Joe Cornish (Finally) Returns With The Kid Who Would Be King

Back in 2011, Joe Cornish wrote and directed Attack the Block, a fun alien invasion movie set in a rundown London apartment complex that should’ve received a whole lot more attention than it did. Afterwards, Cornish seemed to disappear (though he did co-write Ant-Man and was apparently in the running to direct Star Trek Beyond.)

He’s now returned with The Kid Who Would Be King, a modern take on the King Arthur legend in which a young boy discovers Excalibur, and must raise an army to fight an impending invasion of monsters led by the evil sorceress Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson). Oh… and it stars Patrick Stewart as Merlin the Magician.

I’ll be honest: if this didn’t have Joe Cornish’s name attached to it, I’d probably file it away as something to maybe watch with my kids when it hits Netflix or Redbox. But because Cornish is behind this, my expectations are definitely higher. With Attack the Block, Cornish put some fresh, interesting twists on the alien invasion genre, and maybe he’s done the same here to the children’s fantasy genre.

We’ll find out when The Kid Who Would Be King is released on March 1, 2019.