Stephen Merchant, the British comedian best known for co-writing The Office and lending his voice to Portal 2, has found a new role to play: a Nazi. An Instagram post released by Merchant showed him on the set of Taika Waititi’s (Thor Ragnorak, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) dark comedy Jojo Rabbit, in which he has been cast as Gestapo agent ‘Captain Deertz.’ Merchant described himself in the post as “trying to look German,” which, judging by his costume design, succeeds in embodying the style of that era.
According to Deadline, the plot of Jojo Rabbit follows German boy named Jojo Betzler (Roman Griffin) whose only friend, apart from his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is an imaginary, albeit ethnically incorrect, version of Adolf Hitler (played by Waititi). While imaginary Hitler pushes Jojo to deepen his patriotic beliefs, it is only after meeting a young girl (Thomasin McKenzie) that Jojo is forced to confront his personal fears. Alongside Merchant’s brief role, Jojo Rabbit will also star Sam Rockwell as Jojo’s Hitler Youth leader Captain Klenzendorf, Rebel Wilson as Fraulein Rahm, and Alfie Allen as Klenzendorf’s second in command Finkel.
Following his performance in last year’s Logan, Merchant will star in The Girl In The Spider’s Web starring Claire Foy, which is set to release this November. He will also be directing the WWE-based dramedy Fighting with my Family, starring Florence Pugh, Nick Frost, Lena Headey and Vince Vaughn.
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