The new trailer for The Green Knight (2021) dropped this week and … uh … well, check it out:
Just inject that directly into my eyeballs already.
A previous trailer had been released prior to The Green Knight’s original release date of May 29, 2020 but the film was held back indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will finally get a theatrical release on July 30 of this year. I wish it had been released on VOD earlier, but this new trailer makes a fantastic argument for seeing it on the big screen.
The Green Knight is an adaptation of the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an Arthurian tale about duty, adventure, and honesty. The director is David Lowery, who previously directed films like A Ghost Story (2017), The Old Man & the Gun (2018) and Pete’s Dragon (2016). He’s always been a solid visualist, but the scope of this film seems like a major step up and a major step in the right direction. The effects on the titular Green Knight—which was the climactic shot in the original trailer—are only the beginning of the awe-inspiring images we see in these two-and-a-half minutes.
Even though the movie looks like a feast for the eyes, I’m most excited about Dev Patel in the lead role. He’s proven himself able to anchor films in movies like Lion (2016) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008), but this could open up a whole new avenue of roles for him (for the past few years, he’s been my pick to replace Daniel Craig as James Bond). Patel is joined by a stellar supporting cast including Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sean Harris, and Barry Keoghan.
After a long year of spending most of my movie-watching time revisiting old favorites and comfort films, this trailer for The Green Knight has reinvigorated me with all the possibilities of new releases. July 30 can’t get here soon enough.
