Brian Cox joins the cast of Kings

Brian Cox joins the cast of Kings October 16, 2008


The Hollywood Reporter says character actor extraordinaire Brian Cox will be joining the NBC series Kings for “a major four-episode arc”:

“Kings,” from UMS, creator Michael Green and director Francis Lawrence, centers on David (Christopher Egan), an idealistic soldier who joins the court of King Silas (Ian McShane), monarch of the modern nation of Gilboa.

Cox will play Silas’ nemesis, former King Vesper.

The description of Cox’s character is interesting, because this series is based, to some degree, on the biblical story of the relationship between King Saul and his sometimes-protege, sometimes-nemesis, the future King David. And according to the biblical narrative, Saul was the first king of Israel.

So who is this “former King Vesper” supposed to represent? The former ruler of one of the neighbouring kingdoms? The former ruler of one of the Canaanite communities that were displaced by the Israelites before and during David’s lifetime? Or does this character have no biblical analogue in particular?

It is possible, of course, that this character was invented just for this series. But this raises an interesting point: Will the series follow the general arc of the biblical narrative, or, after starting with a modernized but basically biblical premise, will it go in its own direction and tell an entirely different story?

And how close of a correspondence will there be between the Old Testament and the TV series on an episode-by-episode basis, or even on a major-subplot-by-major-subplot basis?


Browse Our Archives

Follow Us!