Downfall actor Thomas Kretschmann will play the super healing fiend in Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Rumors that there would be a second villain in Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron were fulfilled when The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Thomas Kretschmann has been cast as Baron Strucker in the superhero sequel.
The actor, who is currently playing Abraham Van Helsing on NBC’s Dracula (and who coincidentally played the Undead count himself in 2013’s Dracula 3D), has apparently signed a deal with Marvel Studios to play the villainous foe in multiple pictures through the foreseeable future.
Strucker made his first Marvel Comics appearance in the monthly Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos in 1964 where he was discovered to be a Nazi who used scientific experiments with a “Death Spore Virus” to give him superpowers, including the Wolverine-like ability to rapidly heal and not age. Perhaps then he’ll be a threat from Captain America’s past for the movie universe?
Kretschmann is an actor born in Eastern Germany during Russian occupation and has appeared in such films as King Kong, Blade II, andDownfall.