Sean Bean channels Joffrey Baratheon in this Snowpiercer season two exclusive clip
On TNT’s Snowpiercer, the long, catastrophic winter isn’t coming–it’s already here. But Graeme Manson’s adaptation, which draws from both Bong Joon Ho’s spectacular film of the same name and Le Transperceneige, the graphic novel that inspired the film, has picked up some steam in its second season with the addition of a passenger who knows all about the bone-rattling cold. Sean Bean joined the cast this year as the fiendish and dapper Mr. Wilford, who was but a face for propaganda in season one after Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly) took over the train.
She did so out of a desire to protect what human life remained after a climate disaster decimated the Earth’s population and rendered it a giant Sno-Cone; her former boss and mentor has little concern for most living things. Now that we’ve met Wilford—or “Dubs,” as Melanie’s daughter Alex (Rowan Blanchard) calls him—we can see her fears were justified. The egotistical industrialist announced himself with an attack, followed that up with a threat, and all the while lounges around in red velvet, sitting atop a golden throne. Gee… who does that remind us of? Certainly not Ned Stark, Bean’s Game Of Thrones character, whose innate decency meant he was not long for this world. Bean actually seems to be channeling someone much more vicious, even petulant, than the deposed lord of Winterfell. In fact, as this exclusive clip premiering on The A.V. Club, Wilford has more in common with Joffrey Baratheon, who would also probably say no to providing life-saving equipment to anyone desperate enough to ask him for help.
The third episode of season two, titled “The Great Odyssey,” features some deals that are crucial to keeping both trains going, though you wouldn’t know that from Wilford’s behavior. He doesn’t have the lasting advantage here; Big Alice and Snowpiercer are increasingly dependent on each other. But that doesn’t stop him from relishing his place at the top of his train’s social order.
“The Great Odyssey” airs Monday, February 8 at 9 p.m. ET on TNT.
And is it just us, or does that image of Wilford in his golden chair remind you of a different Sean Bean character?