Robert Eggers: "I never wanted to make a Viking movie. I thought Vikings were violent, hulking brutes with nothing of interest. My wife, on the other hand, had been fond of the Icelandic Sagas, the esteemed medieval stories of Viking lore, and she knew that I would love them."

"After a fated lunch with Alexander Skarsgård, the idea of making a Viking film became real. I knew (forgive the hubris) that I needed to try and make the Viking movie. The definitive Viking movie. With the help of the brilliant Icelandic novelist and poet, Sjón, we would embark on making the most historically accurate and grounded Viking film of all time. We would be working with archeologists and historians, trying to recreate the minutiae of the physical world, while also attempting to capture, without judgment, the inner world of the Viking mind: their beliefs, mythology, and ritual life. That would mean the supernatural would be as realistic as the ordinary in this film – for so it was for them. Recent television, film, and video game representations of Viking mythology and Old Norse culture are romanticized and made to look flashy and cool. The public perception of a Viking today looks more like a science-fiction-rock-star than an Old Norse priestess, farmer, warrior, or queen. With our fanatical research we would attempt to redefine this image with something as grounded and elemental as the landscapes that were so inspiring."

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About the Film
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Trailer 2: The Northman

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"Alex was totally fearless as he was bringing Amleth to life, and through hard work he became a Viking," says Robert Eggers.

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“I was already aboard on The Northman because it’s Robert, and I was more than ready to go on another adventure with him,” says Anya Taylor-Joy.

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"Amleth finds that darkness inside himself, and works with it to suit his own needs,” says Choreographer Marie Gabrielle Rotie.

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“What Robert has done with this is similar to Shakespeare’s strategy, taking the story and making it psychological, philosophical and existential like a Greek tragedy,” says Claes Bang who plays Amleth's villainous uncle Fjölnir.

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Ingvar Sigurdsson as The Sorcerer in director Robert Eggers’ Viking epic The Northman.

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Robert Eggers wrote Heimir specifically for Willem Dafoe, and the actor readily signed on to work with Eggers again, knowing he was in the hands of a master filmmaker.

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Robert Eggers: "I never wanted to make a Viking movie. I thought Vikings were violent, hulking brutes with nothing of interest. My wife, on the other hand, had been fond of the Icelandic Sagas, the esteemed medieval stories of Viking lore, and she knew that I would love them."

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Ethan Hawke was drawn to the project because of the script’s unique approach to language. “Most films don’t aspire to originality in language, it’s something you see more of in the theater,” says Hawke.

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“The Vikings believed that some people had a spirit animal living within them that would manifest itself on occasion in different ways,” says Skarsgård, of the research he wove into his performance.

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Ethan Hawke, who plays King Aurvandil, offers "I felt there was real poetry to the language in The Northman — it almost feels like Beowulf. On first read, I thought it aspired to be a kind of grand poem about a Viking king."

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Official Trailer: The Northman

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Ethan Hawke stars as King Aurvandil in director Robert Eggers’ Viking epic The Northman.

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“Since Amleth is a wolf-bear hybrid in a Viking legend, we wanted Alexander to be able to move smoothly while fighting with swords and axes but at the same time possess an imposing size and thickness," says trainer Magnus Lygdback.

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Alexander Skarsgård stars as Amleth and Anya Taylor-Joy as Olga in director Robert Eggers’ Viking epic The Northman.

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Both Robert Eggers and Alexander Skarsgård were in agreement that nobody else could play the complex Queen Gudrún but Nicole Kidman.

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Ethan Hawke stars as King Aurvandil in director Robert Eggers’ Viking epic The Northman.