She just can’t wait to be queen.
Danish actress Connie Nielsen is taking on another regal role — this time, in a period piece for the new MGM+ drama “Robin Hood.”
“It is my third queen. At least. At least the third queen,” Nielsen quipped to The Post.
She previously played Queen Hippolyta in both “Wonder Woman” and “Wonder Woman 1984,” in addition to Lucilla in “Gladiator” and “Gladiator II.”
“Once you’ve played one, probably it becomes more easy to cast you in the second, and the third,” she said.
Premiering Sunday, Nov. 2 (9 pm), “Robin Hood” is a gritty period piece set in 12th century England. It follows Rob (Jack Patten), a Saxon forester’s son and Marian (Lauren McQueen), the daughter of a Norman lord, as they fight for justice in Middle Ages England. He leads a band of outlaws and crosses paths with the Sheriff of Nottingham (Sean Bean), while Marian infiltrates the courts, where she meets the queen, Eleanor (Nielsen).
Since Nielsen is an old hand at period dramas, she rescued the production from making a major blunder.
“I came on set on one of the first days, and I’m looking at my regal chambers. And what do I see? I see a giant globe of the world!”
She went to the director and noted, “As I recall, Columbus didn’t really happen until like 1494 or something like that. At the time, I think they thought that if you went too far in one direction, you fell off the flat earth. And so the globe seems a wild, wildly optimistic view of her court. We might want to remove that!”
And they did. “They immediately carted it off,” she recalled.
Although “Robin Hood” and “Gladiator” both saw her playing ruling women in period pieces, she sees them “very differently.”
“There’s a softness in Lucilla that I’m not bringing into Eleanor. There’s a steeliness in Eleanor that’s based off having been a leader her whole life,” she noted.
“At a time when being a leader meant you had the power of life and death over people. I also brought a little bit of – not ruthlessness to Eleanor, as much as determination. Even though she’s a queen, she’s an underdog. She’s someone who’s fighting to returned to power…..when you put Robin Hood into that historical context, it becomes super juicy.”
As for her role in the DC movies as Queen Hippolyta, Nielsen likely won’t be reprising the role.
James Gunn’s takeover of DC has involved recastings, such as trading former “Super Man” actor Henry Cavill for David Corenswet. No new casting has been announced for Wonder Woman, but it’s unlikely the cast from the 2017 “Wonder Woman” will return.
Even so, Nielsen said she “would love” to reprise the role if the opportunity came up.
“I loved Hippolyta so much. The Queen of Amazons is one of my favorite roles of all time. I absolutely love her,” she told The Post. “I would totally put on the gear and do the sit ups and and crunches every day just so I could play that warrior [again].”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
