‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ Posters Show Emily Blunt As The Ice Queen, Charlize Theron As Her Sister

The Huntsman: Winter’s War looks like it’s trying to appeal to those who were disappointed that Disney’s Frozen didn’t feature a truly villainous ice enchantress like the cold-hearted Snow Queen who kidnaps a young boy in Hans Christian Andersen’s beloved fairy tale. However, The Huntsman is also borrowing a tiny bit of its plot from Frozen.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Universal has unveiled a set of character posters for The Hunstman: Winter’s War, which is a sequel sprinkled with a bit of prequel. Most of the action takes place after the events of the 2012 movie Snow White and the Huntsman, but the movie will also treat viewers to a bit more of the backstory of some of the characters introduced in the first film. In Snow White and the Huntsman, Kristen Stewart starred as a Snow White who bore little resemblance to Disney’s version of the fairy tale character — Stewart’s Snow was a warrior princess who teamed up with Eric the huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) to take down the evil Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron). Stewart will not be appearing The Huntsman: Winter’s War.

Theron’s sinister sorceress with a wicked sense of style was the highlight of Snow White, so, of course, The Huntsman: Winter’s War producers had to find a way to resurrect her character for the sequel. However, viewers might be more interested in Ravenna’s equally evil sister this time around.

In The Huntsman, Emily Blunt sports icy blonde, Elsa-esque hair to play Freya, the Ice Queen. According to Deadline, Freya is Ravenna’s sister, but the siblings were separated before the events of Snow White and the Huntsman. The Ice Queen fled their kingdom after suffering a heartbreaking betrayal, and she isolated herself. This is easy to do when you possess a magical power that makes it possible for you to freeze your enemies. As you can see, The Huntsman: Winter’s War is blatantly borrowing from Disney’s Frozen by giving Emily Blunt’s Ice Queen a sister and having the character cut herself off from the rest of the world.

Emily Blunt’s angry Ice Queen builds herself a snow palace, where she spends decades creating an army of huntsmen (and huntswomen). Evidently, the Ice Queen’s betrayal was a matter of the heart, because she really has something against amore — she bans her battalion of ax-wielding huntspeople from falling in love with anyone. This is where the original huntsman comes in.

Hemsworth’s heroic huntsman falls in love with a fellow warrior named Sara (Jessica Chastain), and the two are banished for disobeying the Ice Queen. This might actually be for the best because it will be easier for them to take frozen-hearted Freya down when she’s not ordering them around.

The Ice Queen learns that she can bring her defeated sister back after Queen Ravenna’s Magic Mirror is in her possession, and “the wicked sisters threaten this enchanted land with twice the darkest force it’s ever seen.” The only two people who might be capable of stopping the sisters are the Huntsman and Sara, but the lovers got separated after their banishment and have to “fight their way back to one another” before they can vanquish the villains. The Huntsman better hold on to his head once the sisters reunite — they’ll both be looking to lop it off after Ravenna tells Freya that he played a part in her defeat.

Charlize Theron revealed that the trailer for The Huntsman: Winter’s War will be released on Wednesday, and the movie will hit theaters on April 22. Are you looking forward to seeing Charlize Theron return as the evil queen, or are you more excited about meeting Emily Blunt’s Ice Queen?

[Image via Universal/’The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ Facebook]