Oscar Snub ‘The Woman King,’ Starring Viola Davis, Coming to Netflix on Feb. 16
The world’s largest streamer will soon have a new ruler. Emmy, Tony and Academy Award-winner Viola Davis stars in “The Woman King,” which is coming to Netflix on Thursday, Feb. 16.
The film centers on the Agojie, a group of all-female warriors who protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey between the 17th and 19th centuries. “The Woman King” captures their exploits in a historically accurate way that offers cinematic battle scenes, as well as intimate and heartfelt performances and top-notch cinematography.
A warrior becomes a legend.
— Netflix (@netflix) February 2, 2023
Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, and John Boyega star in director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s incredible film The Woman King. Coming to Netflix on February 16. pic.twitter.com/QZdSDVi0cx
The film features an all-star cast, including Davis, John Boyega, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Adrienne Warren, and Hero Fiennes Tiffin. It garnered a 94% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and a whopping 99% of audiences who saw the film gave it a thumbs up. With so much acclaim behind it, there’s no wonder many fans are raising an eyebrow at the fact that the movie garnered zero Oscar nominations.
Related: How to Stream Notable 2023 Oscar Snubs
The movie’s arrival on streaming comes 153 days after its initial theatrical release. That puts its streaming release right in line with The Streamable's prediction for when audiences would be able to watch the movie from home.
The film is based on real historical figures, which offered unique challenges in production according to director Gina Prince-Blythewood. “The biggest eye-opener,” she told the Los Angeles Times, “was how much misinformation there is about these women and this culture, given that so much of their history was written from the colonizer’s point of view. So it was really about separating the texts that were from that point of view, which were so disparaging and disrespectful, from the truth.”
Netflix could certainly use a movie like “The Woman King” to distract its users, these days. Earlier this week, the service created quite a stir by accidentally posting anti-password sharing guidelines from Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru on its American Help Center page. This led many to assume that these measures were Netflix’s first steps toward curbing password sharing in the United States, and put the company in damage control mode.
If you’re one of the users who canceled their subscription when they learned that Netflix was potentially implementing its password-sharing crackdown, you may want to reconsider. Oscar snub or no, “The Woman King” was one of the best movies of 2022, and it’s coming to streaming exclusively on Netflix on Thursday, Feb. 16.
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