Borderlands Movie: Florian Munteanu Officially Announced to Play Krieg

Florian Munteanu

“Florian brings real humanity and multiple layers to a character who on the surface seems totally insane and brutally savage,” Roth said in a statement about today’s announcement. “Krieg was by far the most difficult role to cast, and Florian brought him to life and grounded him in a way that I didn’t know was possible. He’s going to be a brilliant Krieg and will fit in perfectly with our incredible cast.”With the announcement of Munteanu as Krieg, Hart remains the only announced actor in the movie without a name-designated role, although his character’s “ex-soldier turned mercenary” description seems to hint at Roland.

In the games, Krieg is from a bandit family and was treated rather unfairly by his mother for being weaker than the rest. This fuels him to grow stronger, but it’s not until he’s captured by Dr. Benedict that he becomes the Krieg of Borderlands 2. Dr. Benedict experiments on him and many others, which turns them into “Psychos.”

Krieg eventually breaks out of Dr. Benedict’s facility, kills Dr. Benedict, and becomes a bit of a torn soul akin to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One half of Krieg’s personality is that of a Psycho and the other is his former, more sane self. Eventually, Psycho Krieg takes over and that’s who we see in the game.

It’s unclear what route the Borderlands movie will take Krieg, but there’s plenty of lore in Borderlands 2 and Borderlands 3 — an entire DLC dedicated to the character called Pyscho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck was released in the latter — to go off of. The casting announcement, however, describes Krieg as the “musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector of Tiny Tina.”

The Borderlands movie was announced in February of last year and has continued to add stars like Munteanu and Blanchett to the film. It’s being directed by Hostel’s Eli Roth and produced alongside Avi and Ari Arad of Arad Productions and Erik Feig of Picturestart, with Gearbox CEO, Randy Pitchford, and Take-Two Interactive CEO, Strauss Zelnick, set to executive produce the movie. HBO’s Chernobyl creator, Craig Mazin, is writing the screenplay.

Every Video Game Movie in Development (Almost)

Roth has said he wants to reward dedicated Borderlands cosplayers by casting them in the film and killing off their characters. Check out IGN’s breakdown of every video game movie currently in development to keep up with this movie and the many others based on video games.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.