The sequel-prequel-whatever no one asked for, The Huntsman, has an official title, an official release date, and official character posters, including Emily Blunt as the Ice Queen. This thing is now called The Huntsman: Winter’s War, it will open on April 22, 2016, and you can check out the four character posters below. Chris, The Greater Hemsworth makes a lot more sense to me when he’s in leather and has fabulous pirate hair, but Jessica Chastain’s costume is kind of disappointing. The costumes in Snow White and the Huntsman were really terrific, and even Snow White’s dirty-rags stage was more detailed and interesting than Chastain’s bargain-basement cosplayer look.
We still have no idea what this is about, and whether or not it’s a prequel or a sequel or a time-wimey mish-mash of both, but Emily Blunt looks sort of like a cross between Elsa and a Lord of the Rings elf, and her costume has a lot of Halloween potential. And her poster, done in blue tones, matches up with Chastain’s, which suggests a link between their two characters. Likewise, Hemsworth’s and Theron’s posters are both gold-toned. Their connection is obvious—he was part of the army that overthrew her in the first movie. So are we to take it that Jessica Chastain and Evil Elsa have a beef, too? Also, HOW is the Evil Queen still alive?
With posters and a release date out, a trailer can’t be far behind, and then we can start answering some of these questions. The posters look cool, but then, visuals were not the problem with the first movie. Snow White and the Huntsman fell down on a thin script, so this one not only has to one-up its predecessor, it also has to answer some big questions, like the Evil Queen’s existence and also how they’re explaining away the absence of Snow White, since Kristen Stewart didn’t come back for this one. I hope they also explain how it’s Hemsworth’s character in the title of the movie even though it stars three of the most popular actresses in Hollywood. This could just as easily have been called Ravenna’s Revenge or The Ice Queen Cometh or similar.
