Movies

The Munsters Reveals First Look At Richard Brake As Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang

Richard Brake as Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang in The Munsters Universal Pictures
By BJ Colangelo/

It's been less than a week since Rob Zombie's highly-anticipated cinematic adaptation of the beloved spooky television sitcom, "The Munsters," went into production, and thanks to social media, we're already getting additional looks at the new characters Zombie has created to fill out his family of frights. We have new casting news from an Instagram post from Zombie himself and a tweet from actor Jeff Daniel Phillips, who is filling the very large shoes of Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster. It's now been revealed that frequent Zombie collaborator and the horror genre's most underrated character actor, Richard Brake, is playing Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang, "Transylvania's most popular mad scientist."

Brake is known for his roles in Zombie's films "Halloween II," "3 From Hell," and "31," but he's also known for his performances as The Chemist in "Mandy," Joe Chill in "Batman Begins," the Night King on "Game of Thrones," Valin Hess in season 2 of "The Mandalorian," and most recently as the old-lady-bullying Mr. Big in Gigi Saul Guerrero's "Bingo Hell." He took to his own Instagram to share the excitement, saying the following:

"I've drank with Stormtroopers, killed Batman's parents, and popped into the Marvel Universe. But this!!!! This is a childhood dream come true. The Munsters!! So excited and grateful to be working with Rob, Sheri, Jeff and Dan on this kick ass film."

The Many Faces of Richard Brake

Richard Brake in Rob Zombie's "31" Saban Films

Since his film debut alongside Rachel Weisz in the 1994 science-fiction horror film, "Death Machine," starring Brad Dourif, Brake has consistently appeared in genre fare, frequently as the stand-out performer. The choice to cast Brake as a mad scientist is pitch-perfect, and with the character coming straight from the mind of Rob Zombie, he's essentially been given a creepy, crawly playground. Despite his remarkable talent and knack for playing some of the most horrifying and despicable villains put to screen, Brake isn't the household name he deserves to be. While there are many things to criticize about Zombie's "31," Brake's performance isn't one of them. He crushes it no matter what role he's in, big or small.

If you ask Reddit (which, don't), the multiple fan-casting websites, or even some of the biggest horror sites, many have been fantasy booking Brake as the next face of Freddy Krueger when "A Nightmare on Elm Street" is inevitably remade or rebooted in some way. Brake doesn't seem too against the idea, either:

Not much is known about this new character in "The Munsters" other than his occupation, but considering little Eddie Munster's canonical middle name is "Wolfgang," I have my finger's crossed that Dr. Augustus Wolfgang is some sort of Godfather figure in addition to his mad scientist duties. A girl can dream, can't she? 

Zombie's "The Munsters" will reportedly debut sometime next year in theaters and on Peacock.

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