Constantin Film has unveiled the main cast for Hagen, its ambitious new fantasy series, billed as a reinterpretation of the Nibelungenlied, the German folk saga often cited as an inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Dutch actor Gijs Naber (Blackbook, The Story of My Wife) will star as the titular Hagen von Tronje in the project, alongside Jannis Niewöhner (Berlin Station, Amazon’s Beat) as his antagonist, the nearly-invincible hero Siegfried. Lilja van der Zwaag will play princess Kriemhild, Rosalinde Mynster the Valkyrie Brunhild, while Dominic Marcus Singer will take on the role of King Gunter.
Dark actress Jördis Triebel and Jörg Hartmann (The Weissensee Saga) have supporting roles.
The Nibelungen saga has been adapted many times before, most famously in a series of two classic films from Fritz Lang in the 1920s. A TV movie version, in 2004, starred Kristanna Loken Brunhild, Alica Witt as Kriemhild and Julian Sands as Hagen; it is also famous as the acting debut of a young Robert Pattinson.
In Constantin’s interpretation of the 13th-century epic, Hagen is a Burgundian weapon master trying to keep his crisis-ridden kingdom together with a sense of duty and an iron fist while suppressing his own dark past and his secret love for the King’s daughter, Kriemhild. The arrival of the legendary dragonslayer Siegfried threatens the stability of the kingdom, especially after Kriemheld falls for Siegfried and her father, King Gunter, asks the hero Siegfried to help him force the dangerous Valkyrie Brunhild to become his new queen. Hagen is caught between his love for Kriemhild and his loyalty to his king.
Constantin is producing Hagen both as a feature film and as a six-part event series for German streaming service RTL+. Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert, the duo behind Sky Germany’s hit mystery series Pagan Peak, are directing and co-wrote the script to Hagen with Doron Wisotzky also wrote the screenplay. Jan Ehlert, Christoph Müller, Christian Rohde and Constanze Guttmann are producing with Czech producer Filip Hering. Constantin’s Martin Moszkowicz and Oliver Berben are executive producers.
RTL will handle German streaming and free-TV rights to the film and series, with Constantin owning the film and TV versions of the project worldwide.
