Mere days after finding out that House of Cards vet Nathan Darrow will be playing the iconic Batman villain Victor ”Mr. Freeze” Fries on Fox’s Gotham, the producers have announced the actress who will be playing the tragedy-filled baddie’s wife Nora Fries: Being Human’s Kristen Hager. Check her out.
Of course, Hager isn’t going to look quite like this when she’s on Gotham. She’s got a terminal illness that will be at the center of both her and Victor’s narrative arcs, and it sounds like we’ll get to know her as a character for a little while before she inevitably gets put into the cold tank.
According to Zap2It, she’ll be the smart and casually sensible opposite to the emotionally callous and distant cryogenicist Victor. But he definitely loves his wife, and he definitely wants to make her illness anything but deadly. As she gets worse, he becomes more harrowed with trying to keep her alive, and she must then decide whether she wants to “play the willing participant in Victor’s mad plan,” which we’ll assume has something to do with keeping her frozen, or if she’ll make the ultimate sacrifice in order to stop her husband from going insane. I know I won’t be the only disappointed viewer if Nora’s story ends without Victor mourning her through glass. That’s just how the story has to be told.
Although Mr. Freeze has been one of Batman’s nemeses for over 50 years, the character of Nora wasn’t created until the stellar Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s, and she’s popped up in the following years on The Batman and in the video games Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Origins. She is perhaps best remembered from Joel Schumacher’s 1997 shitfest Batman & Robin, in which she was played by Vendela Kirseborn. Her story was changed up for the New 52 comic book storylines.
Beyond her role as Nora on the Americanized version of Being Human, the Canadian actress Hager aso starred in the horror series Valemont and the drama series Runaway. She was most recently seen on the small screen in an episode of Masters of Sex and will soon appear in the Syfy drama thriller The Expanse.
We’re not entirely certain when we’ll get to meet Nora, but Hager did just start shooting her first episode, so probably expect to see her in the next couple of months. Before that, though, we’ll hopefully get our day in the asylum with BD Wong’s Hugo Strange. And Ed Nygma certainly seems like he’s very close to fully becoming The Riddler. Plus, we’re still waiting to see where the Joker story goes next. Not to mention Harvey Dent’s effect on Gotham. So. Many. Villains.
Gotham airs Monday nights on Fox.
