Ciaran Hinds Cast as Steppenwolf in ‘Justice League’

Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice hinted towards the arrival of Darkseid, Superman’s greatest enemy (D.C.’s equivalent of Thanos), several times. First with Batman’s vision of the post-apocalyptic future and then again when Lex Luthor spoke the words “Ding, ding, ding, ding,” after telling Batman the bell had already been wrong and that ‘He’ was hungry.

In the comic’s, Darkseid used a device known as a Mother box which was a sentient supercomputer that had wondrous abilities including healing, energy manipulation, and even teleportation by opening up a “boom tube” which is a slang term for an extra-dimensional point to point portal. The sound the mother boxes made was actually “Ping, ping, ping” but that’s just a minor nitpick against a film that clearly had no issue taking liberties with the source material (e.g. Batman being a MURDERER).

We actually got our first glimpse at a Mother box in a deleted scene from BvS which was subsequently added back into the Ultimate Edition (a major improvement from the disjunctive theatrical release). The scene featured Lex Luthor in some sort of alien goo bath as he communicated with an alien being which was later confirmed to be Steppenwolf, the uncle of Darkseid.

Back in June, it was confirmed that the main antagonist for the upcoming Justice League — the follow-up to BvS — would not be Darkseid, but Steppenwolf instead. Today, The Wrap has learned that Ciaran Hinds, best known for his role as Mance Rayder, the king beyond the wall in Game of Thrones assumed the motion capture responsibilities for the character.

Justice League hits theaters November 17, 2017.

Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy.  Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat.  But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

SOURCE: THE WRAP

Mads Mikkelsen on ‘Rogue One’ and ‘Doctor Strange’ Roles

In an interview with GQ, actor Mads Mikkelson of the upcoming Doctor Strange and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story talked about the differences between his roles in the two blockbusters, what it was like to work on the enormous sets of Rogue, and even let a minor detail slip about Jyn Erso when commenting on what it was like to work with actress Felicity Jones.

Oh, it was great. I worked a few days with Felicity Jones and she is a wonderful actress. I worked with Jyn at three stages, and three different ages, so there was a little kid that was four, one that was eight, and then there was Felicity. So that was wonderful. I spent a lot of time with Ben Mendelsohn and that was hilarious. He’s a very funny man and he makes the day just fly by.

It isn’t a big deal but we now know we will see Jyn at four years old in addition to the ages seen in the trailers released thus far.

The actor described how incredible the sets were that Lucasfilm constructed for the film:

Well, it was great. Obviously it’s a gigantic set compared to the stuff I’m used to doing back in Europe, especially in Denmark. But, you make it a small, intimate set as well, in terms of the scenes. You just have to make the scene work even though you’re standing on a gigantic landing air force platform or wherever you are. Obviously it’s gigantic, but you try to make it small within the terms you’re working with.

Mikkelsen also talked about the differences between working on each production and the physicality required for his role as the villain Kaecilius in Doctor Strange:

Well, another big film, another big set – again, a gigantic set. A supreme cast as well. I had quite a different physicality: I was extremely physical in the Doctor Strange film; not so much on the Star Wars film, Rogue One. I think that might just have been the most physical film I’ve ever done. Something I would have embraced heavily when I was 16, but I had to do it when I was 50, which I loved – it’s a childhood dream to do flying Kung Fu and we did that a lot.

It’s quite the year for the actor who first broke onto the scene with his villainous role in Casino Royale. This winter will his stardom will rise to new heights as he is now part of the two most successful franchises in history. His role in Rogue ties him to the original classic Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope as the scientist who invented the original Death Star.

To read the full interview including his thoughts on what it means to be the new face of Ford head on over to GQ.

Doctor Strange hits theaters November 4, 2016. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story drops a month later on December 16, 2016.

SOURCE: GQ