Olivier Richters made headlines when he confirmed that his Black Widow cameo was as Ursa Major, the first mutant in the MCU, but where have audiences seen him before? Richters might not be new to public life, but he is still very early in his acting career. However, Black Widow is just the first of some big acting credits coming his way.
Olivier Richters is a Dutch bodybuilder, also known as The Dutch Giant. He has worked as a model and was the subject of a Men’s Health documentary in 2018, the same year that he served as the cover model for the November issue of the Netherlands’ edition. Standing at an impressive 7’2” (218cm), he is the same height as the famed actor Richard Kiel who played Jaws in the James Bond movies, and whom Richters credits as his inspiration for getting into acting. In Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff watched the Bond film Moonraker, which sees Bond and Jaws go to space and gives Jaws a somewhat happy ending. It’s possible that this was an intentional reference to Richters’ inspiration.
Olivier Richters started off, as many do, with smaller parts such as playing an assistant photographer in an episode of the 2014 Dutch TV series Fashion Planet. A series of roles played into his size and strength as he played “Warehouse Guy” in the 2018 surreal horror movie Ravers, Iwan in the short film Nailed, and appeared in the final episode of the first season of Gangs of London as Duncan. In the 2020 movie about an underground bare-knuckle fight club, Knuckledust, he played the imposing Rawbone.
Black Widow marks the start of big-name titles in Olivier Richters’ career. November 2021 will put Richters alongside several other actors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange), Toby Jones (Dr. Zola), and Sophia Di Martino (Sylvie in Loki). Richters will be playing a boxer in The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, a biographical film about the artist Louis Wain where Cumberbatch will play the eponymous figure. In December 2021 Richters will appear in a small role in The King’s Man, the third film in the Kingsman series which serves as a prequel to the other two movies. It was originally scheduled for release in November 2019, long before Richters’ appearance as Ursa Major. The release was first pushed back to 2020, and then issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic caused it to be delayed several more times.
Beyond 2021, Richters is set to appear in the Borderlands movie, an adaptation of the video game series of the same name, where he will play the bandit leader Krom who appeared in the first installment of the series. Olivier Richters doesn’t have anything else publicly announced at the moment, but based on his appearance in Black Widow, he will almost certainly be back on screen playing Ursa Major before long.