1995’s Braveheart remains one of the most popular action epics ever made. Now, after 25 years, fans of the period war movie are finally getting the sequel they’ve secretly been longing for. Well, sort of.
Robert the Bruce is an upcoming film about the titular Scottish king, whom you’ll remember from Braveheart. In that Oscar-winning film, the historical character was an ally of Mel Gibson‘s freedom-fighter William Wallace, and was portrayed by Angus Macfadyen. By the end of the film, after Wallace’s death, the newly-minted king Robert leads the Scots into battle against the English, in the memory of their fallen comrade.
The new film is all about Robert and his reign as Scotland’s king, and he is again portrayed by Macfadyen. That may lead you to think that the film is a sanctioned sequel of Braveheart, but it isn’t. The two movies are produced by completely different studios, but Robert the Bruce can get away with masquerading as a Braveheart sequel — as long as it doesn’t claim to be one — because both films are based on historical events. So with that legal mumbo-jumbo out of the way, how does this not-a-sequel look? Take a look for yourself at the trailer below.
What’s clear from the get-go is this is no Braveheart. This is a low-budget, indie film that happens to share an actor with that expensive and prestigious Hollywood blockbuster. That doesn’t mean Robert the Bruce will necessarily be a bad film, it just means that fans shouldn’t go into it expecting another Braveheart. In other words, they may make a decent movie about Robert the Bruce, but they’ll never make… an official sequel to Braveheart!
Robert the Bruce arrives in theaters on April 24.
