Joaquin Phoenix Claims the French Throne In the New Trailer for 'Napoleon'

All hail the Emperor. The trailer for the upcoming historical drama Napoleon promises a sweeping, action-packed epic that will reveal the true man behind the myth of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The highly anticipated film hails from Ridley Scott, the award-winning director behind movies like Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, and The Last Duel. Napoleon aims to showcase the iconic French general's visionary strategic and military prowess alongside the intense love story that would come to define much of his life.

Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix (Joker) plays Napoleon alongside The Crown's Vanessa Kirby as his wife, Josephine de Beauharnais. She was six years older than Napoleon when the two wed in 1796, despite the fact that his family wasn't exactly excited about his choice to marry an older widow with two children. (Her first husband was arrested and guillotined during the Revolution.) Though the pair is often remembered by history as one of its greatest love affairs, it did not start out that way --- he needed a rich wife and she needed a patron. It's also commonly accepted wisdom that Napoleon initially loved his wife much more than she loved him, and that she took some time to warm to him and his affections. (Though their relationship seems to have found its footing by the time he became emperor.)

However Napoleon's desperate need for an heir eventually led the to the annulment of their marriage in 1810, though he remained in love with her and reportedly locked himself in a room for two full days when the news of Josephine's death reached him just four years later. And their strange, seemingly unstoppable relationship is at rightly at the center of the latest Napoleon trailer. 

Set to a version of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," the clip features multiple epic action sequences as Napoleon declares himself the descendent of conquerors like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar and ultimately crowns himself Emperor of the French. Subtle, the man was not. 

Here's the film's description.

Napoleon is a spectacle-filled action epic that details the checkered rise and fall of the iconic French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Against a stunning backdrop of large-scale filmmaking orchestrated by legendary director Ridley Scott, the film captures Bonaparte's relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his one true love, Josephine, showcasing his visionary military and political tactics against some of the most dynamic practical battle sequences ever filmed.

Alongside Phoenix and Kirby, the film also stars Ben Miles (The Capture) as Caulaincourt, Matthew Needham (House of the Dragon) as Lucien Bonaparte, Tahar Rahim (The Serpent) as Paul Barras, Ludivine Sagnier (The Serpent Queen) as Theresa Cabarrus, Youssef Kerkour (Domina) as Marshal Davou, and Phil Cornwell (Mrs. Brown's Boys) as Sanson ‘The Bourreau,’ Paul Rhys (A Discovery of Witches) as Talleyrand, John Hollingworth (Gentleman Jack) as Marshall Ney, Gavin Spokes (The Ipcress File) as Moulins, Mark Bonnar (Guilt) as Jean-Andoche Junot, and Edouard Philipponnat as Tsar Alexander. 

The film will first be released exclusively in theaters worldwide, in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, before streaming globally on Apple TV+. According to Scott, he's hopeful that Apple will also stream his directors's cut, which is reportedly four hours long and includes a much larger focus on Josephine's earlier life before she met Napoleon.