You can say many things of Benedict Cumberbatch, but that he lacks range is not one of them. In the last year or so, the British actor has played an insane, murderous superman in space, a Southern slave owner, Julian Assange, Alan Rickman (in an episode of “The Simpsons“), Meryl Streep‘s nephew, the world’s greatest detective, and a big fuck-off dragon. And that’s not about to change, it appears, as the actor’s latest role is as an animated wolf.
Cumberbatch is lending his voice to “The Penguins Of Madagascar,” the fourth film in DreamWorks Animation‘s “Madagascar” franchise, and the first spin-off, based on the special-ops-aping flightless birds that featured in the first three films (and in a TV series), and Digital Spy has the first trailer for the film.
Cumberbatch plays a wolf called Classified (the jokes literally write themselves), who heads up a secret unit of animals known as the North Wind that also includes a seal voiced by Ken Jeong and a bear voiced by Peter Stormare, and who come across the titular penguins. Annet Mahendru, John Malkovich and Andy Richter are also in the voice cast for the film, which hits theaters on November 26th. Watch the trailer below.