Vikings preferred Gustaf Skarsgard is no stranger to time period costuming. He spent years in kohl, face paint, and linen shirts, traipsing around foggy fields as the tv show’s resident wacko shipbuilder, Floki. Now, he’s once again entering period garb as Cursed‘s Merlin. Though he’s got a huge of a beard going, and truly knows how to rock a cape, this Merlin isn’t sporting pointy wizard gaps or Gandalf level grey. Skarsgård and Cursed‘s Merlin is at the same time hundreds if not thousands of years old and still reasonably spry, and somehow situated right smack in the middle of all of the tv show’s sword-driven drama.
The A.V. Club took a seat with Skarsgård through Zoom to talk about swords, capes, and way-too-long life span.
