Marcus Underworld: Marcus Corvinus Explained

Marcus Corvinus is a vampire elder of the Corvinus line, credited under that name in Underworld: Evolution and played there by Tony Curran. Some plot summaries spell the name Markus, but the film credits use Marcus. He is one of three sons of Alexander Corvinus, whom Evolution presents as the first immortal, and his twin brother is William Corvinus, the first werewolf, played in the credits by Brian Steele. Alexander is played by Derek Jacobi.

Marcus belongs to the generation that sits above the vampire and Lycan feud seen in the rest of the saga. Evolution opens in 1202 with Marcus, Viktor and Amelia, the three vampire elders, raiding a werewolf village, and Underworld (2003) closes with Marcus awakening as a hybrid. If you are new to the family, the corvinus bloodline page maps who descends from whom, and the underworld vampires and lycans page explains how the two species relate.

He is the main villain of the sequel, and a different kind of threat from Kraven, who is a schemer, or Viktor, who rules the coven. The film that gives him most to do runs 106 minutes, cost $45 million to make and took more than $111 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo and The Numbers.

Marcus is tied to William by blood, to Alexander by a family betrayal, and to Viktor by a shared past as elders. William is his twin brother, and Evolution frames the 1202 raid, in which Marcus took part alongside Viktor and Amelia, as the moment that put William in a cage. The same man who joined that raid spends the rest of the film trying to free his brother.

His father Alexander Corvinus lives under the name Lorenz Macaro and at first refuses to help Selene and Michael. When Marcus attacks, he fatally wounds Alexander, who then asks Selene to drink his blood. Alexander dies by destroying his ship.

Viktor, the elder who hid William away, is a rival Marcus never confronts on screen, because the 2003 film has already ended Viktor's story. See Viktor for that side of it. Kraven is simply in the way, and Marcus kills him and his men on waking.

Why did Marcus listen to Viktor? Evolution shows Marcus taking part in the 1202 raid and Viktor hiding William afterward. The film gives no reason for why Marcus deferred to Viktor.

His most direct link to the present day is Michael Corvin, who in the 2003 film is shown to descend from a common ancestor of both races and could become a hybrid. Marcus impales Michael during Evolution, and Michael later wakes in full hybrid form.

In my opinion, Marcus is the strongest antagonist in the series, and his best moments show it. His first real act in Evolution is waking early and killing Kraven and his followers, which sets his scale at once. It could be argued that this is the cleanest display of a creature's rules in the saga: he is ancient, he wakes on his own schedule, and the coven's politics do not slow him down.

The second moment is the blood trick. Marcus drinks Tanis's blood to learn where the prison is, and later learns the same thing from Selene's blood. The film turns a feeding scene into a plot device, which is clever, because it makes every victim a map.

The third is the impaling of Michael, the point where Marcus stops being a menace and becomes a real danger to the hero. Perhaps the most telling beat, though, is the helicopter finish, where Selene wins by turning the modern world against him. It is a brutal end for an ancient being, and it suits the film's blend of old myth and modern action.

Who is more powerful, Viktor or Marcus? The films never stage a duel between them. Viktor is killed by Selene in the 2003 film, while Marcus kills Kraven and his men and brings down his own father. On that evidence, it could be argued that Marcus is the greater power, and in my opinion he is the most powerful vampire the saga shows. If you want to see how the series handles scale, start with Underworld: Evolution and then read the wider underworld characters list.