Vincent Kartheiser (Masterminds) is taking on an iconic DC comic book role in the upcoming third season of Titans on HBO Max, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. Kartheiser is arguably best known for playing the slimy account executive-turned-junior partner Pete Campbell in AMC’s hit drama Mad Men. Titans sees the actor portraying different kind of villain altogether, that being Dr. Jonathan Crane A.K.A. Scarecrow, according to Entertainment Weekly. The superhero series’ official Twitter account made the news of Kartheiser’s participation public on April 28.
Titans‘ version of Scarecrow is bound by the walls of Gotham’s infamous mental asylum, but that does not prevent him from entering into an unholy collaboration with the city’s police department: “[He] is an Arkham Asylum inmate who used to terrorize Gotham City with fear toxin, but… he moonlights as a criminal profiler for the GCPD,” via Entertainment Weekly.
The character made his first appearance almost eighty years ago in the third issue of the DC comic book series World’s Finest Comics, according to the Detective Comments blog. The character has since appeared numerous times in DC’s films, television programs and interactive properties, and has therefore been subject to variety of inspired portrayals. Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders, Breakfast on Pluto) brought Scarecrow to the big screen in the 2000’s, and in the Fox series Gotham, Charlie Tahan (Ozark) and David Thompson (The Boys) both had the opportunity to play the manipulative former university professor. Comedic interpretations of Scarecrow’s voice have been offered by Rahul Kohli (The Haunting of Bly Manor) in Harley Quinn and Jason Mantzoukas (The Good Place) in The Lego Batman Movie. Dramatic versions of the same have been notably provided by Henry Polic II (Webster) in Batman: The Animated Series along with some horror genre heavy-hitters, such as Robert Englund (Wes Craven’s New Nightmare) in the video game Injustice 2, and Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator) in Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu for the Nintendo GameCube and the Kids WB series The New Batman Adventures.
Kartheiser is far from the only new addition to the cast of Titans season three. Savannah Welch (The Transcendents) will play Barbara Gordon A.K.A. Batgirl, Dick Grayson’s (Brenton Thwaites, Oculus) lover and crime-fighting partner. Jay Lycurgo (I May Destroy You) is set to portray Tim Drake, who was introduced in the comics in the late 1980s as the third incarnation of Batman’s sidekick Robin.
The third season of Titans wrapped filming at the tail-end of 2020 and is reportedly set to make its HBO Max premiere before 2021 is through, according to Entertainment Weekly. Seasons one and two, which were originally exclusive to the now-defunct DC Universe streaming service, are available to watch via HBO Max.