While Disney’s upcoming live-action Mulan remake won’t exactly feature anywhere near as much of the whimsy as the studio’s 1998 animated feature, the final trailer makes obvious that what this movie’s lost in the way of cartoonishness, it’s more than made up for with straight-up epic fantasy action that’s unlike anything Disney’s done in a while.
The final trailer revisits all of Mulan’s narrative beats that we’re familiar with at this point, but it also features a number of new scenes focused on Mulan (Liu Yifei) and legendary witch Xian Lang (Gong Li) who seem to have a rather fascinating dynamic with one another.
Even though Xian Lang’s been tasked to eliminate Mulan by the Böri Khan (Jason Scott Li), the witch doesn’t eliminate her target on sight, and she easily deduces that Mulan’s posing as a man in order to serve in the army. It would likely be nothing for Xiang Lang to take Mulan out with her magical abilities alone, but the witch finds the prospect of Mulan’s exposure being the cause of her downfall more fascinating.
Xiang Lang might not be inclined to murder Mulan, but the rest of the Hun horde certainly is, and in the trailer, you see just how much Mulan’s leaning into a fantastical take on its fight sequences. The movie might not have any wisecracking dragons, but it’s going to have wirework for days, and some absolutely epic shots of people kicking all kinds of arse.
Mulan hits theatres on March 26.