1996–2005 Mikkelsen made his film debut in 1996 as a drug dealer in
Nicolas Winding Refn's internationally successful film
Pusher, which spawned two sequels. He played marginalized, often comic roles in popular Danish films. In 1999, Mikkelsen had a leading role as Lenny, a shy film expert who has
avoidant personality disorder, opposite
Kim Bodnia in Refn's
Bleeder (1999). In 2000, Mikkelsen played a gangster opposite
Søren Pilmark,
Ulrich Thomsen and
Nikolaj Lie Kaas in
Anders Thomas Jensen's Copenhagen gangster film,
Flickering Lights. The following year, he gained wider popularity when he starred in the gay comedy
Shake It All About (2001). In 2003, Mikkelsen had a leading role as a man who leaves his wife and child in the short film
Nu. He starred opposite Kaas in
The Green Butchers, playing an orphaned butcher's assistant in a small provincial Danish town, where human meat is a specialty. He won the Fantasporto Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the butcher. Later in 2003, he starred in
Pablo Berger's Spanish film
Torremolinos 73, about an exasperated encyclopedia salesman who exports
pornographic films to Scandinavian countries under the pretense of being an audiovisual encyclopedia of human
reproduction. Although a critical success in Spain, the film was poorly received in Scandinavian countries. In 2004, Mikkelsen reprised his role as drug dealer Tonny in the
Pusher sequel,
Pusher II. His performance was acclaimed, garnering him the
Bodil Award for Best Actor, Zulu Award for Best Actor and
Robert Festival Award for Best Actor. One writer likened his pose in the mirror in the film to
Robert De Niro in
Martin Scorsese's
Taxi Driver. In 2005, Mikkelsen portrayed an "unorthodox country vicar" named Ivan who challenges a
neo-Nazi (
Ulrich Thomsen) who has been sentenced to community service to bake an apple pie in ''
Adam's Apples''. Mikkelsen's breakthrough and his longest running role was as a sensitive policeman in
Niels Arden Oplev's Danish television series
Rejseholdet (
Unit One) (2000–03), for which he won the 2002 Best Actor Award from TvFestival.dk. The series' 32 episodes stretched over four years. He became more widely known internationally for his role as
Tristan in
Jerry Bruckheimer's production of the movie
King Arthur (2004), which was a commercial success despite negative reviews.
2006–2010 In 2006, Mikkelsen starred opposite
Stine Stengade and
Jana Plodková in
Ole Christian Madsen's award-winning film
Prag (
Prague). His role as Christoffer earned him the Zulu Award for Best Actor and Bodil and Robert Festival nominations for Best Actor. Eddie Cockrell of
Variety noted his "rigid countenance" in an "outstanding" performance. The same year, Mikkelsen achieved his first widely acclaimed international success as
Le Chiffre in the twenty-first
James Bond film,
Casino Royale. Mikkelsen has said that he so easily won the part that even
Daniel Craig asked him if he had slept with someone to be cast. He said of the casting, "They'd done their homework, seen my stuff, so it was fine, just a bit of anti-climax, because I was so ready to do more for them, but it was ... shrugs... you're in."
David Edelstein of
New York Magazine said "Mikkelsen clicks his rectangular plaques as if he's a new breed of praying mantis. He's bloodcurdling." In 2006, Mikkelsen also took the lead role in the Danish drama
After the Wedding, which earned an
Academy Award nomination for
Best Foreign Film. Additionally, he won a
European Film Award for Best Actor nomination for his performance and in 2007, won the
Palm Springs International Film Festival Award for Best Actor.
The New York Times remarked that on the Hollywood scene, Mikkelsen has "become a reliable character actor with an intriguing mug" but stated that on the domestic front "he is something else: a star, an axiom, a face of the resurgent Danish cinema." In 2008, Mikkelsen portrayed Danish resistance fighter
Jørgen Haagen Schmith opposite
Thure Lindhardt and Stine Stengade in Ole Christian Madsen's
Flame & Citron (
Flammen & Citronen), a film which is loosely based on actual events involving two of the most active fighters in the
Holger Danske resistance group during World War II. Mikkelsen's character nicknamed "Citronen" is named after a
Citroën factory in which he works. In 2008, Mikkelsen also provided the voice for the character Le Chiffre in the
Quantum of Solace video game, and he represented Le Chiffre when he was invited to the launch of Swiss watchmaker
Swatch's "007 Villain Collection" in
Bregenz, Austria. The following year, gaining a reputation as one of Europe's most sensuous male actors, Mikkelsen played a hot-blooded
Stravinsky opposite
Anna Mouglalis in
Jan Kounen's critically acclaimed
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky based on the romance between the composer and the fashion designer.
Empire magazine described it as a "visually stunning film [which] focuses on Chanel and Stravinsky's illicit relationship in 1920s France."
Philip French of
The Observer described the film as a "beautiful, intelligent, shallow film, like a pane of plate glass that at first glance looks like a deep lake", and remarked that Mikkelsen's Stravinsky matched Mouglalis's
Coco Chanel as a "fellow modernist and equally cool egotist." Mikkelsen then returned to violent action, collaborating once again with Refn, playing a Norse warrior in the
Crusades in
Valhalla Rising (2009) and Draco, a self-sacrificing leader of the king's guard in
Clash of the Titans (2010).
Since 2011 In 2011, he played
Comte de Rochefort in another box-office success,
The Three Musketeers, which earned poor reviews from critics. In 2012, he starred in
The Hunt, for which he won the
Best Actor Award at the
Cannes Film Festival. Mikkelsen said of his role, "I was surprised how emotional I got reading this, especially for a period drama. And it was full of dilemma – he's full of love for both the king and the queen, but then he remains political, starts spinning his tunnel vision, and all of a sudden he's doing the exact same things he hated all the other courtiers for doing, and I thought that was interesting, and very human." Mikkelsen played
Hannibal Lecter in
NBC's TV series
Hannibal (2013–15), alongside
Hugh Dancy as Special Agent
Will Graham. The series has been a critical success, with Mikkelsen's performance as Lecter earning praise. Mikkelsen was initially dubious about accepting the role, as he believed that
Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of Lecter was "done to perfection". He said of his character, "He's not a classic
psychopath or a classic
serial killer. I believe that he's as close to
Satan as can be – the
fallen angel. He sees the beauty in death. And every day is a new day, full of opportunities." In October 2016, he joined the
Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as
Kaecilius in the
Marvel Studios film
Doctor Strange, alongside
Benedict Cumberbatch and
Tilda Swinton. Although his character was criticized for being underused and another "generic baddie" for Marvel, Mikkelsen's performance was a favorite of
Matt Zoller Seitz of
RogerEbert.com: "Mikkelsen is a master at being in on the joke while still delivering every line with imagination and feeling.... he's often knowing and wry, even arch, a mix of performance traits that's often hard to combine with any success." In December 2016, Mikkelsen portrayed
Galen Erso in the
Star Wars spin-off film,
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. In 2018, he starred in a survival thriller
Arctic, directed by the Brazilian filmmaker
Joe Penna. He played the villainous mayor in
Doug Liman's adapted science fiction film
Chaos Walking, based on
Patrick Ness' trilogy novels of the
same name. Mikkelsen starred in
Hideo Kojima's video game
Death Stranding. In 2018, he had a supporting role in
Julian Schnabel's film ''
At Eternity's Gate'' starring
Willem Dafoe. In 2019, he starred in
Jonas Åkerlund's action film
Polar, which is based on
Víctor Santos' graphic novel
Polar: Came With the Cold. On
Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 19% based on reviews from 47 critics. Mikkelsen has also appeared in Carlsberg's new 2019 UK advert, announcing that the brand's flagship beer has been rebrewed to become a Danish pilsner. Mikkelsen reunited with
Thomas Vinterberg for the Danish comedy drama
Another Round, which won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and earned Mikkelsen a BAFTA Nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In November 2020, Mikkelsen was revealed to be in early talks with
Warner Bros. for the role of
Gellert Grindelwald in the
Fantastic Beasts series from
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, in which Warner Bros. asked
Johnny Depp to step down after the latter lost in a
defamation trial against News Group Newspapers. On 25 November, Warner Bros confirmed that Mikkelsen was cast as Grindelwald in the film. In April 2021, Mikkelsen joined the cast of
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. He is also set to star in
Amma Asante's Cold War thriller
Billion Dollar Spy. In May 2022, it was announced he would be reprising his role of Duncan Vizla in a new film titled
The Black Kaiser, with
Jonas Åkerlund returning to direct the film, which Mikkelsen had co-written. That same year, it was announced he would star in
Nikolaj Arcel's new film
The Promised Land which started shooting in September 2022. He will reunite with
Hannibal creator
Bryan Fuller on his directorial debut
Dust Bunny, with shooting to commence in 2023. In late summer 2024, filming began on the Danish film The Last Viking, directed by
Anders Thomas Jensen, with whom Mikkelsen has frequently collaborated. The actor plays the role of Manfred, the brother of the main character, portrayed by
Nikolaj Lie Kaas. at the
Garrison Church in Copenhagen, 16 October 2025 In May 2025,
Variety reported that Mikkelsen would voice the character Severin, the father of Kai, in the animated film North, based on
Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. North is directed by fantasy filmmaker Bente Lone. Around the same time, it was announced that Mikkelsen would star in the prison drama Last Meals, which centers on a former White House chef who prepares final meals for death row inmates, and a prisoner (played by
Boyd Holbrook) who decides to go on a hunger strike. Filming for Last Meals is set to begin in Ireland in 2025, with a script by Justin Piasecki (Relay) and direction by
Ramin Bahrani. It was also announced that Mikkelsen would appear in the directorial debut of Lee Smith, the Oscar-winning editor of
Dunkirk and Inception. The Arctic action thriller Sirius is inspired by the Danish special forces unit known as the
Sirius Patrol, tasked with guarding the 8,700-mile frozen and perilous coastline of
Greenland. In February 2026 Mikkelsen joined the cast of
What Happens at Night directed by
Martin Scorsese. Shooting has begun in Prague. ==Personal life==