Actor and comedian Peter Serafinowicz has been cast in the title role of The Tick, a pilot being made for Amazon.

Serafinowicz is no stranger to world of geek entertainment, having had memorable supporting turns in Guardians of the Galaxy (“What a bunch of a-holes”), Shaun of the Dead and Spaced, and also provided the voices of Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace and the monstrous Fisher King in the Doctor Who episode Before the Flood.

The episode will see the Tick – a clueless, childlike and possibly insane blue-suited superhero – recovering from memory loss and with his stalwart sidekick Arthur and possibly the magnanimous help of some other folks, will form the yin to villainy’s malevolent yang.

Originally created by writer Ben Edlund in 1986 as an absurdist parody of comic book superheroes, the Tick went on to star in an animated series that ran for three seasons in the mid-90s and a short-lived but well-loved live action series in 2001. This episode will be written and produced by Edlund, so there is little doubt it will retain the wonderfully surreal humour of the character.