Christopher Eccleston has quite the fan base. News that the former Doctor Who and 28 Days Later star will play supervillain Malekith the Accursed in the upcoming Thor sequel — as Deadline's Mike Fleming reported Wednesday night — set the Twitter-verse reeling today. Late Thursday morning, Eccleston was trending on the social media site, thanks to, it appeared, the many contributions of Doctor Who fans everywhere. Eccleston was the first to play the impish Time Lord when the BBC rebooted the series in 2005. He was succeeded by David Tennant, which prompted @teaspoonofsugar to tweet, "Christopher Eccleston in Thor 2? Does this mean David Tennant will be in Thor 3?"
Based on illustrations of Malekith, Eccleston — a dead ringer for Men at Work lead singer Colin Hay — will be donning a flowing white mane, large pointy ears and two-toned blue skin to play the leader of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim. (Say that three times fast without laughing.) His casting ups the probability that the Casket of Ancient Winters, which figured in the original Thor will make a return appearance in the sequel. In the Marvel comics series, Malekith used the Casket, which is capable of creating massive, brutal snowstorms, to bring Thor's home, Asgard, to its knees.
As Count Floyd would say, "Oooh, very, very scary!"
The sequel, which will be directed by Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Palookaville), begins shooting in the U.K. later this month.
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