“The Northman” Trailer Reveals Robert Eggers’ New Viking Epic

Director Robert Eggers has made himself into one of the most unpredictable, fiercely singular filmmakers working today. His first two features, The Witch and The Lighthouse, were ferociously unflinching portrayals of madness and the occult, the former set in the wilds of 17th century New England, the second on a blasted spit of land off the New England coast in 19th century New England. His latest, The Northman, will be Eggers biggest, boldest swing yet, and the first trailer, just been released by Focus Features, makes this plain. Both The Witch and The Lighthouse had small, nimble casts and were isolated to very few locations. The Northman, by contrast, boasts the biggest cast of Eggers career and centers on the lengths a Viking prince will go to avenge his father.

The breakout star from Eggers’s The Witch, Anya-Taylor Joy, returns for The Northman, while Willem Dafoe, one of The Lighthouse‘s stars, plays Helmir the Fool in the new film. The film’s star is Alexander Skarsgård, who plays Amleth, the Viking prince who is only a boy when he watches his father, King Horwendil (Ethan Hawke) get murdered by an invader. Eggers co-wrote the film with Icelandic novelist and poet Sjón. As Eggers told IndieWire, this was the first film of his where the scale was so big he couldn’t be intimately aware of every single prop. “The scale is so huge and there are so many more locations and things that I couldn’t do everything or know every prop myself. That’s been a challenge with the new movie. We’re designing all these worlds, building these villages, we’re making thousands of costumes and props, training the horses the things they’ll need to do, designing the shots for the films. But in this movie, there is rarely a scene that isn’t on a boat or doesn’t have a lot of extras.”

The rest of the cast is insane. Joining Joy, Dafoe, and Skarsgård are Nicole Kidman as Queen Gudrun, Skarsgård’s character’s mother, Björk as the Seeress, Claes Bang as Fjölnir, Murray McArthur as Hákon Iron-Beard, Kate Dickie as Halldora the Pict, and the always welcome Ralph Ineson. The Northman marks Björk’s first role since she wowed the film world with her performance in Lars von Trier’s 2000 film Dancer in the Dark.

Check out the trailer below. The Northman hits theaters on April 22, 2022:

Featured image: Alexander Skarsgård stars as Amleth in director Robert Eggers’ Viking epic THE NORTHMAN, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Aiden Monaghan / © 2021 Focus Features, LLC