Protagonists of the Swedish adaptation of Wallander. Click here to go back to the main page.
Kurt Wallander
- Action Dad: A rare negative example. Really negative, in fact. When his daughter Linda was a child, he was absent for her entire childhood and was arresting criminals, which wasn't necessarily a good thing for her, as it changed her behaviour for the worse, eventually going the wrong path in life and becoming a drug dealer. Luckily, her dad came back and she became a police officer instead.
- Adaptational Badass: Whereas the other adaptations of the character have always had a hard time dealing with Suicide by Cop cases and dying colleagues, this one has no qualms about killing criminals. As for not caring about his colleagues, it is obvious he does, but he's noticeably more unsympathetic about it, for example when Stefan dies in season 1's "The Secret", by committing suicide of all things, which was directly provoked by the Monster of the Week of the episode, Wallander seems to shrug it off by saying that he "betrayed" them, and that he was becoming too much of a Cowboy Cop. Obviously, he starts crying a bit later though when he realizes that he could have helped him and prevented the suicide.
- The Hero: Obviously, as throughout the series, he is the only character who has appeared in every single episode. However, it is worth noting that his daughter Linda probably would have made the cut as well, had her actor not passed away in season 1. She is replaced in season 3 with another actor.
- Deadpan Snarker: In many interrogations he shows some signs of this. For example, when he's interrogating a Serial Killer who has killed two entire families by poisoning them, just because she wanted a baby in one episode, she poisoned a cake which she would give to the son of one of the families during his party, fully intending on killing all of the children there. However, she has a My God, What Have I Done? moment and tells Wallander to give her the poisoned cake. He gives her an identical one, but it isn't actually poisoned, making her panic and go absolutely insane. In fact, this may even be going a bit far...
- Defective Detective: Interestingly subverted. The novels, the previous film adaptations, and the Branagh adaptation all depict Wallander as a tragic man who longs for a love he will never find, a man who can't afford to be happy as it might just bring him even more bad luck, and almost gets traumatized after shooting a mere mook. This Wallander is almost always happy, has a luxury house, good friends, doesn't care who anyone shoots as long as the person was armed, has a wonderful dog named Jussi, and can at times even be frustratingly smug. Which one is the better adaptation is almost impossible to answer, as they are so far away from each other, almost entirely distinct.
- Driven to Suicide: In the final episode "The Sad Bird", he grabs his gun, takes a final taste of his whisky, and shoves the gun right in his mouth after his Alzheimer's has been discovered by his colleagues. Luckily, he changes his mind just as he is about to pull the trigger.
- Jerkass: Ok, not permanently, but very much depending on the episode. In some episodes, "Mastermind" and "The Revenge" being good examples, when he seems to genuinely sympathize with the Monster of the Week's motive, he is by far the nicest of the cops. But then there are episodes like "The Secret" where he downright talks down to an obviously mentally unstable colleague and looks almost angry when said police officer commits suicide. In "The Revenge", when the trainee Isabelle joins, he treats her like crap because he deems female police officers to be strange. There is also a moment in "The Leak" when he gets absolutely furious at Pontus and Isabelle, both trainees with little experience, when Isabelle decides to follow a group of terrorists, and both get seriously injured. Sure, it wasn't a smart move, but the fact that he walks into the hospital, sees that they are both this close to dead, and starts screaming at them is just frustrating. What makes it even worse is that he blames both of them for it, when it's obvious that Pontus tried stopping Isabelle from confronting the terrorists, and Isabelle even admits this.
- Married to the Job: He admits that his police career is the only thing that he is really good at, which is especially evident when Pontus is done with studying to become a prosecutor, and Wallander admits that he never had any good grades himself, which is a reason why he keeps on being so harsh to Pontus despite being promising as a young policeman. Hell, in season 3, when he gets Alzheimer's, he still refuses to retire despite all of his troubles. Obviously, he does retire at the end of the season, but that should go without saying.
- Troll: Just enough for him not to be a Smug Snake. During interrogations, especially as they are about to be arrested for their actions, Wallander loves toying with them and giving them false promises and stuff, knowing that they have nothing left anyway.
Linda
Wallander's daughter who have a very estranged relationship with each other. Wallander was absent for the biggest part of her childhood, but as an adult, she joined Wallander as a police officer.
- Action Girl: Probably even more involved in the action than Wallander himself, depending on the episode, of course.
- Adaptational Badass: Both the Rolf Lassgård and Kenneth Branagh adaptations of the series, the novels as well, all depict Linda as nothing more than Wallander's daughter. Obviously she has a very big impact in the Branagh series, but in this series she's involved in the actual cases.
- Married to the Job: Although she's noticeably better on having other careers than Wallander is, she still seems to have a similar attitude to Wallander when it comes to the job. Now, Linda has more standards than Kurt. A good example is when Stefan commits suicide in The Secret, and Kurt at first shrugs it off by saying that Stefan "betrayed" the police. Linda gets pretty mad at this.
Nyberg
Wallander's (arguably) best friend, a genius among geniuses who knows everything about weapons and that kind of stuff, probably the most educated (other than Pontus) of the police. One of the only three characters who appear in every episode.
- Deadpan Snarker: Pretty frequently.
- Flat Character: Ok, ok, ok, he's definitely an
Ensemble Dark Horse for a lot of viewers, having lots of funny moments and being the most intelligent of the protagonists. However, as you can see here on his tropes, other than being a funny genius, there's really not much to his character.
Svartman
The kindest police officer in the series, who is also one of the only three characters to appear in all 32 episodes.
- Butt-Monkey: See below.
- Defective Detective: Svartman is constantly tortured by mooks, and due to his job, his family rarely gets the chance to have fun. For example, in "The Leak", when Svartman and his family are visiting Svartman's grandparents, Svartman is forced to brake and interrogate two girls who don't want to be interrogated due to finding a body near the lake. Svartman's wife is angry at him and threatens to drive away if he doesn't come in time, and this is despite having holiday at the time.
- Nice Guy: Svartman is pure kindness in human form. He is so kind that some of his colleagues even tend to mock him due to how kind he is. Everyone simply loves him as much as he loves everybody else.
Isabelle, real name Rebecca
Along with Pontus, Isabelle joins the cast of characters in season two, debuting in "The Revenge". Wallander is quite sexist when she first joins, deeming women as unfit for the job, but he later sees the talent in Isabelle.
However, Isabelle wasn't always like this. In "The Debt Collector", it's shown that, prior to becoming part of the police, Isabelle was named Rebecca, and was a gangster who was in a relationship with a boxer named Patrick.
- Action Girl: A bit too much, as she is shown multiple times going too far. In "The Leak" she confronts a group of vicious terrorists, which of course nearly gets both her and Pontus killed.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Apparently her father left her when she was young for unknown reasons, which causes her to lose her temper while interrogating a Disappeared Dad who is seeking redemption. This is not to mention her past as a gangster, and the psychotic Leo trying to get her boyfriend Patrick to rape her multiple times.
- Deadpan Snarker: Pretty frequently as well.
- Fair Cop
- Karma Houdini: Technically. Wallander sees her as talented enough to cover up her past, and Pontus helps as well after learning about it, which leads into Isabelle never getting a comeuppance for her past. Obviously, she didn't deserve to get a punishment, but still.
Pontus
Also a trainee who joins in "The Revenge".
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: An interesting example. While Pontus has shades of a bad boy (a bit stoic, defiant against his wealthy family, gets into well over four fights in the series), Isabelle is probably the bad one. Her past, see her folder above for information, contributes to this, but she can also be overly wild, for example in "The Leak" getting herself in trouble by confronting a group of terrorists during a car chase scene. This could also be seen as a gender-flipped example due to, while Pontus has an extreme amount of juridical education, Isabelle has a... different past, to say the least.
- Karma Houdini: The fact that he covers up Isabelle's former criminal career can be seen as this. This is especially evident seeing as they are still continuing their police career, which could lead into Isabelle being arrested later anyway if someone finds out. Then again, who can blame him?
- The Stoic: Pontus is regularly silent and rarely shows a happy emotion. He gets better later, however.
Mattson
The kind boss of the police, who Wallander respects.
SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3: For Mattson after he's revealed as the Big Bad, go to the 'criminals' character page.
Jussi
Kurt Wallander's very cute Labrador dog, who is named after an opera musician.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the episode "The Witness", Zoran, the Monster of the Week, sets a bomb on Wallander's car. Jussi notices something on the car, and touches the bomb. It explodes, and Jussi dies. Fortunately, he survives, but he still took an explosion for Wallander that could have killed him.
Stefan
Linda's boyfriend and also a young police officer.
- Anti-Hero: Stefan can be overly harsh, but still wants to help people through his actions.
- Anti-Villain: See Villain Protagonist below.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Whatever it is, it is clear he has some sort of traumatic backstory. Turns out that he was victimized by the pedophilic commissioner Rolf, the Monster of the Week of "The Secret", and from Rolf he got his scar.
- Driven to Suicide: In "The Secret", seeing Rolf again is traumatizing enough for Stefan to commit suicide.
- Friend to All Children: He loves children and is extremely good at interrogating them.
- Pet the Dog: Stefan isn't evil, but he has quite a tough exterior. He has a softer side, however, as shown in "The Village Idiot" when he talks a retarded man who suddenly got a need to do a robbery into stopping the robbery. Not to mention the above trope.
- Villain Protagonist: In "The Secret", it is made clear that Stefan is going too far with the case, downright aiming to kill everyone that may have killed a murdered boy named Johannes.
