Robert Eggers has made two of the most unique movies in recent years in 2015’s folkloric The Witch and 2019’s demented black-and-white comedy The Lighthouse. The Northman looks like another singular (and remarkable) addition to his filmography.
The historical epic stars shredded Alexander Skarsgård (fresh off his recurring role on Succession) as a “young Viking prince on his quest to avenge his father’s murder,” as well as Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy, Björk, Ralph Ineson, Ethan Hawke, Claes Bang, and Willem Dafoe. A Viking movie with Björk? This is my Christmas present.
“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,” Eggers told Collider about The Northman. “There’s many locations in the film, so we were constantly going on scouts to find places or reassess places that we have found and we’re building sets there. 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 of the films.”
The Northman is a big step up from the $4 million budget of The Witch, but based on the incredible trailer above, Eggers was up to the challenge. It opens April 22, 2022.
