First Chaos Walking image shows disheveled Holland & Ridley

October 2nd 2017, 10:21am

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

After an onslaught of adaptations cluttered the market the YA bubble seems to have popped, with the HUNGER GAMES series experiencing a downturn in its final acts and the DIVERGENT series chased out of Dodge. But Hollywood is still trying to find the next big series, and Lionsgate thinks it’s found it in CHAOS WALKING with Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley. The first image dropped recently, and the duo looks properly post-apocalyptic, all disheveled, hungry, and ready to challenge the system.

The image comes via Ridley’s Facebook page with filming underway, as the two go on their adventure in the middle of the woods:

The first movie is based on the first book in the CHAOS WALKING trilogy – THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO – and is being directed by Doug Liman with a script from (*inhales*) Charlie Kaufman, Jamie Linden, Patrick Ness (the series’ author), Lindsey Beer, Gary Spinelli and John Lee Hancock. The film is also being produced by Robert Zemeckis and is set for March 1, 2019.

The story takes place in a dystopian world where all living creatures can hear each other’s thoughts via a stream of images, word, etc. called the Noise. It is told that the Noise is a result of a Spackle-created gem that killed all women and left only the men. Soon, a young, strapping man from Prentisstown named Todd (Holland) finds a patch of land where the Noise doesn’t exist and finds that the source of the silence is a girl – Viola (Ridley). His surrogate parents then leave him with a map and no answers and tell him to run and warn a ship of settlers of an impending war.

The image doesn’t reveal much but does give us a visual of the duo in action, and they certainly look ready to lead their dystopian, YA franchise. The book series has gained high acclaim, and the last Ness work to be adapted was last year’s A MONSTER CALLS – an amazing and criminally under-looked film. I don’t hope this series revitalizes the YA craze, but I do hope it’s as good as people claim the source material is. The last thing I want is for Spider-Man and Rey to be attached to a big ol’ dud like this.

CHAOS WALKING arrives March 1, 2019 with Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen, Demián Bichir, Kurt Sutter, Nick Jonas, David Oyelowo