Back in May it was reported that Mads Mikkelsen was in talks for a second villain besides The Enchantress in THOR 2, and while he did indeed want to be involved it looks as though that won’t be happening anymore due to his commitment as the titular character in upcoming TV show “Hannibal.” NBC started talking to Mikkelsen just a little before Marvel called him up, and things ended up working out with NBC a bit faster than they did with Marvel. THOR 2 shoots in August, and Mikkelsen will now be taking a fair amount of time this fall to shoot a full twelve episodes worth of serial killer-related television goodness.
During the same interview in which the THOR 2 business was disclosed, Mikkelsen also talked a bit about how he’s approaching his role as Dr. Lecter:
Mads Mikkelsen: Oh, I’m not sure he’s psycopathic. I like him very much.
Interviewer: But he’s also a villain.
Mads Mikkelsen: If you’re looking at him from the wrong side of the table, yeah. You have to defend him to a certain degree. You don’t necessarily have to like him. But I actually like him.
Interviewer: Why?
Mads Mikkelsen: I think he’s such a complex character that it makes him interesting.
This is really Acting 101 if you want to make most villains that aren’t Snidely Whiplash engaging for both the actor and the audience. As show runner Bryan Fuller said back in April about Dr. Lecter:
“There is a cheery disposition to our Hannibal. He’s not being telegraphed as a villain. If the audience didn’t know who he was, they wouldn’t see him coming. What we have is Alfred Hitchcock’s principle of suspense — show the audience the bomb under the table and let them sweat when it’s going to go boom. So the audience knows who Hannibal is so we don’t have to overplay his villainy. We get to subvert his legacy and give the audience twists and turns.”
NBC’s “Hannibal” is set to air sometime next year.
Mads Mikkelsen was in CASINO ROYALE. So was Eva Green. Hence my (much appreciated) excuse to run this fantastic picture.