Peter Sarsgaard to Play Villain in 'The Killing' Season 3

Eric Charbonneau/Le Studio

Peter Sarsgaard

AMC's revived The Killing has found its villain.

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Peter Sarsgaard has been tapped to play a death row inmate in the rebooted third season of the drama, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

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The Lovelace actor will play Tom Seward, a condemned inmate for whom the clock is clicking down. He's described as a lifelong convict born into poverty and crime who has been in and out of the system for violent crimes since he was 10. Never wanting to appear weak, every interaction for Tom is a challenge and one he must dominate.

The casting marks Sarsgaard's first recurring role in a TV series. He joins new castmembers Elias Koteas (as the new partner to Mireille Enos), Amy Seimetz as a mother whose daughter is missing and Max Fowler as a streetwise hustler. Enos and Joel Kinnaman will reprise their role in the drama, which AMC revived in January.

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Sarsgaard has played a number of dark characters. In addition to starring as an abusive porn producer in Lovelace, which premiered Saturday at the Berlin International Film Festival, he played a man who seduces an underage girl in An Education. His other credits include Very Good Girls, Green Lantern, Flightplan and Shattered Glass, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination. He's repped by CAA, Authentic and Peikoff Law. 

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The 12-episode third season of The Killing will introduce a new case and be set a year after the Rosie Larsen investigation featured in the first two seasons was closed with Linden no longer a detective. She is drawn back when Holder's search for a runaway girl leads him to a string of murders that connects to a previous investigation she led.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit