Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-6175354-20150512232014/@comment-6588773-20150513155909

Taking away his iconic long white beard would be unconstructive and dumb. It's like in FaceOff when they had the troll challenge, and a few of them were encouraged by their mentors to not go cliche troll face with big noses or ears, and they ended up losing. There's no artistic creativity need to change Merlin's look. It goes with the saying, "don't fix it if it isn't broken".

But for my vote on who should play him, in the  Sword in the Stone  he was a joyful, playful, fun, and goofy person, it would be interesting and completely left field... but Nick Offerman would be hilarious! I think we need some comic relief in Once with a comedian.