House of the Dragon season 2 had a bit of a climax issue. As has been extensively covered at Den of Geek and by the Militant Geek Industrial Complex of the internet at large, the second season of HBO’s first Game of Thrones prequel just kind of ends. House of the Dragon season 2 episode […]
House of the Dragon season 2 episode 8 “The Queen Who Ever Was” puts in some admirable legwork to set up no fewer than three major incoming battles and then doesn’t get around to depicting them. While the show has its reasons for cutting things off prematurely, season 2’s anticlimax does put a lot of pressure on season 3 to bring the bloody action. Thankfully, HBO revealed today that not only is House of the Dragon season 3 officially in production, but it’s also cast two prominent roles that point to some armed conflict to come.
Here are the relevant details on the two new characters and the actors who play them.
Tommy Flanagan as Ser Roderick Dustin
Ser Roderick Dustin is the Lord of Barrowton and the head of House Dustin, which is sworn to House Stark of Winterfell. If you recall, Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) swore The North’s allegiance to Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and her Black faction at the beginning of season 2. As such, Ser Roderick is one of many Northmen marching south towards the Neck to assist the dragon queen.
Another thing you might recall from season 2 is that Lord Cregan can’t necessarily afford to send his youngest, best, and brightest to battle at the moment – you know, with winter coming and all. Still, Lord Cregan promises that even the elder Northerners will be fierce fighters for Queen Rhaenyra. Ser Roderick is great evidence of that.
Known as “Roddy the Ruin,” Ser Roderick Dustin is an absolute beast on the battlefield despite his advanced age. He is the general who Lord Cregan has entrusted with leading an army of 2,000 “Winter Wolves” to support Rhaenyra’s claim. Ser Roderick will eventually lead the charge into a battle known as the “Butcher’s Ball” – a particularly blood event (even by Westerosi standards).
Playing Ser Roderick is Tommy Flanagan, a Scottish actor best known for his role as Chibs in Sons of Anarchy and for his genre work in projects like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Gotham, and Westworld. He also just happens to have distinctive facial scarring that will give Ser Roderick an extra dimension of badassery.
Dan Fogler as Ser Torrhen Manderly
Ser Torrhen Manderly is a member of House Manderly, which just happens to be one of my personal favorite families from the Game of Thrones mythos. A long time ago in the Age of Heroes, House Manderly was cast out of its homestead in the Reach by King Gwayne III Gardener. They traveled the continent of Westeros, searching for a new home and ultimately being granted lands in The North by House Stark. The Manderlys’ gratitude for this offering has lasted for thousands of years making them one of House Stark’s absolute ride-or-dies. Manderly men also tend to be both very brave and very rotund, hammering home the story’s themes that heroism can come in any form.
Ser Torrhen is currently riding down with Ser Roderick and the Winter Wolves. He will have a major role to play in incoming battles and their subsequent diplomacy and negotiations. Playing Ser Torrhen is Dan Fogler. One of the few American actors to join the Game of Thrones universe, Fogler is best known for his roles in the Fantastic Beasts films, The Walking Dead, and for playing Francis Ford Coppola in Paramount+’s The Offer.
House of the Dragon season 3 does not yet have a release date but has been confirmed to contain eight episodes.
Jonathan Hickman has been playing in the Marvel Universe for 15 years now and almost no one can lay a greater claim to the universe’s makeup in that time than him. Not only did he destroy the Marvel Multiverse (in the greatest superhero crossover of all time, Secret Wars), but he shaped the now-dead original […]
House of the Dragon season 2 episode 8 “The Queen Who Ever Was” puts in some admirable legwork to set up no fewer than three major incoming battles and then doesn’t get around to depicting them. While the show has its reasons for cutting things off prematurely, season 2’s anticlimax does put a lot of pressure on season 3 to bring the bloody action. Thankfully, HBO revealed today that not only is House of the Dragon season 3 officially in production, but it’s also cast two prominent roles that point to some armed conflict to come.
Here are the relevant details on the two new characters and the actors who play them.
Tommy Flanagan as Ser Roderick Dustin
Ser Roderick Dustin is the Lord of Barrowton and the head of House Dustin, which is sworn to House Stark of Winterfell. If you recall, Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) swore The North’s allegiance to Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and her Black faction at the beginning of season 2. As such, Ser Roderick is one of many Northmen marching south towards the Neck to assist the dragon queen.
Another thing you might recall from season 2 is that Lord Cregan can’t necessarily afford to send his youngest, best, and brightest to battle at the moment – you know, with winter coming and all. Still, Lord Cregan promises that even the elder Northerners will be fierce fighters for Queen Rhaenyra. Ser Roderick is great evidence of that.
Known as “Roddy the Ruin,” Ser Roderick Dustin is an absolute beast on the battlefield despite his advanced age. He is the general who Lord Cregan has entrusted with leading an army of 2,000 “Winter Wolves” to support Rhaenyra’s claim. Ser Roderick will eventually lead the charge into a battle known as the “Butcher’s Ball” – a particularly blood event (even by Westerosi standards).
Playing Ser Roderick is Tommy Flanagan, a Scottish actor best known for his role as Chibs in Sons of Anarchy and for his genre work in projects like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Gotham, and Westworld. He also just happens to have distinctive facial scarring that will give Ser Roderick an extra dimension of badassery.
Dan Fogler as Ser Torrhen Manderly
Ser Torrhen Manderly is a member of House Manderly, which just happens to be one of my personal favorite families from the Game of Thrones mythos. A long time ago in the Age of Heroes, House Manderly was cast out of its homestead in the Reach by King Gwayne III Gardener. They traveled the continent of Westeros, searching for a new home and ultimately being granted lands in The North by House Stark. The Manderlys’ gratitude for this offering has lasted for thousands of years making them one of House Stark’s absolute ride-or-dies. Manderly men also tend to be both very brave and very rotund, hammering home the story’s themes that heroism can come in any form.
Ser Torrhen is currently riding down with Ser Roderick and the Winter Wolves. He will have a major role to play in incoming battles and their subsequent diplomacy and negotiations. Playing Ser Torrhen is Dan Fogler. One of the few American actors to join the Game of Thrones universe, Fogler is best known for his roles in the Fantastic Beasts films, The Walking Dead, and for playing Francis Ford Coppola in Paramount+’s The Offer.
House of the Dragon season 3 does not yet have a release date but has been confirmed to contain eight episodes.
Netflix is kicking off the month strong with the release of their animated Devil May Cry series on April 3. Based on the video game series of the same name, Devil May Cry follows demon hunter Dante as he tries to keep the peace between the human and demon realms, not realizing he might be […]
House of the Dragon season 2 episode 8 “The Queen Who Ever Was” puts in some admirable legwork to set up no fewer than three major incoming battles and then doesn’t get around to depicting them. While the show has its reasons for cutting things off prematurely, season 2’s anticlimax does put a lot of pressure on season 3 to bring the bloody action. Thankfully, HBO revealed today that not only is House of the Dragon season 3 officially in production, but it’s also cast two prominent roles that point to some armed conflict to come.
Here are the relevant details on the two new characters and the actors who play them.
Tommy Flanagan as Ser Roderick Dustin
Ser Roderick Dustin is the Lord of Barrowton and the head of House Dustin, which is sworn to House Stark of Winterfell. If you recall, Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) swore The North’s allegiance to Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and her Black faction at the beginning of season 2. As such, Ser Roderick is one of many Northmen marching south towards the Neck to assist the dragon queen.
Another thing you might recall from season 2 is that Lord Cregan can’t necessarily afford to send his youngest, best, and brightest to battle at the moment – you know, with winter coming and all. Still, Lord Cregan promises that even the elder Northerners will be fierce fighters for Queen Rhaenyra. Ser Roderick is great evidence of that.
Known as “Roddy the Ruin,” Ser Roderick Dustin is an absolute beast on the battlefield despite his advanced age. He is the general who Lord Cregan has entrusted with leading an army of 2,000 “Winter Wolves” to support Rhaenyra’s claim. Ser Roderick will eventually lead the charge into a battle known as the “Butcher’s Ball” – a particularly blood event (even by Westerosi standards).
Playing Ser Roderick is Tommy Flanagan, a Scottish actor best known for his role as Chibs in Sons of Anarchy and for his genre work in projects like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Gotham, and Westworld. He also just happens to have distinctive facial scarring that will give Ser Roderick an extra dimension of badassery.
Dan Fogler as Ser Torrhen Manderly
Ser Torrhen Manderly is a member of House Manderly, which just happens to be one of my personal favorite families from the Game of Thrones mythos. A long time ago in the Age of Heroes, House Manderly was cast out of its homestead in the Reach by King Gwayne III Gardener. They traveled the continent of Westeros, searching for a new home and ultimately being granted lands in The North by House Stark. The Manderlys’ gratitude for this offering has lasted for thousands of years making them one of House Stark’s absolute ride-or-dies. Manderly men also tend to be both very brave and very rotund, hammering home the story’s themes that heroism can come in any form.
Ser Torrhen is currently riding down with Ser Roderick and the Winter Wolves. He will have a major role to play in incoming battles and their subsequent diplomacy and negotiations. Playing Ser Torrhen is Dan Fogler. One of the few American actors to join the Game of Thrones universe, Fogler is best known for his roles in the Fantastic Beasts films, The Walking Dead, and for playing Francis Ford Coppola in Paramount+’s The Offer.
House of the Dragon season 3 does not yet have a release date but has been confirmed to contain eight episodes.
One of HBO’s hottest series, The Last of Us, returns for a second season on April 13. Based on the video game series of the same name, this show is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a zombie-like fungal infection has wiped out a lot of the population and forever changed the world as we […]
House of the Dragon season 2 episode 8 “The Queen Who Ever Was” puts in some admirable legwork to set up no fewer than three major incoming battles and then doesn’t get around to depicting them. While the show has its reasons for cutting things off prematurely, season 2’s anticlimax does put a lot of pressure on season 3 to bring the bloody action. Thankfully, HBO revealed today that not only is House of the Dragon season 3 officially in production, but it’s also cast two prominent roles that point to some armed conflict to come.
Here are the relevant details on the two new characters and the actors who play them.
Tommy Flanagan as Ser Roderick Dustin
Ser Roderick Dustin is the Lord of Barrowton and the head of House Dustin, which is sworn to House Stark of Winterfell. If you recall, Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) swore The North’s allegiance to Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and her Black faction at the beginning of season 2. As such, Ser Roderick is one of many Northmen marching south towards the Neck to assist the dragon queen.
Another thing you might recall from season 2 is that Lord Cregan can’t necessarily afford to send his youngest, best, and brightest to battle at the moment – you know, with winter coming and all. Still, Lord Cregan promises that even the elder Northerners will be fierce fighters for Queen Rhaenyra. Ser Roderick is great evidence of that.
Known as “Roddy the Ruin,” Ser Roderick Dustin is an absolute beast on the battlefield despite his advanced age. He is the general who Lord Cregan has entrusted with leading an army of 2,000 “Winter Wolves” to support Rhaenyra’s claim. Ser Roderick will eventually lead the charge into a battle known as the “Butcher’s Ball” – a particularly blood event (even by Westerosi standards).
Playing Ser Roderick is Tommy Flanagan, a Scottish actor best known for his role as Chibs in Sons of Anarchy and for his genre work in projects like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Gotham, and Westworld. He also just happens to have distinctive facial scarring that will give Ser Roderick an extra dimension of badassery.
Dan Fogler as Ser Torrhen Manderly
Ser Torrhen Manderly is a member of House Manderly, which just happens to be one of my personal favorite families from the Game of Thrones mythos. A long time ago in the Age of Heroes, House Manderly was cast out of its homestead in the Reach by King Gwayne III Gardener. They traveled the continent of Westeros, searching for a new home and ultimately being granted lands in The North by House Stark. The Manderlys’ gratitude for this offering has lasted for thousands of years making them one of House Stark’s absolute ride-or-dies. Manderly men also tend to be both very brave and very rotund, hammering home the story’s themes that heroism can come in any form.
Ser Torrhen is currently riding down with Ser Roderick and the Winter Wolves. He will have a major role to play in incoming battles and their subsequent diplomacy and negotiations. Playing Ser Torrhen is Dan Fogler. One of the few American actors to join the Game of Thrones universe, Fogler is best known for his roles in the Fantastic Beasts films, The Walking Dead, and for playing Francis Ford Coppola in Paramount+’s The Offer.
House of the Dragon season 3 does not yet have a release date but has been confirmed to contain eight episodes.
Lacrosse swapped for football. Guns for knives. Pants for trousers. Sidewalks for pavements. The leafy suburbs and grimy city streets of New Jersey swapped for the leafy suburbs and grimy city streets of Greater Manchester. A character named “Tripp” renamed “Doug”… Until now, all of the Netflix Harlan Coben TV adaptations have translated the books’ […]
House of the Dragon season 2 episode 8 “The Queen Who Ever Was” puts in some admirable legwork to set up no fewer than three major incoming battles and then doesn’t get around to depicting them. While the show has its reasons for cutting things off prematurely, season 2’s anticlimax does put a lot of pressure on season 3 to bring the bloody action. Thankfully, HBO revealed today that not only is House of the Dragon season 3 officially in production, but it’s also cast two prominent roles that point to some armed conflict to come.
Here are the relevant details on the two new characters and the actors who play them.
Tommy Flanagan as Ser Roderick Dustin
Ser Roderick Dustin is the Lord of Barrowton and the head of House Dustin, which is sworn to House Stark of Winterfell. If you recall, Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) swore The North’s allegiance to Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and her Black faction at the beginning of season 2. As such, Ser Roderick is one of many Northmen marching south towards the Neck to assist the dragon queen.
Another thing you might recall from season 2 is that Lord Cregan can’t necessarily afford to send his youngest, best, and brightest to battle at the moment – you know, with winter coming and all. Still, Lord Cregan promises that even the elder Northerners will be fierce fighters for Queen Rhaenyra. Ser Roderick is great evidence of that.
Known as “Roddy the Ruin,” Ser Roderick Dustin is an absolute beast on the battlefield despite his advanced age. He is the general who Lord Cregan has entrusted with leading an army of 2,000 “Winter Wolves” to support Rhaenyra’s claim. Ser Roderick will eventually lead the charge into a battle known as the “Butcher’s Ball” – a particularly blood event (even by Westerosi standards).
Playing Ser Roderick is Tommy Flanagan, a Scottish actor best known for his role as Chibs in Sons of Anarchy and for his genre work in projects like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Gotham, and Westworld. He also just happens to have distinctive facial scarring that will give Ser Roderick an extra dimension of badassery.
Dan Fogler as Ser Torrhen Manderly
Ser Torrhen Manderly is a member of House Manderly, which just happens to be one of my personal favorite families from the Game of Thrones mythos. A long time ago in the Age of Heroes, House Manderly was cast out of its homestead in the Reach by King Gwayne III Gardener. They traveled the continent of Westeros, searching for a new home and ultimately being granted lands in The North by House Stark. The Manderlys’ gratitude for this offering has lasted for thousands of years making them one of House Stark’s absolute ride-or-dies. Manderly men also tend to be both very brave and very rotund, hammering home the story’s themes that heroism can come in any form.
Ser Torrhen is currently riding down with Ser Roderick and the Winter Wolves. He will have a major role to play in incoming battles and their subsequent diplomacy and negotiations. Playing Ser Torrhen is Dan Fogler. One of the few American actors to join the Game of Thrones universe, Fogler is best known for his roles in the Fantastic Beasts films, The Walking Dead, and for playing Francis Ford Coppola in Paramount+’s The Offer.
House of the Dragon season 3 does not yet have a release date but has been confirmed to contain eight episodes.
This month on Hulu, The Handmaid’s Tale returns for its sixth and final season. June Osborne’s (Elisabeth Moss) journey is coming to an end as her fight against the oppressive regime Gilead gains momentum. Will she be successful in taking them down and reuniting with her daughter? We’ll have to tune in and find out. […]
House of the Dragon season 2 episode 8 “The Queen Who Ever Was” puts in some admirable legwork to set up no fewer than three major incoming battles and then doesn’t get around to depicting them. While the show has its reasons for cutting things off prematurely, season 2’s anticlimax does put a lot of pressure on season 3 to bring the bloody action. Thankfully, HBO revealed today that not only is House of the Dragon season 3 officially in production, but it’s also cast two prominent roles that point to some armed conflict to come.
Here are the relevant details on the two new characters and the actors who play them.
Tommy Flanagan as Ser Roderick Dustin
Ser Roderick Dustin is the Lord of Barrowton and the head of House Dustin, which is sworn to House Stark of Winterfell. If you recall, Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) swore The North’s allegiance to Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and her Black faction at the beginning of season 2. As such, Ser Roderick is one of many Northmen marching south towards the Neck to assist the dragon queen.
Another thing you might recall from season 2 is that Lord Cregan can’t necessarily afford to send his youngest, best, and brightest to battle at the moment – you know, with winter coming and all. Still, Lord Cregan promises that even the elder Northerners will be fierce fighters for Queen Rhaenyra. Ser Roderick is great evidence of that.
Known as “Roddy the Ruin,” Ser Roderick Dustin is an absolute beast on the battlefield despite his advanced age. He is the general who Lord Cregan has entrusted with leading an army of 2,000 “Winter Wolves” to support Rhaenyra’s claim. Ser Roderick will eventually lead the charge into a battle known as the “Butcher’s Ball” – a particularly blood event (even by Westerosi standards).
Playing Ser Roderick is Tommy Flanagan, a Scottish actor best known for his role as Chibs in Sons of Anarchy and for his genre work in projects like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Gotham, and Westworld. He also just happens to have distinctive facial scarring that will give Ser Roderick an extra dimension of badassery.
Dan Fogler as Ser Torrhen Manderly
Ser Torrhen Manderly is a member of House Manderly, which just happens to be one of my personal favorite families from the Game of Thrones mythos. A long time ago in the Age of Heroes, House Manderly was cast out of its homestead in the Reach by King Gwayne III Gardener. They traveled the continent of Westeros, searching for a new home and ultimately being granted lands in The North by House Stark. The Manderlys’ gratitude for this offering has lasted for thousands of years making them one of House Stark’s absolute ride-or-dies. Manderly men also tend to be both very brave and very rotund, hammering home the story’s themes that heroism can come in any form.
Ser Torrhen is currently riding down with Ser Roderick and the Winter Wolves. He will have a major role to play in incoming battles and their subsequent diplomacy and negotiations. Playing Ser Torrhen is Dan Fogler. One of the few American actors to join the Game of Thrones universe, Fogler is best known for his roles in the Fantastic Beasts films, The Walking Dead, and for playing Francis Ford Coppola in Paramount+’s The Offer.
House of the Dragon season 3 does not yet have a release date but has been confirmed to contain eight episodes.
The long-awaited return of Andor is finally here, as the series returns for a second and final season on April 22. This season will tell the next chapter of Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) life as we watch him become the rebel spy we meet in Rogue One. The stakes are high as the Empire continues […]
House of the Dragon season 2 episode 8 “The Queen Who Ever Was” puts in some admirable legwork to set up no fewer than three major incoming battles and then doesn’t get around to depicting them. While the show has its reasons for cutting things off prematurely, season 2’s anticlimax does put a lot of pressure on season 3 to bring the bloody action. Thankfully, HBO revealed today that not only is House of the Dragon season 3 officially in production, but it’s also cast two prominent roles that point to some armed conflict to come.
Here are the relevant details on the two new characters and the actors who play them.
Tommy Flanagan as Ser Roderick Dustin
Ser Roderick Dustin is the Lord of Barrowton and the head of House Dustin, which is sworn to House Stark of Winterfell. If you recall, Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) swore The North’s allegiance to Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and her Black faction at the beginning of season 2. As such, Ser Roderick is one of many Northmen marching south towards the Neck to assist the dragon queen.
Another thing you might recall from season 2 is that Lord Cregan can’t necessarily afford to send his youngest, best, and brightest to battle at the moment – you know, with winter coming and all. Still, Lord Cregan promises that even the elder Northerners will be fierce fighters for Queen Rhaenyra. Ser Roderick is great evidence of that.
Known as “Roddy the Ruin,” Ser Roderick Dustin is an absolute beast on the battlefield despite his advanced age. He is the general who Lord Cregan has entrusted with leading an army of 2,000 “Winter Wolves” to support Rhaenyra’s claim. Ser Roderick will eventually lead the charge into a battle known as the “Butcher’s Ball” – a particularly blood event (even by Westerosi standards).
Playing Ser Roderick is Tommy Flanagan, a Scottish actor best known for his role as Chibs in Sons of Anarchy and for his genre work in projects like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Gotham, and Westworld. He also just happens to have distinctive facial scarring that will give Ser Roderick an extra dimension of badassery.
Dan Fogler as Ser Torrhen Manderly
Ser Torrhen Manderly is a member of House Manderly, which just happens to be one of my personal favorite families from the Game of Thrones mythos. A long time ago in the Age of Heroes, House Manderly was cast out of its homestead in the Reach by King Gwayne III Gardener. They traveled the continent of Westeros, searching for a new home and ultimately being granted lands in The North by House Stark. The Manderlys’ gratitude for this offering has lasted for thousands of years making them one of House Stark’s absolute ride-or-dies. Manderly men also tend to be both very brave and very rotund, hammering home the story’s themes that heroism can come in any form.
Ser Torrhen is currently riding down with Ser Roderick and the Winter Wolves. He will have a major role to play in incoming battles and their subsequent diplomacy and negotiations. Playing Ser Torrhen is Dan Fogler. One of the few American actors to join the Game of Thrones universe, Fogler is best known for his roles in the Fantastic Beasts films, The Walking Dead, and for playing Francis Ford Coppola in Paramount+’s The Offer.
House of the Dragon season 3 does not yet have a release date but has been confirmed to contain eight episodes.
This review contains The Replacement finale spoilers. Praise be for the three-parter. Even when the narrative wheels come off, as they did in spectacular fashion in The Replacement’s ludicrously overblown finale, you’re still quids-in when it comes to your time investment. A dodgy last hour after two decent instalments is forgivable, especially when it’s all […]
House of the Dragon season 2 episode 8 “The Queen Who Ever Was” puts in some admirable legwork to set up no fewer than three major incoming battles and then doesn’t get around to depicting them. While the show has its reasons for cutting things off prematurely, season 2’s anticlimax does put a lot of pressure on season 3 to bring the bloody action. Thankfully, HBO revealed today that not only is House of the Dragon season 3 officially in production, but it’s also cast two prominent roles that point to some armed conflict to come.
Here are the relevant details on the two new characters and the actors who play them.
Tommy Flanagan as Ser Roderick Dustin
Ser Roderick Dustin is the Lord of Barrowton and the head of House Dustin, which is sworn to House Stark of Winterfell. If you recall, Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) swore The North’s allegiance to Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and her Black faction at the beginning of season 2. As such, Ser Roderick is one of many Northmen marching south towards the Neck to assist the dragon queen.
Another thing you might recall from season 2 is that Lord Cregan can’t necessarily afford to send his youngest, best, and brightest to battle at the moment – you know, with winter coming and all. Still, Lord Cregan promises that even the elder Northerners will be fierce fighters for Queen Rhaenyra. Ser Roderick is great evidence of that.
Known as “Roddy the Ruin,” Ser Roderick Dustin is an absolute beast on the battlefield despite his advanced age. He is the general who Lord Cregan has entrusted with leading an army of 2,000 “Winter Wolves” to support Rhaenyra’s claim. Ser Roderick will eventually lead the charge into a battle known as the “Butcher’s Ball” – a particularly blood event (even by Westerosi standards).
Playing Ser Roderick is Tommy Flanagan, a Scottish actor best known for his role as Chibs in Sons of Anarchy and for his genre work in projects like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Gotham, and Westworld. He also just happens to have distinctive facial scarring that will give Ser Roderick an extra dimension of badassery.
Dan Fogler as Ser Torrhen Manderly
Ser Torrhen Manderly is a member of House Manderly, which just happens to be one of my personal favorite families from the Game of Thrones mythos. A long time ago in the Age of Heroes, House Manderly was cast out of its homestead in the Reach by King Gwayne III Gardener. They traveled the continent of Westeros, searching for a new home and ultimately being granted lands in The North by House Stark. The Manderlys’ gratitude for this offering has lasted for thousands of years making them one of House Stark’s absolute ride-or-dies. Manderly men also tend to be both very brave and very rotund, hammering home the story’s themes that heroism can come in any form.
Ser Torrhen is currently riding down with Ser Roderick and the Winter Wolves. He will have a major role to play in incoming battles and their subsequent diplomacy and negotiations. Playing Ser Torrhen is Dan Fogler. One of the few American actors to join the Game of Thrones universe, Fogler is best known for his roles in the Fantastic Beasts films, The Walking Dead, and for playing Francis Ford Coppola in Paramount+’s The Offer.
House of the Dragon season 3 does not yet have a release date but has been confirmed to contain eight episodes.
The big sci-fi TV news for the next couple of weeks will be the return of Doctor Who and Black Mirror, new series of which are out days apart from each other on April 12 and 10, respectively. And just days after that is one of the most eagerly anticipated returns of recent times with […]
This article contains Death of a Unicorn spoilers.
“You know what? We really must put more stock in art history.” This is a moral truth that should be repeated. It also, perhaps, is a thought that flashed through the mind of Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant) right before a unicorn’s horn also smashed into that soft, squishy gray matter. It might have similarly been in the back recesses of Belinda Leopold’s (Téa Leoni) head while another unicorn opened her belly.
They were both warned earlier in their movie by art history student Ridley Kintner (Jenna Ortega) that ancient masterworks tell us of the dangers posed by horned mythical creatures. She even had JPEGs of the fancy medieval tapestries to prove it, with scenes of death by unicorn disembowelment and all. But they refused to listen.
It’s a comical sight befitting a movie purposely infused with Jurassic Park imagery as rich elites attempt and fail to control the natural world. Yet it’s not only a gag. In fact, Death of a Unicorn writer-director Alex Scharfman extensively studied unicorn mythology and folklore, telling us previously in a Den of Geek cover story that he went back to Roman historians and the Old Testament Bible while researching the film. He also intensely examined those unicorn tapestries you see in the movie. Aye, they’re real and currently reside in the Met Cloisters in New York City. So we recently decided to sit down again with Scharfman to discuss how deeply these Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries informed his film.
“I grew up around New York in the suburbs and went on field trips to the Cloisters Museum where those are held and maintained,” Scharfman recalls in our latest interview about the film and these Gothic wonders. “They must have been buried in my unconscious, because at some point I forgot about them but then when researching the movie, I came upon them again and I was like ‘oh right, those things!’”
These tapestries, which were made by an unknown artist at the turn of the 16th century, and then resided in an aristocratic Parisian home until nearly being destroyed in the French Revolution, became a North Star for everything in Death of a Unicorn. Ortega even previously told us they were a “cheat sheet” for understanding their movie. So join us below as we unpack each of the seven tableaus composing the Unicorn Tapestries while Scharfman explains how they influenced and shaped his man-eating unicorn creature feature.
A24 / Met Cloisters
The Hunters Enter the Woods
An interesting thing to note is that while the Cloisters and many art historians place these tapestries in a generally recognized sequence—and it is the sequence we are using in this article—no one is exactly certain about the official order of things.
“There’s not like on the back of them a ‘number one’ or a ‘number two,’” Scharfman explains, “so people have put them in an order that seems to make sense. And I totally agree that this makes sense as the first one, but one thing that I thought was fun with the movie is they’re not necessarily in the right order.”
Still most agree this is the first composition since it distinctly lacks either a unicorn or a king and/or lord. Instead it is just dogs and kingsmen approaching a formidable wilderness.
“One thing that’s nice about this tapestry specifically is there’s just so much foliage and just this overwhelming sense of nature,” says Scharfman. “That is something people write about with the Unicorn Tapestries a lot: this sense of the way nature is depicted.” Yet it is the humans in this specific tapestry that inspire so much of the bent of Death of a Unicorn, the movie about a CEO, or feudal lord, who summons a prospective servant, Paul Rudd’s Elliot Kintner, to court.
“I think it’s telling that [the Lord] is not in this one,” Scharfman says. “He sent out his minions to go get him this thing that he wants in the woods and to bring it back for him. So I totally think when you start digging into the tapestries, and more broadly most medieval unicorn mythology and lore, you end up with something that really presents itself as a class commentary in that way.”
The writer-director notes that he also modeled one of his shots of Grant leading Rudd and other characters into the wilderness while hunting a unicorn specifically after this tapestry.
A24 / Met Cloisters
The Unicorn Purifies Water
The next tableau sets the scene of a unicorn purifying the water in an enchanted fountain hidden deep within the wood. The implication is that the unicorn’s horn, and perhaps blood, has restorative magical powers, which some scholars perceive as an allusion to Christ. The myth about a unicorn’s body having healing properties long predates the tapestries and was already a key element in Scharfman’s vision for the developing movie when he rediscovered these tapestries. But this image had other significant influences on the film.
“It’s a funny thing,” Scharfman chuckles, “I don’t know why there’s this fountain in the woods. The unicorn is not purifying a stream, it’s purifying water from a fountain that’s pouring out.” It is an odd sight, but one the director sought to recreate by placing a near replica of this fountain in the Leopold estate: “In the courtyard of the house, there’s a fountain that is exactly like that one. We modeled it pretty much as close as we could possibly get to it… and that is where the unicorn is discovered by most of the characters.”
Furthermore, this tapestry inspired even the name of the film’s villains.
Says Scharfman, “Among the other animals that are drinking from the water in this tapestry, there are a couple lions, and the Leopold family is of course the antagonists, the pharmaceutical family in the movie.” As the director acknowledges, the name “Leopold” is an allusion to Leo the lion in astrology. The Leopolds’ company sigil is also a lion.
“In a lot of unicorn mythology, lions and unicorns were enemies,” Scharfman adds. “But here they’re kind of allies, or at least the unicorn seems to be happy to let them drink from the water the unicorn has purified.” It’s a departure from the myths, as well as where Death of a Unicorn goes next….
A24 / Met Cloisters
The Unicorn Crosses a Stream
In this scene, the kingsmen fall upon the poor unicorn and begin their attack as it attempts to flee across a stream. The image sets the stage for the bigger carnage to come later, but right down to the costumes of the hunters, beginning with the gent attending to the dog in the bottom left corner, this image helped inform the look of many of costume designer Andrea Flesch’s creations for the film.
“There’s certainly lots of little textures and details like Will Poulter’s bathing suits,” Scharfman comments. “There’s these really great stripes, vertical stripes on one of the characters’ pants, and that was certainly an influence that we took for Will. Costume-wise, Paul wears blue throughout the movie, Jenna wears red throughout the movie. They’re kind of moving towards each other [which gives you purple]… the Leopold family, which is played by Richard, Téa, and Will, they wear a lot of gold. Gold, white, black, that’s their palette, and when you look at the characters in these tapestries, they’re wearing red, blue, gold, and then there’s a lot of green in the background.”
Even the scientists’ lab coats in the film are made to mimic the high collars of late Middle Ages fashion.
A24 / Met Cloisters
The Unicorn Defends Himself
Now we get into the images that really start to influence the strange, bemused tone of Death of a Unicorn. And we are not referring to the orange tree high above the action of this scene or the red-roofed castle far off in the background. Both of those informed the look and garden of the Leopold estate, which the director is quick to point out to us. But it is the violent carnage and death in the foreground of this tapestry that immediately catches the eye.
“This was one of the first bits of unicorn violence that I had seen in any artwork,” Scharfman remembers. “When you look in this tapestry, when you go up close and you see it, it’s stabbing this dog in the intestines. It’s a hunting dog, so I think it’s self-defense. But when you go very close or if you got a high enough resolution version of it, it is very gory with the level of detail in this wound that it’s inflicting on the dog.”
He continues, “Beyond that it’s also kicking with its hind legs, which when you go back into historical accounts of unicorns, there is a lot of violence described and there’s a lot of very violent imagery that you can find. They were not these passive creatures. They really were not afraid to bite and kick and use their horn to gore people.”
Scharfman admits that ripping out a character’s intestines like he depicted happening to poor Belinda was his own flourish, but “there are accounts of them using their teeth to bite people, so it felt like it wasn’t that big of a jump.”
A24 / Met Cloisters
The Unicorn Surrenders to a Maiden
Perhaps the most influential tapestry on all of Death of a Unicorn, “The Unicorn Surrenders to a Maiden” is as important for what it doesn’t show as for what it does.
“Jenna wears a red hoodie throughout the movie, which has a very unusual shape,” notes Scharfman. “This actually is very much inspired by what the maiden is wearing in this, with these very kind of wide sleeves. And that was a hoodie we found from a Japanese designer that they made in gray and other colors, but we asked them to make it custom for us in red. It had this really interesting cloak kind of shape to it.”
After discovering this tapestry, it became quite indicative of how Scharfman imagined the Ridley character within the film: “It got me thinking, ‘Well, what is a pure hearted maiden in 2025?’ And I started thinking it’s probably a Gen-Z leftist who’s protesting on a campus somewhere right now. Someone with very strong morals and ideals.”
However, more than just the idea of having a pure-hearted maiden, this tapestry’s incompleteness created space for Scharfman to fill in his own grisly details.
“When you look at it in real life, it’s about a third the size of the other ones,” the director points out. “That’s because it was tremendously damaged. It was recovered after the French Revolution, so it is believed to have been damaged during the revolution, perhaps. It was used on top of a sack of potatoes to keep them warm in the winter time, and so they got totally tattered.”
What is left of the tapestry is actually torn into two pieces, and it is missing crucial information… like the maiden it is named after.
“If you look in the bottom right corner of this tapestry, just under the unicorn, you can see a woman’s hand,” says Scharfman. “So the maiden that the unicorn is actually surrendering to is not in the tapestry, which is very confusing. This is another maiden who happens to be like a handmaiden working with the maiden who is the bait. And I thought about putting that into the movie, but I was like ‘that is so confusing to try and teach people’—that there is a maiden in the tapestry, but that’s not the maiden it’s surrendering to. It’s surrendering to an off-screen maiden that we’ll never see.”
Nonetheless, the actual maiden’s absence gave Scharfman the creative liberty to suggest there is a fuller, more complete “lost tapestry” introduced in the film that includes so much of the monster movie mayhem that was to come.
“We had these brilliant artists do this incredible artwork to take the figures of the tapestries and the style of the tapestries, and infuse it with scenes from our movie,” he explains. “So we expanded this tapestry into this lost tapestry that includes a lot of the kills and a lot of the fun elements of the horror language that we employ in the movie, but to put it in this medieval context.”
It also allowed Scharfman to reconfigure the way the tapestries are meant to be interpreted. Whereas the following two tapestries are perceived by many historians to be the end of the story, in Scharfman’s film the actual ending is this tapestry with the maiden and unicorn resting after all the death and carnage had been carried out.
A24 / Met Cloisters
The Hunters Return to the Castle / The Unicorn Rests in a Garden
The last two actual tapestries tell an interesting if aloof conclusion to their tale: first the unicorn appears to be deceased, presumably killed by the hunters after the maiden beguiled the mythical creature long enough for them to get close—and then the creature appears to be resurrected and curiously happy in captivity.
Of the former tableau’s influences, the Lady of the Manor’s golden gown informed Leoni’s cream colored suits in the movie. Scharfman also points to the shape of the unicorn’s corpse as it lies draped over a horse in the center of the scene. “When the unicorn is killed [and taken to] the house in our movie, it has a similar pose where it’s kind of draped out the window of a car,” says the director. In which case, perhaps historians’ interpretations of the tapestries’ sequence is wrong, and this is the real first tapestry, which like Death of a Unicorn sets the stage for all the carnage that is to follow?
Either way, it’s the generally accepted final image of the story which inspires at least the oblique motivation of the film’s greediest Leopold, Will Poulter’s nepobaby Shepherd. “The unicorn in captivity, that is the vision that Will Poulter’s character is going after,” Scharfman says. “This idea that we can own this thing and possess it forever, and it will be ours within these confines.” Yet there are multiple ways of reading the actual tapestry.
Adds the director, “What’s funny about it is when you look at it, it has a very thin chain on it. It seems like it could break out of this, but it’s not. So there are questions about the symbolic meaning there. Is it there by choice? Is it there being held as captive? Who knows? But that is his vision of the future if [Shep] can possess them and contain them. Then he will have a limitless supply of unicorns.”
Given the tone and tenor of Death of a Unicorn, we might suggest the creature’s contentment is nothing more than medieval propaganda for how they actually handle confinement. Whatever the case might be, the film ends with the beasts running free and even attacking the police vehicle that Elliot and Ridley are being driven away in. However, Scharfman doesn’t think his film’s heroes are in too much danger.
“I think they’re there to try and help Jenna and Paul’s characters,” Scharfman muses of his unicorns, “but I also think they don’t really understand how cars work or police, or how any of these things actually function, because they exist outside of society.” Still, should either Ridley or Elliot perish in the ensuing car crash, it’s no biggie. “Worst case scenario, they can resurrect some people.”
Much like the tapestries show, when it comes to unicorns, death is more of a temporary inconvenience than a bitter fact of life. And with any luck, Death of a Unicorn might inspire some folks to learn more about the O.G. medieval roots of the pop culture creature.
“We put a lot of easter eggs from these tapestries into the movie, and I think there’s something fun about that,” muses the filmmaker. “Hopefully it adds a layer of rewatchability and maybe sends some people to the Cloisters to check out the tapestries in person.” That would be a nice kind of enchantment.
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This article contains Death of a Unicorn spoilers.
“You know what? We really must put more stock in art history.” This is a moral truth that should be repeated. It also, perhaps, is a thought that flashed through the mind of Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant) right before a unicorn’s horn also smashed into that soft, squishy gray matter. It might have similarly been in the back recesses of Belinda Leopold’s (Téa Leoni) head while another unicorn opened her belly.
They were both warned earlier in their movie by art history student Ridley Kintner (Jenna Ortega) that ancient masterworks tell us of the dangers posed by horned mythical creatures. She even had JPEGs of the fancy medieval tapestries to prove it, with scenes of death by unicorn disembowelment and all. But they refused to listen.
It’s a comical sight befitting a movie purposely infused with Jurassic Park imagery as rich elites attempt and fail to control the natural world. Yet it’s not only a gag. In fact, Death of a Unicorn writer-director Alex Scharfman extensively studied unicorn mythology and folklore, telling us previously in a Den of Geek cover story that he went back to Roman historians and the Old Testament Bible while researching the film. He also intensely examined those unicorn tapestries you see in the movie. Aye, they’re real and currently reside in the Met Cloisters in New York City. So we recently decided to sit down again with Scharfman to discuss how deeply these Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries informed his film.
“I grew up around New York in the suburbs and went on field trips to the Cloisters Museum where those are held and maintained,” Scharfman recalls in our latest interview about the film and these Gothic wonders. “They must have been buried in my unconscious, because at some point I forgot about them but then when researching the movie, I came upon them again and I was like ‘oh right, those things!’”
These tapestries, which were made by an unknown artist at the turn of the 16th century, and then resided in an aristocratic Parisian home until nearly being destroyed in the French Revolution, became a North Star for everything in Death of a Unicorn. Ortega even previously told us they were a “cheat sheet” for understanding their movie. So join us below as we unpack each of the seven tableaus composing the Unicorn Tapestries while Scharfman explains how they influenced and shaped his man-eating unicorn creature feature.
A24 / Met Cloisters
The Hunters Enter the Woods
An interesting thing to note is that while the Cloisters and many art historians place these tapestries in a generally recognized sequence—and it is the sequence we are using in this article—no one is exactly certain about the official order of things.
“There’s not like on the back of them a ‘number one’ or a ‘number two,’” Scharfman explains, “so people have put them in an order that seems to make sense. And I totally agree that this makes sense as the first one, but one thing that I thought was fun with the movie is they’re not necessarily in the right order.”
Still most agree this is the first composition since it distinctly lacks either a unicorn or a king and/or lord. Instead it is just dogs and kingsmen approaching a formidable wilderness.
“One thing that’s nice about this tapestry specifically is there’s just so much foliage and just this overwhelming sense of nature,” says Scharfman. “That is something people write about with the Unicorn Tapestries a lot: this sense of the way nature is depicted.” Yet it is the humans in this specific tapestry that inspire so much of the bent of Death of a Unicorn, the movie about a CEO, or feudal lord, who summons a prospective servant, Paul Rudd’s Elliot Kintner, to court.
“I think it’s telling that [the Lord] is not in this one,” Scharfman says. “He sent out his minions to go get him this thing that he wants in the woods and to bring it back for him. So I totally think when you start digging into the tapestries, and more broadly most medieval unicorn mythology and lore, you end up with something that really presents itself as a class commentary in that way.”
The writer-director notes that he also modeled one of his shots of Grant leading Rudd and other characters into the wilderness while hunting a unicorn specifically after this tapestry.
A24 / Met Cloisters
The Unicorn Purifies Water
The next tableau sets the scene of a unicorn purifying the water in an enchanted fountain hidden deep within the wood. The implication is that the unicorn’s horn, and perhaps blood, has restorative magical powers, which some scholars perceive as an allusion to Christ. The myth about a unicorn’s body having healing properties long predates the tapestries and was already a key element in Scharfman’s vision for the developing movie when he rediscovered these tapestries. But this image had other significant influences on the film.
“It’s a funny thing,” Scharfman chuckles, “I don’t know why there’s this fountain in the woods. The unicorn is not purifying a stream, it’s purifying water from a fountain that’s pouring out.” It is an odd sight, but one the director sought to recreate by placing a near replica of this fountain in the Leopold estate: “In the courtyard of the house, there’s a fountain that is exactly like that one. We modeled it pretty much as close as we could possibly get to it… and that is where the unicorn is discovered by most of the characters.”
Furthermore, this tapestry inspired even the name of the film’s villains.
Says Scharfman, “Among the other animals that are drinking from the water in this tapestry, there are a couple lions, and the Leopold family is of course the antagonists, the pharmaceutical family in the movie.” As the director acknowledges, the name “Leopold” is an allusion to Leo the lion in astrology. The Leopolds’ company sigil is also a lion.
“In a lot of unicorn mythology, lions and unicorns were enemies,” Scharfman adds. “But here they’re kind of allies, or at least the unicorn seems to be happy to let them drink from the water the unicorn has purified.” It’s a departure from the myths, as well as where Death of a Unicorn goes next….
A24 / Met Cloisters
The Unicorn Crosses a Stream
In this scene, the kingsmen fall upon the poor unicorn and begin their attack as it attempts to flee across a stream. The image sets the stage for the bigger carnage to come later, but right down to the costumes of the hunters, beginning with the gent attending to the dog in the bottom left corner, this image helped inform the look of many of costume designer Andrea Flesch’s creations for the film.
“There’s certainly lots of little textures and details like Will Poulter’s bathing suits,” Scharfman comments. “There’s these really great stripes, vertical stripes on one of the characters’ pants, and that was certainly an influence that we took for Will. Costume-wise, Paul wears blue throughout the movie, Jenna wears red throughout the movie. They’re kind of moving towards each other [which gives you purple]… the Leopold family, which is played by Richard, Téa, and Will, they wear a lot of gold. Gold, white, black, that’s their palette, and when you look at the characters in these tapestries, they’re wearing red, blue, gold, and then there’s a lot of green in the background.”
Even the scientists’ lab coats in the film are made to mimic the high collars of late Middle Ages fashion.
A24 / Met Cloisters
The Unicorn Defends Himself
Now we get into the images that really start to influence the strange, bemused tone of Death of a Unicorn. And we are not referring to the orange tree high above the action of this scene or the red-roofed castle far off in the background. Both of those informed the look and garden of the Leopold estate, which the director is quick to point out to us. But it is the violent carnage and death in the foreground of this tapestry that immediately catches the eye.
“This was one of the first bits of unicorn violence that I had seen in any artwork,” Scharfman remembers. “When you look in this tapestry, when you go up close and you see it, it’s stabbing this dog in the intestines. It’s a hunting dog, so I think it’s self-defense. But when you go very close or if you got a high enough resolution version of it, it is very gory with the level of detail in this wound that it’s inflicting on the dog.”
He continues, “Beyond that it’s also kicking with its hind legs, which when you go back into historical accounts of unicorns, there is a lot of violence described and there’s a lot of very violent imagery that you can find. They were not these passive creatures. They really were not afraid to bite and kick and use their horn to gore people.”
Scharfman admits that ripping out a character’s intestines like he depicted happening to poor Belinda was his own flourish, but “there are accounts of them using their teeth to bite people, so it felt like it wasn’t that big of a jump.”
A24 / Met Cloisters
The Unicorn Surrenders to a Maiden
Perhaps the most influential tapestry on all of Death of a Unicorn, “The Unicorn Surrenders to a Maiden” is as important for what it doesn’t show as for what it does.
“Jenna wears a red hoodie throughout the movie, which has a very unusual shape,” notes Scharfman. “This actually is very much inspired by what the maiden is wearing in this, with these very kind of wide sleeves. And that was a hoodie we found from a Japanese designer that they made in gray and other colors, but we asked them to make it custom for us in red. It had this really interesting cloak kind of shape to it.”
After discovering this tapestry, it became quite indicative of how Scharfman imagined the Ridley character within the film: “It got me thinking, ‘Well, what is a pure hearted maiden in 2025?’ And I started thinking it’s probably a Gen-Z leftist who’s protesting on a campus somewhere right now. Someone with very strong morals and ideals.”
However, more than just the idea of having a pure-hearted maiden, this tapestry’s incompleteness created space for Scharfman to fill in his own grisly details.
“When you look at it in real life, it’s about a third the size of the other ones,” the director points out. “That’s because it was tremendously damaged. It was recovered after the French Revolution, so it is believed to have been damaged during the revolution, perhaps. It was used on top of a sack of potatoes to keep them warm in the winter time, and so they got totally tattered.”
What is left of the tapestry is actually torn into two pieces, and it is missing crucial information… like the maiden it is named after.
“If you look in the bottom right corner of this tapestry, just under the unicorn, you can see a woman’s hand,” says Scharfman. “So the maiden that the unicorn is actually surrendering to is not in the tapestry, which is very confusing. This is another maiden who happens to be like a handmaiden working with the maiden who is the bait. And I thought about putting that into the movie, but I was like ‘that is so confusing to try and teach people’—that there is a maiden in the tapestry, but that’s not the maiden it’s surrendering to. It’s surrendering to an off-screen maiden that we’ll never see.”
Nonetheless, the actual maiden’s absence gave Scharfman the creative liberty to suggest there is a fuller, more complete “lost tapestry” introduced in the film that includes so much of the monster movie mayhem that was to come.
“We had these brilliant artists do this incredible artwork to take the figures of the tapestries and the style of the tapestries, and infuse it with scenes from our movie,” he explains. “So we expanded this tapestry into this lost tapestry that includes a lot of the kills and a lot of the fun elements of the horror language that we employ in the movie, but to put it in this medieval context.”
It also allowed Scharfman to reconfigure the way the tapestries are meant to be interpreted. Whereas the following two tapestries are perceived by many historians to be the end of the story, in Scharfman’s film the actual ending is this tapestry with the maiden and unicorn resting after all the death and carnage had been carried out.
A24 / Met Cloisters
The Hunters Return to the Castle / The Unicorn Rests in a Garden
The last two actual tapestries tell an interesting if aloof conclusion to their tale: first the unicorn appears to be deceased, presumably killed by the hunters after the maiden beguiled the mythical creature long enough for them to get close—and then the creature appears to be resurrected and curiously happy in captivity.
Of the former tableau’s influences, the Lady of the Manor’s golden gown informed Leoni’s cream colored suits in the movie. Scharfman also points to the shape of the unicorn’s corpse as it lies draped over a horse in the center of the scene. “When the unicorn is killed [and taken to] the house in our movie, it has a similar pose where it’s kind of draped out the window of a car,” says the director. In which case, perhaps historians’ interpretations of the tapestries’ sequence is wrong, and this is the real first tapestry, which like Death of a Unicorn sets the stage for all the carnage that is to follow?
Either way, it’s the generally accepted final image of the story which inspires at least the oblique motivation of the film’s greediest Leopold, Will Poulter’s nepobaby Shepherd. “The unicorn in captivity, that is the vision that Will Poulter’s character is going after,” Scharfman says. “This idea that we can own this thing and possess it forever, and it will be ours within these confines.” Yet there are multiple ways of reading the actual tapestry.
Adds the director, “What’s funny about it is when you look at it, it has a very thin chain on it. It seems like it could break out of this, but it’s not. So there are questions about the symbolic meaning there. Is it there by choice? Is it there being held as captive? Who knows? But that is his vision of the future if [Shep] can possess them and contain them. Then he will have a limitless supply of unicorns.”
Given the tone and tenor of Death of a Unicorn, we might suggest the creature’s contentment is nothing more than medieval propaganda for how they actually handle confinement. Whatever the case might be, the film ends with the beasts running free and even attacking the police vehicle that Elliot and Ridley are being driven away in. However, Scharfman doesn’t think his film’s heroes are in too much danger.
“I think they’re there to try and help Jenna and Paul’s characters,” Scharfman muses of his unicorns, “but I also think they don’t really understand how cars work or police, or how any of these things actually function, because they exist outside of society.” Still, should either Ridley or Elliot perish in the ensuing car crash, it’s no biggie. “Worst case scenario, they can resurrect some people.”
Much like the tapestries show, when it comes to unicorns, death is more of a temporary inconvenience than a bitter fact of life. And with any luck, Death of a Unicorn might inspire some folks to learn more about the O.G. medieval roots of the pop culture creature.
“We put a lot of easter eggs from these tapestries into the movie, and I think there’s something fun about that,” muses the filmmaker. “Hopefully it adds a layer of rewatchability and maybe sends some people to the Cloisters to check out the tapestries in person.” That would be a nice kind of enchantment.
