‘The Northman’: The Release Date, Cast & More You Need To Know

Robert Eggers’ highly-anticipated new film is ‘The Northman.’ The movie has an all-star cast, including ‘Queen’s Gambit’ star Anya Taylor-Joy. Here’s what we know so far about ‘The Northman.’

Robert Eggers is ready to shake things up in 2022. His long-awaited third film, The Northman, is coming soon to theaters. In addition to directing, Eggers also co-wrote the screenplay with Icelandic poet and novelist Sjón.

Eggers’ previous films — The Witch and The Lighthouse — were critically acclaimed, with The Lighthouse being nominated for Best Cinematography at the 92nd Academy Awards. From the looks of The Northman, it is going to be epic in scale. The trailer was released in December 2021 and has over 15 million views. HollywoodLife has rounded up everything we know about The Northman.

‘The Northman’ Release Date

The official release date for the Focus Features film The Northman is April 22, 2022. Universal Pictures International will release the film internationally on the same date. The release date was pushed two weeks from its original April 8 debut.

Cast & Crew

Alexander Skarsgård stars in The Northman as Amleth, the Viking warrior prince who is on a mission to avenge his father’s death. Nicole Kidman plays Amleth’s mother, Queen Gudrún, while Ethan Hawke stars as King Aurvandill, Amleth’s deceased father.

Alexander admitted that he’s never worked harder on a project than The Northman. “He absolutely is [a perfectionist],” Alexander said about Eggers in an interview with Interview magazine. “But he’s also a genius. The Northman was the first time I worked on something that was so meticulously stylized, and you almost had to see it as a dance between the camera and the actors, because the camera was constantly moving, and so were we. If the timing was slightly off, then we’d have to go again. I’ve never been more tired than after those six months.”

He also noted that the movie features “long, intense fight scenes with 40 stuntmen and horses and 200 extras.” He added, “To shoot it all in one shot means you do this four-minute take, and then a horse deep in the background looks the wrong way and you have to do it all again. You’re so exhausted that you want to cry. You feel like you finally got all the choreography of the fight worked out, but then you have to go again and again and again. There’s always something in the background that wasn’t quite right. The flip side of that is when you finally get it, it feels like winning gold at the Olympics.”

Anya Taylor-Joy plays Olga, a young sorceress who aids Amleth. Anya is reuniting with Eggers after previously starring in his film The Witch. “Robert and I have now been friends longer than we have been co-workers,” Anya told Collider in 2020. “Getting the opportunity to create art together again is amazing. We have both grown so much apart and now we get to grow back together. I am so proud to be a part of this project. Every moment on set I am proud. I think we will be presenting to the world something it genuinely hasn’t seen before. I just feel so humbled I get to be a a part of it.”

Additional cast includes Claes Bang stars as Fjölnir, Amleth’s uncle; Björk as the Seeress, an elderly sorceress; Willem Dafoe as Heimir the Fool, the Viking jester; Kate Dickie as Halldora the Pict; Gustav Lindh as Thorir the Proud; Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson as He-Witch; Murray McArthur as Hákon Ironbeard; Ian Whyte as The Warrior King; Katie Pattinson as Shield-maiden; Ian Gerard Whyte as Thorvaldr Giant-Crusher; Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Thorfinnr; Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney as Melkorka; Olwen Fouéré as Ashildur Hofgythja; and Ralph Ineson as Captain Volodymyr.

Bill Skarsgård, Alexander’s younger brother, was originally supposed to play Thorir the Proud. However, he was forced to drop out of the film because of COVID-19 scheduling conflicts. “It’s been a scheduling nightmare during COVID,” Bill told Collider. “It is what it is. It’s a big shame. Eggers is one of the great filmmakers out there and working with my brother…I don’t want to talk about it, it’s going to make me burst into tears.”

‘The Northman’ Trivia

Filming was set to begin in March 2020, but it was delayed like most productions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production picked back up in August 2020 in Northern Ireland. Locations used during the production included Torr Head, Ballygally, and Malin. Filming ended in early December 2020.

The Northman reportedly had a budget of $60 million, according to MovieWeb. Eggers’ previous films The Witch and The Lighthouse had budgets of $4 million and $11 million, respectively.

What Is ‘The Northman’ About?

Specific plot details about The Northman are being kept under wraps. Focus Features did release this brief synopsis: “The Northman is an epic revenge thriller, that explores how far a Viking prince will go to seek justice for his murdered father.”