Tessa Thompson is starring in a new sapphic take on the classic play Hedda Gabler, and the recently released trailer is dripping with lust, longing and revenge.

The film is an adaptation of the 1891 play Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, with the iconic character having been played by the likes of Dame Maggie Smith, Cate Blanchett and Rosamund Pike. In this new version, titled Hedda, writer and director Nia DaCosta puts a sapphic spin on the story, turning the protagonist’s former lover into a woman.

The film also relocates the story to 1950s London, where married socialite Hedda Gabler, played by Thompson, rekindles feelings of longing and resentment during a particularly lavish party. Schemes and secrets threaten to spill out as the characters deal with desire, lust and revenge.

As the official synopsis reads, “Hedda (Tessa Thompson) finds herself torn between the lingering ache of a past love and the quiet suffocation of her present life. Over the course of one charged night, long-repressed desires and hidden tensions erupt — pulling her and everyone around her into a spiral of manipulation, passion, and betrayal.”

Speaking to Vanity Fair about the decision to turn Hedda’s former lover into a woman, director DaCosta said: “You do have this extra layer of another thing that these women are fighting against to just feel like they’re people who matter in the eyes of the men that tell them what they should and shouldn’t be doing. This made it more potent, more powerful, and also more unfortunately tragic.”

In the first trailer, released on August 21, this tension comes to the forefront, as the video shows glimpses of longing gazes and stolen kisses in the garden.

Hedda is set to premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and will then land in cinemas on October 22. A week later, it will be available for streaming on Prime Video (October 29). And if you simply can’t wait, watch the trailer below:

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