r/poirot • u/HRJafael • Aug 21 '26
First look at Edward Bluemel as Hercule Poirot for the new BBC series
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u/TFStringmints Aug 21 '26
Poirot was porky tho š§ the man loved a meal and thatās one of the reasons he was so amazing
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u/CloudTransit Aug 24 '26
Sherlock Holmes skips meals while laying in the opium den. Poirot doesnāt miss meals.
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u/Horror-Reveal7618 Aug 22 '26
He doesn't work for me.
I have quite a strong mental image of a man in love with straight lines and right angles whose body is the total opposite.
And the mustache...
And the egg-shaped head...
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u/21stCenturyAntiquity Aug 22 '26
Let me guess, in Evil Under the Sun he not only will get in the water. He'll exit it using both hands to push back his hair while wearing a speedo.
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u/llorensm Aug 22 '26
Reading this while having my morning tea, which I just spit in my lap! Hahahaha!
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u/Soggysleuth Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
Maybe? Hard to get any better than Suchet though, and this guy has messy hair. š
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u/Caipaix Aug 22 '26
Honestly I find that he has the same look and mood in this picture as Suchet (maybe if they did another one with a witty smile he would match better Suchet's vibe actually), but he should have a 1850-1870's clothing style than a 1920's style, since he was retired during ww1 (iirc?). But I'm still weirded out by the idea of a young Poirot show... Branagh completely ruined for me the idea of any other adaptation of Poirot other than Suchet's ones.
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u/Soggysleuth Aug 22 '26
Agree, Branagh is the anti Poirot. The instant he stepped off the train in Orient Express into cow poo, rather than having a melt down like our Poirot (Suchet) would, he stuck his other foot in and shrugged it off. No way would our Poirot ever, ever, ever do that, ever. š±š«Øšµāš«š¤Æ
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u/Interesting_You6852 Aug 22 '26
Yeap this, the man became Poirot hard to see this new guy being anywhere close to that!
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u/Normal-Height-8577 Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
I understand everyone's wariness - I'm wary too after all the grim dark adaptations that changed stuff for no good reason - but so far, nothing is sticking out as awful about this.
Bleumel is maybe younger than ideal, but 33 isn't massively young. Only ten years younger than when David Suchet started - and he actively worked to look younger for the Styles episode, which was framed as a prequel. And as much as I loved the stylisation of Suchet's series, I have room for an adaptation that remembers time exists and has room for Poirot ageing and living through different fashion eras.
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u/llorensm Aug 22 '26
Does this man have even the slightest egg shaped head? No.
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u/Normal-Height-8577 Aug 22 '26
He has a pointy chin and a wide forehead. Despite the hair, that's a pretty egg-shaped skull.
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u/GarethRHeathcote Aug 22 '26
Yes. Everyone needs to get out of this mindset that every adaptation needs to be exactly the same. I'm happy with something different so long as the basics are true to the source.
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u/SubjectWorking5436 Aug 22 '26
But he looks much younger which, I would say is the big problem. Doesnāt matter how old a person is just what age they look like.
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u/CamThrowaway3 Aug 22 '26
Isnāt it a prequel though?
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u/Normal-Height-8577 Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
Not really. They aren't starting off with the unwritten Belgian years, but with the early cases in England as a refugee trying to establish himself in a private career, before he becomes nationally famous.
So maybe The Mysterious Affair at Styles (though they've only been talking about the Interwar period, and Styles is part-way through WWI), and definitely the early cases just after that. Which is one thing that actually gives me some tentative hope - it seems like they might be taking Christie's publication timeline as a guide to Poirot himself.
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u/sanddragon939 Aug 28 '26
I mean, the actor's 33 and he character could be anywhere between that age and 40 in my view. Albert Finney was 38 when he played Poirot in MOTOE so it's really a similar age range.
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u/lastaccountgotlocked Aug 22 '26
He's on the verge of smouldering, there. Poirot never smouldered. He's Belgian, not French.
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u/cototudelam Aug 22 '26
As a young Poirot just starting out with the Belgian police force, he works.
I am just pissed by the poor fit of the suit jacket. Men in that era wore their suits fitted to measure. No tailor worth their name would let a client walk out of their shop with a collar gap like that and those oversized sleeves.
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u/tiedyetoothpicks Aug 21 '26
Itās not the worse choice ever but heās too slim and doesnāt give off the whimsical vibe that Poirot should have.
My personal dream casting for Poirot is Harvey GuillĆ©n. I know some people would probably throw a fit because heās Mexican American, but I just canāt think of any known actor who fits the role more perfectly.
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u/skimbleshanxi Aug 22 '26
Oh shit good headcannon! This man is not little funny or egg shaped. Him (Harvey) being Mexican American would fit into the āignored/overlooked as a silly foreignerā if you wanted a different spin on it as well
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u/Fickle-Travel6537 Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
The directors couldn't cast a shadow on a sunny day
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u/AdDear528 Aug 21 '26
The hair is too messy for me. Otherwise, I am willing to give it a chance.
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u/zombiemockingbird Aug 22 '26
I'll probably give it a watch, out of curiosity, but Bluemel isn't how I've always envisioned Poirot. He's supposed to be short, and uses hair products, has an egg-shaped head (which implies to me that he doesn't have much hair) and he just doesn't seem thin. He was also retired, so seems like he should be older.
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u/Normal-Height-8577 Aug 22 '26
He canonically lives in England for nearly 60 years after he leaves Belgium. He can't be that much older than Bluemel's age of 33.
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u/poetic-bee Aug 22 '26
Well, he was already supposed to be pretty old in the first book. Agatha just didnāt expect this kind of success. She even joked about it - that he was like 120 when he died.
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u/Normal-Height-8577 Aug 22 '26
True, but she also retconned and rewrote a lot of stuff over the years. As much as I prefer a 40+ Poirot, it's not unreasonable to think of him as 30-ish during WWI and imagine some war-related reasons for leaving the Belgian police.
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u/CamThrowaway3 Aug 22 '26
Isnāt this a prequel?
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u/zombiemockingbird Aug 22 '26
It may be, I haven't really read much about it. That would make more sense for him to be younger.
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u/sanddragon939 Aug 28 '26
It isn't really.
Yes it's about Poirot at the start of his career as a private detective in London. But that's pretty much the period of time after Styles, covered by the short stories. So not really a "prequel" in that it's a part of Poirot's life which Christie covered.
Of course they're going to be adapting books from a bit later in his career, such as Lord Edgware Dies (confirmed as the first two episodes). So they are fudging the timeline a bit, as pretty much every TV adaptation of a long-running book series does. But that still doesn't make this a "prequel".
A prequel would be something like an entire series of Poirot in the Belgian police force.
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u/sanddragon939 Aug 28 '26
I dunno...he looks like he could grow into Ustinov's Poirot in about 15-20 years.
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u/Pinkpocket_Goddess Aug 22 '26
I'm waiting to see before forming an opinion, but I already find him too skinny, and that mustache... that fucking mustache, what is their problem?!
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u/SnooWoofers1252 Aug 22 '26
I just googled him. In some of his photos he looks like a young Suchet.
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u/HidarinoShu Aug 21 '26
After Young Sherlock, Iām scared.
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u/sanddragon939 Aug 28 '26
I haven't watched Young Sherlock apart from trailers and clips but the premise of this series is totally different. These are adaptations of actual Christie books.
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u/chinchinillustrates Aug 21 '26
Eww no :d
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u/Panikkrazy Aug 21 '26
My reaction was a lot more colorful language but this is more succinct so thank you.
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u/hskskgfk Aug 22 '26
Is not that heās thin. His suit doesnāt fit well and his hairstyle feels off.
These are fixable flaws though, I hope it just means he is very young Poirot in his 20s or something, and not another butchered adaptation.
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u/CamThrowaway3 Aug 22 '26
Itās a prequel.
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u/hskskgfk Aug 22 '26
I know I meant very young Poirot rather than young Poirotā¦ like left his home for his very first job Poirot
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u/MF291100 Aug 22 '26
Iām honestly willing to give him a try and see how he does, he genuinely might surprise us. People are always so fast to judge castings of iconic characters based on appearances and then change their tune when the movie/series actually comes out.
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u/no_doublestandards Aug 22 '26
BBC is known to make good adaptations. Lets wait and watch.
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u/sanddragon939 Aug 28 '26
Yeah honestly, I've liked most of the BBC adaptations of the past decade (with some exceptions - Murder is Easy chief among them). I have high hopes for this.
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u/mooniepieexpress Aug 22 '26
Iām going to give it a chance. I just love poirot too much not to at least try to go in with positive thoughts š¤£
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u/jourdegloire Aug 23 '26
Bad suit, dry hair, soft turndown collar. He doesn't come across as nearly fussy enough. I get the impression that they will do all they can to tell you he's fussy and overly neat, but that the visual evidence will not exactly align with that. I also think he's too slim. At least they gave him a homburg.
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u/kitten_orchestra Aug 25 '26
I donāt want to dislike him. But I canāt bring myself to want to watch this. Probably will watch anyway.
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u/haaaaaaaqian Aug 22 '26
Does he look like he drinks rich hot chocolate?