Dutch Actors in Hollywood: This Week's Roles & Casting News

 

Dutch Actors in Hollywood: This Week's Casting News and Upcoming Roles

By Sidra Salman · October 23, 2026

If you've been paying attention to the biggest premieres and casting announcements this month, you've probably noticed something: Dutch names keep popping up. It's been a genuinely busy week for Dutch actors working in Hollywood and international film and TV — from Famke Janssen addressing the biggest superhero movie of the year to Sylvia Hoeks headlining a biopic about one of pop culture's most tragic figures. I went through the actual announcements from this week so you don't have to, and here's everything worth knowing.

Famke Janssen Finally Speaks: Is Jean Grey Coming Back for Avengers: Doomsday?

This was the Dutch-Hollywood story of the week, no contest. With Avengers: Doomsday now just under two months from its December 18 release, the cast conversation has gone into overdrive — and one name fans kept asking about was Famke Janssen, the original Jean Grey from the early-2000s X-Men films.

In an interview with Screen Rant reported this week, Janssen gave her clearest answer yet: she hasn't been asked back. When Entertainment Weekly asked whether Marvel had ever approached her about reprising Jean Grey after the Fox era, her answer was blunt: "Never. Never ever."

What makes this sting a little is the company she's missing. Six of her original X-Men co-stars are confirmed for the film: Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), James Marsden (Cyclops), Rebecca Romijn (Mystique), Kelsey Grammer (Beast), and Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler). Janssen, along with Halle Berry's Storm, was left off the announced roster.

Janssen didn't hide how she feels about it either. Speaking at SpaceCon, she said Marvel made a mistake leaving Jean Grey out. The Russo brothers told Fandango this week how surreal it felt directing the X-Men cast they once watched at midnight screenings 25 years ago — and Marvel has reportedly planned additional filming, so I'd keep an eye on this one. But as it stands today: no Jean Grey in the announced cast.

Sylvia Hoeks Steps Into Anna Nicole Smith's Shoes in Hurricanna

The other big Dutch headline this week belongs to Sylvia Hoeks — the Blade Runner 2049 breakout — who stars as Anna Nicole Smith in the upcoming drama Hurricanna. The official trailer landed this week as a PEOPLE exclusive, and it stopped me in my tracks.

This isn't a standard cradle-to-grave biopic. Director Francesca Gregorini (whose credits include Killing Eve and Netflix's Vladimir) has narrowed the story to Smith's final hours — the chaos surrounding a championship boxing match appearance, with Smith's psychiatrist and her lover Howard K. Stern (played by Mark Duplass) pulling her in opposite directions. Holly Hunter co-stars as the therapist, with Nicholas Hamilton and Michael Nouri rounding out the cast. The film hits US theaters on January 8, 2027.

It's a brave casting choice and, frankly, a risky role for Hoeks — Smith's life was tabloid fodder for years, and playing her means carrying the weight of a real person's tragedy without turning it into caricature. The trailer suggests she's going for raw and vulnerable rather than impersonation, which is exactly the right call.

And Hoeks isn't done with Hollywood's heavy hitters. In September, Deadline reported she's joined the cast of Apple TV's action thriller Disavowed, starring James Marsden as a fired CIA case officer hunting an assassin for a $15 million bounty, with Norman Reedus also on board. Her character is still under wraps, but sharing a call sheet with Marsden and Reedus in an Apple Studios production is about as high-profile as TV casting gets. She also led Netflix's 2026 series Ride or Die as Ana, alongside Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer. Quite a run.

Michiel Huisman: From Daario Naharis to an NYPD Detective

Michiel Huisman has quietly become one of the most reliable Dutch exports in American TV. After Game of Thrones, The Haunting of Hill House, The Flight Attendant, and Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon films (where he played the Veldt farmer Gunnar), he's now booked his first regular US broadcast role.

Deadline reported earlier this year that Huisman will star opposite Taylor Schilling (Orange Is the New Black) in NBC's pilot What the Dead Know, from Dick Wolf's Wolf Entertainment. He plays NYPD homicide detective William Grant — a by-the-book justice guy — teaming up with Schilling's whip-smart death investigator Ava Ledger on the department's toughest cases. The show is based on former NYC death investigator Barbara Butcher's memoir.

Broadcast procedurals aren't usually where prestige actors land, but Wolf Entertainment's track record makes this a smart long-term play.

Marwan Kenzari Brings It Home — and Back to Netflix

Not every Dutch actor's biggest role right now is in English. Marwan Kenzari — Jafar in Disney's Aladdin, Joe in Netflix's The Old Guard 2 — is headlining the Dutch psychological thriller The Silence on Netflix. Announced by Netflix Netherlands in February, the series casts Kenzari as Tarik, a man whose author wife Sara Post (played by Rianne van Rompaey in her Netflix debut) vanishes without a trace, pulling him into a closed community where silence matters more than truth.

The series is based on S.F. Kosa's novel The Quiet Girl and directed by Max Porcelijn, with a heavyweight Dutch supporting cast including Renée Soutendijk and Hans Kesting. Kenzari has said he was drawn to what he called the story's "nightmarish quality" — a far cry from the blockbuster villains and heroes that made him famous internationally.

I love this pattern: Dutch actors who make it in Hollywood using that platform to headline serious work back home. It keeps the Dutch industry growing instead of just exporting talent.

Carice van Houten's Banner Year Continues

And then there's Carice van Houten, who is having one of the busiest years of her career. Her Dutch-language drama A Family premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February — her first big-screen lead role in six years, playing Maria in Mees Peijnenburg's emotional story about a family breakup seen through the eyes of two teenagers. She also served as executive producer on the film, which was co-produced by Lukas Dhont's company The Reunion.

On the English-language side, she co-stars with Jack Whitehall and David Duchovny in Prime Video's thriller series Malice, playing Nat Tanner — all six episodes are streaming now. She also hosted the 2026 show A Beautiful Mess and voiced a role in the animated film Miss Moxy. From Melisandre to this, van Houten's range keeps surprising me.

Why Do Dutch Actors Keep Landing These Roles?

Here's the part I find genuinely interesting. The Netherlands is a country of about 18 million people, yet its actors keep booking major international roles. After following this beat for a while, I think there are a few real reasons — not the usual fluff, but structural advantages:

1. Near-native English from childhood

The Dutch grow up watching English-language films and series with subtitles instead of dubs. That means most Dutch actors speak fluent, lightly-accented English before they ever audition abroad. Casting directors can put them in American or British roles without a dialect coach on speed dial. It's an enormous practical advantage.

2. Serious theatre training

Dutch drama schools have a reputation for rigorous, physically demanding training — the kind that produces actors who can handle both arthouse drama and genre work. Janssen, van Houten, Hoeks, and Huisman all came up through systems that treat acting as a craft first, which shows up in how versatile they are.

3. The "European sophistication" casting lane

Hollywood has a well-worn pattern of casting Dutch and Northern European actors as villains, aristocrats, and elegant threats — think Kenzari's Jafar or Hoeks's Luv in Blade Runner 2049. It's a stereotype, sure, but the smart actors use those roles as a doorway and then break out of the typecasting, which is exactly what Hoeks is doing with Hurricanna and Kenzari did with The Old Guard 2.

4. A two-way street

Unlike actors from some markets who leave and never look back, the Dutch stars keep working in Dutch productions too — A Family for van Houten, The Silence for Kenzari. That keeps their craft sharp and their home industry visible, which in turn produces the next generation of export-ready talent.

What to Watch Next: Your Dutch-Stars Streaming Cheat Sheet

Here's the practical part — where to actually catch all of this:

Actor	Project	Role	Where / When
Famke Janssen	Avengers: Doomsday	Jean Grey — currently unconfirmed	In theaters December 18, 2026 (watch for casting updates)
Sylvia Hoeks	Hurricanna	Anna Nicole Smith	US theaters January 8, 2027 — trailer out now
Sylvia Hoeks	Disavowed	Role under wraps	Apple TV (upcoming series)
Sylvia Hoeks	Ride or Die	Ana	Netflix (streaming now)
Michiel Huisman	What the Dead Know	Det. William Grant	NBC pilot (awaiting series order)
Marwan Kenzari	The Silence	Tarik	Netflix (Dutch series, upcoming)
Carice van Houten	Malice	Nat Tanner	Prime Video (all 6 episodes streaming now)
Carice van Houten	A Family	Maria	Festival circuit / Dutch release (2026)

The through-line here is hard to miss: whether it's the biggest Marvel movie of the year or an intimate Dutch festival drama, Dutch actors are working at every level of the industry right now. I'll be tracking how the Janssen situation plays out — if a surprise Jean Grey appearance is ever going to happen, it'll surface in the next few weeks of the Doomsday press tour.

If you're following Dutch talent making the leap abroad, our guide to what's new on Netflix Netherlands is worth a read for context on where Dutch series land internationally, and our roundup of new Dutch TV shows this month covers the domestic side of the same wave. The story of Dutch models going global also pairs nicely with this one — the Netherlands punches well above its weight in exporting talent across the board.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Famke Janssen return as Jean Grey in Avengers: Doomsday?

As of October 23, 2026, she has not been confirmed for the film. Janssen said in a Screen Rant interview this week that Marvel has never contacted her about returning, telling Entertainment Weekly: "Never. Never ever." The film releases December 18, 2026, but surprise casting announcements remain possible during the press tour.

When does Hurricanna with Sylvia Hoeks come out?

Hurricanna, starring Sylvia Hoeks as Anna Nicole Smith with Holly Hunter and Mark Duplass, is scheduled for a US theatrical release on January 8, 2027. The official trailer was released this week.

What is Michiel Huisman's new NBC show?

Huisman stars opposite Taylor Schilling in the NBC pilot What the Dead Know, based on Barbara Butcher's memoir about her work as a New York City death investigator. He plays NYPD homicide detective William Grant. The pilot is awaiting a series order from NBC.

Where can I watch Carice van Houten's latest series?

All six episodes of the Prime Video thriller Malice, in which van Houten plays Nat Tanner opposite Jack Whitehall and David Duchovny, are streaming now on Prime Video.

About the Author

Sidra Salman is the founder of Dutch Stars Daily, where she writes practical, research-backed guides on Dutch entertainment and celebrity news. Every guide is tested and written in plain English for a US audience.