Hugh Grant spent so much of the 1990s as a floppy-haired, befuddled, stammering rom-com hero that his turn as a jerk in Bridget Jones’s Diary was all the more of a treat for both viewers and him. Since then, he’s alternated between good and bad guys, with the latter being the more popular.
Not everyone can play both the morally dubious co-lead in The Undoing and the main villain in Paddington 2 — his choice for his best film, and who could argue? — in the same career. According to Variety, he’s about to introduce another baddie to the mix: the antagonist of the new Dungeons & Dragons movie.
If this seems like odd casting, it seems that the new adaptation is taking a more comedic approach. Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who was last seen in the funny (and very well-directed!) Game Night is writing and directing it. (You can recall Daley from Freaks and Geeks as the young, gawky Sam Weir.) Grant will join a cast that already includes Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Rege-Jean Page from Bridgerton, and It breakout Sophia Lillis.
Even, Grant has some huge shoes to fill: Jeremy Irons, another overqualified English thespian, played the villain in the last film based on the deathless RPG classic, back in 2000. But if Grant can hold his own against a raincoat-clad CGI Andean bear with Ben Whishaw’s voice, he’ll no doubt be able to crack a few jokes when surrounded by dragons, orcs, and any other creatures pop up in D&D.
