Having spent the last three years as a conflicted hero in The Hobbit trilogy or bravely battling gusty winds for Into The Storm, Richard Armitage is clearly ready to be the bad guy again. And what a villain: he’s now joining the ranks of the US TV take on Hannibal as Francis “The Tooth Fairy” Dolarhyde, one the creepier psychos to come crawling from novelist Thomas Harris’s imagination.
Yes, as if the show doesn’t already have actors with a big enough fan base with Mads Mikkelsen, Hugh Dancy and recurring guest star Gillian Anderson, here comes Thorin Oakenshield himself for a six-episode arc.
Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal series, though it hasn’t enjoyed the most buoyant ratings, has won plenty of acclaim for its stylish, gory takes on Harris’s Hannibal Lecter stories, with season three tackling elements of Red Dragon. A hulking, cunning predator, Dolarhyde’s trademark is his particularly large, sharp teeth and he scored his nickname thanks to his propensity to bite his victims. Yeah... still not the weirdest thing the show has done so far.
Hannibal is set to return to US screens soon, and should show up in the UK later this year.