Director Robert Eggers is known for his atmospheric, thrilling films, such as The Witch and The Lighthouse. With his next feature The Northman, viewers will be once again immersed in the dark tones and gray skies to watch a Viking seek vengeance. The new film stars Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Claes Bang and more.
In a recent interview with EW Eggers says The Northman is “by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done and by far the most ambitious.” The story follows Amleth (Skarsgård), who after witnessing the murder of his father, King Aurvandil (Hawke), by his uncle, Fjolnir (Bang) goes on the run. Leaving behind his trapped mother, Queen Gudrun (Kidman) whom he vows to return for and exact revenge on his uncle.
“It’s basically the story of Hamlet or The Lion King, which was originally an old Norse story where the Hamlet character was called Amleth. We’ve told it in our own way,” Eggers says. “It is a Viking saga with magic and swords and mysticism and all the stuff that you’d want from that.”
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The writer-director explains that, like The Witch, his new film is meant to explore the dark mythology of Vikings. “Hocus Pocus had kind of nailed the last nail in the coffin of witches being so scary,” Eggers said. “With The Witch, I wanted to say, ‘Actually, let me show you what witches are for real.'” The Northman will explore the same type of backstory of Vikings. “People think that they know Vikings. They think of the Kirk Douglas Viking movie [1958’s The Vikings]. They think cartoon guys with horn helmets or certain TV shows where Vikings dress like science-fiction rock stars. This is something very different.”
Taylor-Joy who brought Egger‘s Witch to life once again joined him for this film. But all that Eggers will say about her character is that, “Anya is a good witch in art and in life.” However, the director has a lot to say about Skarsgård who he says is colossal in The Northman.
“Alex totally transformed his body. He’s bigger than he is in Tarzan, and that’s no small feat. He completely became this character. When he first had to do that kind berserker transformation scene everything fell into place. To my taste and understanding, he is like a saga hero. There are moments where his rage is as powerful as anything I can think of in cinema. I’m not trying to toot my horn, but it’s intense. I feel ridiculous saying something like that, but it is intense.”
The Northman is scheduled to open in theaters next year on April 22, 2022. You can check out the trailer, poster and more photos below. As always, be sure to follow ScaryNerd for all things horror, sci-fi and more. You can find the full interview with Robert Eggers here.
