The first trailer for Robert Eggers' The Northman is here – and it teases a brutal Viking revenge tale.
In the clip, which you can watch above, young prince Amleth swears to avenge his father’s death, save his mother, and kill his father's murderer. The all-star cast features Stellan Skarsgård as the older version of Amleth, Nicole Kidman as his mother, Ethan Hawke as his father, and Claes Bang as the killer.
"Simply put, it’s Viking Hamlet," Eggers, who also penned the screenplay with co-writer Sjón, told Total Film of The Northman in the latest issue of the magazine, featuring Black Adam on the cover. "The trope of wanting to take time in your revenge to torment the person is honoured here. But he's not, like Shakespeare's Hamlet, deliberating about whether or not violence is the answer. Not at all."
Eggers previously helmed The Lighthouse and The Witch, and this film sees the director reunite with the former's Willem Dafoe, and the latter's Anya Taylor-Joy, Kate Dickie, and Ralph Ineson. Gustav Lindh and Björk also make up the cast.
"There are certainly some sequences that you can see that I cut my teeth on horror films," Eggers added to Total Film. "But you're not going to have a Viking saga without sword fights and a Viking raid and all that kind of stuff."
From the trailer alone, it's clear that this film has all the hallmarks of an Eggers film – harsh landscapes, striking visuals, and intense performances.
The Northman releases in theaters April 22, 2022. Until then, check out our guide to all the next few months' major upcoming movie release dates to get planning those theater trips.
