Darna gets some super soldiers

THEY may not have super powers in real life but the cast that comprises the super soldiers in Mars Ravelo’s Darna all of them have super charm and super talent.

Let’s meet them one by one.

First is fire manipulator Noah, played by Paolo Gumabao. While he was only launched recently, Paolo is now making waves in modeling and acting. He has appeared in a number of TV shows and sexy movies, including Silip sa Apoy and Sisid. Recent projects though show that Paolo is more than a hot body, and he even has a lot of projects lined up including a movie to be shot in Prague.

Then there’s Young JV, who plays Andre who has explosive powers. Young JV started out as a rapper but the call of acting came too loud that he easily made the jump by first appearing in the movie Won’t Last a Day Without You (starring Sarah Geronimo and Gerald Anderson). Since then, he’s done a number of guesting stints in Maalaala Mo Kaya and regular roles in soap operas, like Princess and I and even another Mars Ravelo project, Dyesebel.

Then there’s Mayor Zaldy with Simon Ibarra breathing life into this character that has super strength. An Urian nominee for Live Show, Simon is a veteran character actor who has appeared in numerous projects since the early 2000s and is a familiar face already. This may be his most high profile role on TV.

Joshua Colet’s character Sigfried, meanwhile, can create force fields. Joshua first made waves in Los Bartados where he caught the attention of fans with his bad-boy mestizo looks. While not a stranger to bad-boy roles, Joshua considers his role in Darna as something fresh and fun to do.

Former teen heartthrob Eric Fructuoso joins the super soldiers as Arthur Pineda, who can control through his mind inanimate objects. This is Eric’s first acting gig since the pandemic.

Kim Rordriguez plays shapeshifter Ishna. Kim is ecstatic that she gets to join the show as she has been a longtime fan of Darna. She first thought she would just do a minor role in this adaptation and was pleasantly surprised to join the villain group in a more intense role.

Mark Manicad plays Ali and completes the super soldiers roster. However, his superpowers are yet to be revealed. During the cast reveal that happened last year, Mark then revealed that his dream superpower was to fly and be like the Human Torch of Fantastic Four. The super soldiers are a newly formed group by Heneral Borgo (Richard Quan) after seizing the mythical white stone from Darna.

After making sure his super soldiers are set for the upcoming battles, Borgo proceeds to his next step of revealing his identity to Darna as Rex Vanguardia. This is in order to trick the superhero to fall into his trap so that he can fully unleash the real monster behind Regina/valentina (Janella Salvador), his biggest weapon to victory.

Darna continues to fly high on prime-time and digital TV. It has spawned various Darna-related content on Tiktok drawing with 2.3 billion combined views in 2022.

Mars Ravelo’s Darna airs weeknights at 8 pm on the Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live, Cinemo, A2Z, and TV5. The ABS-CBN series produced by JRB Creative Production is also available on iwanttfc and TFC.