A24 and A Ghost Story’s David Lowery have been relatively quiet about the filmmaker’s latest project, but with its May 29 release on the horizon, the distributor has unveiled the first trailer for The Green Knight and it looks—for lack of a better phrase—sick as fuck. Loosely based on the 14th century Arthurian legend Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, the film follows King Arthur’s reckless nephew, Sir Gawain (Dev Patel), as he resolves to confront the eponymous Green Knight—an imposing, enigmatic figure with green(ish) skin played by The Witch’s Ralph Ineson.
That confrontation isn’t quite the focal point of this trailer, which does an effective job of introducing us to the film’s tone and aesthetic—it’s a Middle Ages drama, certainly, but it leans into the dark fantasy of it all, and there’s an uncanny, slightly gnarly vibe to the whole thing. Arthurian legend with a dash of folk horror, maybe (hopefully?), sort of reminiscent of Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth and (with the wood paintings and natural settings) Midsommar. Whatever this ends up being, we’re definitely into the vibe that trailer is pushing.
Watch it below.
Here’s an official synopsis:
An epic fantasy adventure based on the timeless Arthurian legend, The Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain (Dev Patel), King Arthur’s reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confront the eponymous Green Knight, a gigantic emerald-skinned stranger and tester of men. Gawain contends with ghosts, giants, thieves, and schemers in what becomes a deeper journey to define his character and prove his worth in the eyes of his family and kingdom by facing the ultimate challenger. From visionary filmmaker David Lowery comes a fresh and bold spin on a classic tale from the knights of the round table.
The Green Knight also stars Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Barry Keoghan, Sean Harris (as King Arthur), Kate Dickie (The Witch reunion!), Sarita Choudhury, and Erin Kellyman.
90 Comments
Fuck yeah a British Indian playing an Arthurian knight!Also, fuck yeah an adaptation of medieval English legend that takes itself and its setting seriously, rather than the last couple of Arthurian and Robin Hood movies that tried to be modern and extreme and rastafied by about 10%, y’know, for the kids. Especially one that goes the creepy mystical route like John Boorman’s Excalibur, otherwise known as literally the only good King Arthur movie.
I still remember that awful Sean Connery version from the early 80s.
Awful?!
We are NOT friends!
Lol. I LOVED that movie as a kid. Saw it a couple years ago and BLEH!
Sword of the Valiant. There was admittedly an abundance of green glitter.Miles O’Keefe’s pageboy hair was also astounding.
First Knight? Yes it’s fucking woeful but I think it’s early 90s.
1995. And it’s unwatchable.
Julia Ormond is in it I believe and yes, still unwatchable.
Yeah I dunno. Julia Ormond. A little goes a long way if you catch my drift.
Is that the one with Richard Gere in it too and like the weirdest kiss ever put to film?
Sword of the Valiant, 1984. Connery is dressed up like a christmas decoration in it.
Sorry to interrupt the ranting but the film referred to is Sword Of The Valiant, also known as Gawain And The Green Knight, a 1984 Cannon production with Miles O’Keeffe and Connery, directed by now-forgotten British director Stephen Weeks. Not great, but it is a bigger-budgeted version of a film Weeks originally made in 1973. And as another weird tie-in to David Lowery, Weeks in 1974 also made a film called Ghost Story.
Interrupt away, I had no idea that movie existed and I’m kinda curious to see it now. Has to be better than First Kinght anyway.
But are any of the above movies referenced better than Black Night starring Sir Martin Lawrence? that is the true test of gauging a movie set in medieval times
All of them, every single damn one of them. I went to a press show of Black Knight. Out of an audience of thirty-odd I was later told there were only three by the time the end credits rolled. I bailed after about an hour.
a movie set in Medieval TimesFTFY
Also one of the few films to feature Ronald Lacey (Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark) besides Raiders of the Lost Ark. He is… equally memorable in it.
No, it was a crappy retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight called “Sword of the Valiant” from 1984. This turd.
Thank you, I was wondering if someone else had seen “Valiant” or if I just had a false memory of this scene.I have to say, this scene holds up better than I even remembered. For the 80’s, and given Cannon’s penchant for using limited budgets (this is what we call “understatement, kids), the work and puppetry they did on the head wasn’t really that bad. The eyes may not blink right and the mouth doesn’t fully close, but i’ll take this over most of the cgi work I’ve seen.Or, if we’re comparing it to other 80’s work: it’s far less embarrassing than a lot of of “Willow” from four years later.
I love scenes like that one because they go through the motions of telling a story without actually telling a story. Dude’s head gets cut off, and it starts talking, all within the first thirty seconds of the scene. Then there’s a full minute of his body walking over and reattaching his head before the next thing happens. The music and editing make it seem like the scene is supposed to be tense, but the tension evaporated once the head started talking.
It rolled about 20 yards and left no blood trail, and the whole group was just staring instead of losing their minds.
He-Man cut Sean Connery’s head off!
How did this not win an Oscar for makeup and hair?
Great SPFX all around.
Language tip: you don’t need to say “awful,” when you say “Sean Connery,” the “awful” is implied.
Spoken as someone who’s either never seen Zardoz or has seen it.
Surely you don’t mean “Robin and Marian” from ‘76 ? Because Richard Lester directing Connery,Richard Harris,Nicol Williamson,Denholm Elliot,Ian Holm. Audrey Hepburn and Robert Fucking Shaw is not awful.
Some nutcases on here have never seen Sword of the Valiant.I pity/envy them.
Connery is clearly having a ball, but everything else about that movie is hot, wet garbage.
People are saying First Knight, but Sean Connery was also in Sword of the Valiant, the laughably bad Green Knight adaptation from 1984, which makes First Knight look so much better.
I could definitely go for a mystical, grimdark King Arthur franchise with this as the first film.
If this is the spiritual successor to EXCALIBUR then I am all-in, because that is the movie that all Arthurian films should aspire to be compared against. It’s sad that the second-best representation of the Arthurian era is a MONTY PYTHON movie.
“an adaptation of medieval English legend that takes itself and its setting seriously”If it took its setting seriously, Gawain wouldn’t be played by an Indian.
I very much got the sense from this trailer that the filmmakers had been waiting for someone to follow up on Boorman’s ‘Excalibur’ legacy, and finally pulled a Thanos and said, “Fine, I’ll do it myself.”
Fuck yeah a British Indian playing an Arthurian knight!This Twitter account is useful for folks who think medieval Europe was white.
I once won a writing contest trying to summarize the meaning of “Gawain and The Green Knight” in a single sentence. It was a bit of a stretch, and I think I only won because the other entries were perhaps few in number, but it was the only contest of that type I have ever entered, let alone won (I’m a firm believer in the George Costanza philosophy of leaving on a high note, and so will never enter another writing contest while I live, there are instructions to be left with my family after my death to enter my writing posthumously at every opportunity) so I have great affection for this story. But good lord is it weird as hell, the whole thing ends up revolving around Gawain being seduced by this knight and his wife, while also having his death looming over his head the whole time, it’s very strange, and evocative and I’m quite glad they’re making another odd Arthurian movie about it (the one good thing about that Guy Ritchie King Arthur film was it realized those stories are bugfuck crazy much of the time, and so he pumped a ton of crazy imagery into it. Almost none of it had anything to do with the Arthur mythos, but he gets points for creativity.) since many people have just reduced the Arthurian cycle to a bunch of knights stabbing fools and bled it of all mystery and magic. We could use another Excalibur.
I was watching this and I literally thought to myself: “Oh, he’s going full Boorman on this!”
What do you mean by “rastafied?” Genuine question. I looked it up and google was confused too.
I am super happy Dev is in this film. He looks fantastic as always, I love this story. The clothing looks amazing – sign me up!
This looks excellent, and after I saw “Old Man and the Gun”, I’ll watch anything Lowery had a hand in making.
Old Man and the Gun was pretty good, but A Ghost Story was the Lowery movie that made me a fan.
God I hated this book in middle school. Movie looks fun though.
In before a ton of comments say “I can’t wait for alt-right to get mad about the casting!!!” Because I certainly can wait for that, and because it’s juvenile to get pleasure out of your certainty that stupid people will say stupid things.
is martin lawrence going to be in this talking about how medieval people don’t wash their ass?
he already did. That’s how he got banned for life from Fort Knight Live.
In my head. As with all films.
I. AM. IN.
I was wondering what I was feeling.
Oh, so that is what it would look like if Terrence Malick were making medieval fantasy stories.
I’m in.
Valhalla Rising?
Kate Dickie (The Witch reunion!)
Am I missing something? Reunion with who?
Kate and Ralph played Anya Taylor-Joy’s parents in The Witch iirc.
Oh, I didn’t see Ralph’s name way at the beginning. Thanks!
With creepy, atmospheric supernatural historical fiction?
Finchy, he threw a kettle over a pub once.
Hopefully she stays away from any crows.
I’m not sure I would refer to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a legend. It’s a written work of literature, a long poem, actually, generally referred to as a romance. (Although it does feature legendary characters.)
Whew, this is extremely my jam.
BEING WITH U GIRLIS LIKE BEING LOWHEY HEY HEY LIKE BEING STONEDAlso, A Ghost Story was not good. It was the kind of movie made by someone who has never worked retail.
That’s actual gibberish.
Someone’s not up on their 90s alternative classics
I was more talking about the part after that.
I’m liking the Cracker reference, not the slam on “A Ghost Story”, which I’ve never seen & have no opinion about.
Carry on.
This better have all the weird bisexual makeouts of the original or I’m not interested.
the opening train-like hum is right out of David Lynch’s Rabbits
That was my first thought too. It’s straight-up David Lynch ambiance.
Is there any other studio as synonymous with quality as A24? Because I can’t think of one.
Yes, please.
His unbelievable ability to make movies AND tour state fairs as both Cracker and Camper van Beethoven is a testament to his vision, stamina, and love for fried foods.
Being old and confused and shit, I thought “Wow, the dude from Cracker is doing medieval soundtracks now?!”
The Green Knight looks like Old Greg
You had me at Alicia Vikander.
I’m pretty excited that she’s making another Tomb Raider movie. I lost interest in the last one when it turned into a recap of the game with slightly better effects, but the first act was a ton of fun.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was always my favorite non Arthur story in canon and I am ready for this.
Same here! I don’t know if I necessarily wanted a grim retelling (I think it has an archly comedic undertone honestly), but I will take it!
Right? I wonder how much they’ll keep the same, how much they’ll change.
Have Jude Law make a cameo in a nice suit and I am in!
This is 160% my shit and I am all for it.
Gawain and the Green Knight is one of my favorites! This is rad.
Surprised more hasn’t been made of the Arthurian tales. Lots of great stories outside the central story
Looks like an indie film shot on DSLRs.
Milky mid-tones? Check
Under-lit and de-saturated to look more “cinematic”? Check
I guess the cinematography hipsters have arrived.
I don’t even own a cinematograph.
It’s just a look that I’m noticing more and more and hate…at some point people started mistaking “underexposed” for “pro”.
Loosely based on the 14th century Arthurian legend Sir Gawain And The Green Knight. “Loosely”. 10 to 1 that the Green Knight knocks out Gawain and when he wakes up, nobody remembers the Beatles.
I am very in for this, I like the grotesque, surreal feel to it.
Looks like an ordeal in the House of Black and White for Sir Gawain to find out if he is more than a nobody.
I predict this film will be passed over entirely by general film going audiences and will bomb completely. That trailer was obscuring and dreary yet signalling weird arty stuff at the same time.. At the best of times, and with the most accessible films, fantasy and medieval films get critically panned and flop. Tolkien, Potter, and GoT may romance the public imagination, but that hasn’t lead to any generalized enthusiasm for those kinds of stories let alone existentially angsty versions of fantasy draped in heavy artistry. Hopefully the film is good, but it will still land in the the dust bin with the rest of the fantasy. Narnia and Warcraft couldn’t even keep themselves afloat and those are big beloved properties. This film doesn’t stand a chance.