Swords, sorcery and lots of bullet time: Cursed is Netflix’s new take on the Arthurian legend, focusing on Nimue, aka the Lady of the Lake.
Netflix is going medieval. First we had The Witcher, then The Letter for the King, and most recently a new season of The Last Kingdom. And it’s not done. The service has just announced a release date for Cursed, its take on the Arthurian legend, complete with a trailer. Check it out:
13 Reasons Why star Katherine Langford is…Nimue, aka the Lady of the Lake. Devon Terrell is…the boy who will be come King Arthur. Vikings star Gustaf Skarsgård is…Merlin. We can see them all in action on July 17.
Cursed is based on a graphic novel of the same name written by Frank Miller — the guy behind comic classics like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300 — and illustrated by Tom Wheeler. It takes a more YA approach to the very old, often retold story of King Arthur. This one focuses on Nimue, who will go to become the Lady of the Lake. In most versions of the story, the Lady is the one to gift King Arthur with the legendary sword Excalibur. In others, she’s romantically involved with Merlin. Each version is a little different; we’ll see what spin Cursed puts on it.
Netflix’s describes Nimue’s journey thusly:
"After her mother’s death, she finds an unexpected partner in Arthur, a humble mercenary, in a quest to find Merlin and deliver an ancient sword. Over the course of her journey, Nimue will become a symbol of courage and rebellion against the terrifying Red Paladins, and their complicit King Uther. Cursed is a coming-of-age story whose themes are familiar to our own time: the obliteration of the natural world, religious terror, senseless war, and finding the courage to lead in the face of the impossible."
In addition to being the YA version of the Arthurian legend, Cursed also looks be the super-hip X-treme version, or at least that’s the feeling I get from all the slow-mo bullet time shots in the trailer. It kind of reminds of Guy Ritchie’s disastrously unsuccessful 2017 movie King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, which bombed hard both critically and at the box office. Let’s hope Cursed fares better.
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