Marvel’s Inhumans: Iwan Rheon Was Scared The Show Would Typecast Him

Although Marvel’s Inhumans is upon us in just over a month, the actor behind Maximus the Mad (Iwan Rheon) — the show’s primary antagonist — just recently revealed that he was initially hesitant to take the role, for fear of being typecast.

After portraying the villainous Ramsay Bolton in HBO’s Game of Thrones, Rheon was afraid he’d be doing the same thing all over.

“My fear was I’d be doing the same thing again,” Rheon told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s that fear of being typecast and you just end up repeating yourself, but as we discussed it more and more, I realized that wasn’t at all what we were trying to create with the show.”

In both shows, it essentially boils down to a battle over power and Rheon just so happened to fall on the side of the bad guys two times in a row. His role on Inhumans is significantly different, the actor says.

“[He’s this] young man who went through Terrigenesis and he became nothing,” said Rheon. “In this society, which is all about what power you have, he’s the lowest of low. The only reason he’s not working down in the mines is because he’s the brother of the king — even though he feels like he’d be a much better king — and he’s a man of the people.”

Rheon then went on to explain how instead of being the insane villain we’ve come to known in the Inhumans-based comic books, Maximus will act more like a revolutionary, thinking he can change the Inhuman homeland of Attilan for the better.

“He believes that in order to make this happen, these are the things he has to do. He loves his family, they’re the only family he has, it’s a lonely world, but his belief in what he’s doing, he thinks it’s right,” Rheon explained. “He’s just trying to stop suffering. The costs of the decisions that he makes really starts to corrupt him. It’s a very Shakespearean type of story.”

The reported synopsis for Inhumans is listed below.

“After the Royal Family of Inhumans is splintered by a military coup, they barely escape to Hawaii where their surprising interactions with the lush world and humanity around them may prove to not only save them, but Earth itself.”

Marvel’s Inhumans stars Anson Mount (Black Bolt), Serinda Swan (Medusa), Ken Leung (Karnak), Isabelle Cornish (Crystal), Eme Ikwuakor (Gorgon), Iwan Rheon (Maximus), Sonya Balmores (Auran), Mike Moh (Triton), and Ellen Woglom).

MORE INHUMANS: Inhumans Star Says It Has No Villains / New Inhumans Character Posters Revealed / Serinda Swan Reveals How She Brings Medusa’s Powers To Life