Sherlock's New Adversary Revealed!

[Carol the Dabbler]

From Sherlockology:
 

Announced minutes ago, the prime opponent for Sherlock Holmes and John Watson in Sherlock Series Three has finally been revealed by the production team. As this is officially confirmed information, Sherlockology is no longer treating it as a spoiler, as it is a detail the creators wish to share with everyone. However, just in case you are still reluctant to discover the new villain’s identity…

 

 

Introducing Lars Mikkelsen as Charles Augustus Magnussen!

Lars Mikkelsen is a Danish actor, famous for roles in the hit international exports The Killing, Borgen and Those Who Kill.

 

Magnussen is presumably based on the title character in the canon story "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" -- but the name has been changed to protect the guilty? or because the character (as well as the actor) is now Danish?

 

[Selena]

"Prime opponent"? As in the Big Bad of the third season?

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

The master blackmailer. So some of the early speculations were correct. Now what could he possibly have on our boys?  But even in the canon he did intimidate Sherlock Holmes so that he dare not touch him. This could be very interesting.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I'm going to guess that Moran appears in "The Empty Hearse," but is rather summarily dealt with.

 

As for blackmail, Magnussen could simply keep the "Rich Brook" allegations alive (retractions not withstanding).  But that's probably not inventive enough for Moftiss.

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Hmmmm...maybe something to do with that earlier incident that made Moriarty go after Sherlock in the first place?  "What is it? Family, Clan, Organization?"  "I wasn't the one who upset her, Mycroft." ?

[Selena]

In order for Sherlock to give in it would have to be something quite important. He does not seem to be the kind of person who is easily blackmailed.

[Caya]

Agreed. Mycroft, on the other hand, probably has an army of skeletons in his closet.

[Selena]

True, and he would probably go to great lengths to keep them there.

It should be quite hard to find anything, however, considering how fond Mycroft is of secrecy.

[maria34]

Hi! New fan here 

 

I didn't know where to post this, I thought it would fit here, as it has to do with the new villain! Enjoy:

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2382444/Benedict-Cumberbatch-returns-Sherlock-set-film-scenes-Lars-Mikkelsens-new-villain.html

 

Very interesting report of filming scenes with the new villain!! 

[Selena]

That certainly is very interesting. Thank you for posting this.

[maria34]

That certainly is very interesting. Thank you for posting this.

Ah, you are nice.. Here's some more:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bbc_fangirl/sets/72157634874166203/

 

 

Lars Mikkelsen is supposed to be a GREAT actor by the way. If you have watched his brother Mads perform (he is playing Hannibal Lecter in new series), you will get a hint of what to expect. Talent is in their genes..

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

In the canon, Sherlock himself is never threatened with blackmail. But in the Scandal in Belgravia, he does break the code that throws a monkey wrench into some serious government plans and Mycroft covers it up, even though Sherlock does more then make up for that slip by breaking the code of Adler's phone. The CIA knows of this slip up....so maybe one of them spills to Magnussen to keep themselves out of hock with the man? Maybe Mycroft's skeletons aren't as well hidden as he would like to think?

[Carol the Dabbler]

Or maybe he's blackmailing Mary Morstan?

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Yeah, she is a black horse don't know anything about her....so.....it's possible.

[maria34]

Hey, I've just come across this interview of Mads Mikkelsen who is Lars Mikkelsen's brother -who will play the villain in new Sherlock- and here's what he has to say about it:

 

Your brother, Lars, is playing a villain in the new series of Sherlock. Has he spoken to you about it?

Yes, though I can’t say too much apart from that it is sure to be one of the more dramatic episodes. 

 

http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/tv/hannibal-is-satan-on-earth

 

Nothing special really, but I wonder why he stressed the fact that it's "dramatic". Now I am even more curious..

[Carol the Dabbler]

Maria34, the reason it has taken a while for your post to show up is that you're still within your first ten posts, meaning that each post has to be approved by the staff before it actually appears.  This can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on when a staff member happens to be online.

 

Once you have ten posts, though, your new posts will appear immediately.

 

And thanks for that interesting tidbit!

 

[Julia Mae]

Or maybe he's blackmailing Mary Morstan?

 

Or maybe he's got something on John, though in the Canon, he's not after either  Holmes or Watson.  If John missed the war, if his shoulder healed up, why was he invalided home?  Or was he?  Why was he so reticent with the therapist and what was so traumatizing for him that he had the limp? 

 

How bad were his "bad days?"

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

  Yes, he did admit to "killing people"....who did he kill? Were they all insurgents and Taliban?

[T.o.b.y]

Not long until we find out how Magnussen actually makes / made Sherlock go far enough into emotional territory to actually hate him. But still fun to speculate. As far as I understand so far, Magnussen is supposed to be a businessman who makes profit by blackmailing people, just like the original, only supposedly with a wider scope of material, not just social scandals and break-ups. For that, he would need information on people they'd done a lot to keep secret. How to get at secrets? You'd need a detective.

 

Theoretically, Sherlock himself could blackmail people to his heart's content. Who is better at finding out what "many people have been successfully kept in the dark about", as the representative of the illustrious client says in A Scandal in Belgravia? He doesn't, though. So presumably, he thinks that would be wrong, either on ethical or simply artistic grounds (I do think he considers himself as some kind of artist in what he does - certainly not a businessman). His work means the world to him and of course he'd hate a man who took it and turned it into a sordid scheme for making profit.

 

So my guess is that either Magnussen has people of his own who do more or less what Sherlock does and uses that for his own advantage, or that he hires Sherlock himself through some intermediate and makes some horrible use of his findings, or he just lurches onto something that came to light through one of Sherlock's cases by an (un)lucky chance. Any of the above should call forth hatred.

[The Rani]

It's obviously Moriarty reincarnated! 

[T.o.b.y]

I'd be surprised if it was. They can do better than that. There is no resemblance between the original Moriarty and Milverton - except that they're both evil. I'm not sure Sherlock even hated Moriarty. He was like another side of his own coin, so to speak. A fellow artist. Magnussen I presume will belong to a completely different species.

[Carol the Dabbler]

... my guess is that either Magnussen has people of his own who do more or less what Sherlock does and uses that for his own advantage, or that he hires Sherlock himself through some intermediate and makes some horrible use of his findings, or he just lurches onto something that came to light through one of Sherlock's cases by an (un)lucky chance. Any of the above should call forth hatred.

 

Maybe he somehow uses Sherlock's findings to blackmail Sherlock's own client?  I think you may well be on the right track.

 

I'm not sure Sherlock even hated Moriarty. He was like another side of his own coin, so to speak. A fellow artist. Magnussen I presume will belong to a completely different species.

 

I agree that Milverton is a whole different animal from Moriarty.  But, as you say, Moriarty was like another side of Sherlock's coin -- not necessarily the other side.  Magnussen may be like a whole other other side of Sherlock's coin.

[PatB]

Or maybe he's blackmailing Mary Morstan?

 

Just trawling threads from a year ago, and came across this. Well called.