Director Chloé Zhao’s latest film is the adaptation of Hamnet, starring Paul Mescal as a grief-stricken William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as the writer's wife, Agnes. It’s absolutely a sharp turn from her last movie, Eternals, but during our interview with the filmmaker, she shared one way her two films actually tie into each other.
How Hamnet Ties Into Eternals
When CinemaBlend’s Hannah Saulic sat down with the director of Chloé Zhao, the director of Hamnet, which is one of the most acclaimed projects on the 2025 movie schedule, she shared this about the process of making her last two projects:
Archetypal characters, symbols, and colors are really important in my storytelling. So, this is the second time I have given the main characters colors. In Eternals, I did the same thing. So they wear it throughout the whole film.
If you look closely at your favorite movies, you might notice that a lot of great filmmakers use distinct color palettes for their characters in order to help communicate their vision through visuals. From Tim Burton to Wes Anderson, it’s a filmmaking technique that requires a lot of detail, and certainly helps communicate some additional symbolism to the audience...if you pay attention.
Zhao said that she started doing this for the first time on Marvel’s Eternals, and enjoyed the process so much that she decided to continue doing so for Hamnet. What a cool way for two of her films to share some DNA.
Chloé Zhao Breaks Down The Importance Of Color In Hamnet
Hamnet started as a work of historical fiction by Maggie O’Farrell before it became one of the latest book-to-screen adaptations. It follows the relationship between William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) as they deal with the tragic death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet, including inspiring him to write his beloved play Hamlet. Here’s what Zhao told us about William Shakespeare’s color palette:
For Will, it’s blue… because blue is the upper chakra, so it’s the intellect – or the throat chakra and the third eye. It’s blue and sort of a light blue and turquoise and indigo. And so that's where he is. He's the sky.
Chakras are energy centers within the body that originate from ancient Indian culture, and each part of the body has a color associated with it. Zhao used the chakras to dictate what Mescal and Jessie Buckley would wear.
Now, when you watch Hamnet, pay attention to what the playwright is wearing throughout the movie, especially so you can see how it contrasts with his wife's wardrobe. Here’s what the director said about Jessie Buckley’s character of Agnes:
For Agnes it’s red… And red is the color of the root chakra, it's the color of the beating heart. So it’s much more in the body and is the lava in the center of the Earth. As opposed to the heavens and sky. So they represent these two polarities.
Hamnet has been receiving a lot of positive buzz, with an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes for being a “near-masterful study of grief” that is “destined to leave you breathless.” Zhao was hired to make the movie in 2023 after taking a break from directing following the release of Eternals. The director has been candid recently about box office pressures in the past, along with talking about how her Eternals experience helped her with worldbuilding on Hamnet.
Hamnet is now playing in select theaters, and it will go into wide release on December 5.
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