Florian Munteanu

Florian Munteanu looks comfortable being asked to hit someone on screen. His amateur boxing experience gives the fighting a conviction that casting for size alone cannot supply. Viktor Drago in Creed II (2018), his breakthrough with Sylvester Stallone backing his casting, showed that he could convey emotion as well as physical threat. We rate that combination, but his subsequent roles have too often asked him to establish how dangerous he is before considering what else he might offer.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) cast him as the antagonist Razor Fist; Creed III (2023) brought him back as Viktor. Michael B. Jordan directs the latter with confidence, and the inventive fights make it worth an evening if boxing films are your thing. The familiar story is hurried, though, and Jonathan Majors has the wounded, watchful antagonist's role. For Munteanu, returning to Drago keeps the emphasis on the work for which he was first noticed.

Borderlands (2024) asks something different of him as Krieg: a masked performance with a comic element. That is a useful test for an actor whose size has so often determined the casting, since the face is no longer freely available to do the work. Eli Roth's film gives him little help, with muddled shootouts, weak jokes and an underwritten company around him. We were irritated by the wasted effort: even Cate Blanchett's energy could not make these people worth spending time with. We would not recommend it as a reason to seek Munteanu out.

A quieter dramatic part would be the useful next test. The opportunities outside physically demanding roles have been limited, so certainty about his abilities would be premature in either direction. We have seen enough feeling in the earlier Drago performance to want the casting to become less predictable. Give him a scene in which nobody needs hitting.