Millie Bobby Brown has fought demogorgons and Vecna and watched Godzilla and King Kong fight — so why not fight a dragon next?
On Saturday, Netflix released the first teaser for Stranger Things star Brown’s next film, an atypical fantasy tale titled A girl who sees the actress as, well, a damsel in distress.
The tease opens with a panicked Brown, 19, as Princess Elodie in full royal regalia as she hides from what can be assumed to be some sort of deadly creature. Soon she is stripped down to her inner layers, giving up her princess dress – and, symbolically it seems, her identity as primary and true royalty – as she fights for survival in a dark cave with danger around every corner.
According to the film’s synopsis, Elodie is recruited by the royal family — Queen Isabella (Robin Wright) and Prince Henry (Nick Robinson) — “as a sacrifice to pay off an old debt,” but is “thrown into a cave with a fire spewing from a dragon, relying solely on her smarts and the will to survive.”
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In the teaser, she shows off her smarts and survival instincts as she goes through endless challenges, including dodging dragon fire, a giant leap over a cave hole – and almost disappearing – and even a failed escape attempt. She successfully climbs over the spiked interior wall, only to learn that there is no way out of the cave she’s trapped in—the opening leads her to a crevice in the mountainside that’s nowhere near ground level.
In the voiceover, the kingdom’s ruler, Queen Isabella, explains to Brown’s Princess Elodie that she is just the latest in a “long line of women who helped build this kingdom” as they were trapped and fought to free themselves from the cave — and its menacing inhabitant.
Elodie sees proof of this as she runs her hand over a list of women’s names carved into the cave wall – the names of those who were captured and sacrificed before her.
“For generations our task has been to protect our people,” Queen Isabella describes Elodie’s task. “The price is expensive, but so is the reward.”
The prize, it seems, is not only freedom but also the hand of Prince Henry, who at one point in the teaser looks up at the sky as a shadow passes and panic sets in behind him.
The teaser trailer also hints at a more devastating end result for the wider kingdom, as fire engulfs the mountain where Elodie is trapped and rain falls from the sky — threatening the sprawling kingdom below.
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Millie Bobby Brown stars as Princess Elodie in Netflix’s ‘Damsel’.
Netflix
Along with Brown, Wright and Robinson, the film also stars Angela Bassett as Elodien’s stepmother, and Ray Winstone, Brooke Carter and Shoreh Aghdashloo.
Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 days later) directed a new fantasy film based on a script by Dan Mazeau, who also wrote the latest Fast and furious movie, Quick X. Spanish-born Fresnadillo was nominated for an Oscar back in 1997 for his short film Esposados.
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Fresnadillo told Netflix’s Tudum that the hit cast has come together to tell Elodie’s story, which is “a real survival experience” and turns the well-known princess and the dragon story “completely on its head.”
“It’s a thrilling adventure with a really dark twist that puts you on the edge of your seat,” said the Oscar-nominated director. “It’s fantasy, but grounded in reality.”
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Millie Bobby Brown attends the Glamor Women of the Year 2023 event.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
He also hailed the film’s lead cast as he said they were “so lucky” to have Brown as Elodie, who he called “the heart of the film”.
“She has that quality that only stars have, which is that you can’t take your eyes off her,” he said. “She has the ability in this film, in such a magical way, to take the audience on her journey and take them on the kind of dark, intense and exciting adventure that she has.”Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
A girl coming to Netflix in 2024.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education