The first photo from the Chaos Walking set reveals a broody, atmospheric world.
YA is likely coming back in a big way next year when Chaos Walking drops. For the moment, we are just way stoked about this first official look at the much-anticipated film. Featuring stars Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, of Spider-Man and Star Wars fame respectively, the photo is predictably elusive in any detail. But at least we know what these characters look like.
The story centers on Todd’s (Holland) coming-of-age as he grows up on an alien planet colonized by humans for the sake of survival. An endemic germ supposedly killed all the women in the colony and unleashed the ‘Noise’ — an excruciating ability to hear others’ thoughts — onto the men. But Todd meets a girl, Viola (Ridley), and discovers she is the source of a patch of silence amidst the Noise. Everything Todd has ever learned subsequently unravels.
Posted on Ridley’s Facebook page, Chaos Walking‘s first look picture provides just a sliver of the film to come. The set photo depicts Holland and Ridley surrounded by shrubbery and rocky cliffside terrain. The duo, particularly Ridley, clearly appears a little worse for wear, although both look adamant and defiant. All these factors really recall the territory that has been covered by YA franchises of old, especially The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner with their themes of confinement, even within nature itself. But that’s probably an intentional throwback to either get everyone hyped or settled in comfortably for a surprise.
Directed by Doug Liman (American Made), Chaos Walking packs a punch with its cast, which includes Mads Mikkelsen, David Oyelowo and Demián Bichir alongside Holland and Ridley. Lionsgate has scheduled the film for release on March 1, 2019. That’s sadly still a ways to go, but there’s hope that these social media-friendly stars will give us many more sneak peeks in the months to come.