Iwan Rheon Says Marvel's Inhumans Has "No Villains"

When the first full trailer for Marvel's Inhumans was released, a lot of fans probably thought that Maximus the Mad (played by Iwan Rheon) will be the main villain of the new series, but according to Rheon himself, Inhumans will have complex definitions of heroes and villains.

Speaking to CBR, Rheon isn't the stereotypical villain fans would expect. "There are no villains," Rheon said. "It's developing as we go along. Maximus, he wants to help the people. He's actually genuinely out to help people in a system he believes is wrong and unjust."

"What's great about this show is it has sort of gray areas in terms of what is a villain, what isn't," Rheon explained. "It's not black and white. It's a lot of shades to the characters. You could see Black Bolt as cruel because he's sending all the people to live in horrible conditions and mine for resources for them. Is he a villain for doing that?"

The moral complexity of the characters reminds me of the show Rheon previously starred in, Game of Thrones, where he played the ruthlessly evil Ramsay Bolton. When asked to elaborate the differences between Rheon's Inhumans character and Ramsay Bolton, he said:

"Maximus starts offsan opinionated, passionate young man who wants to change things, and he wants to do it peacefully. He's ruthless in his plans. Ramsay is a very dark, twisted individual who got pleasure from inflicting pain on people. He didn't have any real political ideas. He was all about, 'I'll go in there, kill all them, and then we'll be sorted and figure out the next plan.' Maximus is very considered. He's a politician; he thinks. He doesn't do his own dirty work, he manipulates people to do things for him. He doesn't run into a room with a knife. That's not who he is. So I guess there are fundamental differences. He's not evil. He doesn't want bad things to happen to people. He's a young, passionate man."

As someone who hasn't read the Inhumans comic books, I get the impression that Maximus the Mad is more calculating, more intelligent than the Game of Thrones villain that Rheon played. I'm looking forward to see Rheon portray Maximus, and whether fans would consider him a villain or not, I'd probably end up cheering for his character to prevail.

Synopsis:

After the Royal Family of Inhumans is splintered by a military coup, they barely escape to Hawaii where their surprising interactions with the lush world and humanity around them may prove to not only save them, but Earth itself.

Inhumans stars Iwan Rheo as Maximus, Anson Mount as Black Bolt, Serinda Swan as Medusa, Eme Ikwuakor as Gorgon, Isabelle Cornish as Crystal, Ken Leung as Karnak, Ellen Woglom as an undisclosed character, Sonya Balmores as Auran, and Mike Moh as Trito

Related: Inhumans Star Talks About Relationships of The Royal Family