'Thor' hammers Akinnuoye-Agbaje into villain role

EXCLUSIVE: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje has joined the cast of Marvel’s  THOR: THE DARK WORLD as a lead villain, playing the dual roles of Algrim the Strong and Kurse, reports Variety's Dave McNary. 

With so much of the THOR cast reprising — Chris Hemsworth,  Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba — Akinnuoye-Agbaje (G.I JOE, THE BOURNE IDENTITY) will be one of the sequel’s few fresh faces.

In the comicbooks, Algrim the Strong was the most powerful of the race, and is coerced by his ruler, Malekith the Accursed (Christopher Eccleston, formerly BBC’s DOCTOR WHO) into fighting Thor. After Malekith betrays him and he’s injured in battle, Algrim is healed and transformed into a much more powerful being — Kurse — who’s twice as a strong the Norse god.

Disney and Marvel Studios have set the second THOR for a Nov. 8, 2013, release with Alan Taylor directing