Netflix dropped the first trailer for Heart of Stone at its Tudum event today. The trailer sees star Gal Gadot in a race to secure the Heart, a mysterious McGuffin that provides its owner to cause catastrophic events. As the trailer gains traction for the scale of its action sequences and spawning a new franchise, one of its talking points revolves around the movie’s antagonist. And from the trailer, it appears Indian star Alia Bhatt has been roped in to play a negative role, sparking conversation and debate.
Essaying the role of Keya Dhawan, Alia Bhatt appears late in the trailer, snatching the Heart for herself. Reveling in her triumph, she exclaims that with the Heart in her possession, everyone answers to her now. The reveal supposedly comes as part of a mission gone wrong, or one that leads to a betrayal or the injection of a surprise element of some sort, as the building housing the Heart is seen collapsing soon thereafter. We see Alia Bhatt in a few shots thereafter, with Gadot’s Stone supposedly in pursuit. But the trailer remains focused on highlighting the action in the movie, and refrains from going into details about who Bhatt is or why is she after the Heart.
I couldn’t help but wonder if this is some sort of misdirection on part of Netflix. Surely, the streaming giant knows that Alia Bhatt has a massive fanbase in India. Netflix being a data-oriented company to the extent that it’s been accused in the past of greenlighting projects by mining analytics on what people are watching the most, probably factored this in when bringing her for the role. If so, Netflix certainly knows that there’s a lot more value and euphoria to be mined in seeing Bhatt fight side-by-side with Gadot than against her, which makes her being cast in a negative role an odd choice. And if she does go rogue or betray the team, it’s all the more baffling that Netflix marketing chose to reveal this in the trailer itself.
While it’s entirely possible for Alia Bhatt’s character Keya Dhawan to really be a villain or turn into one, it’s also possible this turns out to be one of those films where the antagonist has a change of heart and together, they team up to fight the real antagonist, played by Jamie Dornan. Usually, trailers prepare the audience for one scenario, while the actual movie has something else in mind. So unless Bhatt is playing an out-and-out baddie and her showdown with Gadot is going to be pitched by marketing as a female-driven sparring match, I believe there’s a possibility that the film could pull off a Batman v Superman or a Godzilla vs. Kong on us.
We don’t get a good look at her skillset, but the brief glimpses of Bhatt in attire that we do see give the impression that she could have been a part of the same Charter that Gadot’s Stone is working for. If so, this could turn out to be a case of Bhatt’s Keya Dhawan either going rogue during the course of the movie, or having gone rogue off-screen and being presented as an antagonist right from the start. We’ll surely learn more once some behind the scenes marketing for the film kicks in and the stars appear for interviews via featurettes and provide bits and pieces for fans to piece together.
Heart of Stone streams on Netflix on August 11, 2023. Directed by Tom Harper from a script by Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder, the movie stars Gal Gadot as Rachel Stone, Jamie Dornan as Parker, and Alia Bhatt as Keya Dhawan alongisde Sophie Okonedo, Matthias Schweighöfer, Jing Lusi and Paul Ready.
