Emily Blunt is bloody good in trailer for new Western, The English
Chaske Spencer also stars in the Prime Video series, which will premiere November 11
Ever since the hosts of Westworld left their iconic prairie after season 1, a new spate of modern cowboys has risen up to take their place. Benedict Cumberbatch in The Power Of The Dog, Jonathan Majors in The Harder They Fall, and Viggo Mortensen and Vicky Krieps in the upcoming The Dead Don’t Hurt, to name a few, all come to mind.
Prime Video’s newest contribution to the genre dares to ask the question: what if a hero of the American West was British, actually? If they can be robots then why not, right?
The (aptly titled) new series The English stars Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place) as Lady Cornelia Locke, an “aristocratic Englishwoman” who teams up with Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer, Wild Indian) to “cross a violent landscape built on dreams and blood,” according to the show’s official synopsis. And by god, does this trailer deliver on that promise. Have you ever seen a tasseled clown gleefully chop a rattlesnake in half before? How about what appears to be an upside-down crucifixion? It’s all here in Black Earth Rising director Hugo Blick’s fast-paced, highly-saturated vision of the dusty plain.
Cornelia and Eli find themselves bound by destiny in the beginning of the trailer. “You were tied up there, I was lying down there, both about to get killed, and yet here we are,” explains Cornelia, before adding, “and it’s everyone else that’s dead.”
This is a good tone-setter for the revenge journey these two are about to undergo, during which they will begin to unravel the full weight of a previously unknown shared history. Oh, and kill a whole lot of people. By gun, by bow and arrow, by rope dragged behind a covered wagon or some other outlandish method yet to be revealed—you name it, it’ll likely happen at some point in this series. We’re truly in the Wild Wild West with this one, baby!
All six episodes of The English will premiere November 11 on Prime Video.