With the Viking epic, The Northman, set to hit theaters later this month, we’re now getting a brand new, close-up look at all the main characters involved in the whole bloody affair.
The official The Northman Twitter account revealed a batch of new character posters Wednesday morning, that includes star Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, the vengeful Viking prince who goes on a bloody warpath to avenge his father’s death. Other character posters include Amleth’s parents, Nicole Kidman’s Queen Gudrún and Ethan Hawke’s King Aurvandil.
Anya Taylor-Joy also looks unsurprisingly stunning as Olga, and Willem Dafoe looks mischevious as Heimir the Fool. Electronic and pop music pioneer Björk also looks jaw-droppingly creepy with blackened eyes, pale skin, and an intimidating headdress as the mysterious Seeress.
The inspiration for the story, which was co-written by director Robert Eggers and Icelandic poet Sjón, is taken from the Scandinavian tale of Amleth, a character who would go on to inspire William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Sadly, it seems Eggers was forced to re-edit the film, his largest-budget picture yet, to make it more entertaining and accessible to audiences. This was at the insistence of New Regency Productions following poor test screening scores from audiences.
Regardless, it’s already being touted as perhaps the most historically-grounded Viking film ever made. In addition, a breathtaking one-minute single shot from the film, depicting a berserker raid, was released online Tuesday. The sweeping and epic clip makes us understand, more than ever, why Hawke compared the film to Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam war epic Apocolypse Now.
The Northman comes to theaters April 22.