Jared Harris Cast as Someone Debonair and British in ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’

By  · Published on September 3rd, 2013

Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. begins shooting in less than a week ‐ specifically, on September 9 ‐ so this latest casting announcement comes just in the nick of time. Jared Harris, best known for his roles in Mad Men and Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, has been cast in the upcoming spy-thriller-action-comedy-TV adaptation.

What we don’t know, however, is what role Harris will be playing. The film doesn’t have its villain yet, and Harris has a certain high-class charm that would lend itself perfectly to a sneering spy villain role. Plus, Harris was the villain in Ritchie’s last directorial outing (the aforementioned Sherlock Holmes sequel) and the rest of the cast has already been filled in. Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer will be playing lead spies Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, with Alicia Vikander as a fellow agent, Elizabeth Debicki as some kind of femme fatale, and Hugh Grant as the head of British Naval Intelligence. I can only assume we’ll see them all on some world-saving spy mission at the behest of U.N.C.L.E., the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.

Harris is a welcome addition to the cast, especially considering that neither Cavill nor Hammer are known for their incredible acting abilities, while Harris already has a number of terrific performances to his name. Plus, we’ll have to sit through Armie Hammer attempting a Russian accent that I can only assume will be unrelentingly painful. Hopefully Harris can keep U.N.C.L.E. afloat, and that Ritchie can go back to the low-budget crime capers he started his career with, rather than all these big-budget remakes. [The Hollywood Reporter]