Isabel Greenberg’s 2016 graphic novel The One Hundred Nights of Hero is everything a queer, feminist fairy tale should be: quick-witted, intelligent, and like its female protagonists, Cherry and Hero, unapologetic about telling stories that highlight the prejudice and oppression aimed at women of all ages. But while Greenberg is an executive producer for Julia Jackman’s film adaptation of her comic, starring Maika Monroe as Cherry and Emma Corrin as Hero, the movie feels strained. While it captures the fantastical quirk conjured up in Greenberg’s pages, the edges are sanded down into something more digestible.
This story begins in a very vague fantasy semblance of medieval England, where the gods are present and actively involved in the world. The god of this story, Birdman (Richard E. Grant) takes a tyrannical approach, taking over the world full of humans built by his daughter Kiddo (Safia Oakley-Green) and demanding they worship him. He quickly establishes the Beaked Brothers, a powerful, all-male religious group dedicated to upholding heternormative, patriarchal standards and controlling women.
Centuries later, we follow young bride Cherry and her husband Jerome (Amir El-Masry) as the Beaked Brothers give them an ultimatum regarding their lack of children. Jerome has 100 nights to get Cherry pregnant, or the Beaked Brothers will execute her. But Jerome’s hunky friend Manfred (Red, White & Royal Blue’s Prince Henry, Nicholas Galitzine) is available to help. The two men make a diabolical bet: Jerome gives Manfred 100 nights to seduce Cherry. If Manfred fails, he’ll have to find a woman to impregnate and give Jerome the baby to be his heir, since Cherry will die. If Manfred wins, he gets Jerome’s castle — and Cherry dies. Either way, Cherry’s fate is sealed.
Fortunately, Cherry has her maid and best friend Hero at her side. Hero is a storyteller extraordinaire — a crucial skill for this setting, where women are not allowed to read or write. The duo plot to stave off Manfred’s advances toward Cherry, and save Cherry from the men conspiring against her.
Much as with the comic, Jackman’s portrayal of storytelling as an act of resistance is wonderfully done, with women (and most importantly, not just heterosexual white women) passing on their own tales in defiance of the society that only wants them to shut up. It feels particularly relevant in a world that continues to rely more and more on AI, despite the false information it spreads, instead of taking up the painful but rewarding task of intentional creation. For the women of 100 Nights of Hero, maintaining an oral tradition isn’t just about intellectual gain, it’s about setting the record straight and telling the “real” version of stories that the Beaked Brothers’ misogynistic culture has twisted to paint women as whores and witches. It’s a feminist tale through and through, which is why Jackman’s sanitization of the graphic novel’s more explicit messaging feels so frustrating.
As with all adaptations, changes are to be expected. Some that I personally didn’t like, Jackman does handle with a fair amount of grace. One such change is that Cherry and Hero do not start off as lovers, which allows us to see the beautiful yearning, electric chemistry, and slow-burn romance between the two leads. But in an already tight 90-minute movie, the setup of a queer love story feels like a waste of time that would have been better spent elsewhere, like in grappling with the homophobia wrapped in sexual violence threat that the graphic novel’s established queer couple faces via Manfred’s advances. But in an era where LGBTQ+ rights are being rolled back, events like Pride are being banned, and anti LGBTQ+ legislation is being passed, I can’t entirely fault Jackman for choosing to focus on the joy of queer people falling in love.
Other modifications of Greenberg’s story feel like dishonest divergences. One of the more baffling changes comes in Manfred’s character. In Greenberg’s comic, the character is a much older man, an unrepentant predator who tells Cherry that if she doesn’t have sex with him willingly, he’ll rape her — even though he was just bemoaning how every woman he meets is a slut who is willing to sleep with anyone.
It’s a particularly potent story beat, exploring how irrational, self-contradictory, and self-serving bigotry and sexism can be. But the film version softens the character by making him authentically care for Cherry. There are plenty of other sympathetic male characters in this film, like the guards who look out for Cherry and Hero, or the father in Hero’s story, who have already shown their concern and empathy for the women in this society. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with giving characters more depth in an adaptation, turning the graphic novel’s worst villain into someone who was just unfortunate enough to fall in love with the wrong person makes it seem as though Jackman was afraid to make Galitzine look bad, for fear of turning away a more mainstream audience. Considering how many jerks Galitzine has played across his filmography (Jeff in Bottoms comes to mind), that seems ludicrous.
Then there’s Cherry. In the comic, Cherry’s naïveté and innocence is a façade Cherry and Hero lean into to manipulate Manfred. Between the tall tales Hero tells to distract him from his goal — a story beat inspired by Scheherazade in The Thousand and One Nights — the two have sex and take great pleasure in manipulating Manfred, while letting him believe he’s manipulating them. In Jackman’s adaptation, Cherry actually is a naïf, and Hero has to broaden her horizons through storytelling to coax a stronger-willed, more open-minded Cherry forward. Again, this isn’t a terrible change on the surface, but it seems like an unnecessary dumbing-down of the character, especially in a setting where men universally believe women are foolish and childish, and can’t see them for who they are.
In the graphic novel, Cherry finds joy in playing that role in public, because it gives her a sense of power in an unforgiving situation where she’s powerless otherwise. Much like Jackman’s softening of Manfred, the sanding down of Cherry feels as though the writer-director didn’t want any hint of unsavory behavior in the character, as if making Cherry less intelligent would make her more appealing. It does the opposite.
With a deeply pro-queer and pro-woman story like The One Hundred Nights of Hero, there were always going to be growing pains in giving this indie film more mainstream appeal. The star-studded cast, including Star Wars alumni Felicity Jones (Jyn Erso from Rogue One) and Varada Sethu (Cinta Kaz from Andor), certainly helps. Still, it’s not quite enough to distract from the ways Jackman’s fantasy undermines itself. Where Greenberg doesn’t pull back in portraying women under attack in a monstrous patriarchal society, Jackman’s adaptation frequently seems apologetic with each swing it does make. Its softening of the grislier, more violent elements of the comic’s unflinching world feels tame during a time when women should be louder than ever.
100 Nights of Hero is in theaters now.
- Security Camera Installation – indoor/outdoor IP CCTV systems & video analytics
- Access Control Installation – key card, fob, biometric & cloud‑based door entry
- Business Security Systems – integrated alarms, surveillance & access control
- Structured Cabling Services – voice, data & fiber infrastructure for new or existing builds
- Video Monitoring Services – 24/7 remote surveillance and analytics monitoring
Author: 360 Technology Group
