Lately I’ve been rewatching “The Gilded Age,” which I love. One of the great things about that show is the abundance of Broadway actors that they cast, including Patrick Page who played Frollo for the Disney Musical revision version at The LaJolla and PaperMills Playhouses. Now it’s completely a wild pipe-dream to even think about casting a Broadway actor for a version of Notre Dame de Paris but here we are. So might I submit for consideration for Phoebus from Notre Dame de Paris, Derek Klena.
If you are like me, you’re probably on the fan-casting side the internet, like such sites as mycast. Anyway if your are on The Hunchback of Notre Dame side of that site, which is more niche too be sure, you would see that one of the most frequent suggestions for Esmeralda is actress/singer Dasha Grady. Typically this is more for the “mythical” Disney live action remake but that’s only because it’s more popular for speculations.
Since Sunday was “Quasimodo Sunday” or Low Sunday let’s do a Fan-Cast for Quasimodo this month.
There seems to be a few names that get use more frequently when hypothetical fancasts for Quasimodo are brought up and one those names than get tossed around as would-be-Maybe-Quasimodo is Welsh actor/musican Iwan Rheon.
There is a balancing act to casting a Frollo. Typically Frollo should be played by an actor that could conceivably look older than Quasimodo as Quasimodo is Frollo’s adoptive son.
However while Frollo is 36 years old in the novel, most actors who play Quasimodo are around 40 years ago old which ages up Frollo. So typically when fan-casting Frollo for any type of version Frollo is most often played by older actors.
And since it’s the Bridgerton season as well as being a long while since Fleur-de-Lys got a proper Hypothetical casting post let’s analyze Phoebe Dynevor as a potential casting pick of Fleur-de-Lys.
Since January 26th is canonically Esmeralda’s birthday (from the novel) let’s do a Hypothetical casting for the dancer herself.
Bruna Marquezine
Very often when I do these Fan-cast posts I tend to ground them in some kind already establish movie take for an adaptation. Like either a Live action Disney version (which is selfed) or Notre Dame de Paris (which is never going to happen). But for this post let’s just take more by the novel interpretation and consider Bruna Marquezine for the role of Esmeralda.
While looking through cast options I happened upon Aidan Turner as pick for Gringoire. At the time I was in watching Poldark, which is a great show, and thought why now look into this casting idea a little bit more.
Most of the trivia was an actor expressing interest in a role and according to the Trivia (which may or may not have been true,) Lin-Manuel Miranda expressed interest in the role of Clopin. To this bit of trivia I expressed ambivalence saying in that blog post ” On a personal level I think I would prefer another actor to play Clopin but I’m more ambivalent about this casting should it come to pass.” At the time, the project was still being worked on but there was no real news on it.
So while Disney has since shelved the live-action remake (at least while Iger is CEO) let’s just see if Miranda would/would’ve be a good choice for Clopin or if past me was correct in my ambivalence.
Also Fun fact, it’s been a while since we done a hypothetical casting pick for Clopin.
Way back in the early 2010s, Tim Burton was in talks to develop a version of The Hunchback with Josh Brolin. That version however has never since materialized but there always seems to whispers and murmurs of it every now again. The most “recent” one is an article from 2019 from Backstage though that article was only updated 2019 and originally came out in March 2011 when the news first broke. It does seem that this project is dead and according to the article Burton’s involvement was contingent on the outcome of the script.
Jenna Ortega
However if Burton ever got it into his head to actually develop his vision for a movie version of Hunchback, Jenna Ortega would be a likely choice for Esmeralda. This is due to Ortega becoming Burton’s muse and Burton preferring to work with the same actors for his projects. So the question is would Jenna Ortega make a good Esmeralda?
This suggestion was given back in March 2024, I’m just a forgetful procrastinator.
Calahan Skogman
Calahan Skogman’s name does pops up for Phoebus fan-casts, and does seems that people are spilt on him but then again Leo Tolstoy has two votes for Phoebus so I don’t think mycast is the best metric or maybe Tolstoy would have been a great Phoebus, we will never know.
Also this suggestion is more skewed towards the Disney version of Phoebus which is a blond romanesque aesthetic, owning to his name rather than the novel. The novel is rather vague on Phoebus’ looks other than he’s handsome and has Burgundian mustache (Book 2 Chapter 4.) However it’s worth pointing out that most, if not all, Phoebus actors prior to the Disney version had darker hair and Phoebus actors post Disney are blond even though there are all but two them (1997 and 1999). So Skogman’s fan-cast is Disney live action version minded which most of the fan-casts seem to be anyway.
Calahan Skogman as Matthias Helvar & Danielle Gilligan as Nina Zenik, Netflix’s Shadow and Bone (2021)
So would Calahan Skogman make a good opinion for Phoebus – Disney version or otherwise? As of right now Skogman is only really known for his role of Matthias Helvar in Netflix’s Shadow and Bone. Oddly Skogman is one of the only actors in that cast who is American though he using a “Scandinavian-like” accent. Side note still salty about the show and the spin-off getting canceled. Also side note, the first time I watched Shadow and Bone, I loved Matthias and Nina’s (Danielle Gilligan) storyline.
Matthias is not at all like Phoebus, he starts off a by-the-book prudish guy who falls in love with the enemy. He also quite religious and is falsely imprisoned – seems a bit more like Esmeralda the Phoebus. However one shouldn’t judge an actor based on one role. Is Skogman convincing a Matthias? Yes. Does he seem like he can act? Yes, he has MFA in acting so I should hope he can. So he more than likely could play a version of Phoebus.
However as previously mentioned the suggestion for Skogman as Phoebus seems to be for a Disney version Phoebus which is quite different from the novel as Disney Phoebus is nobler/heroic and has moral compass. Given his role as Matthias and Skogman’s build and looks he defiantly has a good overall look for a “Disney-like” version of Phoebus. I hesitate to say the Disney live-action version since that version has been shelved but some versions of Phoebus are depicted more favorably than the novel so he could work well in the role and he deserve another high-profile role.
Calahan Skogman
So yes, Calahan Skogman would be an great pick for Phoebus. But what do you think?
I did consider doing a post on fan-casting using the Shadow and Bone cast, much like the one I did for the Bridgerton cast. Still might but as was previously stated I’m a procrastinator.
Also you can leave suggestions for a fan-casting in the comments.
