The Woman King Trailer Unveils A Stunning Epic Based On A Startling True Story
By Emily Bell
Now, if the name Gina Prince-Bythewood sounds familiar, it's because her last film was Netflix's pseudo superhero streaming hit "The Old Guard." The director is no doubt looking to bolster the big budget cred she earned from that flick with "The Woman King," and if the new film's action-packed trailer is any indication, Prince-Bythewood has seriously upped her set-piece game, with Davis and her fearsome crew of femmes dashing into sword and spear swinging action virtually every other frame.
This go around, however, the action is based not on the pages of a graphic novel series, but actual African history as the fearsome, all-female fighting force Davis leads in "The Woman King" actually existed. According to Smithsonian records, they were called the Dahomey Amazons, and protected the West African Kingdom of Dahomey, known to the modern world as the Republic of Benin. In the film, Davis portrays Nanisca, the General of the army in question. As glimpsed in the trailer, the actor has delivered a performance as ferocious as it is soulful, leading her troops in a brutal battle against would-be occupying armies from France, and doing so alongside the familiar faces of Lashana Lynch, John Boyega, and recent "The Batman" star Jayme Lawson (she played Bella Reál in that film).
If you like what you see, "The Woman King" is slated to hit theaters on September 16, 2022. And with what's just been teased in the trailer, that wait now seems agonizingly long.
