The Kid Who Would Be King (2019) on Netflix

PG20192hAction Adventure Family Fantasy

Twelve-year-old Alex pulls a sword from concrete at a construction site and finds it is Excalibur. A teenage Merlin warns him that the sorceress Morgana must be stopped within four days.

Netflix3.3/5
IMDb6.1/1020,819 votes
Rotten Tomatoes90%

Trailer

Watch the trailer on YouTube

Plot summary

Alex, a twelve-year-old Year 7 student in a London suburb. When older pupils Lance and Kaye pick on his best friend Bedders, Alex steps in, and the headmistress gives the three of them detention. That night Lance and Kaye chase Alex, who hides in a construction site and pulls a mysterious sword from the concrete. Its markings show it to be Excalibur, King Arthur's blade. Deep underground, the sorceress Morgana stirs and sends her Mortes Milles demons hunting for the sword. A teenage newcomer at the school tells Alex he is Merlin, a wizard who ages backward, and warns that Morgana must be stopped within four days. The demons appear only at night. Only Alex and the people he has knighted can see them, and a total solar eclipse will let Morgana cross fully into the world.

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

The film was the second-to-last release from 20th Century Fox as an independent studio, coming out just weeks before The Walt Disney Company completed its takeover of the studio on 20 March 2019, with only Alita: Battle Angel released after it.
Despite earning generally positive reviews, the film became a major box-office bomb, with estimated studio losses reported as high as $50 million once its heavy marketing costs were factored in.
Analysts attributed the film's weak opening to audience fatigue with medieval-themed movies, pointing to recent flops like King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Robin Hood as evidence the subject matter had become a tough sell, especially for a family film.
The Kid Who Would Be King grossed $16.8 million in the United States and Canada and $15.4 million in other territories, a worldwide total of $32.1 million against a production budget of $59 million.