Millie Bobby Brown rescues herself in exclusive look at “Damsel”

"We’re literally turning the fairy tale upside down," says director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.

Millie Bobby Brown built her career facing off against monsters and murderers, whether it’s racing through the Upside Down in Stranger Things or cracking mysteries in Enola Holmes. But her latest film finds her putting a new twist on a classic genre: the unconventional fairy tale Damsel (out March 8 on Netflix), about a princess struggling to survive after her so-called Prince Charming tries to sacrifice her to a dragon.

Written by Dan Mazeau and directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Damsel has many of the hallmarks of your classic fantasy. Brown stars as the dutiful maiden Elodie, who’s selected to marry a handsome prince. But her wedding has no happily ever after: the royal family tosses her in a cave to appease the realm’s resident dragon, making Elodie the latest victim in a long line of sacrificed women. It becomes part fantasy epic, part brutal action-thriller, as Elodie attempts to claw her way to freedom.

“This princess has to manage a very difficult situation with no help at all,” Fresnadillo tells EW. “If you think about the history of these kind of stories, in terms of the cinema, the princess is always being helped by somebody: the prince, the father, the king. What Dan did with this was adapting the story into a much more contemporary idea of a woman surviving by herself."

The 19-year-old Brown has shared the screen with plenty of scaly beasts, including the titular lizard in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. But Fresnadillo says that Damsel fully shows off the actress’ action skills, following her as she scales cliffs, wields swords, and faces down one very hungry dragon.

“I think this character represents an evolution in the roles that she’s played in her career,” Fresnadillo adds. “In this movie, she does a big step in terms of embracing a really strong independent woman. Not at the beginning, because this is about a girl who’s very dutiful with her father, and she’s flying with the destiny that this family and this kingdom is thinking for her. But she has to grow up. She has to become strong and independent. Millie incarnates that in such an amazing way.”

The film also features some starry names, including Nick Robinson as Elodie’s prince to be, Angela Bassett as her stepmother, and Robin Wright as her future mother-in-law. Wright in particular is no stranger to fractured fairy tales, having launched her career with the 1987 classic The Princess Bride, and Fresnadillo teases that she plays a regal queen unlike any you’ve seen before. “The movies I love are the ones that have a really strong villain,” he explains, “and that’s why we needed such a strong actress with such a sparkling presence on the screen to deliver that complexity and richness. And I think that’s Robin.”

The result, Fresnadillo hopes, is a “modern dark fairy tale” that subverts your standard Hans Christian Andersen or Brothers Grimm fare. With a gleam in his eyes, the director teases that even Elodie’s fire-breathing foe has an unconventional twist.

“We’re literally turning the fairy tale upside down,” he says with a grin, “so we had to do something really different in terms of designing a dragon.”

Damsel will debut on Netflix next year on March 8.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Related content:

• Millie Bobby Brown on the impending end of Stranger Things: 'I think I'm ready'

• Jon Bon Jovi addresses son Jake's engagement to Millie Bobby Brown: 'I don't know if age matters'

• Millie Bobby Brown credits her feminist awakening to a psychic

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.