‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ Trailer: Snow White Gets Frozen

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what Snow White sequel is the least Snow White-y of them all?

Why that would be The Huntsman: Winter’s War, a sideways sorta sequel to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman, which starred Kristen Stewart as the fairy tale princess (turned warrior) and Chris Hemsworth as a guy who threw a lot of axes. This follow-up basically swaps Snow White for Frozen, with Stewart departing and Emily Blunt joining the cast as Elsa “The Ice Queen,” who has cool freezing powers, and Jessica Chastain as “The Warrior.” A plot summary:

Long before the evil Queen Ravenna (Theron) was thought vanquished by Snow White’s blade, she watched silently as her sister, Freya (Blunt), suffered a heartbreaking betrayal and fled their kingdom. With Freya’s ability to freeze any enemy, the young ice queen has spent decades in a remote wintry palace raising a legion of deadly huntsmen — including Eric (Hemsworth) and warrior Sara (Chastain) — only to find that her prized two defied her one demand: Forever harden your hearts to love. When Freya learns of her sister’s demise, she summons her remaining soldiers to bring the Magic Mirror home to the only sorceress left who can harness its power. But once she discovers Ravenna can be resurrected from its golden depths, the wicked sisters threaten this enchanted land with twice the darkest force it’s ever seen. Now, their amassing army shall prove undefeatable ... unless the banished huntsmen who broke their queen’s cardinal rule can fight their way back to one another.

Snow White and the Huntsman was a reasonable success for Universal in 2012; it made just under $400 million worldwide against a reported budget of $170 million. But another one without Snow White? That just seems misguided, like a sequel to The Fugitive without Harrison Ford or a second Caddyshack without Rodney Dangerfield and Bill Murray. Who cares what the Huntsman’s been up to these days? Still, Blunt and Chastain are both fabulous actresses. Getting to see them square off could be worth the price of admission. The Huntsman: Winter’s War opens in theaters on April 22, 2016.