The Last Kingdom Trailer
Amintor Robillard
For four seasons Netflix has taken viewers on a sensational journey. However, the series will come to an end after season five. Despite the decision to end the show after five seasons, Netflix had announced a feature film, Seven Kings Must Die.
While production for The Last Kingdom Season 5 concluded in June 2021, the cast and crew returned to Hungary in 2022 to begin production on the film follow-up. Newsweek has all the information about Season 5.
Several actors from the fourth installment of the Netflix series returned for season 5, including Alexander Dreymon, who plays Uhtred of Bebbanburg, one of the lead roles. He is also joined by Eliza Butterworth, who takes on the persona of Aelswith.
The trailer begins by reflecting on peace between Saxon and Dane in England, before shifting to King Edward's ambition to unite the Saxon Kingdoms. It is made clear in the clip that Uhtred is destined to do something great. What is that? You might ask. The formidable warrior must protect Edward's illegitimate son, the future King of England, Aethelstan.
"Years have passed since the events of the last season, and King Edward is still forging ahead with his ambitions to unite the Saxon Kingdoms to [fulfill] his late father's dream. Although a long-standing peace between Danes and Saxons now exists, that harmony is under threat.
"Not only by a new Danish invasion but a Saxon rebellion. Uhtred has been entrusted with protecting Edward's illegitimate son, the future King of England, Aethelstan. But the treacherous Lord Aethelhelm has ambitions for his grandson Aelfweard, Edward's other son, to rule."
The synopsis continued: "We follow Uhtred as he faces his greatest enemies, and suffers immeasurable loss, on his quest towards fulfilling his destiny. Meanwhile, Edward treads a fine line between peace-keeper and authoritarian as he battles to bring together the fractured Kingdoms of the land.
Shanique Joseph is a Newsweek Senior SEO Editor based in London, U.K. Her focus is commissioning TV and film stories for search engine users. She has covered a wide range of cultural topics including music, arts and entertainment. Shanique joined Newsweek in 2021 from Reach PLC and had previously worked at The Sun, Mail Online and The Express, among others. She is a graduate of BA Journalism at City, University of London. Languages: English.
"We can defeat them... united!" Netflix has debtued a trailer for another spin-off movie titled Seven Kings Must Die, based on the series The Last Kingdom. Uhtred of Bebbanburg and his comrades travel across a fractured kingdom in the hopes of uniting England at last. The Last Kingdom is a British historical fiction television series based on Bernard Cornwell's The Saxon Stories series of novels. It first premiered in 2015 and has run for 5 seasons so far, with the last season now available on Netflix. This film brings back other recurring characters from the series for an epic showdown. Following the death of King Edward, a battle for the crown ensues, as rival heirs and invaders compete for power. Starring Alexander Dreymon as Uhtred, Mark Rowley as Finan, Arnas Fedaravicius as Sihtric, Rod Hallet as Constantin, Harry Gilby, Ross Anderson, Ingrid Garca-Jonsson, James Northcote, and Cavan Clerkin. This looks like any other medieval battle epic, with typical drab visuals as brutal men fight it out on battlefields. Still might be good?
Guys, I've seen Trailer 3 so many times. I hear YouTubers boast they've watched it more than 10 times and laugh at their rookie numbers. It got to a point where I thought - unironically, straight-faced - that maybe I'd seen it more than anyone else in the world, but I took a break last Monday because it was getting silly. I've watched a film trilogy's worth. Several podcasts' worth (I know this because on the way to work I've been listening to a trailer music rip instead of vulnerable chats broken by mattress sponsorship). I've made at least two non-gaming cousins politely watch it in my car before being dropped off home, but one said it was 'phenomenal' so it's okay. I've pored over its many musical references, watched all the reaction compilations and quiet-cried at them crying. Maybe I'd even cry at videos of them crying at their own crying, like that Bo Burnham thing (make the video guys and let's see!).
Confession: I even downloaded and re-edited (!) the trailer in Premiere because I was Very Concerned that the visual cut to Link on the glider before that music eruption was too early and scuffed the drop. Turns out it's so badass it doesn't really matter. The chest filleth regardless.
I'm one of those slightly torn Breath of the Wild admirers, a game I adored, then burned out on a bit. And I've spent way too much of my life obsessing over the felt, textural differences to the OG 3D Zelda formula (does its continuous world feel more literal and less strange without the game-y abstraction?! Does its open-air quiet and lack of area music lose some sense of otherness and myth?!).
But I bow to no one in my love of that legendary 2017 Breath of the Wild Nintendo Switch Presentation trailer (You've seen it 20 times? Pah! Welcome to one movie night at mine!). It's a 4-minute magic trick, a timeslip, a miniature epic that feels like Maximum Everything. It has that hush of wave sounds before a fade in to a glittering sea. Mournful music that wordessly tells you that something's been lost from this land, and a camera that constantly moves across landscapes and vistas so it feels like undulations and sweep. That sudden stillness when you see the Master Sword, eternal in an overgrown glade. Then it's action time! And voiceover! A monster in the sky and a squirrel on a log who knows something's up and if you look very closely at the long shot of the tower facing the castle you can see actually see Link standing on it (they bothered!) - facing up to his quest. And then it goes.
The way the music kicks up a gear so in-sync with that guardian laser squeal - it feels spinal. And the visual balance! A rock-dodge to the right followed by Link Walrus-surfing to the left (because this is All Over action). Now it's ice-jumping and Hinox-smashing and that trumpet flurry released right on the beat of a slow-mo shield parry - and don't get me started on the Deku Tree bit: The piano build, the outrageous infinity zoom-out from Link on a tower, the '100 years ago!' before a drop of Zimmer-style horns and a colossal robot with purple streaks and I Did Not Know We Were Getting This. It feels tectonic. But! Somehow it's the micro and the macro, splicing cuts to deserts and towns and with an extra long hold on a single Silent Princess flower because this trailer is Everything, Every Size, All At Stake. Then Zelda! And all those tableaux-like scenes of Link and Zelda apart and tense, so it's a game that is also personal and human and now the music almost disappears for that Zelda wail of desperation - only ever watch the Japanese one, it is a wail for the ages - and this shit pierces the soul, man. But from darkness to light!: Rain and tears and a barely-piano cuts to wind and grass and Link on a galloping horse and the sheer justaboutness of a mounted Bokoblin circle-swinging a sword and isn't Zelda basically music and movement at the end of the day?! It was about here that a mate once said 'I'm getting emotional, Bro'. We weren't even at the classic Zelda theme finale yet!
Now I'm not sure the Tears of the Kingdom trailer quite has the self-contained elegance of the 2017 one; it's more gameplay and less cutscene and composition, so less of a feeling of a cinematic micro-epic. But boy does it have so much chutzpah and so many What The?! moments. The Orchestral Grandeur now punctuated with warped vocals and a renegade saxophone. But also such a massive feeling of Gameplay Much-ness, pointing towards an adventure you'll feel in the hands and play. And right from its opening, you just know.
You get that cloudscape intro, and a sense of wonder from the first three notes of sax. But also, a sense of confidence from how slow it starts, like the opening lines of an assured performer: safe hands. You can't rush this kind of thing. (It was here I messaged my gaming group with 'already best trailer yet' because you could just tell). Then Link in freefall and we're swooping in and out and around before that title drop chorus: let's go. And now the moments! BotW piano notes on that Ghibli-green grass. Hateno has wrapping and mushrooms. Tents by the fountain at day time (Harking back to 2017's shot, then rainy and patrolled by a guardian). There's a huge stone wheel wedged into the Karst hills around Kakariko, and something's afoot in the desert. A castle rises and now there's the scattered notes of the Hyrule Castle theme. Now there's darkness. Now there's... Demise? His hair like fire and fury. And now there's that shot of Link grasping for Zelda's hand!
And now we're rolling. Too much to see and say! Which is the best bit?! There's laser dodging and spear-swirling and in the music high arpeggios that rise and rise like a kettle shrieking to boil. This trailer boileth over! And then that elevator transition; the sudden shock of the reverse vocals into an evil close-up, and that amazing 808 thud so hard it's physical, so badass I laughed out loud from awesome.
But then there's Zelda saying 'Link' (great hair girl!) and there's an anime-quiver in her pupils. 'Our last line of defence will be Link'. And now more visual balance, because she says it on the left of the screen, and what a reply from the right.
This is the best bit surely? The cut to Link on the glider and that eruption of choir and sax. Or is it more like a rupture? A cloud-piercing sound like god rays made audible and a Zelda Music all-timer on arrival. Then a sky's-eye-view landscape shot, and not only we are flying high above the realm of Hyrule, we are also in the realm of the Epic Heroic. And then it goes in.
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