The Northman

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About

The Northman is a 2022 epic historical action drama directed by Robert Eggers based on the Scandinavian legend of Amleth. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, a Viking warrior prince on a quest for revenge. Due to the setting of the film matching subjects popular among paganists and white supremacists (such as Nordic lore), as well as the movie featuring an all-white cast, the film spawned memes that presented it as a movie intended exclusively for white audiences and white supremacists in particular.

History

On April 24th, 2022, the epic historical action drama The Northman by Robert Eggers was released (trailers shown below).^[1] The film, set in the Viking Age, stars Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, a Viking warrior prince who sets on a quest to avenge the murder of his father, with Nikole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Björk and Willem Dafoe in supporting roles.

Reception

The film received positive critic reviews, with an aggregated critic score of 89 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.^[2] As of April 29th, 2022, the film had a 67 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 7.9 on IMDb.^[3]

Online Presence

The film's all-white cast and its setting in the Viking Age, incidentally popular with paganists and white supremacists, inspired memes in which The Northman was presented as a movie intended exclusively for white audiences and for white supremacists. For example, on April 21st, Twitter^[4] user @hereliesthighs posted a Kinoplex Robert meme referencing the white supremacy code term 1488, which gained over 80 retweets and nearly 1,400 likes in one week (shown below, left). On April 23rd, 2022, Twitter^[5] user @AmericazLad posted another Kinoplex Robert meme that gained over 450 retweets and 7,200 likes in six days (shown below, center).

On April 22nd, 2022, Daily Mail^[6] published an article titled, "White supremacists hijack The Northman: Blockbuster starring Nicole Kidman features Nordic lore popular with alt-right groups who hail its 'all-white cast and pure masculinity," citing posts on Reddit and 4chan in which users celebrated the film over its all-white cast and Viking setting as examples of white supremacists claiming the film (screenshot shown below, left). On April 22nd, The Guardian^[7] published an article titled, "Norse code: are white supremacists reading too much into The Northman?," in which the author discussed whether it was possible "to tell historical tales without appealing to toxic ideologies" (screenshot shown below, center).

In the following days, both screenshots of both articles were widely circulated online, assisting the spread of the meme. For example, on April 24th, 2022, Twitter^[8] user @Lukewearechange posted a screenshot of the Daily Mail article, writing, "They will try to cancel everything until nothing is left other than their trash." The post gained over 210 retweets and 1,900 likes in five days (shown below, right).

In late April 2022, memes presenting the movie as a film exclusively for white audiences gained significant virality online, particularly on iFunny. For example, on April 24th, 2022, iFunny^[9] user Palkkasoturi posted a meme that received over 9,000 smiles on iFunny in five days (shown below, left). On April 28th, iFunny^[10] user AntiKhrist posted a Sam Hyde's "Adolf Hitler Needs Me" meme that received over 540 smiles on the app in one day shown below, right).

White Supremacist Vikings vs. Probably Actual Vikings

On April 26th, 2022, Twitter^[11] user @jmhenner tweeted an image from the film and an image from the comedy series Our Flag Means Death, writing, "white supremasist vikings versus probably actual vikings." The tweet gained over 950 quote tweets against nearly 350 likes in four days, being effectively ratioed (shown below, left). In the following days, the tweet was heavily mocked and parodied by other users (examples shown below, center and right).^[12]^[13]

The Northman Subway Posters

The Northman Subway Posters refers to advertisements for The Northman put up in New York City subway stations that don't actually feature the title of the movie. Though it's unclear if this was intentional or an oversight on the poster designer's part, the lack of a movie title amused social media users, who joked about it by adding false titles to the poster. The lack of a title on the ads generated significant discussion online leading up to the movie's release date, resulting in some speculating that it was intentional.