In Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of Ben Dunn’s Warrior Nun Areala, a young girl living in modern times is shocked to learn that she’s actually the latest in a long line of reincarnated holy warriors who ultimately turned to the teachings of Jesus Christ in order to find spiritual salvation. Cut to a thousand or so years in the future, though, things have changed.
But in Warrior Nun’s first trailer, you can see that the story’s changed ever so slightly. Rather than being straight-up destined to become the Warrior Nun, Ava (Alba Baptista) finds herself being chosen by Mother Superion (Sylvia De Fanti) and Father Vincent (Tristan Ulloa) — the two heads of a secret Catholic academy — to become one of many warriors, where young nuns (and at least one young priest) are trained in the martial arts in order to fight demons.
Though Superion and Vincent find Ava quite dead, when they use an ancient relic to embed the halo of an angel into Ava’s back, resurrecting her and imbuing her with all sorts of supernatural abilities that make her the Order of the Cruciform Sword’s best hope at winning the war against Hell. Overlaid in religious ideology as the plot sounds, you really don’t get the sense that Warrior Nun’s all that concerned about blasphemy. Case in point: child nuns shooting at people with machine guns.
It’s interesting to note that Warrior Nun seems to be shifting away from some of the more manga-inspired narrative directions the original comic book went in, though the show’s focus on slick action suggests it’s not fully deviating from the source material. Warrior Nun has a solid chance at being Netflix’s next big hit if it doesn’t pull its punches, but we’ll have to see how it’s all going to turn out later this summer.
Warrior Nun hits Netflix on July 2.