Sherlock, Doctor Who execs cast lead for new Dracula series
It’s been well-known for some time that former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat was working on a new Dracula series for Netflix / BBC One alongside his Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss. Now, we know precisely who is going to be playing the title role.
According to a report from Variety, Danish actor Claes Bang has been officially cast in the lead role, which seems to be by far the biggest break of his career so far. It’s actually been a rather busy year for Bang, given that he was recently also cast as a potential love interest for Maura Tierney’s character of Helen on the fifth and final season of The Affair.
So what is the story for this new iteration of Dracula going to be about? Basically, this version of the character is going to head out from Transylvania in order to cause some chaos in London. While we do think that Gatiss and Moffat will show a certain degree of affection for the original character and the source material, they will also find a way to give it a unique spin. That is one of the reasons for the success of Sherlock, which does honor the source while also mixing things up. It may now be the definitive retelling of the classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story for many people out there.
In a statement, here is some of what Bang had to say about landing this particular role:
“I’m so excited that I get to dig in to this iconic and super-interesting character … Yes, he’s evil, but there’s also so much more to him. He’s charismatic, intelligent, witty and sexy. I realize that there’s a lot to live up to with all the amazing people that have played him over the years.”
The plan for Dracula is for it to be, at least structurally, not all that different from Sherlock. There are going to be three different feature-length episodes that air on BBC One, and we imagine those to hit Netflix not too long after the fact. Our hope is that the distribution model is fairly close to another recent BBC series in Bodyguard, which arrived in America not too long after its British debut. Yet, we do imagine that there will be even more buzz about this series given A) the material and B) the producers involved. There have been a multitude of Dracula adaptations over the years, including one version that aired on NBC not all that long ago, but this one has promise just because of the people behind the scenes and also the patience that seems to have gone into getting it ready to film. It does not appear as though anyone was ready to hurry things along here.
What do you think about Claes Bang getting cast for this particular role? Be sure to share some of your thoughts right now in the attached comments!