[Dragaera] Dragaera Casting

[Scott Schultz]

A problem with casting Vlad is that he's quite a bit younger than the actors
that are being suggested.

The timeline has Vlad as 30 years old at the time of Iorich, give or take.
That's younger than I expected; his marriage to Cawti must have been very
short.

Let's see:

222 PI - Vlad born
238 PI - Loiosh hatches, Vlad goes to work for Nielar - 16 yrs old, he got
an early start
240 PI - Vlad and Morrolan traverse the Paths of the Dead - 18 yrs old
241(ish) PI - Vlad enlists in Morrolan's army and learns about being a
soldier - 19 yrs old
242 PI - _Yendi_ - Surprised me, I missed this being set BEFORE _Jhereg_,
always thought of it as after. - 20 yrs old
243 PI - _Jhereg_ - 21(ish) yrs old

... and so on... 

The point is that Vlad has to be played by a young actor, especially if any
explanation of his background is given. All of these guys in their mid-30's
might be alright for "present day" Iorich Vlad, but none are suitable for
beginning the story with Jhereg or Taltos.

The actor in question needs to have a bit of swarthiness to him, I think.
(Never mind looking good in a moustache and maybe a beard.) He also needs to
be convincing as someone who can be charming, a wiseacre, and yet change in
an instant into someone murderous - someone who says "Tell me what I want or
I will kill you slowly and painfully" and you look into his eyes and you
gulp and tell him what he wants to know. He has to be a hero who is also a
cold-blooded, calculating murderer. The kind of person who you can look at
and think "Oh, yeah. He's done 'work'".

I'm not really sure who fits that bill at all, let alone an up-and-comer in
the younger set who could do it.

This is why Depp doesn't quite work for me. He could capture the smartass
side of Vlad, but I would have a hard time buying him as the kid who got
beat up every week on the streets of Adrilankha and grew up into a hardened
killer who enjoyed planning and executing murder along with running a small
criminal empire of his own.