Robert Eggers on The Northman’s VOD Release and Future Projects

Despite the sparkling critical reviews for The Northman, it seems that director Robert Eggers was disappointed with his entire experience when it came to making the film. Before it even released, he was talking about how the studio wasn’t allowing him total freedom with his project, and now it looks like he’s at a crossroads, figuring out how to proceed with future projects.

Talking to The Daily Beast, Eggers explained:

“I think it met the expectations of a bad marketplace… Am I disappointed that, three to four weeks in, we’re on VOD because that’s the way things are done in the post-COVID world? Yeah. But it’s doing great on VOD, so there you go.”

Though Eggers had said that he wasn’t able to make the movie his way, a lot of reviews were still very positive about The Northman. We don’t know exactly what got removed, but I have speculation that the end was supposed to be a lot more naked.

That being said, the atmosphere and visuals were still great, and it feels exactly like a project that Eggers would be behind the helm of. We don’t know if Eggers will ever get to direct something as big as The Nortman in the future, but hopefully the reviews and the performance on VOD would change the studios’ minds.

“…Me and my collaborators stuck together, and we just said we were simply not going to leave with something we weren’t proud of,” said Eggers, “So, we did. But certainly, there were times when that was difficult in post-production.”

The Northman is now available on VOD.