Millie Bobby Brown’s next big movie release on Netflix – Damsel, arriving in 2024 – is continuing a genre trend that could be lucrative for the streaming service. Damsel revolves around a young princess, played by Brown, who seems to be set up to marry a handsome prince. However, it turns out to be a ruse and she’s thrown into a dark cave with an evil, fire-breathing dragon, where she’ll have to rely on her wits to survive. It’s a subversive take on familiar fairy tale tropes.
Brown first rose to fame with her starring role as Eleven in the hit Netflix sci-fi series Stranger Things. Since getting her start on Netflix, Brown has reteamed with the streamer for most of her subsequent film roles. She returned to Netflix to play the title character in the Enola Holmes franchise and the lead role of Michelle in the Russo brothers’ upcoming sci-fi adventure, The Electric State. Damsel is continuing Brown’s collaboration with Netflix, and it ties into an ongoing genre trend with Netflix’s original content.
Millie Bobby Brown’s Damsel Follows A Netflix Genre Trend
Damsel starts off with the familiar setup of a princess being trapped in a cave with a dragon – but this time, the princess isn’t relying on a daring knight to come and rescue her; she’s going to rescue herself. Reimagining old-school fantasy stories with a modern edge is becoming a trend at Netflix. Cursed retold the Arthurian legend with a teenage sorceress named Nimue and the streamer’s stop-motion animated adaptation of Pinocchio reimagined the time-tested story through Guillermo del Toro’s dark, twisted vision.
It’s also an area that other streaming services are experimenting with. Hulu had some success in 2022 with The Princess, an action comedy starring Joey King as a princess who sets out to save her kingdom from a usurping sociopath. Damsel is shaping up to be Netflix’s own version of The Princess, with a slightly different premise and a different young A-lister in the lead role. Retooling well-worn fairy tale narratives is a rich framework for streamers to create new franchises.
How Netflix Could Benefit With More Original Fantasy Movies & Shows
The fantasy genre has limitless possibilities for storytellers, and creating more original fantasy movies and TV shows could be very lucrative for Netflix. From Game of Thrones to The Lord of the Rings, some of the most popular franchises in the world are fantasy franchises, but Netflix doesn’t have much in the way of original fantasy content. It has plenty of sci-fi, from Stranger Things to Black Mirror, but its lack of fantasy movies and TV shows is sending fantasy fans to other streaming services. Damsel could be a great start.
