In an announcement by Focus Features on Friday, it was revealed that The VVitch director Robert Eggers’ next project The Northman will be releasing early next year on April 8, 2022. The film is Eggers’ highly anticipated followup to his hit 2019 horror film, The Lighthouse, and stars a stacked cast that includes Alexander Skarsgard, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Björk.

The Northman is a revenge thriller thaat explores the depths at which a Viking prince will go to seek justice for the murder of his father. Production on the project began late last summer in Ireland, but was forced to pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When I went to Belfast, I was pretty scared,” Kidman said to Variety in January. “People were saying, ‘Oh my God, if you go, you’re going to get COVID.’ So I was really frightened, but at the same time, I had this sense of duty and I had this sense of ‘this is what I do.’ I’m a creative being who shows up and I put on as much protection as I could and so I did the production and we were all safe and I went, ‘OK, let’s go.’”

Production finally ended on the project December 2020. Eggers co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Icelandic poet and novelist Sjón. Lars Knudsen, Mark Huffam and New Regency are producing.