The latest trailer for Robert Eggers' The Northman touts rave reviews for the film, and it shows Alexander Skarsgård battling over an active volcano.
Alexander Skarsgard's vengeful sword fights atop an erupting volcano in the latest trailer for The Northman. Scandinavian folklore is the inspiration for Robert Eggers' follow-up to the acclaimed 2019 drama The Lighthouse. It stars Skarsgård as a young prince on a lifelong quest for revenge after the murder of his father and the capture of his mother.
The story told in The Northman must indeed strike a familiar chord as it is based on the same folk tale that inspired Shakespeare's immortal Hamlet. But Eggers' stance on this particular myth promises to be less Shakespeare and more Conan the Barbarian. In addition to Skarsgård, the film stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Claes Pang and Bjork.
Previous trailers for The Northman have already made it clear that the movie is a brutal and epic experience filled with massive battle scenes and more than a little bit of weirdness. But the latest trailer takes things to a higher level, sparking a real sword fight atop an erupting volcano, while also touting many of the rave reviews for the film. Watch the clip in the space below:
"An absolute beast of a movie." 🗡Watch the new trailer for #TheNorthman, and see it only in theaters April 22. Tickets now on sale. pic.twitter.com/THnrw2tb1z— The Northman (@TheNorthmanFilm) April 13, 2022
Given the brutal carnage previewed in the clip above, it's no surprise that Skarsgård admitted to being "exhausted" while shooting The Northman. Skarsgård star Taylor Joy, for her part, claimed that she enjoyed spending her days in the movie cruising around in the cold and mud to see the relentless Eggers. Much of that annoyance was, of course, in the service of crafting brutally realistic battle scenes worthy of the big-screen format. But Eggers is interested in something more than strict realism, as there is also a strong element of mysticism in his depiction of the distant past. It should come as no surprise to see Eggers mix spirituality and realism in The Northman, as he did the same trick in his debut film The Witch. But according to Eggers himself, he hasn't fully revealed what he was aiming for in his first popular movie, recently claiming that he can't presently even bring himself to see the movie.
It remains to be seen how Eggers will feel about his latest movie, The Northman after he took a few years to chew on it. However, critics place the film very high, which currently has a rating of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Given the film's reported budget of $90 million, Focus Features certainly hopes audiences will be as excited about it as the critics. Northman's latest trailer is sure to tease an epic movie with plenty of potentially crowd-pleasing elements, including the always-thrilling scene of two people engaging in a sword fight atop an erupting volcano. But Eggers' distinctive eccentricity still manages to make a lot of turns for the general audience.