With the release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, one of the most successful YA franchises of the decade comes to a close, and attention will shift to the final two films in the stylistically similar Divergent series. Though the two franchises have elevated leading actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Shailene Woodley into the status of bonafide action stars and major box-office draws, the impact the films have had on their male co-stars is less clear.
Divergent pretty-boy Theo James has yet to prove himself beyond the series, while Hunger Games star Josh Hutcherson's upcoming projects with Dwayne Johnson and Selena Gomez look decidedly underwhelming. Liam Hemsworth may be fairing better, with promising leading roles in Western drama By Way of Helena with Woody Harrelson and action reboot Independence Day: Resurgence. However, the clear victor of the YA District's reaping is Jai Courtney, the blue-eyed, huge-armed Australian who lightly jumped from the action lily-pads Jack Reacher and A Good Day To Die Hard to a supporting role in Divergent - and is now bounding forwards. Starring alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator Genisys and playing the comic book villain Captain Boomerang in DC's highly-anticipated Suicide Squad, Courtney is working his way up to A-List status.
"Terminator 2 was a staple in my house," he enthuses. "Me and my sister burned the tape out, rewinding and rewatching it constantly. I didn't grow up glued to film. I always loved movies but it was a pretty casual approach in my house. I didn't grow up being a film buff. So we just got attached to certain films. I feel like my entire childhood was defined by constantly watching Terminator 2, Die Hard and A League Of Their Own!"
Though he may not have put in a performance as a female baseball player yet, Courtney has managed to make his two other childhood daydreams come true, starring in the reboots of both Die Hard and Terminator alongside action icons Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"I definitely went on this journey, being familiar with something many years ago, then as a adult finding myself a part of that. But they're also great opportunities as an actor. I dont think being a fan had a whole lot to do with my decision - it just added an extra cool factor."
Looking at Courtney, it's hard to imagine him being anything other than an action star. When I meet him in Los Angeles, Courtney, already a hulking physical specimen, is absurdly jacked, with unimaginable biceps complete with popping veins. He seems mildly embarrassed by his size, admitting that he actually had to lose weight for Terminator Genisys - though not, he assures me, to preserve the ego of his former body-builder co-star.
"They wanted someone a bit more boyish and approachable looking so I had to slim down," he reveals. "But now for Suicide Squad they want us all huge so I was allowed to go back to eating loads and lifting!"
Though he laughs about it, the nature of his physique and his growing back catalogue of stunt-heavy, insight-light roles did send Courtney into a slight tailspin, as he agonised over the nature of his career. Cue a low-key role in The Water Diviner Russell Crowe's sentimental exploration of war and family, that allowed Courtney to show off his dramatic acting chops, and a chance to emotionally regroup.
"That came at a time when I was having a little bit of an identity crisis about where I stood in this world," he acknowledges. "I've solved that for myself I think now, I've worked through any anxiety I was having. But I had done a string of action films and I was really pining for something else. I heard Russell was going to direct a film and heard what it was about and jumped right on it, without having seen a script or anything. The character was vastly different to anything I had played before, a man who had a moral conflict but a job to do. He plays someone who was a soldier, but there was nothing action-heavy about the role. It was a chance to explore a maturity and sensitivity in a character and a man who was really pragmatic. It was an opportunity to find something different in me to bring to the screen."
The actor also admits that despite the hype, he was nervous about taking on the role of Captain Boomerang in David Ayer's upcoming comic book antihero film Suicide Squad, which stars Jared Leto as another terrifying interpretation of the Joker, while Margot Robbie plays the mercurial Harley Quinn. Captain Boomerang was potentially the most camp of all the characters, but the actor was assured by a serious-minded direction of Ayer, known for writing Training Day and directing the brilliant End of Watch and Street Kings.
"You look at some of the comic books and some of the old '60s stuff is so hammy, and kind of camp," notes Courtney. "But get a guy like David Ayer at the helm of a thing like this and it gets really dark and gritty, and you know, awesome. And he's a stickler for authenticity. So I think what we're going to create is going to be really, really, cool."