There’s a line in the trailer—“Nothing can go wrong tonight, Hedda. Nothing…”—that lands like an omen. Because of course everything goes wrong. Nia DaCosta’s Hedda, a daring reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, doesn’t just flirt with disaster, it seduces it. And with Tessa Thompson front and center, the chaos feels combustible in a way Ibsen might not recognize but would almost certainly respect.
The film, premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025, takes a play often shelved as “theater literature” and jolts it into modern emotional voltage. DaCosta—whose career has swung from Little Woods to Candyman to Marvel’s cosmic chaos in The Marvels—isn’t just reworking the material. She’s reclaiming it. Here, Hedda isn’t just a tragic woman pacing the drawing room; she’s a manipulator, a game-player, a woman drunk on destruction.
Thompson’s Hedda simmers with contradictions: elegance undercut by cruelty, longing poisoned by boredom. The trailer teases her attraction to Nina Hoss’s Eileen Lovborg, the intellectual rival and sexual disruptor who pushes Hedda further into self-annihilation. It’s rare to see a trailer balance period intensity with modern cadence, but DaCosta seems intent on making the 19th-century burn with 21st-century nerves.
Behind the curtain, the production is stacked: Imogen Poots, Tom Bateman, Nicholas Pinnock, and Hoss round out a cast that looks both refined and ready for blood sport. Producers include Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Gabrielle Nadig, and Thompson herself, signaling this isn’t a casual star-for-hire gig. Thompson is in this one—collaborator, not passenger.
The release strategy feels smart: TIFF as the testing ground (where dramas either combust or wither under the sharp Canadian autumn air), followed by a Prime Video global streaming debut on October 29, 2025. Just in time for Halloween week, which is… apt. Because DaCosta’s Hedda looks less like a drawing-room melodrama and more like a horror story about power, desire, and people who light matches just to watch them burn.
It’s been said before that Hedda Gabler is a role actors dream of and audiences dread. Too cerebral, too cold, too… Scandinavian. But watching Thompson hold a pistol in one hand and a smirk in the other? Gorgeous. Grating. Gorgeous again. Maybe this is the Hedda that finally breaks through.
What Stands Out About Hedda
Tessa Thompson’s Dangerous Hedda
She looks less like a tragic victim and more like a woman who knows exactly how much fire she’s playing with.
DaCosta’s Reclamation of Ibsen
Rather than worshipping the text, DaCosta bends it—turning a 19th-century play into a 21st-century confrontation.
A Cast Built for Sparks
Imogen Poots, Nina Hoss, and Nicholas Pinnock aren’t background noise; they’re fuel.
Festival Timing That Matters
TIFF 2025 is the right stage—an audience primed for bold reinterpretations and star-driven risks.
A Streaming Launch with Bite
October 29 on Prime Video sets Hedda up as fall’s provocative conversation starter, not just another period piece.
