Overview
After filming two of his last four movies in Australia (Lion and Hotel Mumbai), and also stepping into a Dickens classic set in Victorian England (The Personal History of David Copperfield), Dev Patel is heading somewhere completely different. Jumping back to medieval times, he's delving into the fantasy genre, messing with Arthurian legend, and swinging around a mighty sword and a giant axe, all thanks to the dark and ominous The Green Knight.
Based on the 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the film casts Patel as Sir Gawain. Nephew to King Arthur (Sean Harris, Mission: Impossible — Fallout), he's a knight of the Round Table and fearsome warrior. The character has popped up in plenty of tales, but here, he's forced to confront the giant green-skinned titular figure in an eerie showdown.
As the poem explains, the Green Knight dares any other knight to strike him with an axe, but only if they'll then receive a return blow exactly one year and one day later. Based on the new, just-dropped trailer, this film adaptation looks to be sticking to that story rather closely — and the end result also looks more than a little moody, brooding and creepy.
Patel is in great company, too, with The Green Knight also starring Alicia Vikander (Earthquake Bird), Joel Edgerton (Boy Erased) and Barry Keoghan (Calm with Horses). Games of Thrones' Kate Dickie pops up as Guinevere, while her co-star Ralph Ineson — who is also known from the Harry Potter flicks, The Witch and the UK version of The Office — plays the Green Knight.
Originally set to release in 2020 until the pandemic hit, The Green Knight is the latest movie by impressive and always eclectic writer/director David Lowery. His filmography spans everything from Ain't Them Bodies Saints and Pete's Dragon to A Ghost Story and The Old Man and the Gun — and, based on both the initial teaser and the new sneak peek, The Green Knight won't be like anything on his resume so far.
Check out the new trailer below:
The Green Knight will release in the US on July 30, but it doesn't yet have a release date Down Under — we'll update you when it does.