In case you were worried that Hollywood was exhausting its stores for medieval history/fantasy, there’s good news: Guy Ritchie’s Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur is still being prepared at Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow, with Charlie Hunnam in place to play King Arthur himself. Up until now, Arthur’s Daddy, Uther Pendragon, was still missing from the cast, but that has been rectified: Eric Bana has signed on to play the rather important role.
Bana will be the father of the future King Arthur in the first installment of Ritchie’s proposed six-part franchise. He’s joining a cast that already include Hunnam and Astrid Berges-Frisbey as Guinevere. Jude Law is currently in talks to play Arthur’s villainous uncle, while Djimon Hounsou as a Merlin-style figure who mentors the young Arthur. Plot details are otherwise being kept under wraps, but as this is one part of a six-part story, don’t expect too much to happen in one movie.
It’s a bit of surprise that Bana was cast, actually, for the production was apparently looking at Liam Neeson for the Uther Pendragon part. That fell through though, presumably because Neeson does not do a film that does not involve guns any more (though this one would certainly have had glowering and possibly vengeance). While I must admit that I would have bought Neeson as Hunnam’s father easier than Bana, I’m sure Guy Ritchie and his team know what they are doing. Or at least, they better if they’re going to get six films out of this franchise.
Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur is holding down a July 22, 2016 release date.