Dan Stevens Replaces Justin Roiland As Korvo In 20th Television Animation's ‘Solar Opposites’ Season 4 Slated For August 14

Dan Stevens (ITV "Downton Abbey", Dreamworks Animation Television "Kipo And The Age Of The Wonderbeasts") has been tapped to take over the lead role in the animated series that was originally created by Mike McMahan (Star Trek: Lower Decks) and Roiland, who was ousted in January amid domestic violence charges.

A Solar Opposites Valentine’s Day special is set for February 2024. The series, which counts McMahan and Josh Bycel as exec producers, scored an early season five renewal back in October 2022.

The series has been one of Disney's most sucessful adult animated franchises within the 20th Century Studios brand

NEW!!!

Our Dan, David McSavage & Allen Leech!🥳👍😍

I just made the silliest reel ever and I hope you guys like it🤣🤣🤣

Wow, this is amazing!!!

Dan Stevens as Paul Snider in ‘Welcome to Chippendales’ 

With Kumail Nanjiani as Steve Banerjee and Nicola Peltz Beckham as Dorothy Stratten

Photography by Erin Simkin

New Still of Dan and Kumil in Welcome To Chippendales. 

... Stacy has an allergic reaction to the cream that gives her a terrible rash. But after using it, she begins seeing the product’s spokesman (Dan Stevens) speak to her directly through her TV, promising that it’ll transform her life if she just keeps using more.

“It’s unclear whether it’s actually happening or whether it’s a figment of her imagination, but she obviously becomes overly obsessed with this product and with everything that it promises,” Stevens tells Tudum.

Director Ana Lily Amirpour previously worked with Stevens when he starred in Legion. She came up with the look for the Alo Glo Man, which required the actor to dye his hair platinum blond — a process that took six hours at a hair salon.

“Dan has a really big presence, and I worshiped him on Legion,” Amirpour tells Tudum. “I feel like he can really go anywhere and do anything. He can be the good guy, he can be the villain, he can be a dreamboat, he can be the monster. With the Alo Glo Man, he’s somewhere between a cult leader and an evangelist.”

Stevens dresses in a dazzling white suit and sits in a bright set, which provides a sharp visual contrast to Stacy’s cozy living room, giving her a glimpse of a very different life.

“Dan is the perfect guy to play this because he’s an incredible actor and he’s very, very beautiful and enticing,” Micucci says. “You see those blue eyes and you’re like, ‘What do you want me to buy?’ ” ...

Apostle dir. Gareth Evans

Dan with The Guest and then you with Girl Walks Home were on the 2014 festival circuit, Sundance and all that, you guys have a history together. So I'm excited that you got to finally collaborate on something like this

I worked with him on an episode of Legion, too. That's where we met. I loved The Guest. The Guest is one of my favorite movies. I love that movie. Then we worked on Legion. Dan is one of those actors I love. He's one of those chameleons, he's really like, I equate him on the scale of what Johnny Depp was doing earlier in his career where he could do anything. He could play deranged characters and just go to all different places, a huge spectrum. So Dan is really special. 

Dan Stevens as Paul Snider in the ‘Welcome to Chippendales’ trailer.

This comment has me intrigued.

The Guest (2014)

Is there any way that I can get David to come out of my shower but not do any of the psycho robe killer stuff?  Dan Stevens is an incredible, ruthless presence in this film, delivering a mixture of Terminator, Norman Bates, and Michael Myers that is at once charismatic and alienating.  He has just the right moves in all the right places at the Halloween party and when destroying the bullying jocks.  But when he retreats to his room, he stares blankly at the wall, needing “very little sleep” by his own admission.  A ruthless killer (or precise pumpkin carver) when driven to do so, he nevertheless has a sociopathic need to draw others under his influence.  While the script gives us enough of that to understand, Dan Stevens pushes things forward.  Even when he’s plausibly deniable by movie standards, his eyes belie the truth, always roving about, gazing, calculating.  He gives the right mix of menace, awkward fatherhood, and cool stranger in precisely the right instances.  

Speaking of narrative efficiency, this film knows just when and how to escalate the action.  At the half hour mark, a grander conspiracy is introduced in the form of Lance Reddick’s corporation, the affirmation of suspicions held earlier.  But by the end of the film, that breathless shadowy corporate thread is irrelevant.  Maj Carver is dead and David has escaped.  We know something bigger is at hand, but cannot possibly manage to stop it.

Relentless cool describes so much of this movie’s finale.  The final sequence set in the town’s Halloween maze is a gorgeous flex of lush colors and insane 80s-inflected but entirely unique set design.  How this was made by a bunch of high schoolers is insane, but who gives a shit.  We find ourselves in a kaleidoscopic nightmare of shimmering ribbons and mirrors, laser light and chains.  This is the full realization of the worldview, David stalking his quarry through a misty landscape of pumpkin and witch masks.  It’s here, as well in an earlier clothesline scene, that Wingard fully admits Carpenter as an influence, basically putting the Silver Shamrock masks on full display.

What drives in this heightened closure is the War on Terror misery of the opening acts.  Some people just “come back different” from the war indeed.  This is an early 00’s family in extremis, one son lost to the corporate greed of the Iraq war, a daughter stuck at home as she tries to find sustaining employment.  The father, constantly passed over for promotion sinks into drink while his wife casts about for straws.  This is just a more heightened threat for this imploding nuclear family to face.

THE RULES

SIP

BIG DRINK

It's October. Let The Guest in... You won't be disappointed.

The epitome of gorgeousness……🥵🥵🥵

HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY TO THIS ENGLISH BEAUTY. I HOPE HE IS HAVING A BLAST FIGHTING GODZILLA AND KING KONG. LOOKING FORWARD TO ALL OF HIS UPCOMING PROJECTS IN THE COMING YEAR. 

Knight at the Museum! twitter chat with Dan Stevens

I just rewatched THE EPIC KISS scene from 1.06, and I'm in floods of tears. Prepare for another (very) long analysis!

PART ONE

We start with Matthew and Mary seated at a corner of the dining table - much, much closer than what's appropriate. They're literally only inches apart. They're surrounded by sandwiches, strawberries and wine. SO ROMANTIC.

"We can drink to Sybil's safe return", Matthew says, popping open the wine decanter. "Why not", Mary answers, with a lovely smile. I need to remark on her voice is uncharacteristically soft and gentle here. She has grown increasingly "softer" with every interaction with Matthew. "I'll ring for a glass", she says, already getting ready to summon someone. She knows the rules of this house, she knows propriety. Having people at her beck and call is what she has known all her life.

"No, never mind that", Matthew forestalls her before she can go any further. His voice, too, has a noticeable dip. He pours the glass in the cup of wine, and, like the gentleman he is, gives it to her. He begins to pour the wine into the water glass. Mary stares at it in slight shock for a moment, and then her face relaxes into another (adoring?) smile. Where once she might have looked down upon Matthew for flouting decorum, she now finds it endearing BECAUSE SHE IS IN LOVE WITH HIM. I also noticed that Matthew filled up three-quarters of Mary's wine cup, and his water glass held only one-quarter full of wine.

Mary then makes one of her trademark snarky observations. "You're not very fastidious about doing things properly, are you?" she asks. A year ago, that remark might have been interpreted as mocking Matthew's middle-class status. Those were the reasons she resented him. But now, spoken with that teasing tone and smile, it can only be taken as playful flirting. SHE IS SO CLEARLY FLIRTING.

Matthew grins, and he lets out a soft exhalation of breath. He agrees with her. No, he doesn't always "do things properly." He may have become part of the aristocracy, but that's not who he is, that's not who he's grown up with. It's started to feel a little more like home, but in so many, many ways, it's still alien to him.

"Are you?" he asks. This, in my opinion, is a two-sided question. On one face of the coin, it's rhetorical. Matthew's known Mary for a year and a half at this point. He knows she belongs to the elite upper class. She's grown up in the lap of luxury. Obviously, she likes things "done properly." But it might also be taken as him wanting to get to know her better, whether beneath all the charm and poise there's a more fun, carefree side to her, unrestricted by rules and propriety. He's seen that side of her on some occasions (most notably when they both giggled together at Sir Salty Pudding), and he knows she has a sense of fun.

Mary confirms this, albeit obliquely. Mary never ever gives a straight response. "Less than you might think." Translation: I know I seem like a cold-hearted bitch and a snob to boot, obsessed with grandeur, but I do have a relaxed and fun side, I BEG YOU TO SEE IT.

Their eyes meet over their glasses of wine, and they toast each other. Matthew's eyes are on Mary as he starts to drink, but his gaze soon drops down to his glass of wine. Mary, on the other hand, mirrors his action, but her eyes flick upward and SHE WATCHES HIM DRINK THE WINE. Just as Matthew finishes his sip, she quickly looks back down again. She doesn't want to be caught staring at his lips and thinking HOW BADLY SHE WANTS TO KISS HIM.

Matthew continues the conversation. "Are you at all political?" This speaks as him being truly, truly interested in her, in her opinions. Unlike her other suitors, who likely are only interested in her beauty, rank and fortune. Matthew sees HER. He wants to get to know the real Mary. Presumably they've spent quite some time over the last eighteen months getting to know each other like this, but there's still so much to discover there. He wants to know how she thinks, what she believes. And he respects her for it.

"Yes", Mary answers, picking up a strawberry and twirling it between her fingers. Matthew's presumably very hungry. He's just lifted the lid of the plate of sandwiches, but as soon as Mary starts to speak, his gaze is on her and only her. Everything else can wait. Mary remarks on the by-election, about how she can't get excited about it, because nothing will change. They exchange a smile and a light giggle. The conversation between them flows smoothly and elegantly. They make each other smile and laugh and they like the way the other speaks.

PART TWO

"Thank you for coming to Sybil's rescue", Mary's saying. It's worth noting here that Matthew's hand is still holding the half-filled wine glass, and HIS MOUTH IS HANGING OPEN AND HE IS STARING AT HER. "You were very brave", she continues. This unexpected praise, from Mary of all people, seems to make him uncomfortable. He glances away from her for a moment and down at the table before meeting her eyes again. We already know the darling is too modest, but this sort of thing coming from MARY is uncharted territory. "She told me you knocked a man down." Her tone is so appreciative, so admiring, Matthew doesn't know how to deal with it. So he deflects, pretending he didn't really do anything at all. He gives a half-smile, then says "I hope I did my duty."

Are you a creature of duty?

Not entirely.

This is so telling of both Matthew and Mary's characters. Just like Matthew, she wants to know who he is. Yes, she's already fallen in love, but these two can never resist witty banter, or a verbal sparring match because they're just ... intellectually, on the same wavelength. Mary's basically asking him if he's always so honourable and overly moralistic. And he says not ENTIRELY. Yes, those are his most striking flaws, the tendency to overlook what's best for himself (and sometimes others) in favour of abstract principles, but sometimes, despite himself, Matthew can see where he's going wrong. He's not always a creature of duty. He has his own mind and he follows it.

From this point on, this is where the tension starts to escalate. Mary takes the plunge.

"When you laugh with me, or flirt with me ... is that a duty? Are you conforming to the fitness of things? Doing what's expected?"

OH GOD. This is SO direct. It would have been highly improper for a lady to speak of such things, and yet Mary does. Because with Matthew, rules and decorum simply don't matter. Not because of his middle-classness, but because he's her equal and she is his. He won't judge her, there's no need to pretend around him. She can be herself with him.

So anyway, back to these two lines. "When you laugh with me, or flirt with me..." We've already seen M/M sharing a laugh together, having the same sense of humour, and the garden bench flirting scene was SO ADORABLE, as well as many flirtatious encounters before that. Clearly they're both masters at it. Mary asks him if it's a duty. She knows that would sting him. The very first thing she heard him say about her, even before she ever laid eyes on him, was that he wants the autonomy to choose who he marries, and he does not want any of the Crawley sisters being PUSHED at him. They both know it's expected of both of them to go for each other. Mary's the eldest daughter, Matthew's the heir. It's the conventional way things are done in the upper class - again, of "doing things properly." They both know the other well enough that they (especially Matthew) want to marry because they WANT TO, not because they HAVE to. But now they've both fallen for the one person they never meant to like in the first place, and duty has NOTHING whatsoever to do with it. Their love is helpless. They're drawn to each other against their will. It is not a duty, and they both know it.

By the time she finishes her flirty questioning, Matthew's face ... I'm lost for words as to how to describe his expression. I truly am. His face shows incredulity, but he knows exactly what's going on. She's still playing her games, and he's done with it. He wants to stop meandering around her, because they've flirted with each other so many times and they both sense the mutual attraction. His mouth is open, smirking, and now Mary is IN FOR IT. He's had it, with her on/off attitude.

"Don't play with me. I don't deserve it. Not from you."

One of the most striking (and more importantly, realistic) trait of Matthew is that while he so evidently adores Mary, he is never blind to her faults. He's not standing for her crap. When she is in the wrong, he calls her out on it.

NOT FROM YOU. Only three words, but they mean SO SO MUCH. He holds her in such high esteem. He loves her, and he does not deserve to be toyed with her. Not from the one woman he has given his heart to, long before either of them realised it.

Mary looks downwards, acknowledging his gentle rebuke, but just as he lifts up his glass of wine for another sip, she begins again. You must be careful not to break Sybil's heart. I think she has a crush on you. She's thrown caution to the winds, but by some weird contradiction, she's testing his attraction to her. She's been through this too many times. Suitors who only consider her a pretty ornament on their arm. Kemal Pamuk, who did not respect her, whom she blindly flirted with and had to pay the heavy price. She trusts Matthew, but needs to be sure of him. Matthew, obviously, doesn't interpret this as anything other than her still playing with him.

Again, it's quite bold for a lady to speak to a man about things such as crushes and flirting, but neither of them care because that is the level of comfort they have around each other. Sybil's starry-eyed gazing at Matthew back at Crawley House, and his gentlemanly, brotherly protectiveness and tenderness towards her has so visibly stung Mary to the core. You can see it in her face, SHE wants to be the ONLY woman Matthew will ever look at like that. She has finally realised Matthew won't hang around for ever. She could lose him, possibly to her youngest sister.

Matthew looks back at her open-mouthed, still with that barely-visible half-smile. He sets down his wine glass. He's decided to play along. He knows perfectly well Sybil doesn't have any romantic feelings for her. He's fond of her, loves her as a sister. The possibility of her having a crush on him has never entered his mind. Matthew's decided to use it, again, to tell Mary off for some of the pain she has caused him. (Because let's face it, she was pretty nasty to him in the beginning).

"That's something no one can accuse you of." Judging by the way you've treated me in the past, no one would dream that you, of all people, could ever feel anything for me romantically. His wine glass is set down, and it looks so FINAL. His arms are crossed, his head lowered. In that moment, nothing exists for him but Mary.

It's at this point that Mary starts fingering her necklace in that obviously flirty way. "Oh, I don't know." Classic Mary, again, never giving a straight answer because that's not who she is. She speaks in riddles. Oh, I don't know. Translate this as: Maybe you shouldn't be so certain of that.

Matthew is unconvinced. Still, you can see his eyes darkening, his lips barely moving because all they want to do is kiss her. "I assume you speak in a spirit of mockery." He's been hurt and disappointed (namely the Strallan dinner) to take Mary at her word. It is unfathomable that you could ever have a crush on me.

Mary responds, still fingering the necklace. "You should have more faith." Again, she's asking him to see her, the real her, who is kind and gentle and doesn't bite out witty retorts. The Mary who has fallen in love with him. She's asking him to trust her, to trust her love for him.

The next line is one that blew my mind the first time I saw it. Matthew leans forward, ever more closely, and basically questions as to how she ever expects him to have faith in her attraction to him, given the way she's behaved and spoken to him previously. "Shall I remind you of some of the choicest remarks you made about me when I arrived here?" The Andromeda/Perseus/sea monster conversation comes to mind. To Matthew, Mary was always his Andromeda. But to Mary, he's gone from being a hideous sea monster to a total Perseus. "Because they live in my memory ...... as fresh as the day they were spoken." Because he has listened to her, listened to every word she's says and has said. He so deeply values what she's said, he can't forget it. It's etched, like he says. His face is so, so close to hers, the sexual tension is sizzling. It's at breaking point. His passion that's been simmering for so long just beneath the surface is shining through. His voice is low and intense.

Mary's eyes when she looks up at him are so soft and dark and truly apologetic. "Oh, Matthew, what am I always telling you? You must pay no attention to the things I say."

She's asking him to forget every single unkind remark she made, every time she put him down, toyed with him, hurt him. She takes all of it back. Because she loves him.

The next few seconds are BURSTING WITH SPARKS. Matthew's eyes drop down to stare right at her lips. He's probably been indulging this fantasy for a while now, and then they slowly drag back up to her eyes. He reads her unspoken longing, her plea for him to kiss her. They both move at the same time and then THEY'RE KISSING. THEY LOCK LIPS AND THEN MARY'S HAND DELVES SO DEEPLY INTO HIS HAIR AND HER THUMB BRUSHES AGAINST HIS EAR AND THEY'RE SNOGGING BECAUSE THEY CAN'T TAKE THIS ANY MORE ANY LONGER THEY'VE LOST THEMSELVES IN EACH OTHER BECAUSE THEY LOVE EACH OTHER SO SO MUCH *cue me screaming into a cushion*

I can't type another coherent word, so if anyone's bothered to read this rambly waffle the whole way through, I'm so very grateful to you!!!

OMG OMG. This is so beautifully done. So perfectly written. So wonderful to relive it this way. Can I please ask for more? 😍😍😍

This scene is perhaps my favourite Matthery scene. They walk off the cricket pitch together, discussing their plans for the future - their baby and Downton. They're a team, they're partners in every aspect of their lives.

Matthew tells her "I hope I can count on you not to laugh when I drop the ball", another of the many examples of his dry, witty, self-deprecating humour. But Mary takes it to a deeper, more serious level, when she says "You can always count on me", and she accentuates those few, profound words with a tender caress to the side of his face. You can always count on me because no matter what, I'm always going to be here for you. She's saying "I love you" with her EYES.

"I know that", Matthew answers as he looks into her eyes. THE WAY HE LOOKS AT HER ASDFGHJKL

The thing about this scene is that you can feel how much he loves her. How much they love each other. His adoration is so evident, so visible, it's radiating from his eyes and every word he says. "I didn't think it was possible to love as much as I love you." This is from Matthew, who has such a big heart, and he's telling his wife that he loves her more than he ever thought he could love another living soul, he loves her beyond human capacity. THAT IS DEEP.

Robert interrupts the lovers, impatiently calling Matthew back. Matthew looks back at her, saying, "I've got to go." What he's really saying is: "The last thing I want to do is leave you, but I've got to." Mary answers, "Of course you have", with that loving smile. Translation: Go and play cricket. I'm always going to be right here. Kiss me to your heart's content later.

He understands her unspoken message as he always does, and suddenly he can't help himself, he has to give her one last kiss before he goes off to play, just to show her what she means to him. He dives under her hat, and the kiss is sweet and short and yet it means SO SO MUCH. Matthew's eyes meet hers, and he grasps her hands briefly, to tell her "I'll come back and continue this as quickly as I can, my darling." He turns and runs off to join Robert (who, by the way, WAS IN THE BACKGROUND WATCHING MATTHEW KISS HIS DAUGHTER IN PUBLIC) while Mary looks after him adoringly. SHE IS SO IN LOVE.

Sorry about the rant, I'M IN LOVE WITH THIS SCENE. And, of course, Matthew.