Tudor Film 'Firebrand' Arrives on Hulu This November

The historical film Firebrand is the sort of prestige-style movie that rarely gets an extended theatrical run. (To be honest, unless you're popular Oscar bait like Conclave most anything that isn't a big-budget tentpole or franchise entry barely makes it past two weeks at the local multiplex nowadays.) This is a lot to say that even if you were familiar with Firebrand, your window to catch it on the big screen this past summer was a vanishingly small one. But Hulu is hoping they can help Tudor lovers out with this problem, and has announced the film will stream on their platform this month.

Based on Elizabeth Fremantle's bestselling historical novel Queen’s Gambit, Firebrand tells the story of King Henry VIII's often-ignored final wife, Katherine Parr. The "survived" verse of the famous rhyme that helps schoolchildren remember the names of the women whose lives were ruined by one man's obsession with having a male heir, Parr was twice widowed by the time she married Henry at age 31, and an accomplished scholar in her own right. A strident supporter of the Reformation and a deeply devout Protestant, she's credited with being the first woman to publish under her own name in the English language in England. Yet, history tends to remember her only as the woman who outlived a monstrous man. Firebrand may not be a perfect film, but it's worth watching if only to add some much-needed nuance to her story.

Alicia Vikander (Rumours) stars as Katherine alongside Jude Law (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore) as Henry, who is fully embracing his weirdo character era in this role, complete with a fat suit and, apparently, a custom-made perfume with notes of blood, sweat, and fecal matter to help him authentically depict the grotesque decay of the king at this point in his life.