We previously learned that Jessica De Gouw, aka Arrow‘s Huntress, would be playing Mina Murray to Jonathan Rhys Meyers‘ Drac (or Alan Grayson in the show, because Dracula is an awfully conspicuous name) in NBC’s Victorian era-set Dracula. And now comes the news that the show’s gotten even more genre-tastic with the addition of two new cast members: Katie McGrath and Nonso Anozie.
Or Morgana from Merlin and Xaro Xhoan Daxos from Game of Thrones. This pleases me.
I can think of few characters more screwed over by their writers than Morgana was in Merlin, but even though McGrath didn’t have much more to work with in later seasons than “Act evil and occasionally crazy and be sure to smirk a lot,” she tended to rise above the material. So I’m confident that she’ll bring something interesting to the role of Lucy Westerna, described by Deadine as “Aristocratic London’s sexy, social butterfly and Mina’s best friend who has a penchant for gossip, flirting and all things glamorous.”
Given what happens to Lucy in Bram Stoker‘s original novel, I’m guessing the NBC character will take a somewhat… darker turn than this initial character description would indicate. So I’m really excited they’ve chosen to go with McGrath, who’s proven that she can do dark and do it well.
Nonso Anozie, meanwhile, will play R.M. Renfield, “Alan Grayson’s fiercely loyal confidante.” I wonder if he’ll eat bugs like he did in Dracula: Dead and Loving It (and the original book, for that matter.)Â Anyway. Anozie’s Xaro Xhoan Daxos didn’t really stand out for me as part of Game of Thrones, but he was one of approximately 34327898 cast members, after all, and if memory serves he was appropriately sleazy.
I’m not a huge fan of Jonathan Rhys Meyers—nothing against him, I just haven’t seen him in a lot, and I wasn’t super-impressed by what I have seen—so I was on the fence about this show before. But with this casting news I am firmly to the “intrigued” side of the fence. Not off frolicking in the Fields of Anticipation yet, but a good trailer might get me there.
How about you?
(via: Deadline)
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