"Never take for granted that your children’s hearts beat, that they sup milk, that they draw breath, that they walk and speak and smile and argue and play. Never for a moment forget they may be gone, snatched from you in the blink of an eye, borne away from you like thistledown."
— Mary Shakespeare
Hamnet is a 2025 historical drama film based off the book of the same name by Maggie O'Farrell. It is directed by Chloé Zhao, written by Zhao and O'Farrell, and stars Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Joe Alwyn, and Emily Watson.
In the 16th century, William Shakespeare (Mescal) marries the strong-willed Agnes Hathaway (Buckley) and starts a family with her. Their marriage suffers after the death of their son Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), a tragedy that would come to inspire the play Hamlet. The film premiered August 29, 2025 at the Telluride Film Festival and released wide on November 27 that same year.
"Keep your tropes open."
- Abusive Parents:
- William's father John, who has him working to pay off his debts, and is seen hitting him several times.
- Agnes' own stepmother isn't explicitly abusive, but it's clear they don't have a particularly close relationship either and she doubts In Harmony with Nature Agnes will get married at the start of the film.
- Actor Allusion: The program promoting William's new tragedy states that the title role is played by "a Mr. Jupe", and the same is done for some of the other actors/characters.
- Adaptational Name Change: As with the novel, Anne Hathaway's name is changed to Agnes Shakespeare to avoid confusion with the much more famous Anne Hathaway (despite the fact that the future actress was actually named after her). Though a case of the Inconsistent Spelling present at the time also applies: Anne's name is listed as Agnes in her father's will, which provides some historical precedent for the name change.
- Advertising by Association: The teaser cites director Chloé Zhao as an Academy Award winner (for Nomadland)
- And Starring: "And Noah Jupe".
- Angsty Surviving Twin: Judith immediately blames herself for her twin Hamnet's death, though her mother and grandmother try to assure her that it wasn't her fault.
- Artistic License – History:
- Hamlet is played by a young and apparently inexperienced actor named Jupe (named after Noah Jupe, who plays him). In fact, Hamlet was first played by Richard Burbage, the leading actor and one of the main shareholders in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, who was well into his thirties at the time; no theatre troupe of the time would have given the lead role of a play to a new actor.
- Shakespeare swims with the front crawl stroke, which was not introduced to Europe until the 19th century by Ojibwe swimmers.
- Hamlet was first performed around four years after Hamnet's death, not the one year implied in the film. Whether or not William intended to connect Prince Hamlet to his son is also hotly contested, with almost all historical scholars flatly rejecting the notion; Hamlet was inspired by the Scandinavian legend of Amleth, and Hamnet was a very common name for the time. Modern researchers have softened their stance somewhat, with it being suggested that William's grief may have influenced several plays alongside Hamlet including Twelfth Night and King Lear, but there is still far from consensus on this.
- The film fills many holes in the historical record about Shakespeare and his family. For example, almost nothing is known of Shakespeare's relationship with his wife, with some historians claiming that he was forced to marry her and resented her for the rest of his life, while others point to evidence of affection between the couple. The relationship we see in the film is entirely invented for the story.
- Big Brother Instinct:
- Despite being only a few minutes older than Judith, Hamnet lies next to her to protect her in the hopes that the spirit of death will take him instead of her.
- Agnes' own older brother Bartholomew enforces their marriage, and when she mentions William's erratic behavior, makes it very clear that he'll have hell to pay if he hits her.
- Bittersweet Ending: Hamnet dies, causing a strain in Agnes' and William's marriage. Agnes attends William's play and realises that it was a tribute to Hamnet. Moved, she holds the hand of Hamlet's actor when Hamlet dies, with the audience reaching out towards him in turn, and smiles for the first time since Hamnet's death, a sign she may be receiving the closure she needs, and moving on from her grief.
- But Now I Must Go: In the end, Hamnet's spirit lingers enough to bid his mother goodbye, but then he reluctantly must go away into whatever is after death.
- Cope by Creating: Writing the play Hamlet allows William to process Hamnet's death, and Agnes correctly interprets the play as a tribute to their son. William even portrays the ghost of Hamlet's father so he can bid goodbye to the avatar of his son onstage, and has a cathartic cry in his quarters afterwards.
- Death of a Child: The story tells the fallout of the death of William and Agnes’s son Hamnet, who was just 11 years old when he died.
- Death Wail: Agnes lets out a primal, painful howl when Hamnet dies.
- Delicate and Sickly: Judith is often this, according to Agnes, and takes with the plague, nearly killing her. Part of why Agnes puts off moving the family to London is the fear that the city's pollution would be too much for Judith's lungs to bear.
- Dramatic Irony: From her birth, Judith appears to be a sickly child, and Agnes constantly worries about her health. Of course, viewers well know that it's Hamnet, not his twin sister, who ends up dying.
- Descended Creator: In-universe, Shakespeare plays the Ghost in the initial production of Hamlet.
- Dyeing for Your Art: In-Universe example. In the rehearsal scene, we see the actor playing the lead of William's latest tragedy is a young man with dark hair, but when we get to the actual performance of Hamlet, he has dyed it blond. This causes him to bear a sharper resemblance to what Hamnet may have looked like had he lived to young adulthood.
- Ends with a Smile: The film ends with Agnes letting out a smile after seeing Hamlet on stage, the first one she's had since the death of her son.
- Foregone Conclusion: If anyone knows anything about Hamnet Shakespeare, it's that he tragically died as a child and common legend is that Hamlet was a lot of his father working out his grief through the theater. It's no shock when Hamnet passes away midway through the film and Will later writes Hamlet as a tribute.
- Foreseeing My Death: Agnes received a vision of herself on her deathbed. In this case, it's not the circumstances of her death that concern her so much as who's with her: she sees two of her children by her side in the vision, which becomes a problem when she has twins for her second pregnancy, therefore having three children.
- Foreshadowing: Hamnet and Judith swap places in their first scene together. Ultimately, Hamnet offers to take Judith's place when death comes for her.
- Hope Spot: When William arrives home after learning Judith came down with the plague, he sees her healthy at the doorstep and sweeps her into his arms, almost sobbing with relief...then he looks inside and sees Hamnet's body.
- In Harmony with Nature: Spurring rumors that she is a "forest witch", Agnes can feed a semi-wood hawk by hand and spends much of her time in the wilds outside of town, even birthing Susanna in the shade of her favorite tree. Will, by contrast, prefers urban life where the only green spaces are the ones he deliberately constructs on-stage.
- Lady in Red: Downplayed, but Agnes is a mysterious, independent woman who usually wears red dresses and quickly earns the attention of William, although he is the only person she tries to seduce in the film and it snore of a joint effort.
- Life/Death Juxtaposition: Judith recovers from the plague just as Hamnet contracts it and dies. Later, Judith is seen playing with a kitten, implied to be the kitten of the baker's cat that Hamnet previously called his sister to go see.
- Match Cut: The teaser features shots of a cave in the woods cutting to a cave built in the set of the globe, as well as Shakespeare play sword fighting with his son to a duel onstage.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
- Does Agnes come from a line of forest witches with second sight, or is she just a strong-willed woman with good working knowledge of the natural world?
- Did Hamnet actually persuade Death to let him trade places with his sister, or did he just catch the plague and get unlucky while Judith pulled through? Judith seems to believe the former and blames herself for her twin's death. Her grandmother, Mary Shakespeare, refuses to accept that.
- Is Hamnet's fever dream before he dies him literally him being Unstuck in Time to see his parents one last time at the first staging of Hamlet to give them closure, or just that: a fever dream?
- Men Get Old, Women Get Replaced: Will is graying by the end of the film. While Agnes's wardrobe becomes more somber, no effort is made to make her look older even though she's the older of the two.
- Missing Mom: Agnes and Bartholomew lost their mother at a very young age.
- Mythology Gag:
- Hamnet and Judith swap clothes in an attempt to prank their parents, which Will plays along with. Crossdressing characters are a noted recurring motif in William Shakespeare's plays.
- In an early scene Will is shown trying to write Romeo and Juliet, coming up with the "but soft! What light through yonder window breaks" scene.
- Will's three children are shown in costume, rattling off the opening lines of Macbeth.
- There is a tradition that William Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father in Hamlet. There's no actual evidence proving that, but sure enough in this movie Will is playing the Ghost when Agnes comes to see the play.
- At the beginning of the movie Will narrating the story of Orpheus says "the rest is silence" (Hamlet).
- Outliving One's Offspring: Agnes and William's marriage suffers after the death of their only son, 11-year-old Hamnet, from the plague. William’s mother Mary also mentions how she lost three daughters.
- Perma-Stubble: Agnes's brother is frequently scruffy but technically unbearded.
- Prophecy Twist:
- Agnes has had a vision of her deathbed showing two of her children. She interprets this as she's only going to have two kids, and is adamant that her second pregnancy will be her last. Then that pregnancy results in a Surprise Multiple Birth...but one twin appears stillborn as it emerges from the womb. She begs it to live in defiance of the vision and the baby (Judith) pulls through, but grows up sickly. Finally, Judith's twin — the thus-far healthy and ruddy-faced Hamnet — contracts the plague and rapidly dies.
- Agnes's prediction of Hamnet's future isn't necessarily wrong, she just doesn't realize that it's his namesake character finding success in his father's theater, not Hamnet himself.
- The Reveal: Although people familiar with the details of William Shakespeare's life will have figured it out long before then, the film is about 3/4 done when the identity of Agnes's husband is revealed, when Susanna shows off a flier for her father's play, Hamlet. (And in case anyone still doesn't get it, a few minutes later Agnes's brother asks directly for "William Shakespeare" when they're looking for his lodging in London.)
- Right Through His Pants: Oddly enough, William is still wearing his pants up to his waist when he and Agnes first consummate their love.
- Screaming Birth: Agnes lets out intense screams both times she goes into labor — justified since painkillers for labor didn’t exist in 16th century England.
- Shotgun Wedding: Inverted, Agnes and William have a baby so that their families will have to let them get married.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: After her son's death, Agnes swaps her vibrant red and orange outfit for more subdued browns and grays.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Agnes's little half-brothers have little screen time, but William being hired to tutor them is how he meets his wife.
- Surprise Multiple Birth: Agnes wonders why she can't tell if her second pregnancy is going to be a boy or a girl. It's because it's male/female fraternal twins.
- Sword Fight: William and Hamnet have a play sword fight before he leaves for London, and Hamnet fondly wishes to perform a sword fight on stage. In that light, Hamlet's climactic sword fight with Laertes can be seen as a fulfillment of that wish.
- Thin-Skinned Bully: John Shakespeare spends most of his screen time physically and verbally abusing William. When William brings up how he is the one who got them indebted, John instantly smacks him, and when William finally has enough, he grabs his father and forces him against a wall. John is left stammering in wide-eyed terror and he never lays a hand on his son again.
- Together in Death: Unable to bear the thought of being alive without his beloved twin sister, Hamnet decides to contract the plague as well so that he and Judith may die together. He eventually changes his mind and tries to convince Death to switch places with her so that she can live.
- Twin Switch: Judith and Hamnet exchange their clothes and pretend to be each others as a prank. Williams goes along and pretends to be fooled
- Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born: Fraternal twins Hamnet and Judith are born to Agnes and William in a Surprise Multiple Birth.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Judith and Hamnet have a habit of switching their clothes and pretending to be each other. Big sister Susanna rolls her eyes, but their parents find the charade adorable.
- Women's Mysteries: Agnes learned herbal lore from her deceased biological mother, and later passes her knowledge down to her daughters.
- You're Not My Father: Agnes' stepmother pays her a visit in the new house, but Agnes rejects her, saying that Joan has never been her mother.