Robert Eggers' upcoming Viking action-drama, The Northman is set to be his biggest film yet. The visionary director won acclaim for his previous two films, 2015's The Witch and 2019's The Lighthouse. Despite their critical acclaim, neither film was a huge box-office success. The Northman, however, has the power to pull audiences into theatres and could therefore propel Robert Eggers into the mainstream consciousness.
The Northman is set to chronicle the story of Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård), a Viking prince seeking revenge for the murder of his father. The film is said to be inspired by Icelandic revenge sagas and was co-written by Eggers and Sjón, the Icelandic poet and novelist. Arriving in April 2022, The Northman was filmed back in 2019 in locations throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The Witch and The Lighthouse were both movies released by indie powerhouse A24, The Northman comes from Focus Features and has a budget of approximately $60 million, a considerably larger budget than either of Eggers' two previous outings. This larger budget promises to help Eggers' new movie to reach a bigger audience than he did with his previous films as it has enabled Eggers to bring an all-star cast on board for The Northman. The cast includes Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson, and Björk, among others. The popularity of the ensemble will no doubt lure audiences into theatres, however, so will the promise of action-set pieces that the larger budget allows. By operating in the universally accessible action genre, the film is likely to be Eggers' biggest box-office success to date.
In comparison to Eggers' previous films, the cast for The Northman is huge. The Lighthouse starred Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, and due to the film's claustrophobic nature, they were the only main actors. Furthermore, whilst Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Ineson are returning to work with Eggers after their appearances in The Witch, both their stocks have risen dramatically since the 2015 horror film. Anya Taylor-Joy enjoyed an especially fruitful 2020 after the success of The Queen's Gambit and Emma alongside her recurring role in Peaky Blinders. The inclusion of Taylor-Joy, among other well-known stars, adds an extra element of promotional power before The Northman's release. In an interview (via Collider), Taylor-Joy promised that Eggers film "will be presenting the world with something like it genuinely hasn't seen before." As promotion heats up in the run-in for the film's proposed April 22 release date, the influence of the ensemble will prove pivotal in determining The Northman's box-office numbers.
Another boon to Robert Eggers' latest movie is that The Northman is set in tenth-century Iceland, a more well-known and popular time period than those represented in The Witch and The Lighthouse. The popularity of Viking-centric stories has been borne out by the success of the TV series Vikings and The Last Kingdom. Part of the reason these shows appeal to a wide audience is the way they integrate action into their narratives. The Northman's latest trailer teased just that it included numerous action scenes ranging from small skirmishes to larger battles, which will help to play into this strength of the genre. Alexander Skarsgård spoke of the size of the fight scenes in an interview (via IndieWire), claiming that they included "40 stuntmen and horses and 200 extras". Eggers' meticulous eye for detail and realism, combined with the magnitude of the production resulted in "physically and mentally the most difficult job" Skarsgård has had to date. While the action scenes will be a big draw for audiences alone, the revenge-focused narrative can also help the film to perform well. The surface simplicity of the story makes it an easier sell to an audience in contrast to The Witch and The Lighthouse, both of which were more subtle and complex horror films. If previews of The Northman receive a similar critical reception to The Lighthouse and The Witch, it will only add to the expectation leading up to the film and lead to a bigger draw as wider audiences will be able to appreciate the work of Eggers and his crew when The Northman on the big screen.