The magnificently unreliable Rich Johnston is saying that he’s heard Kenneth Branagh’s Thor now has its Odin – Brian Blessed.

Blessed, still reeling emotionally from playing Boss Nass in The Phantom Menace, is a pretty great choice, if the rumor is true. He’s a big guy with a big personality. Unlike the Greek gods, the Norse gods have more verve to them, and Blessed is the kind of guy I can imagine wearing an eye patch and hefting a chalice of grog.