The Big Picture
Michael Sheen’s role as Lucian, the werewolf antagonist in the
Underworld
franchise, showcases his talent as an actor and offers a complex and nuanced portrayal of a character caught between heroism and villainy.
The prequel film
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
sheds light on Lucian’s tragic past and reveals his motivations and actions as a freedom fighter leading a revolt against the vampires.
Sheen’s performance in
Rise of the Lycans
highlights Lucian’s redemption and showcases the character’s true heroic nature, ultimately distinguishing him from other lycans in the
Underworld
universe.
He might be best known for his role as the angel Aziraphale on Good Omens now, but in the early 2000s and well into the 2010s, actor Michael Sheen was instantly recognized by many for his time playing vampires and werewolves in your favorite fantasy franchises. There’s no doubt that Aro, his vampire character from “The Twilight Saga,” is likely the most recognizable of the two. The “Twilight” series was immensely popular in the 2010s, and afterward, the character even evolved into a meme. But despite playing Aro for three films, the vampire wasn’t Sheen’s most memorable supernatural creature. No, that honor belongs to Lucian, the werewolf antagonist of the very first Underworld.
Of course, there’s no denying that Sheen plays angles and vampires with ease, but his time as a werewolf (well, technically a lycan, but we’ll get to that) easily made better use of Sheen’s talents as an actor. Instead of playing a character in an archetypal role, Sheen keeps Lucian within the grey, making one wonder if he’s indeed a villain or actually something of a hero. In fact, the order in which one watches the Underworld saga could have a drastic impact on how this character is viewed, and that’s no small feat.
Underworld
Selene, a vampire warrior, is entrenched in a conflict between vampires and werewolves, while falling in love with Michael, a human who is sought by werewolves for unknown reasons.
Release Date September 19, 2003
Runtime 121
Production Company Screen Gems, Lakeshore Entertainment
What Is ‘Underworld’ About?
It’s been a while since we’ve been gifted a new Underworld installment. The last feature, Underworld: Blood Wars, dropped in 2016, and we haven’t heard much from the franchise since. Series star Kate Beckinsale, who actually dated Sheen for a time, has expressed her desire to one day return to her breakout role as the vampire Selene, but there has been no official confirmation of more. The first Underworld was released in 2003 and followed Selene, a vampire warrior called a “Death Dealer,” as she fights to keep a man named Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman) – who himself becomes a vampire/werewolf hybrid – safe from the lycans who wish to use his bloodline to their advantage.
After the first film, there are four more installments to the Underworld universe. A direct sequel, Underworld: Evolution, was released in 2006, chronicling the next chapter of Selene’s story, while Underworld: Awakening arrived years later in 2012. Blood Wars dropped a few years after that, and the franchise has been on life support ever since. A prequel called Underworld: Rise of the Lycans was released in 2009, which followed the story of Sheen’s Lucian, set at the very beginning of the war between vampires and werewolves. It’s in this installment that we finally understand the full picture of the centuries-long conflict.
Related Why the Underworld/Blade Crossover Never Happened Two vampires from different worlds, what could go wrong?
Although Lucian is the antagonist of the first film, hoping to use Michael in the war against the vampires, we learn that he isn’t always anti-vampire. In fact, he’s not really anti-vampire at all. As first revealed by the end of the first Underworld, the prequel Rise of the Lycans later details Lucian’s love affair with the vampire Sonja (Rhona Mitra). Learning of his daughter’s interspecies relations, the vampire elder Viktor (Bill Nighy) has her killed after discovering that she’s with child, which officially commences the war between their peoples. This monster-themed Romeo & Juliet is the foundation for the rest of the franchise, and although every other Underworld story is seen through the eyes of the vampire Selene, it stands out as the most creative installment.
Lucian Starts as the Antagonist But Evolves Into So Much More
Image via Screen Gems
But Rise of the Lycans’s inverted point of view isn’t all that it has going for it. Lucian himself is arguably the most tragic character in the Underworld universe, and it’s in the prequel that we get to see that in full. When we first meet him in 2003’s Underworld, Lucian appears to be a cold and calculated lycan who kicks the plot into motion after biting Michael and infecting him with the werewolf curse. The way Sheen plays the character, Lucian is clearly interpreted as the villain, who seemingly wants to tear down the vampire’s empire and end their bloodline once and for all. But this isn’t the entire truth.
As it turns out, Lucian is actually allied with Kraven (Shane Brolly), who might be the most unlikable vampire in movie history, as they plan to turn the former into a hybrid so that he might kill Viktor and the other elders (thus giving Kraven leadership over the vampires), forming a new peace between their respective species. Throughout the Underworld series, lycans are always the antagonists. They constantly pave through covens of vampires (and sometimes armies of humans) and are almost always portrayed as grasping for more power. Since we watch the movies mainly from Selene’s perspective, it’s easy to think of the vampires as the heroes of the story, though they’re not much different from their enemies. In fact, sometimes they’re worse.
Characters like Selene, Michael, and Lucian stand out because they don’t conform simply to one side, and instead battle their oppressors no matter their prior allegiances. By the time we learn of Lucian’s tragic past, our whole perspective of this dark fantasy world has been turned upside down. Lucian’s drive for vengeance leads him to become increasingly more violent throughout the years. Though he’s not blinded by his need for revenge, it’s clear that it has been his sole focus for so long that, in many ways, he’s unrecognizable from the man he once was. It’s only when we get the full story that we’re able to understand why.
‘Underworld: Rise of the Lycans’ Highlights Lucian’s Heroics
In Rise of the Lycans, we learn that the vampires had enslaved werewolves by the 13th century, and used them as daylight guards for the night creatures. But Lucian was different. Since his mother was turned into a werewolf while pregnant, he was the first of his kind to be able to transform back into human form at will. The first lycan, Lucian was sort of adopted by Viktor and was loyal to the vampire lord for decades despite being used to turn others into lycan slaves. The way Sheen and Nighy play off one another, with a complex master-servant/father-son dynamic, is really unique and arguably one of the best parts of the Underworld prequel.
As mentioned earlier, Lucian falls in love with Viktor’s daughter Sonja and as a result, they plan to run away together. Only, it doesn’t work out. After Viktor catches wind of this and orders them both killed, Lucian is forced to watch in horror as Sonja is burned alive by the dawning sun, unable to do a thing about it. Compared to some of his other roles, Sheen’s display of horror and grief here is some of the best acting in the whole series. The way Lucian struggles to get free coupled with his subsequent rage is a combination that would drive the character into the plot of the first film, creating the perfect bridge for viewers who might then revisit the original.
But instead of succumbing to his grief and hiding away, Lucian leads a revolt against the bloodsuckers and takes back Castle Corvinus for his own kind. Freeing his enslaved brothers and taking his revenge on Viktor (revenge that, sadly, doesn’t quite take), Lucian’s origin story ends with him leading his lycan clan into a new age of peace and prosperity. If anything, Rise of the Lycans proves that Lucian is actually a hero, and something of a freedom fighter. “Lucian…is someone who has grown up in this oppressive atmosphere,” Sheen explained in an interview promoting the film, emphasizing that he never fought back against the vampires until he was provoked too far. It’s this impressive display of restraint that sets this character apart from all other lycans.
RELATED: 10 Modern Vampire Movies That Beat ‘Morbius’ At Its Own Game
Lucian Redeems Himself in the End
Image via Screen Gems
While many villain-centered prequels attempt to explain why our favorite antagonists become villains at all, Rise of the Lycans has almost the opposite effect. Because we already learned Lucian’s story from the first Underworld, all Rise of the Lycans does is reinforce the man he always tried to be, while also reminding us that Viktor was the villain all along. But that doesn’t mean the prequel failed to deliver anything new. In fact, Sheen shines much brighter in Rise of the Lycans when he’s allowed to explore Lucian’s true character without attempting to hide behind a later twist.
But make no mistake, Lucian makes some complicated choices along the way, and Sheen plays off them very well. For instance, his initial attack on Selene and Michael is scary as all get out. Not only does Sheen lean into the body horror aspect of Lucian’s bloodlust, but allows himself to frighten the audience members still being introduced to this dark world. It’s no wonder that we instantly see Lucian as the antagonist as his violent actions are starkly contrasted with Selene’s feats of heroism. It’s only by the end that we learn to see him differently.
Of course, by the end of Underworld, Kraven betrays Lucian, not wishing to share power or form a peace treaty with the lycans, leading to the character’s ultimate (and somewhat anti-climactic) death. Lucian never gets to become a hybrid or dispatch Viktor himself, but in his final moments, he’s able to help Selene save Michael’s life, thus allowing Michael to take his place as a hybrid. Through Selene, Viktor is finally defeated, and while no peace between the vampires and werewolves ever occurs in the Underworld universe, Lucian dies something of a hero. In his final breaths, Sheen pulls back the curtain and reminds the audience of the man Lucian was deep inside.
Underworld is available to rent or buy on Apple TV+.
WATCH ON APPLE TV+