Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche Reunite Nearly 30 Years After The English Patient in The Return Trailer

Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche are reuniting for a gritty new take on a classic epic. 

Fittingly titled The Return, in theaters Dec. 6, the stars’ new movie is a retelling of Homer’s Odyssey. Fiennes, 61, and Binoche, 60, last appeared onscreen together in 1996 Best Picture Oscar winner The English Patient. 

As its newly released trailer reveals, The Return centers on Ithaca king Odysseus (Fiennes) completing his voyage back home to wife Penelope (Binoche) after winning the Trojan War.

But his homecoming, it seems, is not a triumphant one. The would-be hero can be heard asking someone, “What will the people say when they see I have returned alone? That I led all their men to their deaths?”

Directed and co-written by Italian filmmaker Uberto Pasolini, the new film costars Charlie Plummer, Marwan Kenzari, Claudio Santamaria and Ángela Molina. When the “haggard and unrecognizable” Odysseus “washes up on the shores of Ithaca,” reads an official synopsis from distributor Bleecker Street, Penelope “is now a prisoner in her own home, hounded by her many ambitious suitors to choose a new husband.” 

Plummer, 25, plays Prince Telemachus, threatened by his mother’s suitors. Odysseus “is forced to face his past in order to rediscover the strength needed to save his family and win back the love he has lost,” concludes the synopsis. 

The trailer shows off several examples of that strength, with a scantily clad Fiennes wielding every manner of weapon to great blood-spurting effect. After Penelope promises her hand to the suitor who can shoot an arrow through a row of axes, he can be seen picking up a bow to take aim. 

The Return had its world premiere on Sept. 7 at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, where Binoche told The Hollywood Reporter that it was “joyful” to reunite onscreen with Fiennes after The English Patient and 1992’s Wuthering Heights adaptation, the Harry Potter star’s feature film debut. “We remained friends, throughout all those years,” said the French actress, who won the 1997 Supporting Actress Oscar for her English Patient performance. 

Fiennes told the outlet that “it was, as you Americans say, a no-brainer” to play onscreen husband to Binoche. “Juliette is like a compass for me: She has such an extraordinary, intuitive depth and understanding about what it is to act on film.”

Of The Return, Pasolini, 67, told Variety in 2022, “I feel enormously fortunate to be able to bring Homer’s world alive through the great talent of Juliette and Ralph, whose powerful screen presence is matched by the fearlessness they bring to their work.”

The Return is in theaters Dec. 6.