| Marvel
Confirms Thor's Warriors Three
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Top
to bottom:
Ray Stevenson is Volstagg,
Stuart Townsend is Fandral, and
Tadanobu Asano is Hogun the Grim
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It
occurs to me that Marvel Studios has an intriguing possibility
on their hands. Cast the Asgardians right and you could
have a spin-off series of epic adventures involving certain
brave warriors who defend Asgard when their compatriot Thor
is off having adventures on Earth.
Though
just yesterday Chuck's Zachary Levi confirmed that
he had been in talks to play Fandral but had to pass because
of that show getting more episodes ordered (talk about fanboy
mixed emotions here), Variety published last night the real
casting for Kenneth Branagh's take on Marvel's Thor.
For
Fandral, the dashing handsome blond warrior, Branagh has
chosen Stuart Townsend. Genre fans know him as Lestat in
Queen of the Damned and Dorian Gray in League
of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He can certainly play the
wastrel, but can he spine up and be Asgard's biggest heartthrob
after Thor himself?
In the
Falstaff inspired role of Volstagg, Branagh has cast Ray
Stevenson. He's no stranger to the Marvel Universe, having
played Frank Castle in last year's Punisher: War Zone.
However, he needs to gain a lot of weight. A thin muscular
Volstagg is like a skinny Santa Claus. I don't care, Nokia,
it's just WRONG.
Reaching
out a little further than Norway for the role of Hogun the
Grim, Branagh taps Tadanobu Asano, probably best known to
American film audiences as Genghis Khan in the film Mongol.
Together,
these men form the brave Warriors Three, perhaps the most
entertaining sporadic back-up series in the regular Thor
book. Part Three Musketeers and part Shakespearean clowns
(except for Hogun, of course), they're a stalwart part of
Thor's supporting cast.
We still
don't know the real plot of the film, though at this point
considering all the detail paid to the supporting cast,
it's got to be epic in a way that Iron Man and
The Incredible Hulk really weren't.
Filming
starts in late January 2010, with a release date scheduled
for May 2011. We've seen the faces -- let's start seeing
these people in test costumes or something. How will the
pageantry of Asgard translate to the big screen?
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