By Ingrid Meilan
This Friday, September 1, Marvel’s Inhumans—a royal family like you’ve never seen before—make their debut in IMAX theatres for a two-week period in advance of the September 29 premiere of the new series on ABC (8–10 p.m. ET/PT). Based on a legendary comic book series, Marvel’s Inhumans follows Black Bolt, the commanding King of the Inhumans, and his family as they start a new life in Hawaii after a military coup. Black Bolt’s brother, Maximus, is a charismatic villain you’re going to love to hate—especially since he’s played by Iwan Rheon, known to fans of Game of Thrones as Ramsay Bolton, one of the most evil men to ever roam the Seven Kingdoms. D23 recently caught up with Rheon, who chatted about his marvel-ous new role.
D23: What is the best part of joining the Marvel Universe?
IR: I think every young boy wants to be in the superhero show, so it’s lovely to join it. Even though I don’t actually have a super power in the show. It’s cool just to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They make such amazing stuff.
D23: You went from one rabid fan base to another, what’s it like to do shows when people are that invested?
IR: I approach every character as an individual. I don’t really think about what it is, or what it’s in. It’s more about who’s the person I’m supposed to be portraying, so to me it’s the same—I’m just trying to do the best job I can in playing a character.
D23: What was it you hooked onto with this one?
IR: Initially I was a bit unsure whether I wanted to do it, because it seemed like maybe I was going to do the same thing again—which I’m not interested in at all. But Jeph Loeb and Scott Buck spoke to me, and said, “Listen. This guy is different. He’s not vicious. He’s not a psychopath. He wants to change things. He’s a revolutionary, he is a politician who has a really strong idea of how to change the world. I guess those were the right things to say to me.
D23: And he has the love triangle. What was fun about seeing that side of him?
IR: He is vulnerable. He has empathy for people. Ramsay doesn’t—or didn’t, I should say. I think it’s quite a touching story, the fact that Maximus and Medusa were best friends and then as soon as Genesis happened—and it rendered him a human without anything—she kind of ditched him and went off with his brother. Which is kind of harsh, really. I think everyone could empathize with that. And that’s why he’s saying that to her in the scene, “Don’t you remember how much fun we had? And how is your life now, where everything has to be so serious and everything?” It’s quite a touching side to him and it shows his humanity. Not inhumanity.
D23: Was there anything in the source material you wanted to bring to the performance?
IR: The source material gave me more of an idea of who these Inhumans are, what it means to be in this society. How they view everything. How they’ve just tried to ostracize themselves away from society, from the world, really—from humanity. So I think that’s what it gave me, the idea. And it was quite difficult to comprehend and to believe, but that’s kind of what it was.
D23: How would you describe his arc over the first eight episodes?
IR: I think he has to make some very big decisions and he starts to feel the weight of those decisions. And that affects him.
