Andrew Scott can apparently make even a weather forecast feel like a matter of life and death. As Group Captain James Stagg in Pressure, Scott combines buttoned-up intensity with dry, cutting humour while refusing to bend under military pressure. His next transformation, however, moves from D-Day tension to the painful final chapter of Scottish actor Ian Charleson’s life in Elsinore.

From battlefield forecasts to a performer facing his hardest days, in the Elsinore trailer Scott once again finds drama where lesser actors might simply find facts.

Andrew Scott is not merely playing Hamlet’s actor in Elsinore; he is playing a man racing time to become him. Focus Features has unveiled the first trailer for Simon Stone’s biographical drama, with Scott portraying Ian Charleson as the acclaimed Scottish performer takes on the role of Hamlet while secretly confronting a devastating illness.

The story begins with one of theatre’s most extraordinary real-life twists: Daniel Day-Lewis walked away from Hamlet during a 1989 National Theatre performance, leaving Charleson to inherit the role. Charleson delivered the performance to enormous acclaim despite his rapidly declining health, turning every appearance onstage into something far more urgent than ordinary theatrical triumph.

The trailer leans into that collision of brilliance, mortality, and obsession, with Olivia Colman playing Charleson’s doctor, Margaret Johnson, and a formidable ensemble including Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Joe Locke, and Peter Mullan. Scott lands the trailer’s most devastating moment while highlighting Ian Charleson's grief.

“I’d rather die of Hamlet than die of AIDS,” he said in the trailer. 

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Of course, the Elsinore trailer also nods to its glowing reviews and growing festival buzz.

Elsinore has hardly arrived quietly, with its festival run giving Simon Stone’s drama plenty of reason to make noise. After premiering at Telluride on September 4, the film headed to TIFF and won the International People’s Choice Award, turning its emotional story into one of the festival season’s most talked-about dramas.

Critics have embraced the film’s blend of grief, gallows humour, theatrical camaraderie, and mortality, with Andrew Scott emerging as its clearest source of acclaim. The Guardian called him “astonishing,” while other reviews praised his precision and rawness, although some found the final act sentimental. That festival warmth gives Scott’s Elsinore performance, which is very personal to him as well, an even brighter spotlight.

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What was your take on the Elsinore trailer? Let us know in the comments!