After disappearing from HBO Max in late September, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is making waves on Netflix. Although the movie was notably a box office disaster for Warner Bros. in 2017 and may have hurt Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam’s chances at becoming a major movie star, the film is surprisingly the number one movie on Netflix. The movie also sits at number six on the overall Top 10 in the U.S. Today chart.
King Arthur is one of the dozens of movies and television shows inspired by the Arthurian legends. Hunnam stars as an adult King Arthur, opposite Astrid Berges-Frisbey as a Mage who worked for Merlin and supports Arthur. The star-studded cast also features Djimon Hounsou as Sir Bedivere, Aidan Gillen as Goosefat Bill, Jude Law as Vortigern, Eric Bana as Uther Pendragon, and Annabelle Wallis as Maggie. Retired soccer star David Beckham also has a cameo role.
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The movie was directed by Guy Ritchie and was the result of Warner Bros.’ several attempts to make movies based on the Arthurian legends following the 2004 King Arthur movie starring Clive Owen. Ritchie became involved in 2014, and production finally began in 2015. The movie was originally supposed to hit theaters in summer 2016, but it didn’t open until almost a year later in May 2017.
After the movie hit theaters and earned mostly negative critical responses, it became clear that Warner Bros.’s dream of a King Arthur cinematic universe in the same vein as the Marvel Cinematic Universe was not to be. The $175 million movie grossed just $148.7 million worldwide and made many wonder if Hunnam was not cut out to lead a blockbuster. In fact, since King Arthur, Hunnam has only starred in smaller-budget movies or taken supporting roles. His biggest project since King Arthur was Netflix’s action movie Triple Frontier, which put him in the middle of a huge ensemble cast alongside Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac.
As for Ritchie, he quickly rebounded. Despite the King Arthur flop, it didn’t stop Disney from hiring him to direct the 2019 live-action Aladdin remake, which made over $1 billion. Ritchie also reunited with Hunnam on The Gentleman. This year, he scored another hit with the Jason Statham-starring Wrath of Man and is now developing Five Eyes, also starring Statham.
Hunnam’s fans could have also checked out Abandon, which he made very early in his career, on HBO Max until it also left in September. The thriller stars Katie Holmes as a college student whose boyfriend, played by Hunnam, went missing. Benjamin Bratt, Zooey Deschanel, and Fred Ward also star in the movie, written and directed by Stephen Gaghan. Abandon left HBO Max on Friday, Sept. 30.
