Credit: FCancerNow

“I loved that he’s dashing!” Levi exclaims. “I mean, literally: he’s Fandral the Dashing. He’s charming and kind of Errol Flynn-ish and good with a rapier – just incredibly confident and just stares fear and death in the face and kind of laughs at it and says, ‘Oh, it will be all right. Everything will be all right, I’m sure.’”

With the sequel upping the ante on the spectacle by further exploring the realm of the Norse gods (with Alan Taylor in the directors’ chair, a veteran of fantasy world-building from his tenure helming HBO’s Game of Thrones), Levi says the landscape Fandral will be cutting a swash through made his jaw drop. “It’s amazing, man,” he says. “I mean, some sets were so huge. It was like Cecil B. DeMille Ten Commandments scale. And then, of course, a lot of cool green screen and special effects and things, there was also a lot of practical stuff. You’ll maybe see me riding a horse and swinging a sword and kicking some butt – and I’m completely blonde. I’m very blonde in the movie!”

One of the most vital facets of Fandral for Levi was establishing an instant camaraderie with the other tightly bonded members of the Warriors Three – Ray Stevenson’s larger-than-life Volstagg and Tadanobu Asano’s taciturn Hogun, as well as their warrior-goddess pal Sif played by Jaimie Alexander. He says the chemistry came “very immediately – Everybody welcomed me with open arms, even though they had worked with Josh in the first one. They knew the situation and everything and they were very cool.”

Harder to master has been Fandral’s all-important warrior skills, he admits, even with a wide variety of fight and weapons training during his stint on Chuck. Learning his character’s specific style of horsemanship was especially tricky, he says, “because I was more used to riding Western. That was the only type of horseback riding I’d ridden, but they really wanted me to ride English/Spanish style, which is very, very different. So that took a little while just to kind of get that down, but then I felt like I did pretty good. I hope I did – I don’t know! You can be the judge of that when you see the movie.”

Even before playing a god on screen, Levi’s had a taste of the deity treatment when he’s visited Comic-Con: he’s long been a beloved presence there, largely because of his palpable appreciation for the fans, and he says he can’t wait to return as a bona fide Marvel good guy.

“I love Comic-Con because it’s a real place and people get to be real and get to be themselves, and I get to be myself,” he says. “So I do appreciate the love that I get there, but I also appreciate the realness of it. And it’s kind of where Hollywood gets to go to just let their hair down and just geek out and be like, ‘Yeah, man – what are YOU nerdy about?’” [SOURCE]

Helms created the show, which he stars in alongside “Chuck” star Levi. It filmed earlier this year, and is one of several shows Yahoo will unveil at its NewFront on Monday.

The NewFronts are the equivalent of the television Upfronts for online video. The biggest players in the burgeoning industry, such as YouTube, Yahoo, AOL and Hulu, try to convince advertisers to open their checkbooks. [Read the full article here]