Did Snow White and the Huntsman need to become a series? Probably not, but at least the next one sounds just crazy enough to pique my interest again.
It’s called The Huntsman: Winter’s War, and we finally know what it’s about.
This is the first I’m hearing about this, is it a sequel?
From the sound of it, it’s sort of a sequel-prequel hybrid, and it’s doing some serious acrobatics to make that story work.
It gets started long before the events of Snow White, and introduces the fact that Revenna (Charlize Theron’s character from the first one) has a sister named Freya (played by Emily Blunt!).
For some reason or another, Freya eventually left their family to start her own kingdom, where she raised an army of elite warriors called… huntsmen.
Wait, for real? Eric the Hunstman is now some sort of supernatural warrior?
Hence the acrobatics. The original film more or less portrayed the Huntsman as a pretty normal guy who lost his wife, and just happened to be pretty great at navigating the forests.
Winter’s War is overhauling his backstory, revealing that he was originally trained as part of Freya’s army, only to break her one rule: never fall in love.
Seriously?
Seriously. Eric ends up falling in love with another of Freya’s huntsmen, a woman named Sara. Presumably, Sara is also the wife that died, thus motivating Eric’s role in Snow White.
Or, maybe not, because at least a chunk of the film takes place after the original. Plus, she’s played by Jessica Chastain, so she’s probably a pretty major character.
So how does this Freya character fit into things?
When the story catches up the Snow White and the Huntsmen, Freya has discovered that her sister is dead. She orders her hunstmen to retrieve Revenna’s Magic Mirror, and learns that Revenna can be resurrected using it. Presumably that goes well, because Charlize Theron is also in this movie.
And of course, the only people who can stop these reunited evil sisters are Eric and Sara, the former huntsmen. Which means, Chris Hemsworth will be playing both a younger and an older version of his character in the original movie.
I can barely even at this point.
That’s OK, just look at some pretty posters.
The Huntsman: Winter’s War is out on April 22, 2016.
