If you’ve been waiting for a fascinating new version of the Arthurian legend… I’m sorry to report that this is most likely not it. MGM+ has released a trailer for The Winter King, which is based on Bernard Cornwell’s Warlord Chronicles, and it looks unfortunately like a low-budget, Game of Thrones-ified mess.
Also, it stars Iain De Caestecker—who was so good as Fitz on Agents of SHIELD—as an Arthur who just really looks like he’s having a very bad time.
The thing is, when your trailer is mostly made up of either very close-up shots or wide shots of men on horseback—with a few spears chucked for good measure—it’s going to look cheap. And this does. There is also some fire (cue mutterings about the gods), but for the most part this entire thing is so dark and muddy that I had to turn the brightness up all the way on my screen to see anything.
And then what I saw was not good. Something something vengeance! Something something change the way of things! A sex scene that tells us nothing about the story, but makes sure to let us know this Arthur fucks! And generally just a bunch of clips that tell the viewer very little.
Here’s the description, which also tells us nothing:
Epic Arthurian tale based on book trilogy by Bernard Cornwell (The Winter King, Enemy of God, Excalibur). A powerful warrior named Arthur Pendragon existed and ruled his people in the 6th century. Long before Britain was united, the land was a collection of warring factions and tribes. Arthur ruled during a critical time in the shaping of a nation and over centuries became the stuff of legend and myth.
If we’re going to go super low-budget with Arthur, can it at least be in a Merlin kind of direction? Don’t we expect some fun from the production company Bad Wolf?
The Winter King also stars Eddie Marsan (!) as King Uther; Nathaniel Martello-White as Merlin; Valene Kane as Morgan; and Jordan Alexandra as Guinevere. Kate Brooke (A Discovery of Witches) and Ed Whitmore (Manhunt) adapted the books; Otto Bathurst (Peaky Blinders) is the series’ lead director.
The fun starts August 20th on MGM+.
