Patrick Stewart Played Merlin In An Overlooked Modern King Arthur Movie
by Ben Pearson · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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The great Patrick Stewart, who died yesterday at the age of 86, played a wide variety of authority figures over the course of his long career. But in 2019's "The Kid Who Would Be King," he had the opportunity to have a special full-circle moment by inhabiting an older version of Merlin, the sage-like wizard from Arthurian legend. Decades earlier, Stewart played a supporting role in John Boorman's 1981 visual fantasia "Excalibur," and Nicol Williamson's portrayal of Merlin in that film informed Stewart's performance in "The Kid Who Would Be King."
"In this movie with the old and the young Merlin, there is a playful aspect behind all the fury and rage and despair and urgency," Stewart told the BBC, alluding to the fact that "The Kid Who Would Be King" features two actors playing Merlin: himself as the older version, and Angus Imrie as the wizard in a younger man's body.
"There is a lightness ... in 'Excalibur,' Merlin was played by Nicol Williamson and Nicol was a playful character himself. He brought great irony to his performance and a winsome wistfulness about him, and I just stood back and admired and adored."
The Kid Who Would Be King is a modern classic for kids
Written and directed by Joe Cornish, "The Kid Who Would Be King" was the filmmaker's long-awaited second feature after his debut, the excellent alien invasion comedy "Attack the Block," put him on everyone's radar. While "Attack the Block" skewed toward adults and older teenagers, "The Kid Who Would Be King" is unapologetically a family film — an earnest, heartfelt adventure aimed at younger kids about a boy (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) who pulls the famous Excalibur sword from a stone in modern times. Despite the fact that it lost a bunch of money, it's a delightful movie that I enjoyed as an adult and would have been obsessed with if I saw it as a kid. (As of this writing, it's streaming on Prime Video and Disney+. Check it out if you've never seen it!)
Around the film's release, Cornish told /Film about putting Patrick Stewart in a Led Zeppelin T-shirt in the movie for his unconventional depiction of Merlin, but even more than the unusual costuming, the thing about the film I appreciated most is a short speech Stewart's Merlin gives to the movie's young protagonist, Alexander:
"The sword doesn't care who your parents are. It doesn't choose by birth or blood, but by heart and mind. If your legends say different, then perhaps you must write them anew."
I especially love that sentiment when compared with the worldview of another 2019 movie, "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," which suggests that its protagonist Rey's lineage is the defining aspect of her character. Through Stewart's stalwart performance, the possibilities of this world felt limitless instead of limiting, and that open-hearted optimism and striving for hope reflects what made him special as an actor. He'll be deeply missed.