Toby, 52, shot to success after his villainous turn as Gustav Graves in Pierce Brosnan’s final outing as James Bond, Die Another Day. He returns to the spy genre in the second season of Alex Rider, out now on IMDb TV, and recently spoke to the Express about taking on a new generation of secret agents.
The former Bond star revealed he wanted Damian Cray to stand out from his previous dalliance with villainy.
Teenage spy Alex Rider returns this week with a new season based on Anthony Horowitz’ novel Eagle Strike and adds Toby to the regular cast.
As billionaire mastermind Damian, he’ll stop at nothing to thwart Alex’s mission to expose his plan for world domination.
His evil schemes will certainly seem familiar to diehard Bond fans, but viewers shouldn’t expect the actor to rinse and repeat his last attempts to take down an unstoppable super-spy.
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The second season of Alex Rider scraps some of the more extravagant elements of Eagle Strike, the fourth book in the original series, including some aspects of Damian’s character.
“I really loved the book,” Toby recalled. “I read the book before I read all of the scripts and really enjoyed it.”
Damian’s villainous plan – and eventual death – was actually modelled after Toby’s performance as Gustav for the original book, though the series has adapted the character for modern viewers.
However, the book version of Damian’s origins as an eccentric pop star has been omitted for the live-action adaptation.
Toby explained: “That was written in a very specific time, and I think it just wouldn’t work now.”
“They just wanted to make him slightly more accessible to a young audience.
“You kind of think you know who he is, they can go ‘oh, he’s this arrogant, cocky, confident guy’ and it takes a turn. There are other things going on there.
“It did keep the backstory, but it just made him slightly more accessible, I think, to today’s kids.”
Viewers can watch Damian’s schemes unfold in the second season now, and Toby has also returned to screens this week in the third and final season of Netflix’s Lost in Space.
Alex Rider is available to stream on IMDb TV.
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