There’s plenty to be struck by in the first trailer for The Green Knight. There’s indie studio A24 going all-out medieval fantasy. You have the promise of giants and a glimpse of some kind of tree-man. And then there’s Dev Patel, sure to set the internet ablaze in a way that was last achieved by Kumail Nanjiani’s epic Eternals transformation. With its blood-red typeface, eye-popping imagery, and puppet beheadings, watch the first teaser here.
Lowery’s film – following up his 2018 Robert Redford swansong The Old Man & The Gun – is a new adaptation of medieval folktale Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, a 14th Century poem that’s become a staple of literature studies courses. Tying into Arthurian legend (Patel’s Sir Gawain is King Arthur’s nephew), the film will send him on an epic quest to confront the Green Knight (very possibly the big tree bloke of the trailer) where he’ll meet all kinds of other adversaries and creatures along the way. Also among the cast for this one are Joel Edgerton, Barry Keoghan, Alicia Vikander, and Ralph Ineson.
It looks like another fascinating film from an unpindownable director (his last fantasy outing was Disney’s live-action Pete’s Dragon, and he also helmed eerie grief-drama A Ghost Story), and the sort of grown-up fantasy film you rarely see outside of Guillermo del Toro’s filmography. The Green Knight doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet, but expect to see it later in 2020.