At New York Comic Con, the adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s novel premiered an extended trailer on the Empire Stage, with director Gina Prince‑Bythewood and the main cast present.

The trailer puts the royal family’s strained ties front and centre: King Saran (Chiwetel Ejiofor) whose violent act drives Princess Amari (Amandla Stenberg) to flee, and Prince Inan (Damson Idris) torn between duty and conscience.

During a panel moderated by Knives Out filmmaker Rian Johnson, the actors talked about the emotional conflicts that drive the film’s two central families.

Prince‑Bythewood gathered the three royal actors to imagine their characters’ shared past, even scenes that may never appear on screen. “Gina got us together and we kind of just talked about things that may have happened and may not have happened,” Idris explained.

Idris said those conversations helped him understand Inan’s “complicated” emotions. Stenberg added that the family’s love‑and‑mistrust dynamic feels “beautiful and painful,” while Ejiofor described King Saran as a man driven by trauma and rage.

The director summed up her aim, calling the film an “intimately grounded fantasy” where personal relationships give the story its emotional weight.

The panel’s discussion shows that, for the filmmakers, weaving family drama into a large‑scale fantasy can make the world feel more relatable and emotionally resonant.