Within two weeks of its Netlfix premiere on Thursday, December 1st, Troll has become the most popular non-English film on the service. The film has racked up 128 million hours viewed and counting, making it the top non-English Netflix film. 93 countries, including Norway, France, Germany, the U.S., the U.K., Japan, South Korea, Brazil, and Mexico, rank it in the Top 10. It follows a group of friends who band together to stop an ancient troll after it’s awakened and threatens to bring chaos.
Roar Uthaug directed the Norwegian folklore film, with a cast that includes Ine Marie Wilmann, Kim Falck, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen, Gard B. Eidsvold, Pål Richard Lunderby, and Eric Vorenholt. With a certified fresh rating of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, Troll has also surpassed Netflix’s previous most popular non-English film, Blood Red Sky, directed by Peter Thorwarth.
Speaking to What’s On Netflix, producer Kristen Strand Sinkerud discussed how the streaming platform showed immediate support for the project: “Netflix really bought into our vision for the film and what’s fortunate when working with Netflix compared traditional financing for Norwegian and Nordic films is that they are able to enhance the film,” she shared. “So ultimately, Troll has become a much bigger film than we were initially able to finance and obviously that is something we really like.”
The producer also shared what this warm response to the film can mean in the future: “As filmmakers, you always have ambitions to make something that can last a little longer than one film.” she said. “Of course, we have ambitions to make a sequel and perhaps two sequels, but it all depends on how the audience are responding to Troll.”
Uthang also spoke about his inspiration for Troll, in which he blended traditional expectations of Hollywood filmmaking with European elements.
“I grew up watching movies from Hollywood, and those were the ones that inspired me to get into filmmaking, but I also try and bring in European and Scandinavian styles, those kind of down-to-earth characters who you really care about and get to know them before all hell breaks loose,” the director shared. “Also, I try to inject a lot of heart to the movie because you need to care about the people and also, I think I like to give the audience a sense of joy and wonderment.”
Troll is available to stream on Netflix.
