WARNING: Spoilers for The Green Knight below.
In The Green Knight, protagonist Gawain heads off on a quest after his mother summons the supernatural knight–here's why she did. Originally meant to debut at SXSW 2020, the film was pulled by A24 off the release calendar at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. But, unlike a number of other indie films, The Green Knight wasn't sold to a streamer, with A24 having faith in its theatrical potential and the star power of leading man Dev Patel.
Patel's Gawain is besieged by challenges from natural, human, and supernatural forces on his journey, with peril and uncertainty dogging his every step. Every encounter he has with another person is meant to test him in some way, and the unforgiving brutality of the wilderness through which he travels threatens the boundaries of his ability to endure and persevere. His greatest test, however, comes in the form of the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson), the final phase of his quest. The Green Knight begins Gawain's journey, as well, showing up at Camelot to challenge Arthur's men to a potentially deadly game. When Gawain is the one to take up the challenge, it puts him on the trail to find the Green Knight a year after the knight's first appearance.
Though the Green Knight is entirely supernatural, the movie indicates it's Gawain's mother, played by Sarita Choudhury, who summons him and sets all the events of the film in motion. While layered with meaning, the reason for her testing Gawain is simple: she wants her son to grow up already. When the film opens, Gawain is hardly Knight of the Round Table material. He's idle, directionless, and utterly flippant, preferring to spend more time in the bed of his peasant-class consort, Essel, than training to be a knight or finding purpose. Yet Gawain isn't just any aspiring knight, but the nephew of King Arthur, the revered king of Camelot, and there are certain expectations that come with that–especially seeing as how Gawain will likely inherit the throne one day. It's clear Gawain won't grow up until he's forced to, however, and his mother gets tired of waiting on her son to mature and take his rightful place at the Round Table. Thus, she orchestrates the entire game with the Green Knight in order to force Gawain to face his destiny and to test whether or not he has the ability to be great.
It's important to know who Gawain's mother is in order to understand the harshness of her plan. Though she's never named in the film, Gawain's mother in the movie is Morgan le Fay, the legendary sorceress of Arthurian legend. Morgan le Fay is also the one who orchestrates the entire challenge in the original medieval poem, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," as well, and she serves the same purpose in the movie, albeit with a different reason motivating her. Historically, Morgan le Fay was not a woman known for her benevolence or soft heart. Often framed as an adversary to her half-brother, Arthur, Morgan was a powerful enchantress, dangerous, and with a sense of morality defined by her own terms. Though her intentions for setting the game into motion are good, her test for Gawain is harsh.
Still, it's hard to deny her unorthodox methods yield results. By summoning the Green Knight and presenting Gawain with a gauntlet of character tests, Morgan le Fay controls the action from behind the scenes. For once, Gawain is faced with a test he can't avoid and a duty he can't shirk. While he spends much of the movie failing and hardly living up to the definition of a hero, in the end, he passes the test and takes the first step toward evolving from a wastrel boy to a noble man. Thanks to his mother's meddling, Gawain finally comes into his own through the course of The Green Knight and Morgan le Fay's plans for her son, while extreme, pay off.