Willem Dafoe signs on to play Ryuk in Netflix's 'Death Note'

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Willem Dafoe has signed up to portray Ryuk in Netflix's Death Note, which premieres on the streaming site next year.

Death Note, based on the Japanese manga by the same name, tells the story of a high school student named Light Yagami who stumbles upon a notebook that allows him to kill anyone by writing their name in the book while picturing their face.

The notebook is brought to the human world by Ryuk, a Shinigami, or death spirit.

Light lets the power of the notebook go to his head as he wields the power of life or death, and attracts the attention of an eccentric detective named L who sets out to stop him.

Dafoe, who played a creepy bad guy, Green Goblin, in the Spider-Man franchise, joins Nat Wolff, Keith Stanfield and Margaret Qualley in the adaptation.