The Woman King Trailer Unveils A Stunning Epic Based On A Startling True Story

Viola Davis, through one great performance after another, has been one of the most consistently brilliant actors in Hollywood for close to three decades now. With an Oscar, an Emmy, and a pair Tony Awards to her name, she's also been one of the most consistently decorated (per The Hollywood Reporter). If you've seen the actor at work in any of her film and television projects, you know Davis has indeed earned those accolades and then some. 

Of course, prior to her breakout turn in ABC's hit series "How to Get Away With Murder," many of Davis' roles were of the supporting nature. After proving herself a more than legit leading lady on the small screen, though, Davis has been proving as much on the big screen in recent years too, earning raves for her work in films like 2018's egregiously overlooked heist flick "Widows," and Netflix's Oscar-winning musical drama "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." 

Later this year, Davis will expand her leading lady status to the action realm with the hotly-anticipated historical epic "The Woman King." She'll do so while headlining an impressive cast almost entirely comprised of people of color, and under the direction of rising star Gina Prince-Bythewood. We've finally gotten our first real look "The Woman King" in the guise of its first official trailer, which teases all the action, drama, and powerful females that any heart could desire.  

Now, if the name Gina Prince-Bythewood sounds familiar, it's because her last film was Netflix's pseudo superhero streaming hit "The Old Guard." The director is no doubt looking to bolster the big budget cred she earned from that flick with "The Woman King," and if the new film's action-packed trailer is any indication, Prince-Bythewood has seriously upped her set-piece game, with Davis and her fearsome crew of femmes dashing into sword and spear swinging action virtually every other frame.

This go around, however, the action is based not on the pages of a graphic novel series, but actual African history as the fearsome, all-female fighting force Davis leads in "The Woman King" actually existed. According to Smithsonian records, they were called the Dahomey Amazons, and protected the West African Kingdom of Dahomey, known to the modern world as the Republic of Benin. In the film, Davis portrays Nanisca, the General of the army in question. As glimpsed in the trailer, the actor has delivered a performance as ferocious as it is soulful, leading her troops in a brutal battle against would-be occupying armies from France, and doing so alongside the familiar faces of Lashana Lynch, John Boyega, and recent "The Batman" star Jayme Lawson (she played Bella Reál in that film).

If you like what you see, "The Woman King" is slated to hit theaters on September 16, 2022. And with what's just been teased in the trailer, that wait now seems agonizingly long.