The Musketeers star Tom Burke has revealed that Cardinal Richelieu, played by Peter Capaldi, will be dead when the show returns next year.

Series 2 began filming in Prague earlier this month and Capaldi is currently filming the new series of Doctor Who in Cardiff.

Burke, who plays Athos in BBC One’s adventure drama, told Radio Times: “Come the next series the Cardinal will be dead. He’ll just be gone.”

He joked: “We’re all like, ‘Where’s the Cardinal? Oh he’s dead’ It’s a great example of economic storytelling.”

Replacing Capaldi as the show’s main villain will be Marc Warren (Hustle) as the Comte De Rochefort, “a dashing and persuasive aristocrat with a talent for sword fighting and a taste for adventure”.

> Buy the Series 1 boxset on Amazon.

Series 1 concluded on BBC One last month.

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