. He auditioned for Nolan to play one of the men in the bank heist scene but did not land the part. Months later, the actor received a call letting him know he’d been cast in a different role, the part of Joker henchman Thomas Schiff. The role gave him the chance to work opposite Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhart in a pair of pretty memorable scenes filmed in Chicago and London.

“It all started with him choosing to let me be a part of that film,” Dastmalchian told THR for a 2018 profile. “How do you thank the person that changed your life so profoundly?” His Oppenheimer role is being kept secret, which comes as no surprise. Dastmalchian also joined the cast of 20th Century’s Stephen King adaptation Boogeyman and has wrapped production on Boston Strangler for the studio. In addition to acting, Dastmalchian is the writer behind Dark Horse’s Count Crowley comics which is still in publication. The film began production this wee with Cillian Murphy on the casting list that includes Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, Alden Ehrenreich, David Krumholtz and Kenneth Branagh. Universal has set a release date of July 21st, 2023, for the film.

What Is Oppenheimer About?

Nolan’s upcoming historical film centers on J. Robert Oppenheimer. Murphy will portray Oppenheimer, one of the fathers of the A-bomb during the Second World War, who later found his loyalty to the United States questioned by government officials. Murphy first teamed with Nolan on Batman Begins, where he portrayed the Scarecrow after auditioning for Batman. He has also appeared in Nolan’s Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, as well as Dunkirk.

Oppenheimer is based on the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin. Universal won a massive bidding war for the project, and it is Nolan’s first movie in years not made with his longtime studio home, Warner Bros. The film has been highly anticipated with a large cast and Nolan's vision, and this could be another hit for the filmmaker. You can watch Cillian Murphy in the hit series Peaky Blinders as the final season 6 approaches.