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‘Marvel’s Inhumans’ Black Bolt Cast: Who Is ‘Hell On Wheels’ Star Anson Mount?

By Georgia Makitalo
Published on: 09:01 PST, Mar 2, 2017

Fans of Hell On Wheels star Anson Mount and his laconic character Cullen Bohannon finally know what the steely actor is doing next. Mount has just been cast as Black Bolt in ABC’s new program, Marvel’s The Inhumans. While many who had watched the AMC show that Mount starred in for five seasons, many superhero fans are not familiar with the roguish-looking actor. Who is Anson Mount and why is he perfect to play the role of Black Bolt?

The big news on the Marvel front is that actor Anson Mount will be playing the role of Black Bolt in the new ABC series Marvel’s The Inhumans. According to Hollywood Reporter, this Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. offshoot will be the first television show ever to premiere on the big screen, in IMAX. After the premiere on Labor Day weekend, the show will run in theaters two weeks, before it will air on ABC. The producers have created a spectacular television release, unlike anything ever before!

Anton Mount has rock star looks and a gritty acting style. [Image by Donna Ward/Getty Images]

Is the casting of Anson Mount equally spectacular? Absolutely!

On the official Marvel website, Jeph Loeb, the executive producer and head of Marvel TV expressed his enthusiasm for their choice of Anson Mount as Black Bolt. Just over six feet of sinewy power, Mount commands the authority needed to play Black Bolt, as well as his distinctive and powerful voice.

“Anson loves the challenge of playing a character who will only communicate silently. His enthusiasm mixed with his imposing almost regal persona made it easy to see why he is our Black Bolt.”

Devoted fans of Hell On Wheels spent five seasons watching the mastery of Anson Mount as he portrayed the laconic and mercurial Cullen Bohannon. The era is post Civil War and the Confederate soldier Bohannon is bent on avenging the horrific death of his wife. Executive producer and showrunner of Marvel’s The Inhumans, Scott Buck believes that Anson Mount is meant to play Black Bolt.

“Black Bolt is a character whose deep complexity must be conveyed without uttering a single word, and I’m very excited to have Anson on board to bring him to life.”

So who is Anson Mount? Any Britney Spears fans that may think Anson Mount looks vaguely familiar will have to go back 15 years to the Shonda Rhimes screenplay disaster which was known as Crossroads. Britney and “whatever his name was” (Mount) were nominated as the “Worst Screen Couple” by the 23rd Golden Raspberry Awards. The on-screen couple lost their Razzy to Adriano Giannini and Madonna in Swept Away, a movie that Madonna best forget.

A few years later, tired of playing the wholesome boyfriend, Anson Mount told AMC that he decided to play grittier, darker characters. He refused to be typecast.

“A couple of years ago, I got tired of playing those clean-cut characters because I’d done it. I was bored. And I just decided to start going for roles that I wanted to play, not the ones they wanted to see me in. I moved back to New York and let my hair grow out a little bit. I was pursuing my interest in acting instead of what other people wanted me to do.”

Cosmetically, Mount also added a bit of scruff to his face before his auditions and soon he was playing complex characters with a lot of grit and steel.

Mount grew up in White Bluff, Tennessee, to a father, Anson Mount III, who was the original sports editor for Playboy and Nancy Smith, the former professional golfer. He taught acting at Columbia University in New York. A bit of a Renaissance man, the creative actor told the Chicago Tribune that he also loves to write and finds it “cathartic.”

“I sometimes think of myself as a writer-actor. I don’t get the same cathartic experience from acting as I do from writing.”

There is no word if he has been working on the great American novel or perhaps a screenplay or even a comic book. No matter what, Mount is very active on social media.

Now that he has a major role in the Marvel universe, does Anson Mount have a favorite comic book character? He told The Nerdist a few years back that the comic book character he would want to play is Gambit and gave his personal reason why he picked this character.

“Gambit. He’s a Southerner.”

Mount then gave a good laugh.

“I think it would be a great franchise.”

Black Bolt is not Gambit, but, at least it’s Marvel!

Hell On Wheels fans, are you glad you can finally see Anson Mount on the tube again? Or are you a Marvel fan, excited for The Inhumans?

[Featured Image by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images]

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