LEGENDS OF TOMORROW Casts Casper Crump as Vandal Savage

The immortal villain is about to have his vengeance!

The Hollywood Reporter has word that the upcoming CW series Legends of Tomorrow has cast Danish actor Casper Crump as DC Comics supervillain Vandal Savage.  Like Falk Hentschel's Hawkman, Vandal Savage will first appear in this year's crossover episodes of The CW's Arrow and The Flash before he continues the role in the midseason spinoff of both shows, Legends of Tomorrow.

Vandal Savage is described in the article as "immortal, having spent the past 6,000 years moving like a virulent disease through history, whispering in the ears of despots and dictators, all leading to his eventual domination of the world."  The character was teased in the Legends of Tomorrow trailer, which claimed that Savage "commands the most powerful army the world has ever seen."

Although primarily known in Denmark, Crump, 38, has appeared on the television series The Killing as Peter Lænkholm, the 2012 film Almost Perfect as Rune, and will be appearing in the upcoming 2016 adaptation of Tarzan as Captain Kerchover.

Created in 1944 by noted science fiction author Alfred Bester and Martin Nodell, Vandal Savage first appeared in Green Lantern (vol.1) #10 as a caveman named Vandar Adg, leader of the Cro-Magnon Blood Tribe.  Vandar was bathed in the radiation of a mysterious meteorite, which gave him incredible intellect, stamina and immortality.  An observer from the Bear Tribe would later approach that same meteorite and become Savage's eternal nemesis, the Immortal Man, possessing the power to resurrect as a new persona every time he is killed. He claimed to have ruled hundreds of civilizations under hundreds of names: Khafre, Cheops (builder of the pyramids), Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Blackbeard, and Vlad the Impaler, and so on.

Savage battled the Justice Society of America after first meeting the original Green Lantern. He attempted to capture the members of the Justice Society out of revenge and place them in suspended animation using technology developed by the Injustice Society of the World member Brainwave, but was thwarted by the Golden and Silver Age Flashes (Jay Garrick and Barry Allen).  Engaging in multiple battles with the Justice Society, Rip Hunter, Garrick and Allen, along with the third Flash, Wally West, Savage later briefly formed a group of villains called Tartarus to fight the Titans.

In current DC Comics continuity, Vandal Savage most recently appeared as a member of the Secret Society of Super Villains during the Trinity War storyline.  He assisted Giganta and Signalman into tracking Pandora and fighting her, until Pandora seemingly killed him.  However, Vandal Savage got up and demanded that Pandora give him her box, or else he would continue to try to find a way to kill her.  To his surprise, Pandora willingly gave him the box, think she needed him to open it.  Vandal Savage took the box and failed to open it, with Pandora noting that he must have some good in him.

Crump will be the first actor to portray Vandal Savage in live action, although a version of the character called Dr. Curtis Knox appeared in the Smallville episode "Cure," played by Dean Cain.  Savage has appeared in various animated projects, including Justice League and Justice League: Doom (voiced by Phil Morris), and Young Justice (voiced by Miguel Ferrer).

Legends of Tomorrow is expected to debut on The CW sometime in 2016.