The upcoming Inhumans project will feature the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first mute superhero with Black Bolt, played by Anson Mount. The character is mute by choice, as his voice has the power to destroy cities, and many wondered how the show would approach his character. Showrunner Scott Buck offered some insight into what we can expect from the character and reveals that the TV series will primarily focus on Black Bolt as the main character.
“Black Bolt is a very difficult character I would think for Anson, but for any actor to play. But Anson is tackling it in a hugely fantastic way. It’s a little bit difficult to write him, because Black Bolt does not speak, but yet he is our hero and he is the center of the show, so it does certainly present challenges in how you tell his story, but fortunately we came up with a really good story.”
The hints at the story is rather intriguing and if we go by the storyline that Boltagon will be stuck on earth alongside the rest of the Royal Family, allowing the character to grow on his own after losing his throne could be quite an interesting story to follow. If the Nuhumans are indeed involved with the project, we could see the former king of Attilan retrace his steps to what defines royalty and the challenge it entails.
“Anson is terrific. I think everyone’s going to be very pleased and excited by his Black Bolt. We’re not doing voice over. If you read the comics, you see Black Bolt does find a way to communicate to people, but he’s also a very enigmatic character as well, and he keeps a lot inside. That’s part of what’s so fascinating about him is that a lot of times, we don’t know what he’s thinking.”
Buck seems to be quite pleased with Anson‘s performance, and it most certainly is a challenging one. It makes one wonder where they are going to head with the character, as they could focus on his stoic nature and be an unwilling participant to events happening around him, which is hinted at when the showrunner mentions the difficulty of knowing what he is thinking. Another opportunity is to show the ruler’s (in)humanity as he learns about a new world that could lead to a new direction in the one he was forced to leave behind. Whatever he is doing, his brother, Maximus (Iwan Rheon) will be sure to stop at all time. When asked how they felt about casting Rheon for the role, Scott Buck teased a less one-note incarnation of the character.
“We were so thrilled to get him because he’s such a super talented actor. Obviously we knew him well through Game of Thrones, but he can do a lot more than that. We didn’t want to create just a simple villain who’s evil for the sake of being evil. He’s a very real, three-dimensional character. Iwan is more than capable. Every time we watch dailies of him, we’re just more and more excited about what he’s bringing to the screen.I think our Maximus is a different, more complicated, more real, more compelling version of Maximus that has been seen in most of the comics, and it’s just because we have the opportunity to do so much more on the screen than you would in a comic book.”
Maximus has the potential to rank alongside some of the most iconic Marvel villains, such as Wilson Fisk from Daredevil or Jessica Jones‘ Kilgrave. Establishing a great villain for the show is important, as with the strong focus on Black Bolt, his relationship with his brother could also allow for both characters to grow. There is one more important character relation that will play a key part in the upcoming IMAX-ABC co-production, Bolt’s wife, Medusa. While the showrunner does not offer much insight into what we can expect from her character, we do get a tease of the characters’ famous ability and trait, her hair.
“It is very difficult. Even now, it’s still a process. It takes quite a long time in post to make that effect work. We have some of the best visual effects people available working on our show. We still haven’t seen the final version of it; it’s very much a work in process.”
The official picture released did confirm that we will see Medusa’s famous red hair, but it makes sense that this effect would still take some time until it was finalised. There is still time until the September release of the first two episodes, and it offers the production enough time to get the effect down that it will not seem to cartoonish. Hopefully, we will get a tease of how we can imagine this effect will be visualised in an upcoming trailer.
Are you looking forward to seeing Maximus and Black Bolt’s relationship? How do you think that Boltagon and Medusa’s marriage will be portrayed?
Source: Entertainment Weekly
