IMPERIUM Trailer

Daniel Radcliffe has certainly blazed his own trail post-Potter, but Imperium takes him out on a limb no one was expecting. Images of him as a white supremacist are certainly startling, so much so that the poster clearly puts his FBI badge front and center to soften the blow. Yep, Radcliffe’s character is only pretending to be Neo-Nazi, but that’s still enough to jar your Potter memories into nightmarish territory.

The trailer makes clear that Radcliffe’s character isn’t exactly good at the whole infiltration thing, as evidenced by the amount of sweating and twitching we get. Toni Collette is pulling second billing as the FBI agent who sends him on the mission, and I’m guessing she’s going to do a lot of coaching to see him through. Failure doesn’t seem to be an option, because if Radcliffe’s character slips up, it’s obvious that there will be dire, violent consequences.

All of this culminates in a rather disturbing trailer, nicely edited to make the tension ebb and flow. It will be interesting to see how this film’s release is affected by the increasing polarization that is plaguing many countries, as the film is clearly arguing against that path. By the time this movie rolls into theaters, people might be too worn out for even an entertaining lecture. Or just maybe people will listen.

Imperium is directed by Daniel Ragussis and stars Daniel Radcliffe and Toni Collette. It will be released in the U.S. on August 19th, 2016 and in the U.K. on September 16th, 2016. Further release dates are not currently known.

Do you think Imperium will be as politically-minded as its trailer? Let us know in the comments!