Orlando Bloom is returning to swashbuckling. He’s officially on board Paul W.S. Anderson’s new take on The Three Musketeers. Here’s the weird thing: He’s not one of the Musketeers. Logan Lerman, Ray Stevenson, Luke Evans, and Matthew Macfadyen are already set to play the titular Musketeers. Instead Variety says he’s playing the Duke of Buckingham.
A few weeks ago rumor had it that Bloom was considering playing a villain in the movie, so that could be the role they’ve carved out for Buckingham in the film. Except the movie already seems overloaded with bad guys. Christoph Waltz is the traditional Musketeer villain Cardinal Richelieu and Mads Mikkelsen is playing a bad guy too. How many villains does a movie need?
In the traditional Musketeer tale Buckingham is, comparatively, a rather minor character. He’s involved in the plot only because he sleeps with the queen and sets things in motion. Maybe they’ll expand his role for the movie, but right now it’s hard to imagine where Orlando Bloom fits in to the project.
