Shanks served another Burn Notice

With Stargate SG-1 movies in an interim period, fans have had to look elsewhere for their television fixes of Michael Shanks. Luckily for them, the USA Network answered their calls as Shanks was tapped to play the recurring role of Victor on Burn Notice earlier this year. The episodes featuring Shanks started airing August 14.

GateWorld sat down with the actor at Creation Entertainment’s recent Stargate convention in Chicago, where Shanks talked about his enjoyment of the new role.

“It’s great! I love that show!” Shanks said. “I’m not capable of playing too many bad guys in earnest, or even good guys in earnest, in terms of that straight, jaw-clenching type of way. I need them to have a layer of irony to them or something like that. And Burn Notice is the perfect show for that.”

Burn Notice revolves around the character of “Michael Westen,” played by Jeffrey Donovan. The character of Westen is a spy who was “burned” (meaning betrayed) by another spy and is now forced to work in Miami while trying to track down the person who double-crossed him. Shanks’s character, Victor, is a spy wrangler, who is convinced he can control Westen.

Following his convention appearance, Shanks was scheduled to return to Miami for filming of additional episodes of the series, to air later in the season. He told us how happy he was with the character’s progression and story arc thus far.

“I think the character is going to be a lot of fun,” Shanks said. “To create something from the ground up that is as interesting and as memorable as Daniel was … There are very few instances that I’ve had in my career where you get to play a character like that, who gets to have the straitjacket taken off, so to speak. The freedom to be the bad guy and do whatever you want is wonderful. I look forward to exploring that character more.”

Episodes of Burn Notice air Thursdays at 10 p.m. (9 Central) on the USA Network in the United States. New episodes will resume September 11 following completion of the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

And keep it locked on GateWorld! Shanks returns to Stargate with his guest appearance on Atlantis later this month — and a brand-new interview with the popular actor is coming in the weeks ahead.