The trailer for director and co-writer Chloé Zhao’s new film Hamnet, a sweeping tale of love and loss that inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet, was dropped by the makers on Thursday.
Four years after helming Marvel’s Eternals, the two-time Academy Award winning director returns with a period drama tracing the grief that led to the creation of one of literature’s greatest tragedies.
Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling 2020 novel, Hamnet follows the courtship and marriage of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley), and the devastating loss of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe).
The story imagines how that tragedy shaped Shakespeare’s later works, particularly Hamlet.
The film also stars two-time Oscar nominee Emily Watson as Shakespeare’s mother and Joe Alwyn as Agnes’ brother. Jacobi Jupe’s real-life brother, Noah, makes a brief appearance.
After premiering at Telluride in August and winning the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, Hamnet is already generating early Oscar buzz.
Produced by Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Gonda, Sam Mendes and Steven Spielberg, Hamnet is a Focus Features and Amblin Entertainment release. The film will have a limited release in the US on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, before wider release on December 12.