‘Copenhagen Cowboy’ Release Date: Nicolas Winding Refn’s Controversial Thriller Coming To Netflix In Early 2023

Netflix just dropped the trailer for the upcoming Danish thriller Copenhagen Cowboy and it’ll leave you with a thousand questions .

From Nicolas Winding Refn, the creator behind Pusher, Drive, and The Neon Demon, this six-part series follows a young woman named Miu (Angela Bundalovic) as she journeys into Copenhagen’s criminal underbelly.

The synopsis reads, “Searching for justice and enacting vengeance, she encounters her nemesis, Rakel (Lola Corfixen), as they embark on an odyssey through the natural and the supernatural,” per Netflix. It continues to tease that the two women “discover they are not alone, they are many.”

In the trailer, Miu (and her Will Byers-esque bowl cut) is shown in various situations with little explanation; in one, she bears witness to a deadly shooting, and in another, she is cradling a baby. Yet in both, she dons the same bright blue tracksuit.

Through the sequences, a narrator says, “I don’t know what you are, or what you’re capable of, but people around you die. Either that, or they get new life from you.”

Needless to say, I’m intrigued.

While many details have remained under wraps, the series has not skirted over its press circuit. Copenhagen Cowboy was screened for review at the 2022 Venice Film Festival where it received minimal review coverage and debuted its sneak peek.

Early reports gave mixed reviews with Decider’s Marshall Shaffer that the series “may excite existing Refn fans, but it’s unlikely to attract any new converts” and The Playlist’s Rafaela Sales Ross giving the series a C+ while writing, “it all gets a bit too tired too quickly, the combined visual and mental hyperstimulation counterintuitive to the binge culture nurtured by streaming platforms.”

The upcoming series also broke headlines after PETA revealed that a pig was shot and killed on the set. The organization claimed that their source was the farmer who supplied the live pigs to the production upon being told that one would be killed for a scene.

PETA reported that the Copenhagen Zoo confirmed receiving a dead pig from the production site and the Danish police were investigating the situation as this sort of cruelty violates the Danish Animal Welfare Law.

When it comes to the trailer, there is no pig imagery included, despite BFI’s review of the movie stating that “pigs are a prevailing symbol” in the series. Following the controversy, PETA asked for any glorification of the pig’s death to be excluded from the final cut.

However, a still image was provided depicting a scene that occurs in a pig slaughterhouse.

As women in the trailer states, “She doesn’t bring luck / she’s a real devil…”. Same might be said for this strange release.

Copenhagen Cowboy airs January 5, 2023 on Netflix.