Desert Warrior (2025 film)

Desert Warrior is a 2025 historical action film directed by Rupert Wyatt, who co-wrote the screenplay with Erica Beeney and David Self. The film's cast includes Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Sharlto Copley, and Ben Kingsley. The story sees an Arabian princess team up with a bandit to confront a ruthless emperor, who wanted the former to be his concubine.

With a $150 million budget, Desert Warrior is the most expensive film to be produced in Saudi Arabia. The project was intended to revitalize the Saudi film industry, with Saudi crew members receiving training for the production. Filming lasted from September 2021 to February 2022. An extended post-production period, including creative conflicts with Wyatt, contributed to delays in the film's release.

Desert Warrior premiered at the Zurich Film Festival on September 28, 2025, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 24, 2026, by Vertical.

Set in seventh century Arabia, amongst the constant feuding between tribes, the ruthless Emperor Kisra wishes to make Princess Hind his concubine. However, she refuses and instead, with the help of a legendary bandit, looks to confront the Emperor, culminating in the Battle of Ze Qar.

• Anthony Mackie as Hanzala
• Aiysha Hart as Princess Hind
• Sharlto Copley as Jalabzeen
• Ghassan Massoud as King Numan
• Sami Bouajila
• Lamis Ammar
• Géza Röhrig
• Ben Kingsley as Emperor Kisra
• Numan Acar as Ebn Wael

Desert Warrior was announced in November 2021 as a film produced by JB Pictures, AGC Studios, Studio Mechanical, and MBC Studios—the Saudi-backed production arm of MBC. Its story originated from David Self, while the screenplay was written by Self, director Rupert Wyatt and his wife Erica Beeney; Self's original script focused on the male bandit Hanzala, while Wyatt and Beeny rewrote the script to center on Princess Hind. Gary Ross provided uncredited rewrites. The cast includes Anthony Mackie and Aiysha Hart as Hanzala and Hind, respectively, alongside Sharlto Copley, Ghassan Massoud, Sami Bouajila, Lamis Ammar, Géza Röhrig, Ben Kingsley, and Numan Acar. It was one of the first major English-language films produced by MBC Studios, and is the largest production to film in Saudi Arabia. MBC saw it as an anchor for the nascent film industry that was being established in the region, where key crewmembers were brought in for the project to effectively train and develop Saudi crews learning about the industry. The crew size was approximately 450–500 people each day.

Principal photography began in September 2021 in Neom, Saudi Arabia, and it was completed by February 2022. The film had a long post-production period, and it planned to seek buyers in the first quarter of 2024, targeting a film festival debut before a wide theatrical release. In October 2024, it was reported that Wyatt had briefly exited the film due to creative differences, but later returned to finish the editing. Guillermo Garza serves as the cinematographer, Richard Mettler serves as editor, and Dan Levy was the composer for the film.

Desert Warrior premiered at the Zurich Film Festival on September 28, 2025. The film was also screened at Saudi Arabia's 5th Red Sea International Film Festival on December 6 that same year.

In February 2026, Vertical acquired the distribution rights to the film, later scheduling it for a theatrical release in the United States on April 24, 2026.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 25% of 16 critics' reviews are positive. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 41 out of 100, based on six critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Damon Wise of Deadline Hollywood writes that "extraordinary images" were captured by the director and cinematographer, but that the film turns into a bit of a slog becoming "a stodgy, sprawling, feminist, pre-Islamic Gandhi."

• Desert Warrior at IMDb