Even without a Snow White character to worry about—or perhaps due to the lack of a Snow White character to focus on—Universal Pictures’ follow-up to Snow White And The Huntsman has gone through a turbulent production. First there were some dwarves (though not depicted by real dwarves), then no dwarves, and finally, no Frank Darabont. It also wasn’t entirely clear whether the film would be a prequel or spin-off, though we did know that it would center on Chris Hemsworth’s Huntsman character from the 2012 film (hence the title).
Well, the trailer has arrived, and the movie appears to be…both? Now titled The Huntsman: Winter’s War, the film stars Hemsworth as Eric The Huntsman, who trains with and eventually falls in love with Sara The Warrior (Jessica Chastain). This displeases their jilted queen, Freya (Emily Blunt), who rules her kingdom with Elsa-like powers. When Freya sends an army to bring back the magic mirror, she also gets her sister, Ravenna (Charlize Theron), in the deal. Then they vow to terrorize people again or something, which means Ravenna will face off against Eric again (even though he wasn’t the guy who defeated her in the last film).
The trailer’s kind of a mess, with the multiple charismatic female leads rendering Hemsworth superfluous in a movie named after his character. But it was probably a story that needed to be told, if only to see Theron and Blunt play evil sisters and Chastain brag about her archery skills. The Huntsman: Winter’s War arrives in theaters April 22, 2016.