Charlie Hunnam Stars In Darker Version Of King Arthur Than Ever Seen Before
Charlie Hunnam and director Guy Ritchie have a warning for movie-goers when they come to see Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur.
Charlie Hunnam will star as King Arthur in a darker version of the character than ever seen before, according to an interview Entertainment Weekly conducted with Guy Ritchie.
“I think where the pitfall has often been is trying to make King Arthur bland and nice, and nice and bland… That King Arthur was a good guy from the beginning. Our King Arthur is not a good guy from the beginning.”
Those sentiments are being shared for the first time since Ritchie and Charlie Hunnam – who played Jackson “Jax” Teller in the FX drama Sons of Anarchy – wrapped up filming for the July 2016 release. According to IMDB, in Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur, Charlie Hunnam’s character uncovers his royal heritage and his famous sword while confronting Vortigern, the dictator that stole his crown while murdering his parents.
Recently, Charlie Hunnam revealed he would rather play a bad guy than a good guy to his faithful followers. And as Cinema Blend reported, to turn King Arthur into a darker character, Charlie revived memories of his role on Sons of Anarchy.
“He’s a little bit rough around the edges, but he’s basically a survivor. He’s a hustler. He’s a street kid. There’s definitely a harder edge to him than people would imagine. It’s sort of classic Guy Ritchie stuff.”
Exclusive: Charlie Hunnam and Excalibur glisten in these 'King Arthur' first look photos: http://t.co/EnfdYJVG4K pic.twitter.com/8vvleHBupH
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) July 23, 2015
Entertainment Tonight debuted the first photos of Hunnam in his King Arthur role last week. One of those photos – a dirty, blood-covered photo of Charlie with his sword Excaliber – will grace the cover of Entertainment Weekly for the upcoming issue.
This King Arthur reboot will whisk viewers away into a world of fantasy, with fantasy elements including larger-than-life snakes, elephants and viking-like creatures. Lionel Wigram, the Producer of Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur has expressed some concert that people loyal to the traditional King Arthur story will be disappointed with the liberties taken, Daily Mail reported.
“Hopefully, loyalists won’t be too offended by what we’ve done.”
Alongside Charlie Hunnam is veteran actor Jude Law, playing the role of Vortigern. As IMBD notes, Jude Law is perhaps best known for for his role as Dr. John Watson in the popular Sherlock Holmes movie series as well as several roles throughout his 26-year acting career.
The new King Arthur movie was not originally supposed to be the next Charlie Hunnam movie to be released. Originally cast as Christian Grey in the film Fifty Shades of Grey, Charlie Hunnam backed out due to personal and schedule conflicts. Hello Magazine reported that this was not an easy decision for Charlie Hunnam to make.
“It was very, very painful for me, that whole process, just very unpleasant. I felt like I let myself down. I let those people down on Fifty Shades that I’d grown to really love and respect. For the first time in my life, [I] had more work than I had time to do it.”
Are you glad that Charlie Hunnam has focussed his attention on the new Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur movie or do you wish he’s have played the lead role in Fifty Shades instead?
[Photo: Tullio M. Puglia, Jacopo Raule / Getty Images]
