King Arthur: Legend of the Sword has spent a little longer in the oven than initially planned – you know it, I know it and, frankly, Warner Bros. knows it, too.
Once scheduled for July of 2016, Legend of the Sword was then bumped back to February, 2017, where it was set to open opposite Maze Runner: The Death Cure – incidentally, the latter was also delayed to accommodate Dylan O’Brien’s on-set injury. In terms of Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur movie, though, there’s a good reason for the prolonged development: Warner Bros. is gunning for a full-blown franchise, with Legend of the Sword being the first domino to fall.
Former Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam has been cast in the title role – the man who would be king, as it were – headlining a cast comprised of Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Djimon Hounsou, Aidan Gillen, Eric Bana and Jude Law as the wicked, power-mongering tyrant, Vortigern.
With Legend of the Sword angled as ground zero, the idea is for guy Ritchie’s fantasy epic to launch a mythic, Marvel-styled shared universe, with at least two more origin films – likely involving Merlin and Lancelot – to follow, before the inevitable crossover movie. It’s a wildly ambitious blueprint for Warner Bros. to adhere to, but as is so often the case, the fate of those plans will largely hinge on the box office numbers in a few weeks’ time.
It’s been an awful long time coming, but on May 12th, King Arthur and the knights of the roundtable will get a blockbuster upgrade replete with fantastical mermaids and 300-foot elephants. It’s fantasy on a big, big scale, and with Guy Ritchie’s signature sense of style coursing through its veins, it’ll be fascinating to see if King Arthur: Legend of the Sword can sow the seeds of yet another cinematic universe.
