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For those who’ve watched Bright, the new Netflix movie starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton in an alternate version of a modern world of orcs, elves, and crooked police officers, one of the main gripes was the lack of context and explanation of how the world came to be. Viewers are thrust into a new age version of Los Angeles, where police officer Daryl Ward (Smith) returns to the force after being shot in the line of duty. Meanwhile, his rookie orc partner Nick Jakoby (Edergton) has been slacking on the job, causing friction between him and the rest of the department.
But why couldn’t things have been thoroughly explained at some point in the film? This was a concern many people voiced on social media.
Note: mini spoilers ahead…
Viewers were tasked with picking up on context clues about the social status of orcs from references of past incidents, mentions of current beef between orc and human gangs, and other cues throughout the movie. For what it’s worth, Smith and Edgerton’s characters do a pretty good job of making blatant references to issues within the Bright world, but still didn’t seem enough for audiences.
Neftlix just released a brief video on YouTube to answer fans: a two-minute recap on the history of magic when it comes to the Bright universe. In the Bright world, magic is as old as time itself, going back to as early as 2900 B.C. The clip tells the story of how magic wands, the most powerful weapon in the film, came to exist, elaborates on just who the Dark Lord is, and explains how orcs entered the story.
With Bright greenlighted for a sequel—and reports showing that one of the lead writers isn’t going to be attached—the hope is that the magic is further explained in future films.
