New Trailer for ‘The Northman’

Alexander Skarsgård Swears Brutal Vengeance in the New Trailer For ‘The Northman’

Co-writer/director Robert Eggers’ latest is a no-holds-barred Viking saga.

If you thought the ‘Thor’ movies or the small screen ‘Vikings’ series were the only place to see Norse stories brought to life, ‘The Witch’ and ‘The Lighthouse’ director Robert Eggers’ latest would like to have a word. Or, more likely, scream in your face while dressed in animal skins before threatening you with an axe.

‘The Northman’ is the new movie from Eggers, and it stars Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, who at young age (played early on by Oscar Novak) sees his father murdered by his uncle, who carries his mother off and nearly succeeds in killing Amleth himself.

Yet the young warrior manages to escape and ends up living with a group of brutal Vikings. When he learns that he’ll have an opportunity to wreak vengeance on his uncle, he goes all-in on the mission.

Eggers has rounded up quite the cast for this one, with Ethan Hawke playing Amleth’s father, King Aurvandil War-Raven, who suffers a Boromir-like fate when his brother, Fjölnir the Brotherless, played by Denmark’s Claes Bang, decides to take a stab (and a slice) at the throne.

And with the throne also comes Amleth’s mother, Queen Gudrún, played by Nicole Kidman. And let’s not forget Eggers’ ‘Lighthouse’ star, Willem Dafoe, who here shows up as court jester/soothsayer Heimir the Fool, who helps guide Amleth on his path in more ways than one.

Dafoe isn’t the only Eggers veteran reuniting with the director – there’s also ‘The Witch’s Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays Olga of the Birch Forest, who becomes important to Amleth. And finally, there’s Icelandic music legend Björk, here playing a Seeress who dresses in weird clothing. Or, for her, a typical Wednesday.

If the idea of a prince whose father is murdered and mother married by his uncle sounds familiar, that might be because Eggers and Icelandic author Sjón draw from the same Danish legends that inspired Shakespeare to write ‘Hamlet’. Yet even Shakespearian scholars would agree that the tale of the troubled Dane can’t match ‘The Northman’ for sheer brutality and gore.

From the looks of this trailer, Eggers has truly unleashed himself, upping the scale and scope of the story from his previous movies while never losing the careful curation of characters and allowing performances to breathe.

The new promo also shows off the staggering visuals of the movie, which switches between dark and moody and vibrant, fiery scenes without ever feeling like they clash. Violence is at the heart of the story here, but so too is mythology, Eggers seemingly unafraid to dive deep into religious battles and mystical imagery.

With luck, this will be something quite different from many of Skarsgård’s previous roles, and from what we can see here, he’s thrown himself into the part with gusto.

‘The Northman’ promises to be unlike most movies you’ll see this year, but it won’t be for the faint of heart.

If you want more from the director and others who worked on the film, you’ll also be glad to hear there’s an official podcast about it, which you can find here.

‘The Northman’ will open in theaters on April 22nd.