“The Huntsman: Winter’s War”: 18 interesting facts about the movie!

1. The Huntsman: Winter’s War is an upcoming American dark fantasy action-adventure film, and is a spin-off (specifically a prequel and sequel) to Snow White and the Huntsman, based on the characters from the German fairy tale “Snow White” compiled by the Brothers Grimm, as well as “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen.

2. The plot: Long before the evil Queen Ravenna was thought vanquished by Snow White’s blade, she watched silently as her sister, Freya, suffered a heartbreaking betrayal and fled their kingdom. With Freya’s ability to freeze any enemy, the young Ice Queen has spent decades in a remote wintry palace raising a legion of deadly Huntsmen – including Eric and warrior Sara – only to find that her prized two defied her one demand: forever harden your hearts to love. When Freya learns of her sister’s demise, she summons her remaining soldiers to bring the Magic Mirror home to the only sorceress left who can harness its power. But once she resurrects Ravenna from the Mirror’s golden depths, the wicked sisters threaten this enchanted land with twice the darkness it’s ever seen. Now, their amassing army shall prove unbeatable unless the banished Huntsmen who broke their Queen’s cardinal rule can fight their way back to one another.

3. The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Sam Claflin and Nick Frost reprising their roles, along with newcomers Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain and Colin Morgan.

4. It is the directing debut of Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, who acted as visual effects supervisor on the first film, and is written by Craig Mazin, Martin Solibakke and Evan Spiliotopoulos.

5. A sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman was planned, with director Rupert Sanders in talks to return.[citation needed. However, in August 2012, it was announced in the aftermath of the scandal involving Sanders cheating on his wife with actress Kristen Stewart after their involvement with the first film, the sequel was shelved, and a spin-off film concentrating on the Huntsman was planned instead, which would not star Stewart. Universal announced a few days later that they were not shelving the sequel.

6. Universal Pictures had originally planned to do a “Snow White and the Huntsman 2”, but had dropped Kristen Stewart from the sequel. It is speculated that it was due to her indiscretion with director Rupert Sanders. However, Universal’s statement in Aug 2012 emphatically denied she was being dropped from the film [for the indiscretion] but they were exploring all options which later turned out to be the prequel ‘The Huntsman’ starring Chris Hemsworth.

7. Principal photography began on April 6, 2015.

8. On July 31, 2014, Universal Pictures announced the film’s release date was April 22, 2016.

9. Filming took place at Waverley Abbey in Surrey, England during April 2015. Filming also occurred from May to July 2015 in Windsor Great Park, England, at locations including South Forest, Johnson’s Pond and in the Deer Park near Snow Hill. Filming was also done in Wells Bishop’s Palace and Wells Cathedral.[19][20] In July 2015, filming also took place at Puzzlewood, in the Forest of Dean.

10. The film is scheduled to be released on April 22, 2016.

11. The first trailer of the film featured the song Castle by Halsey.

12. Freya is also the name of a Norse goddess, associated with love, magic and death. According to the legend she was married to a god named Odr who vanished one day. Freya searched the entire world to find him, getting a new name in every land she passed by was unable to find him again. The broken hearted goddess cried tears which became gold. This experience made the goddess particularly sympathetic to lovers.

13. The runic inscription briefly seen on the mirror in the first trailer reads “I SEE”. The glimpse seen in the second trailer reads “…IS POWER”

14. Chris Hemsworth who plays the lead in this film, is also famous for playing the Norse god Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Emily Blunts character is named Freya, which is the name of a Norse goddess,

15. In the Teaser Trailer, Producer Joe Roth is credited for producing Maleficent and Alice in Wonderland, both of which are Disney films and The Huntsman is from Universal, but both are along the line of Live Action Fairytale.

16. Wells in Somerset is used as a location and can be seen briefly in the trailer.

17. Jessica Chastain’s character Sara, is mentioned in Snow White and the Huntsman as being the Huntsman’s late wife and was later found out in the movie to have been killed by Ravenna’s brother.

18. Universal’s director short list for the project consists of Frank Darabont, Gavin O’Connor, and Andrés Muschietti. Darabont was eventually signed for the directorial duties for the project, but dropped out of the film. Darabont stayed on as a co-writer, he was later replaced by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan who worked on Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) as visual effect supervisor and second unit director.