Judi Dench’s Commander Root from Artemis Fowl is revealed in new image

Beyond what was presented in the first trailer, I know shit-all about the world of ARTEMIS FOWL, but I do know that I love me some Judi Dench, and her role of Commander Root in the upcoming film looks, and sounds, quite different than anything she's done before. Entertainment Weekly continues rolling out the first looks today with a new image from the Kenneth Branagh film focusing on Dench's Commander Root. Check it out!

We only saw a brief glimpse of Commander Root in the trailer, but Judi Dench's gravelly voice was heard throughout. Adapted from Eoin Colfer's series of novels, ARTEMIS FOWL finds the titular 12-year-old criminal mastermind stumbling upon an ancient and advanced world of fairies, where he comes into conflict with Commander Root, the ill-tempered leader of LEPrecon, the fairy police force. As Kenneth Branagh tells it, Judi Dench owned the role from the very first moment she walked out on set.

When we started to rehearse, she leant forward, and her shoulders stooped and her voice dropped, and then suddenly this gravelly, Churchillian, curmudgeonly figure started to emerge… I saw all of those actors suddenly, naturally go to attention when they saw Judi, who had this swagger and this cool, who had this great leather coat, who carried the authority quite so effortlessly. She walked out of the craft, looked up at the house, and said [in an Irish accent], ‘Top of the mornin’.’ It was a real sense of a memorable character walking into a movie and owning it, saying ‘I love my clothes, I love my look, I’m in charge, and I’m here to make mischief.'

In the novels, the character of Root was originally a male, but with Eoin Colfer's blessing, they decided to gender-flip the role. "Eoin Colfer was always very much involved with the development of these scripts, and he’s a man who writes and lives right in the here and now, and I think he was very aware that larger conversations about societal roles have moved on from the time when he wrote this first novel where Holly as a lone woman in a man’s world was an important part of the story," Branagh said. "Here, a sense of identity, a sense of what her father did, her place in Haven City, her place in LEPrecon is as important as her gender identification."

The official synopsis for ARTEMIS FOWL:

Disney’s “Artemis Fowl,” based on the beloved book by Eoin Colfer, is a fantastical, spellbinding adventure that follows the journey of 12-year-old genius Artemis Fowl, a descendant of a long line of criminal masterminds, as he seeks to find his father who has mysteriously disappeared. With the help of his loyal protector Butler, Artemis sets out to find him, and in doing so uncovers an ancient, underground civilization—the amazingly advanced world of fairies. Deducing that his father’s disappearance is somehow connected to the secretive, reclusive fairy world, cunning Artemis concocts a dangerous plan—so dangerous that he ultimately finds himself in a perilous war of wits with the all-powerful fairies.

ARTEMIS FOWL will hit theaters on August 9, 2019.