Avengers: Age of Ultron (whose script was recently praised by Black Widow Scarlett Johansson) just keeps getting bigger and bigger with today’s announcement that Thomas Kretschmann will play Baron Von Strucker, the secondary antagonist to James Spader’s titular villain in the forthcoming sequel to 2012’s Avengers set for a release on May 1st, 2015.
Thomas Kretschmann, who instantly won our respect by having this picture of him shirtless with a cat show up in his Google search, holds the distinction of being in two separate adaptions of Dracula within a year of each other (Dracula 3D where he played the titular role and the current NBC series where he plays Abraham Von Helsing.) Not only will Kretschmann play Von Strucker in Avengers 2, but he’s announced as portraying him in the upcoming film, Purgatory Conspiracy or funny iMDB error? You decide!
Von Strucker’s inclusion in the film raises certain questions, such as what the role of HYDRA (the souped up science Nazis from Captain America: The First Avenger) role will be in the modern MCU, what connections they may or may not have to James Spader, or whether or not Von Strucker’s presence will be felt beyond this one film. Also, it’s unclear he’ll have that one badass arm that takes away people’s life-forces to steal his own. Either way, we just hope no harm comes to that cat.
