Timothée Chalamet Has a Bowl Cut in First Look at Netflix’s The King

Twitter has been calling Timothée Chalamet “king” for a minute now, but Netflix is now prepared to coronate him officially. The 23-year-old actor will star in the upcoming The King, an adaptation of several Shakespeare plays that the streaming service hopes to position as one of their main Oscar competitors. Chalamet will portray King Henry V of England (the Henry with all the victories against France, not the one with all the wives) in the project, which is directed by Australian filmmaker David Michôd and co-written by Boy Erased director Joel Edgerton.

Netflix has now released a first look at Timée in character, with the most notable aspect of his physical transformation being that the perfectly tussled mess of hair he displayed in Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird has been replaced by a an appropriately medieval-looking bowl cut. It might seem a bit extreme, but portraits of the actual King Henry V reveal that the monarch might actually have preferred an even more intense version of the coif. Artsy Bushwick boys looking for your next statement cut take note!

Chalamet’s character begins the movie as a moody little prince who has no taste for his father’s royal lifestyle, but, as both history and the movie title would suggest, he becomes king upon his father’s death. Would it be a spoiler alert to let you know that Henry V ends up thriving in the role, especially on the military front, to the point where he almost succeeds in uniting France and England as one country?

Robert Pattinson, who unlike Chalet is actually English, will play a French Prince referred to as “The Dauphine” in the film. Edgerton plays Falstaff, the drunken knight who tries to lead Chalamet’s little prince astray. Ben Mendelsohn os King Henry IV, the dad who dies. Lily-Rose Depp shows up as Catherine, a French princess who marries Chalamet (and, though not historically accurate, is portrayed as Pattinson’s character’s sister in the Shakespeare works). Meanwhile, up-and-comer Thomasin McKenzie will play Phillippa, Chalamet’s sister, who despite being an actual historical figure of importance in her own right, was not included in Shakespeare’s plays.

The film will premier out of competition at the Venice Film Festival. No word yet on when exactly it will stream or whether there are theatrical plans in the works.