(Spoiler alert: Do not read on if you haven’t seen “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.”)
If you were one of the fans watching “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” over the weekend and found yourself thinking, “Wow, I see a lot of similarities to ‘Game of Thrones,’” you were definitely not the only one. And director Joachim Rønning is aware of these comparisons but takes them as a “compliment.”
“I take that as a huge compliment,” Rønning told TheWrap’s Beatrice Verhoeven. “It is kind of like a fantastical, medieval-y world, so there is some resemblance there. There is a power struggle, factions, the battle… yeah.”
During the big battle scene at the end of the movie, Aurora’s forest friends get locked in a chapel and get massacred by the minions of Queen Ingris (Michelle Pfeiffer). Of course, avid “Game of Thrones” fans might reminisce on the famous Red Wedding scene in season three of George R. R. Martin’s show, where the Starks get slaughtered by Walder Frey’s family.
The green powder the fairies give off when they get killed could remind “Game of Thrones” fans of Wildfire, the flammable liquid used in many scenes of the show as a weapon of ultimate destruction. And even just the factions coming together to fight against the greater evil and the politics involved are similarities to HBO’s award-winning show.
The “Maleficent” franchise was always meant to be a little darker than other Disney films given that the character in the original fairytales was always considered evil. But given the film’s PG rating and the fact that it’s still a Disney film, Rønning explained, the deaths in the final battle scene had to be toned down significantly, to the point where you really don’t see any corpses. The fairies literally go — for lack of a better term — poof.
Overall, the message the filmmaker wanted to convey is clear.
“If there’s anything I want to give out there is to share a message of tolerance and acceptance and kindness,” he said. “We use that word a lot in the movie and I think it’s important in these times to realize that you come further with that.”
“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” stars Elle Fanning, Angelina Jolie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ed Skrein and Harris Dickinson. It debuted to $36.9 million last weekend and has grossed $155 million worldwide so far.
Watch the video above.