Max von Sydow joining the cast of Showtime's 'The Tudors' drama

Swedish movie actor Max von Sydow has joined the cast of "The Tudors" for its third season, Showtime announced Monday.

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Von Sydow is to portray Cardinal Von Waldburg, "a German-born Catholic clergyman who tries to organize the defeat of Henry VIII (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and whose family was killed by Protestant revolutionaries," the cable television network said in a news release. "A fearsome intellectual, he was appointed by the pope to head his first inquisition, which was the crushing of the Reformation."

Von Sydow will be seen in four of the upcoming season's eight episodes, which are being filmed in Dublin, Ireland. The third season of the historical TV series is to premiere on Showtime in 2009.

Von Sydow has starred in "The Seventh Seal," "The Exorcist," "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Minority Report."