Marton Csokas Enters Into the Badlands

New Zealand-born actor Marton Csokas, 49, told reporters at the recent New York Comic-Con he is happy to star in the martial-arts drama Into the Badlands because it is unlike anything else on American television.

“That is what is attractive about the show,” Csokas said. “It is a fusion of cultures and costume and ways of behaving and thinking and television is becoming more intelligent in that way.”

The series is set in a post-apocalyptic, feudal society where guns are outlawed and seven rival barons rule with the help of armies of trained assassins. Csokas plays Baron Quinn.

“[My character] is one of seven barons. The idea is that – and I think the tag is – 500 years or so in the future, nowhere in particular in America, everybody was at the mercy of everybody else and, so, they decided to form some kind of foundation,” Csokas explained. “And in the future sort of a Japanese feudal system is formed and each of [the barons] looks after whatever resource – oil, water, gold – and Quinn’s is opium. So, I think he is doing his best to survive in that particular world and he has a family. There are people who want to usurp the kingdom, if you like … and he does his best to maintain order and control and power in order to create stability.”

Born in Invercargill, Csokas is known for his work in the Lord of the Rings franchise, as well as the films The Bourne Supremacy, Kingdom of Heaven, Alice in Wonderland, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and The Equalizer.

He lives in Venice Beach, Los Angeles.

Original article by Karen Butler, UPI.com, November 15, 2015.