Riz Ahmed has built an impressive career resume over the last decade and more, taking on roles in major franchises like Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (Carlton Drake in Venom), Jason Bourne (Aaron Kalloor), and Star Wars (Bohdi Rook in Rogue One). He also has both an Oscar award (The Long Goodbye, 2022) and an Emmy (The Night Of, 2017) under his belt, cementing him as one of the great actors of this generation. Following a recent portrayal of Severus Snape in a new version of the Harry Potter books on audio, Ahmed now has his next role set, as he takes on one of the most legendary tragedies in history.
Vertical released the first official trailer for Aneill Karia’s Hamlet, which was first released at the Telluride Festival in Telluride, Colorago in 2025. Riz Ahmed plays the leading role of Prince Hamlet next to Art Malik (Claudius), Morfydd Clark (Ophelia), Joe Alwyn (Laertes), and Timothy Spall (Polonius). This modern retelling of the classic Shakespeare tragedy sets the story in London, focusing on the city’s elite South Asian community in a present-day setting.
Hamlet returns for his father’s funeral to learn that his uncle is marrying his newly widowed mother. Then, after being visted by his father’s ghost, he learns that Claudius was responsible for the murder. This sends him spiraling into a quest for vengeance that exposes the family’s dark, dirty secrets while threatening his own mental stability in the process.
The trailer centers on Ahmed and his return home, setting the stage for his uncle’s betrayal and the drama that follows as Hamlet reunites with his family. Using some of the same classic dialogue fans know from the original Shakespeare play, this story uses the 21st century as a backdrop for Hamlet’s intense journey, giving the story and characters a new look behind Ahmed’s passionate performance. The full trailer for Hamlet can be seen below:
How a Modern-Day Setting Impacts the Classic Hamlet Story
Shakespeare stories have famously been reworked into modern-day stories in the past, the most prominent example being Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. That movie set Romeo and Juliet’s classic love story squarely in the 1990s and used the same exact script heard in the original Shakespeare play, making for an interesting combination of historical eras behind Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Dane’s performances.
As noted from Hamlet‘s original showing at Telluride, this movie uses almost everything from the original Hamlet script but significantly reorders and abridges the dialogue, focusing more on Hamlet’s perspective. The lines are rearranged and made more concise, which should help more casual audiences follow the story more closely and understand everything happening on screen.
Recreating the story from Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet should bring plenty of dramatic and tense moments to the big screen, as the film appears to be taking a kind of thriller feel for its core genre. With mere weeks remaining until its debut, the stage is set for this legacy tragedy to hold its weight in the modern era amongst more contemporary stories that should offer some stiff box office competition.
Hamlet will debut in theaters on Apr. 10, 2026.
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